Messy Hessey
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Posts posted by Messy Hessey
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300 of them according to the activity log, either extremely popular with lurkers or the bots have multiplied.
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Although I was too young, there was next to the showcase cinema which was built the Black Orchid which I think got on the telly a few times for the Hitman and her. On the same side was Browns bakery which has since gone which was on the edge of the round about underneath the over pass, it also had Makro and Hyperama , I think John Players was down there. In town there was a nightclub owned by Barry Noble, who had Noble amusements.... I do wonder if I remembering the name correctly.
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On 7/19/2021 at 2:23 PM, bamber said:
Nissen huts ... pah ... that's modern stuff. Parkdale School was using huts from the Boer War as classrooms until the 1990s.
I remember we had our school meals served in them not used for class rooms as far as I know.
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6 hours ago, LizzieM said:
Interesting posts and incredible memories MH. I live close to Mountford House and a lot of the local little kids go there. My sons are probably very near your age but we only moved to Mapperley Park 19 years ago from many miles away so I personally have no connection with the place. It’s wonderful that you can recollect so much detail of your time there, well done!
I thank you for your reply, presently all I have is memories, which as in the case of the summer house which was actually an air raid shelter shows that we do paint over and touch up our memory landscapes.
I am writing this all down as there will be a point when it will fade away. Also I am being very introspective at the moment, sometimes to get the most out of the present day you have to understand what you are actually working with and for a lot of the time I have been ignoring the rattles as much you might on the car, but it has become a clunking sound now, so need to investigate.
It is which direction next that will be decided by which memories decide to float to the surface at the next time I have the patience or where with all to write.
I did have some questions.
I currently as I said only have two photographs from my life pre 26 in Nottingham. I was looking to piece together my life, I have my birth certificate, but was trying to do a who do you think you are? On myself, what other records would I be able to obtain about myself? The only place I remember things like school photographs being taken was Mountford House. My mam had one large one of everyone at the school, there was a playing field to the side of the school, which funnily enough wasn't used for playing on. I must have turned up late for that day at school as I was hastily added to the end of a row. So to help the memories is there any chance do you think that someone or somewhere would have stored the photos of pupils and of the schools? not just Mountford House but Parkdale, Carlton Le Willows and Rushcliffe Comp.
Would the council keep records of me at the various schools I went to? Long shot I know. But just trying to find paper trails. I can do the searching if the Populus can come up with the ideas.
Lastly I have two half sisters, my dad was married before and all I ever know of it is that he had to release all custody and claim to them. Aye, there's a whole story about this and when I do get to write about me Mam and Dad it will become abundantly clear why. But still, not sure how much older they are of me, if they would have any different memories of my dad? I find it difficult with connections with folks, so it would be not of yearning to find lost long family, more of a mental clerical clean up. Wondered is there a way of finding out who my dad fathered?
We will see where this leads and thank you for your time.
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21 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:
Great post MH, and almost certainly the longest post anyone has ever made on Nottstalgia.
Thank you, one thing that can be said about me is that if you ask me the time I will tell you how the clock is put together.
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On 8/1/2023 at 1:10 PM, philmayfield said:
Did Mountford House have the rather showy black, white and green striped blazer?
Blues and greys were my remembered colours, I had a blue blazer and cap, with grey shorts. School photo I turned up for had blue shirts I recall.
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Serendipity, has a strong influence over my life, so lets go with the flow and it seems that Mountford House is to be the starting point and this Oo ar yer thread a place as good as any other to home my thoughts. It is not just the audience asking who are you? But the writer that of them self.
Mountford House wasn't actually the first school I went to it was the 2nd. My first venture into the education system left me with a funny little line which I tell to folks when it takes my fancy of how I was expelled after two days at school. I didn't do nursery as a kid, my nan would look after me and anything I can remember about these days I will return to in the future as it has stronger links to Netherfield so will be cobbled together at a later date. But, the expulsion. to be fair it must have been a try before you buy for my mam. Of the time itself, my memory much of that of waking from a dream is of a big house in the countryside or at least a wooded area, I was in a class, we had been playing and it seems my eye was quite taken by a toy on a shelf which I wished to play with. It seems it was time to settle down and the teacher had asked me to stop what I was doing. To which for the purposes of the forum will translate into more sensitive language of "Go forth and multiply". Memory next was being in a office with my mam and then returning home for traditional slapped backside. (The slapped back side is a post all of its own). Later on down the line, my mam would talk about how she was embarrassed and how she couldn't say to the school that the real reason I would have said what I would have said is because I would have picked it up from routine arguments between my mam and dad (This is also a whole post in itself)
We will eventually discuss Mountford House, design of the school, it was as the name suggests a big house on Mansfield Road, from all suggestions still in existence, you had a large drive up to the school with lawn at the front, to the left just across the lawn was a summer house type building which acted as a class room. you would continue up the drive with options of going straight on and this would take you around the back to the play ground or to in front of you where you would find the garage which housed the wood work I believe I never got to experience this. But if you followed the drive around in front of the house you would have either the main front door which led into a main hall way with a class to the left which I remember to be where I learned to read with the various colourful pirates noting your progression and where we listened to lessons on the radio. To the left was where I remember the computer to be homed. It was a BBC computer and as a class I remember playing what would later become lemonade tycoon, this being the UK though we didn't have tycoons just hard working folks who ran stalls and constantly worried about if the weather would hit sales.
