Photographs

Beamish: Open Air Museum

Murton Co-op

Shops

The first Lamson system in the county was at Snowball & Son in Gateshead in January 1886. This was the year after Kelly became the London agent for the American company.

BILLINGHAM. Co-op, Billingham Green "The butchers in the Co-op on Billingham Green had this system [pneumatic tube?] too. Great fun to watch as a kid." Peter Brackstone in posting to Facebook

BILLINGHAM. Stockton Co-op, Branch 30, Belasis. "The Co-op was made up of several separate shops, the large corner shop was the general dealers, money was put into continers and sent on cables to an office which seemed to be up near the ceiling. I can still picture the cashier up in her little 'box' raking in all the takings." Stockton on Tees Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.

BIRTLEY. Co-op. "The new central premises erected on the Durham Road, Birtley, by the Birtley District Cooperative Society will be formally opened on Saturday afternoon... The Lamson carrying [sic] has been put into the new building." Newcstle Daily Chronicle, 27 Nov. 1903, p. 7

BISHOP AUCKLAND. Co-operative Flour and Provision Society . Opened 14 July 1894. "A feature in the working arrangements of the various floors will be the pneumatic tubes fitted by Mr W. Kilburn. The principle is quite new in the district. From every part of the building, new and old, the cash will be blown in leather carriers to the central cash office on the first floor by means of a gas engine, the mechanism being extremely simple, and permitting the greatest expedition." Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 16 Jul. 1894, p. 3. (Mr Kilburn was the plumber.)
• "The great feature in connection with Messrs. Kilburn & Sykes's contract is the fixing of pneumatic cash tubes, which convey the cash in leather carriers from every department in the premises )both old and new buildings) to the central cash office." Northern Echo, 16 Jul. 1894, p. 3

BISHOP AUCKLAND. Doggarts, Market Place. "The much changed market place, dominated by Doggarts department store - where a minature railway of change dispensers whizzed wonderfully overhead." Northeast Food website . "Mr Doggart's grandson, Sandy, .. believes there may be pieces of the Lamson Paragon pneumatic tube payment system left in unused sections of the Bishop Auckland building." This is the North East website

BISHOP AUCKLAND. Wilkinsons, Newgate Street. 'Each till had a separate cable to the office, with a cash container attached,' says John [Heslop]. 'To us children, it seemed to work by magic!' Northern Echo website

BUTTERKNOWLE. Co-op. "The cash-carrying containers at Butterknowle were screwed onto a carriage which was then catapulted along the wires,” says Graham Redfearn of Bishop Auckland, whose father worked at the store from 1931 until it closed in 1968. “There were remnants of it left when the store closed, so perhaps the odd bit ended up at Beamish as one of the counters did.” Northern Echo website

CHESTER LE STREET, County House. "James Turnbull and Son are instructed to sell by public auction .. all the very valuable and extensive shop fittings, including .. cash overhead runaway [sic] complete. Sunderland Echo & Shipping Gazette, 13 Jan. 1939, p. 6

CONSETT. Doggarts. "That thing that used to take the money in Doggarts. The assistant would put the payment in and it would go whizzin' off somewhere and come back with the change.""Roxmar" posting to Consett and Derwentside Online Community, 23 Oct. 2005

COUNDON. Co-op. "The cash office was connected to the front counter by a pneumatic tube – such wonderful things figure in many people’s earliest retail memories. The counter assistant would put the customer’s cash and invoice into a capsule, pop it into the pneumatic tube and compressed air would whoosh it around the store to the cash office. There, Eileen would open the capsule, record the sale, put in the correct change and whoosh back to the counter." Telegraph and Argus (Bradford) website

COXHOE. Co-op. "We went to the Co-op, and I believe I was told Uncle Sid was manager. I had never been in such a big shop, as it was pretty rural at home. What I was in awe of,  was the fact that the cashier sat in a small glass office, and counter assistants wrote bills and took money,  and
then put both into metal canisters.  The canisters were screwed up onto an overhead wire, and then when a handle was pulled they flew through the air over our heads to the little office.  The lady in the glass box dealt with the bill, and put any change back in the canister with receipt stamped paid, and they then flew back to the right place." Coxhoe Local History Group website

CROOK. Co-op. Cash Ball system, rescued from a loft and now in Beamish Museum. The Museum

DARLINGTON. Binns. See SOUTH SHIELDS. Binns below.
• 1930s building. Acquired by House of Fraser in 1950s. "The pneumatic chute till system was a marvel to see in its day when customers' money went back and forth to a central cash desk out of sight." Darlington Heritage Trail guide

DARLINGTON. Co-op, Victoria Road. Photograph of grocery department with three Rapid Wire propulsions in Morrison.

