Newarker

Thanks philmayfield for the tip. l also want checked shirts. I'll take a trip to Boundary Mills and EWM/Pitlochry in Lincoln. lf l find something satisfactory l can order online in the future. l forgot to mention Alkit on Castlegate. l suppose their market disappeared with the closing of most RAF stations in the area.

l understand that Wyse Guys Menswear closed down before Christmas. As far as l know the only menswear shop left in Newark is Masdings. I can recall Randalls, Ernest Rick, Whitehouse, Greenwoods, Alexandre, Burtons, Michael Reed, Hamblings, not forgetting Marks & Spencer. There was also a boutique on Kirkgate where l bought an ill-advised tank top. They all seemed to have been there for ever (apart from the boutique) and we assumed they always would be. Where do blokes in Newark buy their clothes now?

David Kynaston's book Family Britain 1951-57 lists some of the shops in Alfred Street South and adjoining streets in the 1950s: Farnsworth's Pork Butchers, Barnes Dales dairy (for Colwick cheese), Barber Len, Coupe's Furnishing, Plunkett's Gents Outfitters,Atkin's Wine shop, Winfield's the Butcher, Brown's the coal merchant , Carnill's Pork Butcher, Briley's Ladies' and Children's Wear, Westminster Bank, Cromwell pub, Co-op Butchery and Greengrocer, Morley's Cake shop, Dean's Ladies Fashions, Cavendish Cinema, Mr Ash the Fishmonger, Meakin's the cobbler, Marsdens, Mr Chettle dentist, Ridgards

No doubt philmayfield will recall that subsequent to Donoghue v Stevenson the case of Grant v Australian Knitting Mills (1935) concerned chemicals left in woollen underpants by the manufacturer. Compare and contrast.

l have been re-reading Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon, an account of his journey by Triumph motorbike in 1973 over 63,000 miles through 54 countries, taking four years. The paperback was published in 1979 and l remember being fascinated by the romance of the idea. How could anybody put his life on hold and set off around the world carrrying only what he could carry on the bike? lt turns out to be not quite as fascinating as l remembered as he spends a long time in some places, particularly California and lndia, describing his exploits in detail, whereas other bits of the trip get scant menti

The proprietor of G H Porter was hoping to find someone to take over the business but he must be living in hope rather than expectation. With Waitrose, Morrisons, M & S Food and Asda all being in the town centre or periphery, all with on-site parking, shoppers have deserted the independent food shops. There used to be free parking in the market place on non-market days which seems remarkable now. On the subject of Worksop, last week l paid my first visit for many years (on the Robin Hood line) and was shocked by the devastation of the town centre. Worksop makes Newark look pro

According to my Passenger Transport Year Book 1962 Camms had a garage and works at 60 Miall Street, Radford. The fleet at that time comprised 12 coaches and 3 single-deck buses. Chassis: 8 Bedford, 3 Leyland, 2 AEC, 2 Commer. Bodies: 13 Duple, 2 Harrington. Fleet livery cream/crimson which sounds more attractive than the orange/yellow stripes which were fashionable in the 80s.

l have more or less ignored Radio Nottm since they ended Jazz Incorporated on Thursdays and the Notts Nostalgia programme on Sundays. l am obviously not their "demographic" as I can't stand most of the music played on Radio Nottm and Radio 2 nowadays. l keep meaning to buy a digital radio so l can listen to Boom Radio and Greatest Hits Radio but not if they have the same amount of adverts as Smooth. What especially gets on my nerves is the gabbling of terms & conditions etc at the end of most adverts. As mentioned by CT, Radio Trent and Gem used to be truly local a

l am currently re-reading a couple of my favourites: Europe in the Looking Glass - Reflections of a Motor Drive frrom Grimsby to Athens. In 1926 three young men drive across Europe in a large Sunbeam touring car and have various adventures. Cars then were of course much less reliable than today and they have many difficulties organising repairs (which are needed often). The author was Robert Byron who died aged 36 in 1941 when the ship on which he was travelling to Egypt was torpedoed by a German submarine. The other book l am re-reaing is Modernity Britain Book 2: A Shake of

My ABC British Bus Fleets 1960 lists 9 Guy Arabs from 1942-43 and 21 from 1944-45, all still with wartime utility bodies, plus 6 from 1945-46 rebodied by ECW in 1952. At that time MGO still had two AEC Regals from 1936 and five from 1938/39!

Part of the problem with the 11+ was that your chances of passing the exam depended on where you lived,depending on the availability of grammar school places. In the late 1950s those chances were as high as 35% in the south-west, 33.5% in Wales, down to 22.4% in the north-east and 18.9% in the south. The outlier was Nottingham City where you had only a 10.1% chance. Why was Nottingham so ill-favoured? Was there a shortage of grammar school places? If so,why didn't they build or convert more grammar schools?

Just to update plantfit's posting on 8 April 2019, an extract from the Post website earlier this year:- Business owners are becoming frustrated with recent changes at a Nottinghamshire retail park which has seen their customers receiving fines. Visitors at Northgate Retail Park, off Lincoln Bridge Road, Newark, are no longer able to leave the site whilst parked there, which means they need to park elsewhere to visit nearby businesses. They mean Lincoln Road, there being no Lincoln Bridge Road in Newark. Typical Post.

I'm sure this is not an original thought but whoever decided the entry charges seems to have looked at the cost of refurbishment and then worked out how much they needed to charge to recover the costs. This of course was the wrong way round. People will not pay over the odds to get the Trust/City Council out of a hole but will compare the cost with other attractions and decide whether it is value for money. Adrian Jones and Chris Matthews in their book Towns in Britain say the pre-refurbishment castle was the dreariest museum and art gallery you can imagine. From comments here and

The Post website has one of their compilations of nostalgia photos from the 1980s. There is a picture captioned "Paper Lace musician Mick Vaughan joins Cllr Dennis Birkinshaw to promote a record commissioned by the council - 'Nottingham' There are copies available on line of a record called Nottingham written by Mick Vaughan and Phil Wright of Paper Lace and recorded by Sheriff, release on the A.OK label in 1983. Can anybody provide a link to the song? If it was written by guys from PL you would think it might be reasonably commercial but l had never heard of it befor

Small world. 40 years ago l was working in the same building at Stavertongirl. lt was called Pinfold House, approached from Talbot Street along a drive at the side of Lambert House which was where the vehicle tax office was situated. l worked for Great Universal Stores which was the parent company of Cavendish Woodhouse among many others. Willerby Tailoring and Times Furnishing had offices in the same building. l haven't been along there for years but l bet all those buildings are student flats. As SG says, it backed onto the cemetery and an owl used to sit in a tree and watch us.