firbeck
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Posts posted by firbeck
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Bloody hell, how wierd, no I don't know them personally, maybe by sight. My association with the village and all it's intricancies dissolved a while ago when all the real people dissapeared, the kids grew up and it became an expensive pain in the bum to live there, full of people emigrating from the London suburbs who wanted to live the village life but in reality were destroying it.
It was fantastic 20 years ago when the old boys were about, I took a major part in village life, involved in the school, fete, cricket team, everything going, but it started to become a bloody London suburb, full of dickheads, we had to leave, it became unbearable.
People are astonished that we should have left such a place, but we are happier living in a proper town, occupied by real people, whatever their faults, Finchingfield immigrants don't think they have any, they are welcome to their little enclave, go back and it's like Groundhog Day.
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Sorry - it was the "Honeycombs".
The Applejacks had a lady Bass player.
(What year is the Midget?)
Interesting one.
The lead singer and harmonica player of the Honeycombs was Dennis D'Ell. Prior to me moving to Braintree 18 months ago I lived in a very pretty but isolated Essex village called Finchingfield. Dennis lived in a flat in the old Guildhall and his brother Lol lived just along the road from me.
They had a very good local pub band called Den and Dell that regularly played in the local pubs, The Red Lion in particular.
We used to have some great discussions at the bar, about the Honeycombs, life the Universe and everythng, they really were great people. a bit dodgy, knew how to work the system, but loveable all the same.
Poor Dennis died of cancer 3 years ago, he was a lovely bloke, did you know that he once stood in with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band during a US tour, he told me it was the best thing he ever did, happened by chance during a backstage conversation with the man himself.
The Beatles were due to appear at the Odeon and my cousin, the ultimate fan, arranged to meet me to buy a ticket.
When I got there, the qeue was about 2 miles long, I gave up and didn't bother.
Meanwhile, on the night of their appearance, my mates old man, a traffic copper, was given instructions to meet a van on the Ollerton A-1 roundabout.
Arriving at high speed, he was told to get inside the van and look after the occupants, yes you've guessed it, it was the Fab Four. When I wandered round the next day to see my mate, I had these autographs waved in front of my face, written on police paper. He sat in there with them all the way to the Odeon and reckoned it was one of the best experiences he ever had, he said that they were so incredibly clever and amusing, particularly Lennon, that he felt ashamed at initially considering the operation as just being a baby sitting exercise with morons.
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Interesting, I've just been looking on Google Earth and can't find the place, having said that, there is a mysterious area of undeveloped ground in the middle of a housing estate which I estimate where this bunker was situated, the last time I went up Western Boulevard, the communications mast was still there.
Another interesting bunker that I investigated, many years ago, was at Watnall.
This one was situated in a railway cutting next to the old bread factory, it had a series of derelict interconnecting buildings and had entrances via 2 steel doors that had been welded shut.
About 45 years ago, we mounted an expedition which involved crawling down a horizontal airshaft.
We got into the place through the air con unit, dangerous thing to do, but when you are kids, what the heck.
It was amazing inside and still contained a large map table of Europe, situated in a large internal hall with galleries around it.
We found all sorts of documents marked top secret, mainly about 1950's aircraft movements, we left it as it was and didn't touch anything and never went back.
Does this place still exist, or has it been bulldozed over and obliterated. I'm aware that it was used as a protected ops room for the 'Big Wings' during the Battle of Britain, does anyone have any info as to it's current status and condition.
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Sorry pal, but this bunker wasn't small, it's big and still there.
It was well organised and capable of taking in a hell of a lot of people, what is still down there, I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if it was still up and running.
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My late Uncle Harold spent most of his working life in the fire brigade, including in the war. He was also a member of the Civil Defence organisation.
During the 60's, he was put into a very nice house at the side of Western Boulevard, near to the City Hospital.
In the grounds was the control bunker for the services defence of Nottingham.
He was responsible for keeping the place up and running and ready to go under all circumstances.
Once, he took me down there, it was a very chilling experience.
Having negotiated the steel blast doors and switching on the life support engines, I was amazed to stand in this room full of red and green telephones, all ready to go, and a giant map of Nottingham showing all the expected damage from a nuclear attack, it was obviously classified information, but, as a schoolkid, I wasn't about to tell the Russians, it wouldn't have mattered a jot to them anyway.
I always wondered whether during the day of days the family would have got precedence and take the place over, there was no way through those steel doors, we could be emerging now and ruling the earth, sick of MoD tinned porridge, surveying the ruined, contaminated world with horror, but being slightly insane and looking for a challenge.