DARLINGTON. Co-op, Priestgate. Peter Tarn in Forcett remembers seeing one in the Priestgate Co-op before it was converted to pneumatic ways in 1957. “The cashier was located in an elevated wooden “pulpit”, which had a series of steel wires radiating from it,” he says, evocatively. “The far end of each wire was attached to a “launcher”, which was located just above each sales counter. A chain and handle, which looked just like a lavatory chain, hung from each launcher. The chain was pulled by the sales assistant to send the cash and bill in a small wheeled bogie up to the cashier in the pulpit.
“The little bogie had to travel uphill to the pulpit, and the energy required to achieve this, in defiance of Newtonian laws, was provided by the assistant’s energetic pull on the “lavatory chain”...
“Failures were quite frequent, and sometimes the bogie came to a halt just short of the pulpit. It returned slowly by gravity to the sales counter where the assistant performed a much harder pull on the lavatory chain to get the bogie to its destination. Northern Echo website with photograph of exterior.

DARLINGTON. Doggarts, Northgate. Lamson pneumatic tube system, even in ground-floor departments. Photograph in Hammond. Also mentioned in Northern Echo, 26 Jan 2000, p.6a

DARLINGTON. Jimmy Lowes, High Row. “I remember in the 1930s and 1940s Jimmy Lowes’ shop on Darlington High Row which sold haberdashery,” says Pauline Savage in Romanby, Northallerton. “I was taken there to buy hair ribbons, and their cash system was a series of wires and pulleys suspended from the ceiling.” Northern Echo website

DURHAM. Doggarts. Pneumatic tube system. Lee

DURHAM. Greenwells, Albion House, Silver Street. "The adoption of what is termed a 'cash railway' to facilitate the work of the shopmen is likely to prove of substantial service. This railway .. is a system which already has been adopted by a large number of firms in other parts of the country, more especially in the south of England. The railway is technically known as 'Lamson's rapid wire system, and consists of three single wires, two running to the long grocery counter on the left onentering the shop and one to the provision side, and all three terminating at a 'station' in the outer office at the far end of the shop. Each wire carries a small car, in which is placed the cash, bill, &c., and a lever being pulled by the assistant behind the counter, the car is projected rapidly into the office, working on the catapult system up a slight incline... The car is fitted with seven compartments for different coins, and the tickets of the shopmen, also enclosed, are retained and filed, while a duplicate is retained at the counter... Messrs Greenwell are to be congratulated upon being the pioneers of this capital systemof labour-saving in Durham." Durham County Advertiser, 22 Dec. 1893, p. 8
• Pneumatic tube system. Beamish Museum

DURHAM. J.W. Robinson and Co. (drapers), 9 Market Place. "To be sold by auction ... lift and cash railway." Newcastle Journal, 4 Aug. 1915, p. 2

EASINGTON. Co-op. "Easington Village branch of Murton Co-operative Society was broken into during the weekend... The thief .. crawled through a small aperture into the grocery department, and in doing so damaged the overhead cash railway." (Hartlepool) Northern Daily Mail, 14 Dec. 1931,

FELLING. Co-op. "When a customer paid for the goods, the money was put in a cylindrical container and attached to an Ariel wire, which, with a swishing sound was transported to a glass cubicle where the cashier checked the amount of money for your goods and returned the change by the same method." The Time Capsule - Childhood

FELLING ON TYNE. James McGuiness (drapers), High Street. "Sale of fixtures and fittings, etc., on the premises... Compressed Air Cash Carrier." Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 2 Oct. 1939, p. 3

GATESHEAD. Cranston and Co. (Cash Drapers), High Street. "Young lady wanted... One accustomed to the cash railway preferred." Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 27 Jun. 1904, p. 2

GATESHEAD. Shephards, West Street/Ellison Street . Overhead wire system. Jarrow Online Forum, 2/2/03.Later changed to pneumatic tubes. Mike at Hebburn website
• "Cash and credit systems by Lamson. Lamson Engineering Co., Ltd., London, N.W.10" Newcastle Journal, 9 Mar. 1957, p. 5

