StephenFord

And before you ask, I don't know any of the drivers' names. Sorry !

Oh dear - I'm getting a terrible anorak reputation. OK, you asked for it - here goes ! First, a link to a later frame that shows the whole back of the bus. http://www.busesonsc.../satnight04.jpg On the rear destination blind you can just see the top of the next display, and I think that says 60 Bilborough. (They did show combined route number and destination for the outward journey, but only CITY on the return). The bus is a 1952/53 AEC Regent III with pre-selector gearbox and Park Royal body. The bus going the other way on the picture above is an older Regent - identical AEC mechanicals, b

"HALT - at major road ahead." (Sounded much more imperious that merely "stop") "Keep to nearside lane except when overtaking." (Could do with a few of them on the motorways to deter CLOC members!)

Hi dgbrit - sadly Nottingham has got itself a bit of a reputation these days - not entirely undeserved. Nevertheless a phrase that comes back to me from my mum and grandma is "Saturday night fights" - a fairly normal state of affairs at chucking out time up St Anns Well Road - in the 1920s and 30s. So perhaps they weren't quite such "good old days" after all!

I suspect it was the second world war that moved the LMS trains into Vic. Someone has already posted that London Road Low Level was used for British Forces mail, and in those days the Ministry of War Transport would have simply ordered (mere) passenger traffic to be moved.

"Somebody stole my gal..."

Long Eaton Grammar School - lots of gowns, never mortar boards, when I started there in 1960, but it was going out by the time I left in 1966.

"Sutch" is life !

The Izzle of Widget is very nice - surprisingly affordable compared with just across the water - and for some reason seems to have a rather superior climate of its own.

Talking o Larry the Lamb, "I'm only a poor little lamb, Mr Grouser sir!" - don't think this was a closing phrase, but it was a frequently recurring one.

Don't know about curling up, but the second bit was usually true!

I thought Harry Corbett's sign off (usually after being belted over the head, or his face meeting with something sticky and unpleasant) was a resigned "Bye bye, everybody - Bye bye!"

Sorry for the long bump. Nottingham City Transport bought 10 front engine/rear entrance low-bridge buses for the Clifton services in 1954. Prior to this there were 7 bought second-hand from Bradford in 1952 when the Clifton services first began. Here's a link showing both : http://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/?cat=160

Too true. Quote from Winnie the Pooh "A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly..."

Agree substantially with this. General elections do not reflect what people want - they just provide an opportunity to give the lot who happen to have been in power for too long a good kicking. In other words political parties never win elections - they only lose them. And in any country, any party that claims to have more than about 60% of the vote is, almost by definition, a dictatorship and reached that score through vote rigging.

Nice - I remember in the early 50s my mam and dad taking me to pick bluebells in the (private) grounds of Beauvale Priory near Moorgreen reservoir! Later in the year we would go out to Kimberley with a couple of wicker shopping baskets (remember them?) to pick blackberries - there were some gigantic bushes up near Swingate. Then it was possible to ramble across the fields to Strelley village - long before the M1 was built.

Glorious sunshine down here in Devon too - but then, even Barnsley looks nice when the sun shines!

Ah - the big co-op. Yes - it's always the staircase that comes to mind - and also the staffed lifts "Mensware, haberdashery, garden gnomes, Continental cafe..." My mam made quite a lot of our clothes. She always bought the material at the big co-op and there was a distinctive smell in that department. Remember there was a second revolving corner door at the back entrance on Wollaton (one floor up from the one on Parliament Street) right opposite the bottom of Hanley Street.

It was the same at Long Eaton (Brooklands Junior, and the Grammar). Plain brown paper was an acceptable alternative, and I seem to remember wallpaper was often used "back to front" - i.e. embarrassing flowery pattern on the inside. Guess it was to protect the cover and hopefully extend the life of the book. (There were "owner" labels in the front with half a dozen lines for successive years' owners, and some of the books had two or three of these labels one on top of the other.)

Waverley Street was (a long time ago!) the preserve of the rather occasional and erratic No.2 bus, which started from Goldsmith Street, just above Theatre Square, and finished up at Mansfield Road/Valley Road, via Mount Hooton Road, Bentinck Road, Alfreton Road, Gregory Boulevard, Hucknall Road and Valley Road (later diverted round Hartley Road, Radford Boulevard, when the roundabout at the bottom of Alfreton Road was changed to traffic lights, and turning right into Gregory Boulevard was forbidden).

Does anybody remember (older) kids in the street swinging cans on strings, full of hot cinders - in winter this was? Not sure what the purpose of it was,

Unfortunately not - the bus pass is only valid in England (unless you live in Scotland of course, in which case it's not valid in England). So I guess Lands End to Berwick on Tweed or Carlisle is about the limit. I did try working it out with on-line timetables a couple of years ago (yes, I know I'm a saddo). There were some surprising gaps that it was hard to bridge without going on long circuitous detours. You'd need a tent as well as the flask and sandwiches! I think it took about a week.

I certainly do - but as I worked for the railway for 35 years I also still have concessionary train travel as well (and that's nationwide). My wife was caught by the age thing, so she did not get a pass at 60 and has only just received it - but she is now making up for lost time !

Hi Compo - he was indeed - although from his diaries he doesn't seem to have seen much action (maybe I owe my existence to that!) He was in the Royal Army Medical Corps - first in France, near Pornichet. Not involved in Dunkerque - I think they were sufficiently near the coast already to be evacuated and brought back a bit before then. Then for a while he was stationed at Goodwood House near Chichester, before going to India for the duration. Returned, I think, late 1945 after the fall of Japan, by the Union Castle liner Capetown Castle, via Singapore, picking up a lot of lads more dead than a

Yes, my mam and dad both used to talk of coking an apple.