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Poor Elvis, one of the 20th centuries greats and never to be forgotten, I respect his memory.
Unfortunately, he was ruled by a self righteous manager in Colonel Parker. who destroyed his Rock and Roll roots in the search for pan galactic glory.
As John Lennon put it, Elvis died when he joined the army, you should read Anthology by the Beatles to see how Elvis, or rather his manager, went behind their backs and tried to unsurp the Beatles growing power in the US which the Presley camp couldn't deal with.
A sad, manipulated junky in his later years, who died sitting on the toilet. What a waste of a great talent, but then again he didn't help himself either.
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What a coincidence. I was discussing with the family the other night about coming up to Notty for a few days, this led on to talking about taking our 14 year old Goth youth around the various shops I remembered, like Birdcage and Paul Smiths, but it seems that they aren't there anymore then, shame, though maybe they wouldn't deal with Goths anyway.
When I was about to move Daan Saaf, 30 odd years ago, I had to buy a jacket, well I had to look 'presentable' for these Essex architects.
My mate dragged me off to Paul Smiths, while I was wanting to head off to C & A.
I couldn't believe the price of the stuff, even in 1976, as I stood there, mouth open, I explained to the asistant that I just wanted a jacket for work, not for a Palace Investiture.
Next minute, Paul Smith himself appears, looks me up and down and dissapears round the back.
He comes back with this awesome herringbone pattern jacket, 'Try this on, reckon it's your size'
Perfect fit, but how much. ' It's ok, I do all these experimental lines, this is just a prototype, made it myself, looks fine though, you can have it for £20, the new line has gone into production, I can't put this on the shelves'.
Unfortunately, after several years wear and not knowing the significance of Paul Smith at the time, the jacket went in the bin, how hard can you kick yourself.
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Vauxhall Bridge? Thats over the Thames isn't it. I recall Selecta disc being on the right hand side just before the old Arkwright Street station, there was also a wierd second hand shop with a headless skeleton in the window nearby. We made the owner an offer for the skeleton as my mate thought it would look cool sitting on the back of his Lambo TV175, he wanted silly money for it though.
It was a real pain having to walk all the way down to Selecta disc from the City Centre, but at the time there wasn't another shop like it, though there was another, second hand record shop on the corner of Wilford Road, next to the bike shop, Bunny's? If you were desperately skint, they would buy stuff off you, it seemed a reasonable deal at the time, but looking back, probably a rip off.
It was a relief when Selecta disc moved to it's new position, near the Theatre Royal and next door but one to the music shop, who's name eludes me, can anyone remember it. If I had a bit of cash, I would sniff around Selecta disc, buy something then add to my collection of Hohner blues harps from the music shop.
All my vinyls are stored in the garage, many of them must of come from Selecta disc, I know that my rare numbered edition of the Beatles White Album did for a start. I also have a load of singles in the loft, and believe it or not, along with them, I've got an original, orange, paper Selecta disc carrier bag, album sized, I wonder how many of those have survived, a treasured item.
Pre-Selecta disc, I used to go to Redifussion near the Odeon, whoever he was, the bloke behind the counter in the mid 60's seemed to have a fair bit of knowledge.
Late 66, John Peel played this record on the radio by a bloke called Jimi Hendrix, it was called Hey Joe.
I went off down to Redifusion and made enquiries, matey behind the counter said, 'We had 3 pre release samples, I've got one, 2 girls have just come in and bought one and it seems you are about to buy the other'. So I did, and I still have it, it went down a storm at my following 16th birthday party.
Talking of Jimi Hendrix, but slightly off thread. We used to go down to London a lot in the late 60's.
One of our little treats was a record shop off Piccadily Circus called Harlequin, a sort of small London version of Select disc, but out of this world, the only place I ever saw the original cover version of 'The 2 Virgins' by Lennon and Yoko displayed in the window.
One day we went down there, reckon it was summer 68, straight round to Harlequin. As we got to the door, someone was coming out, my mate held the door open for him and who should walk out but Jimi Hendrix, we were stunned and speechless, he just smiled and said thank you.
Well who knows, perhaps during Bing Crosby's final tour of Europe when he had a pint in the Tavern In the Town, he'd previously been across the road to Selecta disc to suss out the latest punk offerings, doubtfull, but you never know.
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Please don't get me wrong, the police down here have a thankless job dealing with all sorts of junkies, scumbags and pykies, I have been liasoning with them on that score, they are mostly lovely helpful people, I sympathise with them, they have a difficult job to do and I am avaliable to help them at all times.
