God save the Queen !

[jean]

I loved my duffel/ell/le coat - very cosy, and great toggle-twisting opportunities

I didn't find mine particularly cosy - the unlined rough wool/cotton mix was stiff and uncomfortable, but they were cheap and therefore standard wear when I was a student in the 60s.

wikipedia seems very confused on the spelling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duffle_coat

The OED, OTOH, is crystal clear.

The article heading gives both forms duffle | duffel, and derives the word from the name of Duffel, a town of Brabant, between Antwerp and Mechlin, which was also anglicised as Duffield.

The earliest citation:

1677 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Oxford-shire 279 These Duffields, so called from a Town in Brabant, where the trade of them first began..otherwise called shags, and by the Merchants, trucking cloth.

The earliest with the spelling duffle is from 1856, but I like this one best:

1901 R. Kipling Kim xiii. 330 The sallow, greasy, duffle-clad people.

[jean]

...the baths (as they were known)...

Yes! When exactly did they become pools instead?

[Gordon]

Perhaps the other Queen is what we should be thinking of:

http://www.audiot.co.uk/products/rega-queen-turntable-available-from-september-25th-2015-8946.aspx?utm_source=Southampton+Rega+Queen+TT+Launch+&utm_campaign=Southampton+Rega+Event&utm_medium=email

and its cheaper to run than the "proper" one!! Note this is a limited edition so if you want one[being a fan] better get to Chandler's Ford and join the Q behind Pabs.

Just had the link by email along with this too:

http://www.hundredrecords.com/?utm_source=Southampton+Rega+Queen+TT+Launch+&utm_campaign=Southampton+Rega+Event&utm_medium=email

a new record shop opening seems like news these days. Teamsaint will be pleased!

[Mary Chambers]

I had a white duffel coat when I was a teenager. I thought it was rather elegant, and not at all scruffy.

Not sure I can think of anything else to say about the National Anthem. We don't seem to have got far, but some of the diversions have been entertaining. I am now musing about swimming baths and pools.

[ahinton]

I had a white duffel coat when I was a teenager. I thought it was rather elegant, and not at all scruffy.

Not sure I can think of anything else to say about the National Anthem. We don't seem to have got far, but some of the diversions have been entertaining. I am now musing about swimming baths and pools.

I rather doubt that you'd be likely to hear the National Anthem sung in either of those! - not even as an accompaniment to Katie Derham's synchonised swimming as mentioned elsewhere on this forum recently! (is it OK to say that, FF?...)

[Gordon]

........I am now musing about swimming baths and pools.

Aren't we all and the domestic chores are piling up!! Is a bath something you wash in - as in tin-bath or shower-bath - and a pool something you might swim in? Were Public baths originally places for people without a bath at home - because it was full of coal - share or pool?

Why is Liverpool not Liverbath?

What do you do in a football pool? Get sent off and have an early bath?

Or am I being bathetic?

I'll get me coat [Duffel/le of course], or, er, perhaps me towel [bath].

[teamsaint]

http://www.hundredrecords.com/?utm_source=Southampton+Rega+Queen+TT+Launch+&utm_campaign=Southampton+Rega+Event&utm_medium=email

a new record shop opening seems like news these days. Teamsaint will be pleased!

I am. Right on my doorstep. Not sure why I hadn't noticed it before.
THanks Gordon.

[vinteuil]

I was given a Duffel coat as a Christmas present in 1981 - I still wear it when I'm working in the garden in Winter. The only thing wrong with it is that all but two of the leather thongs holding the toggles have perished. Is it possible to get these repaired (I still have the toggles in one of the pockets)?

... leather thongs?

O no.

No No No.

You woz sold a pup.

The thongs have to be of rope.



In my very young Aldermaston-marching days I was a happy duffle coat wearer.

But was very happy to move on to Laurence Corner Army Surplus greatcoat wear in my slightly older undergraduate days. A swish navy number.

Odd that so many anti-militarists' favourite attire was army surplus...

Surely, tho', the locus classicus of the duffle is in those lovely Sunday afternoon war films - North Atlantic convoys, Jack Hawkins, John Mills...

happy days.

http://www.oipolloi.com/blogs/the-blog/18180795-glossary-the-duffle-coat

[.. the duffle bag - beyond naff. Surprised any of you are shameless enuff to 'fess up to ownership of such.]






.

[Serial_Apologist]

I had a white duffel coat when I was a teenager. I thought it was rather elegant, and not at all scruffy.

Very useful for wearing with wings attached at the back as a sort of working class angel in school nativity plays, I would think.

[Serial_Apologist]

In my very young Aldermaston-marching days I was a happy duffle coat wearer.

But was very happy to move on to Laurence Corner Army Surplus greatcoat wear in my slightly older undergraduate days. A swish navy number.

Me too! Being as warm as that greatcoat was, until 2 years ago I had it down as one of two items that I would keep on permanent standby, should I ever be rendered homeless, (well, you never know!) - the other being my bike. Then the clothes moths invaded, and out that coat had to go. Nothing has adequately managed to replace it.








.[/QUOTE]

[mangerton]

Yes! When exactly did they become pools instead?

When I went to "the baths" in the 60s in Hawick, they were literally that. As well as the public swimming bath/pool, (child's admittance 4d, swimming lesson 1/6d, AFAIR; it was where I learned to swim) there were private baths. At that time there were still many houses without bathrooms.

I think that might answer your question! Changed days indeed.

[jean]

It's the answer to the question why they were ever called baths in the first place; but none of those I went to as a child still had the washing sort of baths attached, and some, like this one, had never had them.

So when did the change happen?

[mangerton]

... leather thongs?

O no.

No No No.

You woz sold a pup.

The thongs have to be of rope.

Well, you're quite right about that.

OTOH......

[.. the duffle bag - beyond naff. Surprised any of you are shameless enuff to 'fess up to ownership of such.]

Not sure about that, though. What, at that time, was the alternative? Certainly, duffel bags had their limitations, but they were practical, and could be carried fairly easily in addition to a schoolbag, (who remembers them?) even when riding a bike.

[gurnemanz]

[.. the duffle bag - beyond naff. Surprised any of you are shameless enuff to 'fess up to ownership of such.]

What's naff about this stylish accessory?

[mangerton]

It's the answer to the question why they were ever called baths in the first place; but none of those I went to as a child still had the washing sort of baths attached, and some, like this one, had never had them.

So when did the change happen?

I see what you mean. Possibly, I suppose, when private baths were no longer supplied, and their memory became dimmer. I see the famous Portobello Baths in Edinburgh are now known as the "Portobello Swim Centre".