GATESHEAD. Snowball, Son & Co. 15-21 High Street. "Lawson [sic] and Co., of New York, have been engaged during the last twelve months fitting up the patent system in this country, at Edinburgh and Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, and the Metropolis, principally for large drapery firms; but it has only now reached the banks of the Tyne, and the credit of introducing it is due to the enterprise of Mesrs. Snowball, Son, and Co., of Gateshead. The opening of the monetary traffic by this ingenious method was deemed of sufficient importance yesterday forenoon to secure its inauguration by the Mayor, who sent the first cash ball rolling to the 'deep pocket' at the cashier's desk; and thereafter, in toasting success to the firm and its cash railway, took occasion to have a very natural and excusable 'crow' over the laggards on the other side of the bridge... There are no fewer than twenty-one stations on Messrs. Snowball's cash railway, which is 650 feet in length." Newcastle Daily Leader, 20 Jan 1886. Picture of exterior. Part demolished for the Tyne Bridge approach road and part became Kent House.

HARTLEPOOL. Binns. "It was NOT a pneumatic Lamson tube system like there was in Binns." Frances Wilson in posting to Facebook
• "Binns [used] metal cylinders with felt round the edges so they could slide up the tubes easier!" Colette Holmes in posting to Facebook

HARTLEPOOL. Blacketts. "I remember Blacketts had the vacuum system. I managed to see the little room it was managed in as a child, the poor woman had to move like Billy Wiz." Gail Cook in posting to Facebook

HARTLEPOOL (WEST). Burnip and Son (drapers), 45-47 Lynn Street. "Grand opening of the new premises... Come in crowds and see the wonderful cash railway on Saturday first." Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 13 July 1888, p. 2
• "This we believe the first one [cash railway] in the Hartlepools. Instead of the salesman or saleswoman .. running to the end of the shop or calling a 'cash boy or girl' to fetch the customers' change they simply place the money, together with the account, in a hollow ball." Ibid., 14 Jul. 1888, p. 3

HARTLEPOOL (WEST) . Co-op. Pneumatic tube system. Steve_S posting to Mamod Steam Forum, 22/11/09

HARTLEPOOL (WEST). Cross & Co.(drapers), Lynn Street. "W.T.Walton, Jun., .. favoured with instructions from the liquidator herein, will offer for sale by auction, the whole of the high class fittings and fixtures on the premises in Lynn Street .. two separate services of Gipe Overhead Cash Carriers." Northern Daily Mail, 25 Feb. 1929, p. 4

HARTLEPOOL (WEST). Murton Co-operative Society, Easington Village. "He [the theif] crawled through a small aperture into the grocery department, and in doing so damaged the overhead cash railway." Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 14 Dec. 1931, p. 6

HARTLEPOOL (WEST) . Richards, 145 Burbank Street. "Gipe 3-way cash railway, complete. For sale - Apply Richards, 145 Burbank Street, West Hartlepool." Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 3 Oct. 1936, p. 1

HARTLEPOOL (WEST). Matthias Robinson, 77-83 Lynn Street. "Trustworthy young lady wanted for cash desk for new cash railway system." Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 9 Apr. 1890, p. 2
(Coliseum, 149-150 High Street) "M. Robinson and Company, the great drapers and house furnishers, the Manchester House and Coliseum, West Hartlepool... will open on Wednesday (tomorrow), April 29, 1896... Cash Railway system has been introduced." Ibid. 28 Apr. 1896, p. 1. Photograph of Coliseum exterior
• "Definitely the one on the left [i.e. a cash ball system]. My older sister worked there for a while so I watched it quite often. It left a lasting impression." Sheila Cairns in posting to Facebook

HARTLEPOOL (WEST). George Stephenson, Church Street. "The 'cash railway' being busier than usual conveying its treasure to any required point." Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 20 Dec. 1888, p. 6

HASWELL. Co-op. Pneumatic tube system from W. Kilurn of Bishop Auckland. Northern Echo, 26 Nov. 1897

HETTON. Co-op. Pneumatic tube system in 1959. Hughes

HOUGHTON LE SPRING. Co-op, Shiney Row. "As a child I loved watching the money being sent to the cashier at Shiney Row co-op and waiting for the return." Daphne Northey Hughes on Facebook

JARROW. Shephards (department store), Ellison Street. Overhead wire system. Jarrow Online Forum, 2 Feb. 03

MURTON. Co-op. Photograph of "Typical grocery , 1939" (probably Murton). Hughes.