Unfortunately, Madam Thatcher drove a wedge between the public and the police, it was deliberate and unforgivable, the police should never have had to have suffered the consequences of her actions, poor old plod has enough to do, whether you agree with my comments or not, she didn't care about it did she, as long as it suited herself to offload the blame for her actions on whowever she felt like it, and we are supposed to bow down to her memory, when the inevitable state funeral occurs, I will be quite happy to slash on the TV.
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What evidence is there of this?
Well, it was a well known fact, who is going to admit to this, unlikely to come from government sources is it.
Apart from that, police were deliberately drafted in from Essex and London, these people had no sympathy or understanding with Northern or Midlands working class folk, it was a good excuse for a good kicking against people they resented. I can assure you that there is a serious North/South divide, I've been putting up with the p### taking for 30 years.
Don't forget that the incidents started at Orgreave in Sheffield, a mine and coaking plant subsequently totally and deliberately obliterated off the face of the earth, along with it's local infrastructure, Tinsley marshalling yards once one of the biggest in Europe, all the associated industry, all destroyed because of the mood of the government and one person in particular.
I am not a Marxist or political activist, I've just been around a while and seen and observed what has happened to the detriment of hardworking people, shunt them off to MacDonalds or B&Q, thats what they deserve after all.
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30+ years ago, I used to work at an architects office in the city, Royle and Whitehorn, opposite the castle gates. I was the personal assistant to John Whitehorn and we used to specialise in local authority work, using a system called C.L.A.S.P, which was designed specifically for coal mining subsidence sites. We were a good team, he would do the paperwork and the initial sketches, and I would do all the design and technical information, as well as assist in site supervision.
Between us we designed and supervised the construction of a Youth Centre at Aslockton C of E school.
One day I came in the office and found him very distraught, apparently Notts County Council had invited the then Education Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to open the new extension, but due to the number of useless, lackey, brown noses wishing for a piece of the action, there wasn't an invite for me to the ceremony, despite the fact that I'd done the majority of the work.
He was a good old boy, one of the old school, he'd been heavily involved in the Pluto pipeline for the D-Day landings, but he wasn't going to be told what to do by Thatchers mob and was about to phone up NCC and tell them to get stuffed if I couldn't go.
I managed to persuade him that rather than put the workload in jepoardy, to go along with it, I certainly didn't want to meet that cow anyway. With a twinkle in his eye, he said we'd get our own back.
He did, big time.
When the next great civil opening occured, which was Stapleford Fire Station, to which of course, I wasn't invited, he contrived to mysteriously get the foul drains blocked.
During the middle of the post opening drinks, and following complaints, he opened up an inspection chamber, pulled out a piece of plastic sheet allegedly causing the trouble, and sent a jet of raw sewage everywhere, he thought it was amazingly deflating and was laughing for weeks afterwards about it.
I would be interested to know exactly how many people had relatives and family working in the coal mining industry and it's associations.
I had a great uncle who died of Neumocosis, having spent his working life down Wilford Colliery.
My late fathers brother worked as a supervisor at Blidworth, before dying of a heart attack, no doubt due to the stresses of the job.
So many friends of mine at school had fathers who were ill, incapacitated, or even dead due to the rigours of the mining industry, I'm sure that the current Health and Safety Regulations would have eased the burden of these exploited people.
And before you call me an Essex, southern, architect softie, I've been down a mine, I've crouched in the coalface with the cutters working and the dust filling my lungs, it ain't much fun, I can assure you, trouble is, there's not much chance of people experiencing this anymore, unless you work in Russia or are exploited in the Far East.
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Hi,
Great site. I particulary like the part on Mundella and the Meadows, as that is where my family is from.
I was wondering if anyone could help me. I am a currently writing a dissertation on the 84/85 miners' strike.
Are there any ex-Notts miners that would be willing to answer some questions, via email, about their experiences?
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks
Paul
Why not contact Margaret Thatcher, I'm sure she has a lot to say on the subject, after all she was the one that set communities against each other and destroyed the coal industry in this country on a selfish political whim.
While you are about it, ask why the powers that be think she should have a state funeral and a self congraturally statue in the Houses Of Parliament, mind you, it will be a good area to nip off to when you're caught short during a debate.
Incidentally, if any servicemen reading this get conned into taking part in her inevitable state funeral, please remember what she did to your friends and relatives, at the appropriate moment just simply walk away, they won't do every soldier, you guys are too precious and well appreciated by the real people that care about you, lets have a real protest against this scumbag.
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This seems to have degenerated into a football thread.
I was always a bit reticent about football as a kid, even having Henry Newton as junior school captain didn't do it for me either.
