British Relay/ Visionhire

[Plain Talker]

You are spot on as usual PT. A lot of people either had their own TV or they rented one and Wigfalls was a popular shop, and of course these TV were intended for use with an ordinary aerial, but often if the reception was poor they were able to get better pictures by having a BRW box. The socket you mentioned was called an "Elcon" socket.

 

The BRW TV's were ordinary televisions but the tuner had been replaced by something similar to the BRW box. Generally there were four black buttons for the channels and a red button at the top which would switch between radio and TV. It was advanced in as much as it provided four radio programs and four TV channels before there ever were four. But development was under way for even more programs and it became clear the system would soon become outdated and when the council withdrew permission to run the cable on council properties the system was doomed.

 

I remember in the Moor Shop they had a big mural on one of the walls showing two streets, one street had their roofs festooned with aerials while on the other street which had cable there wasn't a single aerial to be seen and it looked so much nicer.

 

When I first started ITV hadn't been out long and then I remember converting sets to 625 lines from 405 lines and fitting new tuners to receive BBC2, then channel 4 came out without a hitch and then there was the massive conversion program when Channel 5 came out and even with all the pre-tuning that had gone on many people still couldn't get channel 5.

 

So I saw the development from 2 channel black and white TV's that used valves, then transistors and solid state TV's came out along with colour, videos came later and then of course satellite TV came out after a farce with SKY BSD I think it was called and the "Squarial." The development is still ongoing.

 

However I enjoyed it and I feel I was there at an important time in the development of TV and looking back they were good days.

 

thank you for confirming that I hadn't dreamt the "dual-purpose tellies"

 

yes, that's right, there were four (sometimes eight) black buttons, and the red button which switched between radio and TV.

 

you are bang-on when you talked about the poor TV reception in the flats complexes. My aunt was on the 10th floor of NPF, from the sixties-onwards, and she couldn't get an aerial-signal for love nor money. (she had the BRW Box, though, not the TV) My granny, on PHF also had the BRW box.

 

I used to find it quite funny, just sticking the speaker wires into the socket, and getting the radio output. I doubt that the sockets/ cables actually did carry very high voltages, but I often wondered If I'd blow myself up fiddling with the wires! lol. it always felt a bit sneaky, a bit naughty, using the socket without the box, even if it was only for the radio. I seem to remember not wanting to bother about a TV whilst I lived on HPF, because the rental cost was a bit dear, and my darling partner ( *coff* ) would far- rather offer his our money to Mr Ladbroke, or Mr Coral... :roll)

 

I don't remember the shop on the moor having the mural. (is this the shop that was the DER rentals shop, that stood on the corner opposite H-Samuels, which is now the heart charity shop, or am I mistaking it for something else?

[Grahame]

thank you for confirming that I hadn't dreamt the "dual-purpose tellies"

 

yes, that's right, there were four (sometimes eight) black buttons, and the red button which switched between radio and TV.

 

you are bang-on when you talked about the poor TV reception in the flats complexes. My aunt was on the 10th floor of NPF, from the sixties-onwards, and she couldn't get an aerial-signal for love nor money. (she had the BRW Box, though, not the TV) My granny, on PHF also had the BRW box.

 

I used to find it quite funny, just sticking the speaker wires into the socket, and getting the radio output. I doubt that the sockets/ cables actually did carry very high voltages, but I often wondered If I'd blow myself up fiddling with the wires! lol. it always felt a bit sneaky, a bit naughty, using the socket without the box, even if it was only for the radio. I seem to remember not wanting to bother about a TV whilst I lived on HPF, because the rental cost was a bit dear, and my darling partner ( *coff* ) would far- rather offer his our money to Mr Ladbroke, or Mr Coral... :roll)

 

I don't remember the shop on the moor having the mural. (is this the shop that was the DER rentals shop, that stood on the corner opposite H-Samuels, which is now the heart charity shop, or am I mistaking it for something else?

 

Hi Pat you were quite safe you wouldn't have got blown up, I'm glad you found it helpful. I always used to go into the Moor Shop from the back and hammer on the back door, there was a parking area. I can't remember too much from the front but it wasn't on a corner, it was in a row, I think it was number 62 and it was between Zing Vaa and BHS, Wuduswitch thinks it's Greggs now. I wonder if she remember the mural?

 

I hope that helps.

 

Best wishes,

 

Graham.

[Grahame]

I worked for British Relay on the Moor and then Derbyshire Lane round about 1978 for a short time.

 

Hi Jane, I'm just wondering, if you were at Derbyshire Lane were you upstairs in what I used to think of as the accounts department?

 

Or were you on the telephones taking service calls perhaps?

[Plain Talker]

Hi Pat you were quite safe you wouldn't have got blown up, I'm glad you found it helpful. I always used to go into the Moor Shop from the back and hammer on the back door, there was a parking area. I can't remember too much from the front but it wasn't on a corner, it was in a row, I think it was number 62 and it was between Zing Vaa and BHS, Wuduswitch thinks it's Greggs now. I wonder if she remember the mural?

 

I hope that helps.

 

Best wishes,

 

Graham.

 

Ahh, right, apologies... I was confusing two different shops.

 

I do seem to remember, now you've mentioned it, a tv- shop, about where greggs/ max spielman photogrpaphic shop stood. The main tv rentals shops I can remember in the city centre were the two D-E-R shops in sheffield, the one which is now the Heart charity shop, the other one was by the castle market, the shop which is now the mobile phone shop, "Extreme Mobiles"

 

(there was at least one otherTV/ electrical shop, by the hole in the road, (not counting the YEB!) called Bunker and Pratley, which I think only sold tvs, rather than renting them. I think they only seemed to deal with the Bang and Olufsen (sp) brand.

[Unregistered]

I'm sure that DER or Radio Rentals had a service centre just off Rutland Road, at the Penistone Road.

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[Firemansam]

Does anyone remember Pete Leeming from BRW ?

Pete was an TV engineer there I believe.

 

If you visited their workshops, they had a steep driveway leading down to them. At the top of the drive was a sign saying "Sound Horn" always made me smile cos' some wit had written "yes thanks" below it.

[Grahame]

Does anyone remember Pete Leeming from BRW ?

Pete was an TV engineer there I believe.

 

If you visited their workshops, they had a steep driveway leading down to them. At the top of the drive was a sign saying "Sound Horn" always made me smile cos' some wit had written "yes thanks" below it.

 

Pete's name rings a bell. I know him really well but I can't put a face to him, I'm sorry. Your memory is a lot better than mine, I do vaguely remember the sign now you mention it.

[Firemansam]

Pete's name rings a bell. I know him really well but I can't put a face to him, I'm sorry. Your memory is a lot better than mine, I do vaguely remember the sign now you mention it.

 

Pete had fairly long hair ( for a fella) and a moustach, and it would have been around 1973 ish

[Grahame]

Pete had fairly long hair ( for a fella) and a moustach, and it would have been around 1973 ish

 

Yes, I can remember now, he was a nice guy, he was a bit quiet I think, like me, give him my regards will you please he was a top man!

 

How is he doing?

[Jane123]

I worked in the Accounts Dept upstairs at British Relay on the Moor before relocating to Derbyshire Lane.