Island Life Magazine Ltd April/May 2008 | Page 114

life

LOCAL BUSINESS

Send your
clothes on the
Cresta run
You may live a long way from
a specialist dry cleaner, but
you could be closer than you
think. Cresta Dry Cleaners
make collections from all sorts
of local businesses, from news
agents to food stores.
The collection, made every
two days, takes your garments
off to Cresta’s factory in
Ventnor where they will be
on the receiving end of some
pretty impressive treatment:
“Every piece of clothing we
receive is hand-finished,” says
Ian Turpin, Cresta’s director.
“We don’t slap things under a
Hoffman press.”
Their ironing people are
meticulously trained in the
art of pressing. They need to
get it right, because, thanks to
the firm’s links with menswear
firm Osborne’s they see a great
many formal suits. “We’ve had
six wedding dresses in this
morning,” says Ian. “We offer
a service where, if the bride
wants her dress preserved, we
wrap it in acid-free paper in
an acid-free box. It is folded
so the detail of the dress is on

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display through the cellophane
window: the bride can show off
her dress while preserving it to
show to her own children.”
There are 26 outlets
Island-wide from which
Cresta’s vans pick up, to take
garments to Ventnor where
they will be cleaned using the
latest equipment. There is
bound to be a collection point
near you, and they usually
provide a two-day turnaround.
For your nearest point of
collection, phone
01983 855555.

The German Blackforest Wall
Clock, a cottage industry.

The cuckoo clock is a popular favourite
amongst many collectors
but what of it’s origin?
Well it all began in the
Blackforest region of
Germany, where it is believed
sometime around the mid
17th century a travelling glass
salesman returned home from
Bohemia with a very simple
wooden clock.
Winters in the Blackforest
were very severe and
susceptible to heavy snowfall,
the notion of making wooden
clocks was seized upon as a
necessary second occupation
when farming was impossible.
The making of these clocks
was a cottage industry and
work was undertaken by
the villagers. Each worker
specialised on one particular
part, for instance these would
have included a brass founder,
wheel turner, frame maker, dial
turner, dial painter, tool maker
and finally the clock maker
proper, all supporting each
other in a system of divided
labour.
By the year 1720 strike
work was incorporated into
the movements, around 1730
the cuckoo 6