Cleaning up: Britain's oldest vacuum cleaner still going strong after 80 years

 

A British pensioner has laid claim to owning the country's oldest working vacuum cleaner - still sucking up dust 80 years after it was made.

While other household appliances have come and gone, Bill Whitwam's reliable Hoover Senior has stayed the distance and has never needed a part replaced.

Mr Whitwam's mother received the cleaner as a wedding present in 1929 - the year Wall Street crashed and which saw the BBC's first ever television broadcast.

Good as new: Bill Whitwam uses his 80-year-old vacuum cleaner to clean his home and claims it works perfectly

After his parents passed away in the 1950s the 76-year-old inherited the cleaner, which he said was in perfect working order.

'It may be a battered old thing but it still does the job as well as when it was brand new,' he said.

'It comes from an age when things were built to last and has outworn dozens of models which have come after it.'

The retired textile manufacturer said the vacuum cleaner was his mother Phylis's pride and joy.

'I can't remember which relative bought the vacuum or how much it cost, but it must have been a generous wedding gift because in those days hardly anyone had one,' he said.

'I guess that's why you can see all those old photographs of housewives beating their carpets on the washing line.

Mr Whitwam's vacuum cleaner collection boasts more than 20 models - some dating back to the start of the 20th century

'When I was growing up mum was always incredibly proud of her Hoover. I remember her saying it was the one to have.'

The pensioner uses his skills learnt as a Royal Signals technician in his early-20s to maintain his vintage vacuum.

'I can honestly say its never needed a new working part. The only work I've had to do is rewire it, and I had to do that when plugs went from two to three prongs,' he said.

'It has a perfectly working foot lever which alters it from its normal 45 degree angle to almost horizontal.

The model is among 20 vacuum cleaners in Mr Whitwam's collection - some dating back to the start of the 20th century.

'One of them is more than 100 years old and I was once told that it was the same model used to keep the carpets clean on the Titanic,' he said.

'Friends had always joked about my Hoover and one day I was given an old one to keep it company. Then more just kept arriving. I've quite a collection now.'

'A lot of them I've restored and every now again I put them through their paces just to make sure they are in good working order.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248253/Pensioner-cleans-Britains-oldest-vacuum-cleaner.html#ixzz0eUOh0XkP

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