When Forest got to the FA Cup final in 59? I wasn't that bothered and went out to play with my mates, unfortunately Firbeck wreck was completely empty, so was every street in the area, no-one was about at all, I had to go home and suffer watching it on the telly.
The first match I was persuaded to see live, was a friendly, Forest v Dukla Prague, 1966, I seem to recall that one of the Dukla players had been a member of the German World Cup team.
What struck me immediately, the match being played under floodlights, were the bright colours, TV only being black and white then. It certainly made a great impression on me, everything seemed to have a purpose for once. I was hooked after that, and I was a wierd one, I would go and watch Forest and County, always have done ever since, well, not for a few years, I fell out with football when too many foreign players were taken on and the wage bills and admission fees put the game out of the reach of the people it was intended for.
Perhaps we should start a thread on the greatest games involving local teams that we ever saw, I can think of a few, League Cup, Leeds v Notts County must be at the top of the tree, or League, Forest v Man U 1967, what a match, involving the greatest players of the era, I'll never forget that one.
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Nearly right!
He was at Lowdham Grange...retired 5 years ago...but sadly died just 2 years into retirement.
I went to his funeral at Bingham Church 2005...
Charlie Thomson, Jeff Whitefoot and Billy Gray still survive from the '59 Cup winners.
Cheers
Robt P
How sad, what a good old boy he was, don't tell me it was lung cancer.
Jeff Whitefoot was the alternative sub during the season 66-67, the other one was Alan Hinton. What a great team that was, trouble is, that having brought together a truly world class team, the powers that be weren't prepared to spend any money in developing it, it was madness on the directors part.
There was no first team squad at all, when John Barnwell got seriously injured they spent £100,000 on Jim Baxter, what a joke, he was overweight and drunk half the time, I remember watching him play against Leeds, it was pathetic, Barry Lyons spent most of the match covering for him.
Then let us not forget Joe Bakers replacement, the great Alex Ingram, signed from Ayr United and a complete joke, we used to go and watch the matches in disbelief, we felt sorry for the poor bloke in the end, he was completely out of his depth at that level, but the good old powers that be knew better and picked him for every match, all the time Duncan Mackenzie was lurking in the background, what a state of affairs, are these people still in charge today
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Very interesting memories of 'our Enry' from the time of 'Carey's Babes'...the best team we ever had...bar none!
His team talks were always classic brevity - "Just go out there and fizz it about!"
Hadn't realised that Bob McKinlay was a heavy cigarette smoker...as you say, didn't impede him on the pitch...highly rated by all the opposing strikers of his era. It was only the political, and archaic, Scottish selection policy that deprived him of considerable international recognition.
Cheers
Robt P.
I gather that he went on to be a PE instructor at Aslockton prison, where is he now, he was 35 when he played in that 67 team, the last survivor of the FA Cup winning lot as well.
Funnily enough, after that first meeting with the team, I met them again shortly after when they opened a hardware store called 'Able Jacks', somewhere at the top end of Glaisdale Road, good old Bobby remembered me and got out his bloody fags again, I asked him again how he coped, but he dismissed it, I know Gazza liked the odd fag, but I doubt whether it was Players Navy Cut.
I remember also that day that every player was dressed in their suits, but Ian Storey Moore was clad all in leather, I challenged him on this and he told me that the others 'were'nt with it'!!
Despite being an Essex kid, my son is a Forest supporter, what a surprise, we have travelled up the infinite highway to watch some of the matches.
He's been at Nottm Uni for the past 3 years and hasn't got round to seeing them yet.
One sunday, on the way home, we called in at the Forest shop, amazingly we happened to meet Steve Stone, we had seen his first England appearance at Wembley, what a scene that was pre match, playing keep ball with Gazza and beating him every time.
What a nice bloke he was too, happy to talk to anyone and impress my kid. Stuart Pierce got in his car and bogged off without talking to anyone, we weren't impressed.
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I'm new to this site and there is so much to see and comment on, I'm not used to how it works yet.
Trolleybuses.
I used to be a member of the Nottingham Trolleybus Group, we hired a trolleybus to follow the last 36 back to the depot in 1966, so I can claim to be one of the last members of the public to travel the system, we even managed to lose the poles at the junction of Parliament Street and Mansfield Road on the way back, which must have been about midnight, on entering the depot, we had a big party, the crews were in tears, I still have my ticket autographed by our last driver and clippie.
My best mate was the grandson of Alderman Sidney Hill, later to become Lord Mayor, but then in charge of the transport system, and what a lovely bloke he was.
