Beware - not for the faint hearted - this is painful viewing!

[matchboxpaul]

Was doing a trawl on Flickr to day, seeing what washery and dryery piccies people had posted, when i stumbled across pictures taken at an abandonned mine (Groverake Mine) near Rookhope in Weardale, UK.

As is said by one of the photographers, it is amazing what gets left behind at industrial sites.

The painful thing is, all these machines will more than likely have been fully operational when the place closed in 1999.

It does make for painful viewing and i am only posting the piccies because I am mystified as to what the machine facing the wall is/was? Anyone any ideas?

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hotpoint Microprofile
Mystery machine
Hoover Electron (A3256, A3258 or A3260)
Ariston/Colston Automatic Wash and Tumble Dry

 

[matchboxpaul]

Different angle

 

[matchboxpaul]

and the third, showing much better the Ariston/Colston machine.
Plus have you ever seen worse condition Hotpoint Liberator - this machine is an early one, with the simple block capital lettering for the manufacturer and name

 

[matchboxpaul]

the link to the Liberator photographers pictures.

As I say, they are painful, but i am intrigued by the mystery machine.

A saddened
Paul
p.s methinks these people maybe shouldnt have been there, plus one of the comments warns of vandalistic chavs, so maybe not a good idea to go a hunting.

 

[matchboxpaul]

On a Brighter note....

everyone should do this - take specific sets of pictures of your house over the years to remind you what it used to look like.

nearly 50 years on the nostalgic effect must be immense!

August 1963 at a house in Crayford, UK - is that machine a REX?

 

[electron1100]

hmmm maybe an AEG not sure

very very sad to see this and of course the mine..........very sad brings back memories of that demented hag Thatcher..........how we all paid dearly for her policies.

 

[electron1100]

kitchens

oh christ those kitchens are so fashinable now..........the amount of 50/60s kitchen furniture we sell at work to the wealthy trendy middle class art types .........i really like it myself, childhood memories and all that.

Brilliant

 

[matchboxpaul]

Just answered my own question

it is an Imperial Rex Automatic.

I wonder if the owners of this wonderful kitchen realsed that the controls were on the top/back of the machine?
Maybe it wasnt permanetly plumbed in.
They also look to have kept the hot water boiler - you can see it hidden away, next to the Rex.

 

[tuthill]

Old pictures like that are fascinating... Just like looking at pictures of the Aberdeen farm.

 

[2drumsallergy]

Mystery machine

Hi Folks,
The Mystery Machine is a Philco Bendix. It looks to have a variable thermostat which places it as a model 7133 800RPM spin, the motor is missing so I cannot be totally sure.

David

 

[electron800]

awwww ='[

The electron model there is my dream machine, the holy grail for me.

Just hope one will come up someday.

I'm sure they're still around

 

[gizmo]

Beat me to it...

the mystery machine is a Philco-manufactured Bendix. I have repaired a couple of these, 800 rpm and 1000 rpm spin models with the big induction motor. A lovely solid machine.

The Hotpoint Microprofile in the corner is the same as mine, except mine has the brown plastic instead of white. Strangely mine is called a 9560W, and I thought the W stood for white, but mine is definitely brown, and the model ID sticker is on brown plastic (inside the door).

The Ariston in the corner was sold here badged either as an Indesit WD800 or Lemair WD800. It was not a big seller though. I have also owned a couple of South African versions of that machine - badged as Indesit, a diferent model number, and slightly different functions of the four buttons. They were privately imported by South African imigrants. I really liked the South African machine, I used it daily for a few years. It had the induction motor with the expanding pulley, like a variomatic transmission, which increased the spin speed to a dazzling 800 rpm. The SA machine was dual-labelled in English and Afrikaans, eg: Was/Wash and Dry/Droog.

Chris

 

[tolivac]

Would you really want to use washers left behind at a LEAD mine?I would suppose that is why they were abandoned-probably used to wash miners clothes-and out of the mine-probably covered with lead ore.

 

[vivalalavatrice]

it is an Imperial Rex Automatic.

WONDERFULL!!!

I thought Rex was an exclusive Italian Zanussi brand... but honestly I've never seen a machine like that before...

Paul, have you got some pictures more to share with use, please?!
Thank you very much!

Bye
Diomede

 

[eddy1210]

The Hotpoint Microprofile

It seems almost out of place amongst the older models. What year do you think that one's from?

 

[mayken4now]

did they used to "hoofDeVase"?

 

[hotpoint95622]

Hotpoint 95622

Oh, it hearts to see that liberator, so many of us want one; you can almost here it crying for help and to be loved again.

Lee

 

[matchboxpaul]

Cheers David and Chris for letting me know.

My mate from Cardiff also confirmed it as a Bendix machine too, so that is three of you.
Knowing just makes the pain worse though - a round door Bendix, Hoover electron and class Ariston/Colston slowly rotting away.

But, as Rex mentions, they will probably be riddled with Galena dust (lead ore) and probably a wee bit poisonous.
Nevertheless, still a real shame.

Below is a piccy of the Bendix 7133 Autowasher Electronic.
Hey ho!
Paul