firbeck

Adieu et reposer en paix, Ruth Betts. I was surprised to see that 'Betsy' was only 83, that meant that when she taught me, some 50 years ago now, she would have been only in her early to mid 30's, she always seemed much older than that at the time, but, I suppose as a teenager, anyone over 30 seemed ancient to us, however, if you think about it, to be elevated to Vice Principle of, let's face it, a top Grammar School, at such an early age, was quite impressive. She clearly had talent as a teacher, whatever some people may have thought of her strict attitude, but that was the way of things at

Perhaps they should bite the bullet, if they had any real belief in their convictions, then they should go out to Syria and Iraq and attempt to convert the 'So called Islamic State', nice fellows, perhaps they'd change their minds about things on both sides of the fence. 'Excuse me, could you stop cutting that throat, put that knife down for a minute and read this, sir'. I was trying to load up the roof box on my car last week prior to going on holiday and the Jehovahs Witnesses kept trying to shove Watchtower down my throat, if they hadn't tried to hide behind their poor kids that they were

Fantastic memories Albert, I recall seeing 4 Mossies doing a flypast at Cottesmore at their B o B airshow circa 1960. Following my posting, the odd Spitfire came flying overhead well into the evening What upsets me is the lack of interest in this topic, I've come to the conclusion that most people seem to be more interested in word association crap etc and can't be arsed to post anything imagin ative or creative anymore. To be honest, I haven't any enthusiasm for this forum anymore.

More coming, hope they're Hurricanes, where's the BBC report on this, bloody migrants, that's all they care about.

Wow, how lucky am I, it started 20 mins ago when 3 Spits in formation nearly took my roof off, 3 more then did a low level turn over the house, now the Blenheim with 4 Spits in formation have just roared overhead, I'm in tears, it's so emotional to be part of this, I'm out in the garden to see what happens next, haven't changed out of my B&Q uniform yet!!!

Yes, the TA demonstrating their prowess while being 'attacked' by VERY low flying Vampires, thunderflashes going off all over the place, cordite smelling smoke making us all cough. The very superior Avon powered Canadair Sabres breaking the sound barrier over the airfield, none of this will ever happen anymore. One lump in the throat moment yesterday at 2:00pm, a roar sent me rushing outside to witness the world's only Mk1 Blenheim, escorted closely by 3 Mk1 Spitfires nearly take my roof off as they thundered overhead, what a sight, that's one thing you never saw in them days and probably neve

The number of times I sneaked round Nottingham sheds, always via the cattle docks. To recall there was only one roundhouse and a repair shed which always seem to have a Jubilee missing a wheelset sitting outside under the crane. The majority of the loco allocation seemed to lurk outside alongside the coaling embankment.

What Brewery??????????? Do you mean that derelict site destroyed by Greene King? Yes, I still hate that corporate, destructive company, the only pub in Braintree that serves anything but their tainted beer is Whetherspoons, hats off to them for making a stand against them.

Hi, I thought you might be interested in these two little gems that I've just uploaded from my old slides. They were taken the week before the trolleybuses finally stopped running, probably during our half term Spring Bank Holidays in 1966. A very poignant picture, one of the last of the trolleys on the final route, taken outside Vic Station only a few months before that too was gone forever. No doubt Bilbraborn was standing next to me holding on to our then mode of transport, my dad's 1930's Sun tandem, we went everywhere together on that. Taken on my brother John's Hanimex camera using Il

Sorry chaps, been out of the loop for a bit, been so busy with work, home, garden, allotment, general life, my newish job at the local B&Q garden centre is quite demanding and I'm currently being trained up for other things within the store, not bad to be thought of so highly at 64 years old, I love it, I haven't had such job satisfaction for years, the other staff, and I have to say, the managers as well, are brilliant, we sometimes laugh until we cry, we are currently the second most profitable store in East Anglia and intend to depose Southend from the top spot. Enough said, I've been

6 Spitfires left Duxford this morning for Humberside Airport to take part in the planned 7 Spitfire flypast around the country, due to the terrible weather today, it may not happen. As I write this, living only 30 odd miles south of Duxford, we're suffering heavy rain and severe thunderstorms, even my dogs don't want to go out. What's it like up there.

In the 50's and 60's any train journey heading west out of Midland Station required you to hang out the window on the left hand side to see:- 1) What interesting loco's were in the sheds ( mainly the usual ). 2) What naval guns were loaded on to crocodile wagons in the sidings at 'The Gun Factory' as my dad used to call it.I can only assume the big boggers were for the cruisers, the last one's to be completed being the 'Tigers' with their automatic quick firing 6 inch guns in 2 paired turrets fore and aft. They never fired their guns in anger, though the last survivor, HMS Blake was still in

Well said, and more of us should see it that way.

