Subterranean Victorian shopping street that lay abandoned for 120 years discovered during building work...

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Current location (optional) Singapore

Gott and Butterfield's ironmongers had a special smell, that I can still recall from childhood. I wonder if the smell's still there?

I was a worldly 10 year old who knew about being sent for a bucket of steam or a long stand so when someone mentioned a left-handed potato peeler I knew they were having me on. My mother assured me they existed but despite her straight face I knew she was in on the leg pull. Exasperated my mother dragged me up the town to Gott and Butterfield's and asked to be shown one. Of course they were only too happy to help. They had everything in that place even 'four candles'.

I first came across those"new employee" jibes when I took my first holiday job at 14, working in Leighton's sawmill agin The Eastwood Tavern - not a stone's throw from our house. There were a couple of older lads from round us working there - and they tried to take it out of this young grammar school kid. I ignored all their imprecations to find or do the impossible. One day, struggling with a troublesome bench saw, one of the Leighton brothers (proprietors) told me to go and ask his dad for an allen key. Sensing a send-up, I advised him to go elsewhere and procreate. Under threat of dismissal, I was a little more circumspect thereafter.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Nirvana

>> left-handed potato peeler

although left-handed scissors do indeed exist

And no doubt potato peelers as well. There used to be a shop in London.in Soho, that specialised in selling tools and implements for the left-handed. My sister was left-handed and in the far-off days of her schooling (at Holycroft but she was 8 years older than me) she was made to write with her right hand. I don't suppose they were being deliberately cruel but this was quite usual though totally misguided.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1940-48

Current location (optional) Epsom

Hi Tom. It was a cruel thing to do but we have to realise there was a practical reasoning behind the practice. We used to write with pen and ink from an ink well. If one wrote left handed there was a propensity for left handed children to smudge their newly written work simply because the left hand followed the pen while the right handed led the pen. I am sure that left handed children if left alone would find a way of avoiding this problem.

Why were they called cack-handed?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Nirvana

There is, somewhere out there on the Internet, a map of England showing the different nomenclatures of left handedness.i know cos I've seen it.

Yes I have an old The Times UK Atlas ,which has maps showing distribution of certain words, one of which is left handedness. Another is , do you brew, wet, or mash tea etc. I'll dig it out.

WOW! Found it ! I didnt realise there are some many, here goes. Each is followed by handed of course.

Left-, Keck-, Kack-, Keg-, Keggy-, Gammy-, Scrummy-,Scrammy-,Skiffy-,Squiver-,
Bollock-, Dollock, Gollock-,Gawley-,Pally-,Corrie,Kippie,Kervage-,Kittaghy,Watty-

(Tea you can mash, brew, wet, soak or mask it.)
Lots of other maps for other words, but that would be 'off thread' In fact this has nothing to do with the Royal Arcade now !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Left-handedness has always been seen as not normal for some reason hence dexter for right handed and dexterous for clever-handedness and sinister for left handedness in heraldry. Mind you I always thought left handed batsmen were the most elegant eg Gower

Dexter was right-handed. (Ted I mean).

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Nirvana