RYHOPE. Co-op. Wire system. Val Hammond

SHILDON. Co-op. Cash carrier. "Better than John Hendley's." Northern Echo, 13/2/98.
"I spent much time at the C.W.S. .. and was very familiar with the 'cash systen'. It was a dual 'Lamson' system. On the ground floor was the Lamson Rapid Wire System - a system of wires on which little trucks were propelled by pulling on a pulley which opened the gap between 2 wires causing the 'bomb' as they were known to whizz along the wire & through a little square window into the cashier's cubicle." [This sounds more like a Gipe system]. "Then there was the pneumatic system, whereby capsules about a foot long & 4" diameter were whistled through tubes from one floor to another. This latter system was still used within I.C.I. right through from the fifties to the nineties to send 'samples' from plants to laboratories." [The dimensions given are more appropriate to this kind of system.] Ken in posting to Shildon Net, 26/2/04

SOUTH SHIELDS. Binns, King Street/Russell Street. "Messrs. H. Binns, Son & Co., Ltd. again adopt combined Lamson cash tubes and vacuum cleaner service for their new premises at South Shields. Lamson systems are already installed for Messrs Binns at Sunderland, Darlington, & Middlesbrough, and in course of construction at their new premises at Newcastle-on-Tyne." Shields Daily Gazette, 16 Aug. 1929, p. 5

SOUTH SHIELDS. Cash and Carry (clothing), King Street. "Also had one of those tube things they put the money in. They used to sell jeans and work clothes. (Cisco in posting to South Shields Sanddancers Forum, 5/4/05)

SOUTH SHIELDS. Co-op. "You put the cash and a little receipt in the cylinder, lift a flap and pop it in, then [it] shot off to the cash office on the top floor and returned with a receipt and change a couple of minutes later." (Baldy Smith in posting to South Shields Sanddancers Forum, 24/3/05)

SOUTH SHIELDS. T. Crofton (drapers), 29-30 Market Place and 1-2 King Street. "T. Crofton .. to facilitate the despatch of business, to decrease the commotion, and in consequence add to the comfort of his patrons, has had the Cash Railway System laid throughout his extensive premises." Shields Daily Gazette, 7 Dec. 1889, p.4

SOUTH SHIELDS. Hintons (grocers), Fowler Street. Pneumatic tube system. (Jerry in posting to South Shields Sanddancers Forum, 26/4/05)

SOUTH SHIELDS. Kerrs, 38 King Street. "Wanted, a young lady cashier, one accustomed to the cash railway preferred, for drapery sales." Shields Daily Gazette, 11 Dec. 1903, p. 1

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Blacketts. "These were used when I first went to work in Blacketts dept shop Stockton on tees ,I was in the cash office to receive them and return with change in." Jackie Mclone in posting to Facebook, 8 Aug. 2016

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Co-op, Wellington Street "Emporium". Pneumatic tube system from W. Kilburn of Bishop Auckland. Northern Echo, 26 Nov. 1897. (Not sure whether this is the shop referred to.)
• "At that time [1930] and well into the store's life the money was put into tubes and transferred from the counter to the cashier's office, the relevant amount being taken out and any change sent back to the counter via the tube system." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Co-op Branch 8, Holly Street, Norton. "No. 8 (1910) Holly Street, Norton High Street had an earlier cash-ball and track system installed." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Co-op Branch 12, Bishopton Road. "The general grocers had the cashier in a raised cubicle at the back on the left, and money and chits were sent across the room in containers suspended by pulleys on wires, and launched on their journey by pulling down on a spring loaded handle. This was one of the main reasons I loved being sent there on errands." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Co-op Branch 24, Richardson Road (grocers and butchers). "I was fascinated with a system of wires and pulleys and springs to send the cash up to someone in what appeared to be a little cabin on the floor above." "The overhead wires that took the money to the cashier who was in an elevated office up in one corner of the store." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Co-op Branch 29, Leven Road, Norton (grocery and butchers). "Norton Co-op No 29 the building is still standing in Leven Road, closing as a Co-op in 1969... Many will remember.. the cash disposal systems. No 29 (1930) had a cup and wire way from counter to cash kiosk." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Doggarts, 73-74 High Street. "Your Mum will remember the air tube system for payments." Picture Stockton Archive 22/08/02

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Elephant Central Cash Stores, Central Buildings, north end of High Street. "Call and see the Lamson Cash Railway System." North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 30 Oct. 1886

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Farm Stores (butchers), Dovecot Street on the corner of West Row , "The sales people transferred the money to the central till via an overhead mechanical shuttle system which went out from the central till to several locations in the shop where the sales people were serving. Each individual feeder had a small cylinder attached which housed the persons money and a receipt which when the lever was pulled shot the cylinder across to the person on the till who placed the receipt in the till and collected the right amount of change and sent it back with another corresponding pull on the lever letting the shuttle fly back to the counter. As a child I was always fascinated by this mechanical wonder." (Around 1957-8.) Picture Stockton website with photo of exterior.

