Eynsham Image ArchiveDonate to Eynsham Online CICEynsham HeritageBotley West Solar Farm

Eynsham Village News

In-house Entertainment 8 Mar 2017 Paul Hughes has run out of space for his antique cabinet gramophone but the memories are sweet. Offers are invited ...

Forty years ago in the days without mobile phones and the internet, it was still usual for companies to use designed stationery which comprised of letter headed paper, compliment slips, matching envelopes and invoices.

I designed a package for an antique dealer in Cardiff, delivered the goods but never got paid. Not having a telephone, I had to visit the shop to confront my client about this. After several visits without resolution, I decided to compensate myself by selecting an object in his shop which was priced the same as he owed me - £26. My choice had castors, which meant that I could tow it the mile or so back to my flat. That is how I became the owner of a cabinet gramophone which I still have to this day.

I used to have a collection of portable gramophones (stolen about 20 years ago, which is another story) and a considerable collection of 78 rpm records, many of which are still with me. Now my music is either as mp3 files on my laptop or is streamed over the ether and pushed around the house with my Sonos System ... So incredibly clever but somehow detached as compared to the process of selecting a record, removing the sleeve and placing the disc on the turntable. Winding the motor up, changing the needle, setting down the head to the record and then maybe slightly adjusting the speed with a manual lever.

How times have changed. Now I have to find a new carer for the machine as we will soon have no room to accommodate this relic of past in-house entertainment.

Gallery

Click to enlarge