It’s about time that I wrote this blog post in follow-up to my earlier piece about my Eliots Green Grammar School scarf quest - which you can read here to save me repeating myself.
After the initial post, I had to play detective and tried all sorts of things to get the answer I needed about the scarf colourway. Here are some of the avenues explored.
I contacted:
And drew a blank everywhere. So, next steps were to share my quest with everyone I am connected to on LinkedIn and Facebook to see if they could help. Some of my friends, intrigued by my challenge joined in with the research work too – many thanks to Natasha James in particular for her tenacity.
I/we did eventually make some progress. I managed to get hold of various school uniform shots. A colour photo of school tie was helpful.
After a period of limited success, a chap got in touch with me and was able to provide the real help that I needed. Perfect Peter, though he may not be perfect, or even called Peter, still had a school scarf. His was a knitted scarf not a woven one, and the lines on his were vertical not horizontal, but the line proportions and colours were all I needed to get on with the task on getting a scarf remanufactured for my dad. Perfect!
When I say a scarf … the next issue was a minimum order quantity, which for the provider I chose was six. Then, on top of the initially reasonable unit cost, there was delivery at £20, and then VAT to add to everything. The bill just ballooned.
Having worked so hard to that point, I damn well wasn’t giving up just because the cost was getting less palatable.
So, after I deep breath, I placed my order, parted with my funds and waited for the next six weeks or so to get the scarves. Thankfully, when they arrived, I was really pleased with them.
I handed my dad his new scarf on Father’s Day and he was well chuffed with his present. My dad knew and appreciated just how much effort had gone into getting one to him. I presented one to my sister too and we all had the photo you see taken in my parent’s garden. At that point, every penny was worth it.
This blog post is a record that will help anyone else with a similar quest in the future, and it is a thank you to all those folk that helped me or did their best to.
I have a couple of spare scarves too, so if you want one for yourself without any of the hassle of getting one made, get in touch with me and I’ll sell you one at cost.
After the initial post, I had to play detective and tried all sorts of things to get the answer I needed about the scarf colourway. Here are some of the avenues explored.
I contacted:
- The school – now Northolt High
- Northolt Library
- Ealing Council’s archivist and local historian
- Kevins – the current school uniform provider to Northolt High (unfortunately it has only provided uniform since the 1980s)
- The Eliots Green Facebook alumni group
- The oldest school scarf manufacturer currently operating in the UK – I wanted to know if there was a database somewhere that held details of the UK’s schools, colleges, and universities scarf colourways. No is the answer by the way.
And drew a blank everywhere. So, next steps were to share my quest with everyone I am connected to on LinkedIn and Facebook to see if they could help. Some of my friends, intrigued by my challenge joined in with the research work too – many thanks to Natasha James in particular for her tenacity.
I/we did eventually make some progress. I managed to get hold of various school uniform shots. A colour photo of school tie was helpful.
After a period of limited success, a chap got in touch with me and was able to provide the real help that I needed. Perfect Peter, though he may not be perfect, or even called Peter, still had a school scarf. His was a knitted scarf not a woven one, and the lines on his were vertical not horizontal, but the line proportions and colours were all I needed to get on with the task on getting a scarf remanufactured for my dad. Perfect!
When I say a scarf … the next issue was a minimum order quantity, which for the provider I chose was six. Then, on top of the initially reasonable unit cost, there was delivery at £20, and then VAT to add to everything. The bill just ballooned.
Having worked so hard to that point, I damn well wasn’t giving up just because the cost was getting less palatable.
So, after I deep breath, I placed my order, parted with my funds and waited for the next six weeks or so to get the scarves. Thankfully, when they arrived, I was really pleased with them.
I handed my dad his new scarf on Father’s Day and he was well chuffed with his present. My dad knew and appreciated just how much effort had gone into getting one to him. I presented one to my sister too and we all had the photo you see taken in my parent’s garden. At that point, every penny was worth it.
This blog post is a record that will help anyone else with a similar quest in the future, and it is a thank you to all those folk that helped me or did their best to.
I have a couple of spare scarves too, so if you want one for yourself without any of the hassle of getting one made, get in touch with me and I’ll sell you one at cost.
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