If you went passed the front door though you would come to an extension which would house assembly, dining and where you would gather to go home. For me it would be generally where my mam had forgotten or thought she would leave me, they won't mind so I would help teachers clear away until my mam would eventually turn up. A note about Mountford House, you knew you was somewhere different as an essential part of the school kit was a "Napkin ring" as we are currently, well in my mind anyway the school dinning room, I may whilst the memory is there talk about dinner times, things that stuck. "Use your fork as a fork and not a shovel" The head mistresses would go up and down the rows scalding as she went. Semolina, was my other memory, I loved it and was one of only two or three who did. We would go up to a large table at the front and I am guessing due to where it was cooked or time stood it would also get a bit of a skin as well. Jam would be whipped in to make it milk shake pink, I would have 3rds, 4ths and 5ths if allowed. They certainly didn't go "More!!!" I think to be honest it was a cheap option and they was glad to get rid.
We will return to the assembly/dining area when we touch upon assembly, above though on the first floor was my first class room, glazed all around and it was the introductory class, tables with Lego on it, I was left with another pupil whilst my mam went into the office to discuss fees. as this all cost money and with all the pressure it brings in life to say to a kid "I am giving you the start I never had" isn't some philanthropic wonderment it is an immense atlas stone for a child to have as a burden. My mam was a firm believer in Maggies Britain, pull yer sen up by yer boot straps, work hard, get results, don't look to others for your way in life, but as you will read in later instalments it fell apart much like Maggies Britain. Anyways back to the first day, I played with Lego, probably under threat of an all mighty beating if I did anything like I did at the first school, might explain the feeling of he is a quiet lad coming from the day. In the corner of the room was a large white paper-mache landscape which had been designed to look as though it was a set of star wars and it was where all the children could bring in their star wars figures and play. This is where the divide begun and was not to end at Mountford House, the children in the main had parents who could afford to send their children to this school next stop would have been the Nottingham High school or onto another fee paying school. So the latest toys, gadgets and clothes came easily to them for me it was a good day if I had shoes that didn't have holes in. Into the future it never made sense, it seemed my mam thought getting other folks to do her job and look after me was somehow better than how her own mam somehow failed with my mam. Reasons unknown the consequences have been endless and the themes of good intentions and devolved responsibility is going to be a running theme through these posts.
I made it through three years at Mountford house though, most of them on the sick, as not being in nursery before hand and my circle of contact was my mam, dad, nan and whin next door. It meant I caught, suffered with and recovered from every known and yet to be discovered child hood illness for a change up when I did go to school I would sprain my ankle playing football not once but twice this would happen in a large walled area at the back of the school. I am guessing it must have had high walls as I never recall us losing the football, I do however remember that painting goals on walls is part of a later series which could be wrote about which is daft places to play football. This wall mounted goal has a part of my front tooth and is the place which on not just once but twice sprained my ankle trying to twist and score, whilst in the playground we might as well describe the back of Mountford house, in one corner you had the wood work garage, never got to see that, maybe you have to pay before you play, then you had an open area which led up to the raised football arena, carry on and you had an out building which had the physical education area, lots of jumping from mats to mats and benches avoiding the sharks in the sea, this I loved I am not a climber though, although a very skinny and slight kid so not much in the way of gravitational pull as I have today, it seems I must have thought I can sprain my ankle just turning on the same position why take yourself off the ground only to land hard back onto it again. Then in the other corner you had two swings, obviously early 80s hard services all around and kids wanting to go as high as possible, funnily enough the only accident I remember is where there was a rush for the swings and Richard Stewart went nuts first into a corner post which was for the guard chain. See, if safety hadn't had been there he would have been fine.
Back inside and up the stairs from the main hall you had various rooms, and it was just rooms with a black board on the wall at the front, only one room was different, it actually looked like a class room, with an amphitheatre staggered seating to a large black board in front, this is where I can remember where we did our times tables, you would stand up and try to do a personal best of 8s or 9s etc with an arduous feeling of listening to someone crash and burn as they got muddled then know you were up soon. As for learning, the only thing I remember enjoying and so I guess is why I remembered it is doing lessons where you would be given a passage and then a series of questions and you would have to find the answers from the passage. Looking back it developed a need in me not to take in everything I need to and so potentially miss what might be important and also find myself always trying to dash to the answer and being impatient if it isn't forthcoming.