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. M. Robinson and Co. (The New Coliseum), drapers and furnishers, 149-150 High Street. "M. Robinson & Co. will open on Saturday first... The Coliseum is fitted throughout with the Lawson [sic] pneumatic cash railway." Daily Gazette (Middlesbrough), 2 May 1901, p. 2
• "Messrs. M. Robinson and Sons .. have the following vacancies for young ladies: Experienced ledger clerk, also for the cash desk, one used to working Lamson tubes." Northern Daily Mail, 14 May 1947, p. 10
• "The basement was used for .. the famous Lanson [sic] vacuum system for sending money around the store in vacuum tubes. Staff in each department would send customers' cash in canisters, place [them] in the system, and the transaction [was] handled by cashiers in a central location. All the change and receipts were then sent back to where it came from via the 'system'. I helped dismantle the system in the basement in 1965/66 although I believe it was not used for a few years prior to that. It was a work of mechanical engineering, art, noisy, hot and sticky. " Alan Davis comment in Stockton Local Photo Collection Online

STOCKTON-ON-TEES. Toogood and Wilson. "The Cash Railway System has been in full working order since October 18th, 1886. at Toogood and Wilson's, the Elephant Cash Stores, Central Buildings, Stockton. This Store is the most complete for quick cash trading. Teas, Groceries, Provisions, Flour, and Patent Medicines at strictly cash prices." North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 22 Feb. 1887

SUNDERLAND. Beardalls, Cobden Exchange.
"I'll tell you news (in case you've missed them)
Of Beardall's new cash cash railway system!
(On Lamson's patent style of action),
A public boon and satisfaction!
Progress ne'er yet found Beardall strolling;
He ever sets the ball a-rolling!
... This new cash railway, please remember
Starts this last [day] of November
... Onward let Beardall's railway dash,
Fed by the fuel of hard cash,
While men shall say in glad surprise,
'Here's luck to Beardall's enterprise'."
Sunderland Daily Echo, 28 Nov. 1889, p.1.
[Is this what became later Kennedys?]

SUNDERLAND. Binns. See SOUTH SHIELDS. Binns above.
• "Margaret Crosbie .. told us that she used to work in the store in the 'lamson room where the pods came up the tubes. They had the cash in we stamped the bill and sent the change back'. The store shut for the last time in 1993." Sunderland Echo website

SUNDERLAND. Blacketts, corner of High Street West and Union Street. "Blacketts, of High St. West, req. the services of a Cash Desk supervisor (female), with exper. of Lamson pneumatic tubes system pref." Sunderland Echo, 25 Apr. 1946, p. 6
•"I used to love Blacketts, they used to put your money in a canister and send it upstairs to the cash room. You'd wait a few minutes and your change would arrive. "AB22 Easy Tiger" in posting to RTG Message Board - Photography Discussion
• "A particular feature of Blacketts was .. the chute system which dealt with customers' money. The chute travelled around the shop to the cashiers who would return it with completed bill and change to the shop assistant." There may be a tube system in the photograph. Curtis, Philip. Sunderland: a century of shopping. (Seaham: People's History,1999) p. 107

SUNDERLAND. Beardalls. "The new cash railway at the Cobden Exchange... The new cash railway, please remember / Starts this last of November! / And to reward friend Beardall's pains, / I'll tell you what this system gains: It saves a lot of cash and labour, / And helps a man to help his neighbour!" Sunderland Daily Echo, 28 Nov. 1889, p. 1

SUNDERLAND. J.T.Calvert, High Street/William Street/Lambton Street/Back High Street. (Calverts were bought out by Hedley, Swan & Co. known as Joplings. The store burnt down in 1954.)
• "There is a question whether it is an American notion and as to its novelty... In the High Street of Sunderland, opposite to the end of Sans Street, some thirty years ago, there was a large ironmonger's and general dealer's shop, kept by a Mr. Calvert. He was the first man .. to adopt the new general plan of a pulpit or desk for receiving cash... He had just such a contrivance as that described in connexion with Messrs. Snowball's shop, only that the cash carrier was a little wagon instead of a ball... Ultimately the Calverts emigrated, and probably carried the 'notion' with them. Whether it was Mr. Calvert's own, or somebody else's invention, my correspondent does not know." Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 21 Jan. 1886, p. 7
• "An enormous store with three floors and a basement." Cash ball system visible in photograph of dresses, silks, gloves, hosiery and lace department (though not very clear). Curtis, Philip. Sunderland: a century of shopping. (Seaham: People's History,1999) p. 15