Don't dismiss them, these migrants, I assume, are the poor sods that have been, in their own countries, threatened, treated like crap and have spent all their money to be shoved in leaky boats and dispatched from Libya across the Med, left to their own fate. They have to pay huge sums of money to do this, they seem to be mainly proffesional people, they would have to be to afford to pay the bastards that trade in such refugees. Clearly they recognise the UK as the the land of an understanding multi racial society, like it or not, that's they way we advertise ourselves in the world. I could wi

Come on then, what were you doing at Suzy Q's house, I think she lived in a couple of places, my missus reckons between here and Thaxted near Bardfield, I thought somewhere between here and Halstead.Keith from Prodigy used to live in a Victorian end of terrace just up the road on the way to our allotment, yes, he used to walk round looking like he was about to perform 'Firestarter', yet he was a really nice, normal bloke in reality. He moved to Sheering near Harlow to a barn conversion and he asked me for a quote for a sound studio. I'm afraid the cost of the heavy duty reinforced concrete blo

Catfan, have you been down to Braintree then, Suzy Quatro used to live locally, I thought she still did, we used to see her regularly in Mr Mann's Chinese Restaurant opposite The White Hart.

I don't recall seeing Alex Harvey, I think my brother did at the Sherwood Rooms though, I'll have to ask him. I have a sneaky feeling I saw Nick Drake, the thing is that list only covers what bands I saw in Nottingham, I've seen many more elsewhere, particularly Portsmouth Poly ( Free, Black Sabbath, John Mayall, Atomic Rooster, Van Der Graff Generator, Jefferson Airplane, etc, etc) then London, Manchester, Loughborough, Leicester, Sheffield, Lincoln. Notables include The Stones, Jethro Tull, Van Morrison, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), Leonard Cohen, Humble Pie, The Byrd's, James Taylor, Joe C

I got carried away and published a 1970's list in the '1975 best year for music' thread, but I've thought of some others I saw in that decade. At the Palais I saw the Kinks (original line up) and 10 Years After on separate occasions. Some others I recall seeing at the Uni were Andy Fairweather Lowe, Andy Fraser and the amazing Terry Reid. Terry Reid was a cross between Lowell George of Little Feat and Jackson Browne, his style was not appreciated in this country and he went off to California. I recall seeing a fantastic Rock and Roll set by Lonnie Donegan in the 50's at the Theatre Royal and

We'll never forget as the date coincides with my missus's birthdày, I'm sitting in the garden eating lunch having got home from work, I've put up bunting for tonight's party but as I write this I can hear the sound of sirens from the local emergency services, I hope those twisted terrorist/anarchist pieces of filth aren't attempting to celebrate iñ 'style'!!!

This one passed me by, someone just told me, he died last Sunday just before his 93rd birthday. Sad loss to us old trainspotters and a passing totally ignored by the media, which has really surprised me. For more information and details of his life go to www.daily telegraph.co.uk-news-obituaries.

Sod Glastonbury, went to Walthamstock instead. What's that, well it's an annual music festival held on the playing fields of Great Waltham C of E school just outside of Braintree. 1300 people, 2 sound stages, food, bar, (no rip off prices), nice clean bogs, take your folding chairs and a picnic. The weather was superb, the bands were mainly local, very varied in style, everyone one was bloody good, particularly a band that was a cross between Dr Feelgood and The Commitments. A great day out, we came home put on Glastonbury then turned it off again, I haven't seen anything that impressed me, G

Can anyone recall this event, it was March 27th 1965, possibly the first time a Castle Class visited Midland Station? It was an Ian Allan special from Paddington via Oxford, Worcester, Bromsgrove, Tamworth, Derby, Trent Jct then Nottingham. The loco was serviced at Nottingham Shed and the return journey was via Trent, Market Harborough, Northampton then Paddington. Only three Castle's remained in service at the time, Clun Castle was to be the last, withdrawn at the end of the year. This is a photo taken on Kodachrome with my brothers Hanimex of the special heading for Midland, the picture

502, 578, Derby 225 and Notts and Derby 307 are all stored at a former military depot at Boughton near Ollerton. These are former Nottingham Trolleybus Museum examples and are owned by two former members. I don't know what the condition of them is like or whether any serious restoration work has been carried out on them. I've never tracked down any photos of them or have any idea what the plans are for their future, their owners are presumably getting on a bit now, I'd like to know what they intend to do with these historical gems.

Great picture Chulla, it's the only one I've ever come across that was taken that day, have you any more of the event? I remember the airshow well, it was actually Whitsun 1972, 43 years ago, why I didn't take any pictures is a long and sad story, as I'm re-potting plants at the moment I'll leave it for another day.

Hi Mickyp, thanks for the PM. I don't recall the Humber ambulance arriving, better ask Bilbraborn that one. I just recall it sitting forlornly in the goods shed among the piles of overhead equipment with the Barton double decker parked in the entrance, you had to squeeze round it to get in there. Here's a picture I took in September 1966, not published on here before, taken on Ilford colour slide film with my brother's Hanimex. Karrier Utility trolleybus 466 is the one in the centre with the bright red wheel, I don't recall it being anywhere else, maybe it was taken off to Gunthorpe when Pl