Back downstairs for assembly it would be held in year rows youngest at the front until you got to the oldest at the back, hymns would be on large banners rolled up and stored away in a side passage, one of my favourites was "All things bright and beautiful" It was broken down into sections with different age groups singing different lines. I would like to write about this more eloquently but this is all I find in my head at the moment.
The last section about this school is sports we had at least two days it seems at the nearby Goose fair site I believe we walked there, none of the high viz stuff of today, it was where I wore my first set of proper studded football boots, I even made it onto the school football team, which I am thinking by process of elimination (size of school, age of children eligible, take out the girls) I wonder if we had enough to muster a team. One day I scored a glorious goal from the half way line, it was as most things are in my life not planned, it seemed I had the ball at my feet, so what else but just kicked it and it flew into the top corner, it would have been grand but it seems we won 8 nil, so it all got lost in the moment. We did a lot of running around the goose fair site which seemed to be in training for a run around Wollaton park, and this is where one of the few names I remember Jonathan Williams his mam was a teacher in the summer house on the front lawn as I recall, the other name was Ben, he was one of the only kids I went to go and see, one of the lets try and get me socialised with folks experiments. His family introduced me to the salt grinder at a table, amazed I was he also had a large television with computer games system which for those days was futuristic, I believe and this could be my memory making it up, his dad developed or worked with computers.
I think this is more than enough for you to suffer now. I will see what responses this gets and where my memories and thoughts lead me next.
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Life has been a funny old thing, and although 50 these days is half way through life, it still gets you to being reflective, especially when you see others get tagged much like a giant game of British bulldog, which I used to enjoy at Parkdale primary, they had a big net ball court set out, that was a perfect size with two large semi circles at each end as places to run too and from. Anyways, I always was one of the youngest in class, so come September the first lot of folks from school days will be holding their bats aloft and saluting the crowds as they reach their half century. Can not say I had deep and meaningful relationships with folks but I was and still am a nosey person so it would be interesting to see how folks got on.
The other part of this and I will say interesting rather then any sad description I am starting to lose my memories, words get mixed up days get mixed up. From time to time I can forget which year it is or month. Our lass puts it down to stress I put it down to something akin to the end of the film 2001 a space odyssey where the computer is being switched off bit by bit. So with that in mind I would like to store my memories somewhere. My first 26 years of Life in Nottingham were different shall I say. years 26 to 33 I would rather forget and from 33 to now and beyond they were something I could never have dreamnt of thanks to our lass.
So old school folks from Mountford House (Mansfield Road), Parkdale Primary school, Carlton le willows school (my first year was the last year of using the old building opposite the fire station) , Rushcliffe Comprehensive. If anyone has any links or information feel free to let me know. Also info on Netherfield, Ruddington and Long Eaton as they were my homes for the first 26 years, with a short spell above a bike shop on Aspley Lane. Very grateful to Chris for saving us from the streets.
Also ideas on best ways to put memories down in this forum, I never do straight lines or linear thought, so a way to pull together nostalgia, places in Nottingham and my own life would be interestingly looked at if you could let me know.
I only have two photographs left in my possession from before I was 30 so I just have my memories to rely on, so i will be as honest as I can remember.
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On 7/30/2023 at 8:18 AM, Cliff Ton said:
From a different angle, this is the same location several years apart, which shows where the toll gate was.
It is a lot clearer from that angle thank you.
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On 1/5/2014 at 7:42 PM, Cliff Ton said:
Digging around Picture the Past I came across this photo which shows something I'd not heard of before - a toll gate at Meadow Road, Netherfield.
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae24/kc29_2010/nethertoll2.jpg
Looks like this today.
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae24/kc29_2010/nethertoll1.jpg
Meadow Road was originally called Toll Bar Lane, and the gate survived until the early 20th century. Was it to keep people out, or to keep Netherfield-ites in?
How much would you pay to get in to Netherfield?
Just curious as to if the two photographs are of the same place and exactly where the toll gate was. I lived at bottom end of Meadow Road, nowadays and in the 80s if you came from the shops going to Colwick you would swing left to go over the bridge or turn right to continue on Meadow Road, at the time there was a derelict looking house to the left which has since been renovated and to the right just on the corner of Elm drive was the coachworks now replaced with two houses then two railway houses one of which my family lived in and the other was where our neighbour Winnie lived.