SUNDERLAND. Caslaw, Hayter and Tate, 162 High Street West, next door to Risdon's. "The shop specialised in school uniforms... They had a system for change with the cash travelling around the shop in a canister before reaching the cashier in her office. Once checked, the change would return in similar fashion. The shop retained many of its original fittings right up to closure in the 1990s. Curtis, Philip. Sunderland: a century of shopping. (Seaham: People's History,1999) p. 25

SUNDERLAND. Co-op, Central Drapery Stores, Green Street. "The new central drapery stores, Green Street, in connection with the Sunderland Equitable Industrial Society, were opened this afternoon... "The.. electric motor, and blower for the pneumatic cash carriers are placed in the basement in Cumberland Street." Sunderland Daily Echo, 21 Jun. 1899, p. 3

SUNDERLAND. Joplings, High Street West. "'Service' is Messrs Joplings motto, and with this in mind they have installed an up-to-date 'cash railway which delivers the customers' change and receipts within seconds'." Sunderland Daily Echo, 8 Nov. 1934, p.11
• "I started at Joplings in 1950... [The] cash office manager (where the Lampson Paragon 'chute' system terminated) was Miss Oliver... Customers' bills and money and sometimes Joplings' own tokens were put in a metal canister and into a chute connected to a cash desk in a separate office, and returned receipts and the change came back to the staff the same way." Sunderland Today website. Tom Charlton also remembers the pneumatic tube system.

SUNDERLAND. Kennedys, originally 39 High Street West and took over Cobden Exchange. "A feature of the shop was the way money was sent to the cashiers by way of a travelling container in a chute, the change returning in similar fashion... In the late 1950s Kennedy's eventually moved into the new units in Maritime Place." Curtis, Philip. Sunderland: a century of shopping. (Seaham: People's History,1999) p. 96

SUNDERLAND. J. W. Peden (general draper), 231 High Street. "See patent cash railway system at J. W. Peden's." Sunderland Daily Echo, 8 Nov. 1886, p. 1

SUNDERLAND. J. Risdon (women and baby wear), John Street/High Street West. Cash carrier. Sylvia Smith

SUNDERLAND. Thomas Stephenson, 248-249 High Street. "With characteristic enterprise and business energy, Mr Thomas Stephenson, the well-known grocer and provision dealer, has introduced Lanson's Patent Cash Railway system into his extensive premises." Sunderland Daily Echo, 5 Feb. 1886

SUNDERLAND. Taylor and Co., 27-33 New Arcade. "Opening of the new high level cash railway in Sunderland... This cash railway system. one of the most recent and not the least of new inventions for saving labour is introduced in Sunderland by the well-known firm of Taylor and Co. Wm. A. Proctor .. has procured the new railway system to facilitate the conveyance of cash to and from the Cash Desk, a distance of sixty feet, thus saving the assistants a great deal of running about." Sunderland Daily Echo, 8 Feb. 1886, p.4

SUNDERLAND. R.W.Wilson & Son (drapers), 4 High Street West, near Sunderland Empire. "The whole of the shop fittings, fixtures and equipment, including .. three station cash carrier fittings." Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 10 Aug. 1953, p.10

WEST CORNFORTH. West Cornforth Industrial Co-op, High Street. Shop started operating 27 Jan. 1893. "An ingenious overhead cash system was installed in each department, whereby after any goods were sold at any counter in the store a bill of sale and money were put into a metal container which was attached to a system of wires and pulleys. The assistant gave a short pull on the handle and the container then travelled at speed along the overhead wire to a small cashier's office in one corner of the building. If any change was required this was returned by the cashier using the same system." West Cornforth website

WEST STANLEY. Co-op. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. The cash office also dealt with the "divvy" tickets. Joe Leigh

WEST STANLEY. Doggarts (clothing shop). Wire system in 1950s. Joe Leigh

Museums

BEAMISH. North of England Open Air Museum. Cash Ball system. The shop is in two parts with a cash office between. The equipment in the drapery department came from the Coop in Crook, Co. Durham and that in the hardware department from the Dean Motorcycle Co., Newcastle. Video on YouTube.

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.