Living by the Sea

[Ivan Cloherty]

It is reported in the Telegraph today that a NHS study shows that living by the sea or coast is healthier for you because of the fresh air aspect. This study was carried out by the University of Exeter, which according to the Telegraph is itself a seaport ??????????????. I'd like to see a ship that could get under the bridges to Exeter, it would have to be flatter than an old flat iron collier.

Living by the coast is defined as living up to 50km (I thought we still measured in miles in this country) from a coastline or if on a river where the estaury is more than 1km wide, I wonder how many estuaries are more than 1km wide 50 km inland. So if you live on a river 10 km inland and it is only 20 metres wide are you still on the coast

I wonder how much this Useless survey cost the NHS (us) and also we now know that living by a petro-chemical plant on the river Tees (or other rivers) is considered healthy. Has common sense completely gone out of the window, as we probably all knew that there was fresh air on the coast as we old people define "the coast"

[Neville Roberts]

When we lived in NYC we were a short walk to the east river ,astoria park with the triborough bridge going over it so I suppose that was a healthy place Ugh, Ugh, when I washed my car ,about 2 hours later there was a fine coating of soot over it , coming from the coal fired electric utility about 2 miles away ..but I think we all got the best air in mid ocean .

[Captain Kong]

My Uncle was gassed with Mustard Gas in WW1 His lungs were burned out, They told him he would not survive another two years, this being 1918, , He emigrated to Cape Town and lived another 40 years until the end of the
1950s. Good fresh air there. Grandad worked in the Cotton Mills , got Bysinosis, a Lung Cancer caused by Cotton Dust. Went to live on the Seafront in Blackpool and survived another twenty years. My Dad got the Bysinosis and died in Bolton from it, 40 miles from the sea.
Brian.

[Gulliver]

Life expectancy is so arbitrary though Brian. My Grandma Ivy Shaw(nee Winterbottom)-both good old local family names round the Oldham area !-was widowed at 30 with two small children(my mum and uncle).In those days there wasn't many could afford life assurance and as her husband died of pneumonia,not related to an industrial cause she got 'nowt '. Anyway she had to go to work in the cotton mills,and in those days as we all know she could leave the kids with caring neighbours with no problem.
It was a reasonably good wage for a woman(though no equal pay in those days) with a good social life in and out of work despite the long hours.

Well, the kids grew up and then she got bysinosis after thirty years working in those cotton mills. She was 59 and told she wouldn't probably
see 65,it was that bad. She was given a lump sum payment-and promptly spent it on her kids and grandkids-nowt for herself-she had a heart of gold.

Ten years later,and not particularly disabled in any way with the bysinosis-apart from wheezing and coughing up phlegm-she swore by whisky and lemons during the night,and a Guinness every day- she received another lump compensation sum from the industrial injury/disease board,whatever they call it. They admitted to her that they weren't expecting her to live that long,and reviewed her case!

She went on to live to 92,after being given the 'death sentence' 32 years previously,still with all her marbles intact

I don't think the seaside air would have helped Ivy much there then,although to be fair where she lived in Oldham,in the Pennine foothills ,was fairly windswept and healthy despite the proliferation of smoky chimneys .It was certainly much healthier anyway once those were almost all demolished in the 80's and 90's. It is noticeable though now that those remaining cotton mills ,usually the Grade II Listed ones have been converted into storage facilities for many of Britain's mail order catalogue companies,like Kay's for example use the Raven Mill,one of the old cotton mills where Ivy worked.
Interesting to know that where cotton was once spun,there are now stored cheap cotton imported goods from abroad...

She probably saw Blackpool though on the annual day trip works outings on the 'sharra'(coach).Once ,she told me,they were all so excited, imagine all forty giggling ladies dressed up in their best clothes, when the destination was changed one year to New Brighton.How exotic was that !

Her daughter(my mother) who of course never knew her father (she was 6 months old when he died) collapsed and died in front of her grandchildren of a heart attack at 65.

Life is so arbitrary,isn't it?

Here's to life !Cheers Wine.gif

[Captain Kong]

That was so typical of life then Davey. I guess they had it hard in those days not like the whingers of today who couldnt recognise a hardship if it hit them.
Dad worked in the biggest cotton Spinning mill in the world, Musgraves of Bolton. Started work there when he was 12 years old.
They were taken over by the mighty Courtaulds who closed it down and dismantled all the carding and spinning machines and shipped them out to India in 1960. Dad was 63 and a half, 18 months to go for a pension. He got none
Dad claimed for Bysinosis and was then given a pension of £1, 6 shillings a month or £1.30p in todays money a month. paid on the 1st of the month for the month.
I was in Guam when I got a telegram that he had died of his Lungs, on the 12th of April, so I did not get home until three months later.
Meanwhile the Mighty International Company, Courtaulds came knocking on the door of my poor widowed mother, "We want the One Pound Six Shillings back, the pension is for the month in advance and as he didnt live that long you are not entitled to it."
She had to go into her purse and give them the money.
So that is the way it was, throw them out of work no pension, and send the jobs overseas to the third world then kick them in the teeth when they die of the disease.
I was bl00dy angry.
Brian.

[John Pruden]

my father died a slow agonizing death through the coaking ovens as he worked in Camel laird grayson rollo through the war years as a boiler maker some lads got a bullet his was slow he tried for the navy four times and was turned down because blacksmiths were hard to find no pension nothing no compensation nothing?jp

[Capt Bill Davies]

Well Ivan, having served a life in ships I have for the past 40 years lived approx 50miles due east of Aberdovey. See the coast once a month when visiting my daughter in Caldy, Wirral and thats it. Don't miss it. Around here you can go into a pub and say 'Anchor' and people wont have a clue what your on about. I can walk outside now and the darkness is something tangible. No light pollution. Nearest neighbour just over a quarter of a mile away. A retired mariners dream.

[j.sabourn]

When I lived in England I lived 700 metres from the North Sea, You could just see the sea from one of the bedroom windows upstairs. I now live 700 metres from the Indian Ocean. When I built the house people said to me why dont you build a 2 storey and have sea views. I cant see the benefit of sitting looking at water, I can hear it that is enough. Water is water whatever ocean, spent long enough looking at it during working life, the novelty wore off years ago. Regards John Sabourn.

[Lou Barron]

Where i live you can sea the Otago Harbour and also the Pacific Ocean At the doctors the other day he said after a bit of a examation i said will i be right for another 10 years he no problem he said i am 86 now so it must be living by the sea or could it be the G*T .Its all over mind or matter???

[Peter F Chard]

I was born and bred at Fleetwood, did my apprenticeship there before going to sea and have not spent much time there since, only the odd wedding or funeral and to show the place to my Kiwi wife. Close to the Fish dock and located on a salt marsh was the Spencer fish meal and codliver oil plant - it was ugliest and smelliest factory site imagineable, in a bleak, miserable location and was surrounded by a high wire fence. However, every day of the working week dozens and dozens people, well wrapped up as if in the Arctic and all with a deck chair would set up camp around the fence downwind from the factory. Believe it or not but they were to breath in the fumes from the factory, and boy, did they smell. All those people had breathing difficulties of some sort and all claimed to get great relief from these fumes -- the theory was that if you got enough fish oil into your lungs from breathing this foul air you would obtain a lot of relief to carry you through the winter months, people came from all over the North West, year in and year out and all said that it was the best medication they could ever have. Regards, Peter in Auckland, NZ.