In the 80s she still had an outside loo which froze in the winter so would come across to use ours. She also had a cat called tupenny which stuck her house out, I never liked going across to Win, she was great but her house left something to be desired.
Anyways, there was a row of houses not to dissimilar to the photo a gap which took you round to factories at the back then a road leading you onto the train station, usually if any heritage steam train came through, enthusiasts would crowd down.
I presume before the bridge was there and when the railway line came along it would be a good place for a toll bar for folks coming off the train or up from Colwick (or as non locals would say Coal - wick)
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It is funny how things come about. I found this forum much by accident because I was looking for information about Fords shop. Just to see if my memory was still working. This has brought a lot of memories back. My own memories are from the 1980 to 1987 when we moved from Netherfield. For such a small area it had a wealth of shops which many towns would be proud of these days.
Unlike the opening post my memories of Netherfield come from the Meadow road end of Netherfield not really venturing passed the CO-OP a lot. only for the Chinese which was near the church and the toy shop which was on the same road just before where I got my Subbuteo teams and A team/He man action figures.
We lived two down from Netherfield coaches which then became Dunn Line, I know me mam didn't get on with the neighbours as she ran her catering business from home which they didn't like as they said it was a residential area. Obviously our neighbours were 30 years to early, as at the time you had Gibson and Lee factory at the back of us, they had units at the back of them, the bus company on the corner and train station at the end of the road, yep very residential.
As you went up Meadow road there was an old style Arkwright type of corner shop, I used to buy plastic soldiers with my pocket money and get what ever my mam had forgotten for tea. It was opposite the Bus stop for town where my dad would sit on the low wall waiting to catch the bus around 5.30pm
As you carried on further there was an electrical shop where I can remember buying coloured bulbs as my used to like decorating the fir tree outside for Christmas and the neighbour's kids liked nicking the bulbs. Just down from that was a chippie, with its penny bandit, no age concerns about gambling as I can remember playing it a lot from the age of 7 onwards. You then had Lloyds Bank on the corner as a kid I remember it being a very dark building on the inside, lots of wood, but even now as an adult I want one of the big calendar and time clocks they had up inside.
My life was shopping at the co-op for my mam, so regularly picking up orders from the deli at the back of the store and butchers adjacent, Sat on the doors at 8am on a Saturday morning. Other early morning trips was to Russels bakery, ( I used to love the milkshakes from there as a treat)
I remember the post office then barber combo. in the 80s a veg shop opened on the corner and on the other side a new more modern barber opened where i tried a flat op out. should have stayed with basin cut...
On the lloyds side there was a decorating shop where they would be swamped with requests for off cuts of wall paper so we as kids at Carlton le Willows we could cover our school books.
On the other corner you had the Natwest Bank where I saved for my Natwest pigs, Only to move to the Midland bank for my live account, across the way was a pet shop, then Nottingham building society and a shoe shop. Then onto fords and just before the crossing a futuristic TSB was opened. Well it was futuristic in the 80s.
Opposite was another chippy which was next to the railway crossing and as a kid it was always run down from the fox and hounds side and beat the crossing bars coming down. That chippy would have most of my 10ps and meant suppers were always half an hour late as I played rambo on the arcade game.
Coming back down you had the midland bank on the corner. Bookies, well I knew it was a bookies but very strange place from the outside non of the adverts you get these days. Russels, an off license that would sell me wine or brandy to me at age 10 for my mam. An Olympic pizza place opened up here my first taste of Pizza, there was a jeans place where most of the key rings got nicked from the jeans as key rings were a craze at the time. a haberdashery store where I would buy me mam porcelain thimbles with pictures on for her birthdays and Christmas, laugh was i used to sow the holes in my trouser knees as she didn't like sowing. You then had a Pork Farms shop, Newtons newsagents where a pound would buy you six bars of sweets and change. then a butcher on the corner.
This is as far as my memory goes.
There was a BMX track built at the bottom end of Netherfield, which didnt get used for riding bikes but for army games of throwing the loose stones at each other.
That and going to Carlton Le Willows down the speedo road but cutting through and across the train tracks to the cricket field. Remember putting veg on the train tracks to watch the trains go over them. I am sure that would break all sorts of rules these days, then again not only is the railway line fenced off these days so is the school.
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My memories of Carlton le willows was as it's last year of having the first years in the building opposite the fire station and the rest of the school at its current site, we used to go for football/rugby on a Friday morning to the main school. A grabd old building which had old ink well desks. Seems nothing changes as the teachers were on strike for most of the year and we would get primitive print outs with our schedule on due to teachers being in or out on strike.
Homing in on 50 getting reflective.
in ++ Oo R Ya'? ++
Posted
My Surname isn't Messy but family name was Hessey, when I married though I took our lasses name.