Will Hogg
Will belongs to: Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade
Will was invited to join the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade by a neighbour. He is now a Senior Captain. Will is also involved in the North Sea Volunteer Lifeguards.
Will was interviewed by Kylea Little on 18 January 2005. The interview took place at Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade watch house and lasted 23 minutes and 37 seconds.
Smell of the tarred rope
"Smells? Smell of tarred rope is the main thing down here"
Smells? Smell of tarred rope is the main thing down here. In the old days, we keep two or three pieces or rolls still lying, or bales of twine which is tarred, just for the smell, quite honestly, it makes the building smell quite pleasant, from our point of view, not everybody’s, but that’s the main smell I think, the old rope. Most of it now is manmade- when I joined it was all natural fibre- that has been stopped because of the strength of the manmade fibres and everything- the health and safety risks; we use manmade ropes rather than natural fibres now. But yes, the smell of tarred rope.
Interviewer: What was the history behind tarring the rope?
Just waterproofing it and keeping it dry, you know, and strengthening it. It stops it rotting as well because what you would find in a rope is the inner core would rot, although the outer side looked okay, and there you would find a break. Obviously with us, when we’re putting people over cliffs or bringing people up cliffs, we can’t afford to have that happen. So obviously now we’re using all the proper ropes, the proper cliff lines, which we exchange after so many hours of use, we change those, so I mean obviously, that’s the reason.
Will has 8 memories in the memorynet:
Will's memories with a Equipment theme:
Health and safety in the Brigade- Smell of the tarred rope
Will's other memories:
Clay pipesThis memory has these themes:
Change | Equipment | Sounds and Smells | Traditions
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