We tried to persuade him to get us on the last official trolleybus, but he couldn't do it, all the places were taken up by council officials, as usual, no seats for schoolboy 'Erberts like us.
Being honest chaps we approached our headmaster to allow us to see the last trolley pass by, the evil scumbag threatened us with expulsion if we attempted it, I never forgave him for that, it was just an hour out of school, but he didn't want to know, honesty is never the best policy, despite our interest and connections, he had his head stuck so far up his own backside that he couldn't understand what it was all about, devious, horrible man, I clashed with him a few times, so did my mother!!!
Anyway, Nottinghams so called last trolley is preserved at Sandtoft, without the cheapo markings that they stuck on it, and without it's original starting handle too, it's in my garage collection.
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Hello Firbeck and thanks for the prompt on your post.
Henry Newton lived I beleive next or very near where my late wife was born at 1 Firbeck road across from the infants skool.
I when my perents moved lived five doors away from her across the road from Merry's on the opposite corner.
Bip.
My mother was a particular friend of Henry's mum, and Henry went to Firbeck at the same time as my brother. By coincidence, when my brother went off to Mundella Grammar School, he was in the same year as David Pleat, another ex Forest player, though I gather not very well liked and supposedly better at tennis than football.
Another Forest player, David Stainwright lived on Trowell road in the corner house opposite the end of Park Crescent, I think his claim to fame was scoring a hat trick against Spurs at White Hart Lane, though I gather every one was teed up by Frank Wignall.
My mothers friendship with Henry Newton got me to his wedding, at Arnold Church, 1967, the year of Forests 2nd place and FA Cup semi final, I was pretty chuffed about that, went up there on my bike and was allowed through the security cordon to take pictures of the happy couple posing with the team, the team actually posing for me, having a chat and autographing my semi final programme. They were all really lovely blokes, the whole team were there apart from Joe Baker, for some reason, though I think one of the players said he didn't socialise with the rest of them.
I was surprised that Bobby Mackinlay, the centre half, virtually chain smoked plain Players Navy Cut fags, he gave me one and it nearly killed me, he said that it never affected his performance on the pitch, bloody hell, he must have been fit.
It's interesting to see that you lived opposite Merry's, a good pal of mine Fiona Macfarland lived next door to you, she had an Anderson Shelter in the back garden that we used as a den, I wonder if it's still there. Fiona, incidentally, now lives in West Bridgford.
I see that you used to go to the footbridge at Trowell, did you ever suffer the bullying of a git called Bison and his gang from Ilkeston. We went there once, me Mark Miller and the Withey twins and got cornered by this gang, we were very amiable, yet with Mark Miller about, frightened of nowt, but this mob were complete evil B#####s.
After being threatened with being hung from the footbridge I went home and told my older brother.
Well, you didn't mess with him and his gang. A few days later my brother informed me that it would now be perfectly safe to go back to Trowell, so we did, and never saw Bison and his gang again, my brother now pretends he can't remember what happened, it must have been memorable though, I wish I'd been there to see it.
Thats enough for now, I thought you might like this picture I took off the Trowell footbridge.
OOps it claims to not want to upload because the file is too big, strange, can't work that one out, it's only an old BW picture of an 8F.
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I know that this is an old thread, but I stumbled apon this forum completely by accident.
I haven't lived in Notty for 30 odd years but still have links.
For some reason I was looking up Henry Newton on the Internet yesterday and found this site, I've subsequently registered as it looked so fascinating.
There are so many threads and different items that it's difficult to know where to start, what caught my eye was this thread, I'm sure that I must know Mickety and Bip, after all, I lived on Park Crescent for 25 years and my mother still lives there!
Yes, I used to buy flag cards from Merry's, ( remember the smell of his vinegar barrells ), go trainspotting on the footbridge at Trowell and on the ramp at Victoria Station, knew the Gypsy folk that went to live in the miners cottages by the canal and believe it or not, looking down the garden of my Essex house, the Bill Posters sign from Trowell Road canal bridge is bolted to my shed wall.
I could go on but I just wondered what the response would be.
Incidentally, Henry Newton was the captain of Firbeck football team, when they won the Primary school trophy, they stopped the bus outside our house and showed it off. When 'young' Henry was a Forest apprentice, we used to give him a lift into town on the Bartons bus when we went for swimming lessons at Radford Baths.
Happy Days.
Incidentally Bip, my mother was a cleaner at William Sharp for many years, she became a bit of a celeb when she retired, many years ago now.
Mid air collision.
in 50's Nottingham
Posted
I'll try and find out about it from my Aviation Forum, bare with me. but would you really see the results of a collision over Newark from Bentinck Road, HMMMMM