Cliff Ton

For a few facts and figures on the Meadow Lane bomb, start reading half way down this page......... Bomb

Bit quiet round here today, so here's a few images to look at From an old Guide to Nottinghamshire which I reckon was printed in the mid 1920s. The prices are interesting, especially to see how much it cost to stay in the Flying Horse. And curious to see the days when phone numbers could be two digits

And the bank looks like it's just been stuck on the end of those obviously very old houses which are going off down to the left at a right angle to the "main" road. That's what you can still see in villages. Farm-type houses which are end-on to the main road. So was the place once a village, rather than a modern suburb, and this was the road running through it I'd missed that, but I actually think it might say "Gentlemen"

I don't recognise it, but what immediately strikes me is the name above the store being .......N CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY. Another half inch on the left edge would almost certainly solve the problem Obviously not the Nottingham, but how many other Co-ops round here end with an N? One which comes to mind, is there a Long Eaton Co-op? Or Alfreton? The Standard Vanguard has an old Nottingham registration, and the Ford Zephyr across the road has a TL reg which was Lincoln in the old system.

I've looked back through other posts on this subject and I haven't seen this photo used before, so apologies if it's a repeat. From a book I got several years ago. I've left the caption on to save me doing any explanation

The Playhouse bar around 1969/70. At school at the time the fashionable drink for the males (who talked it even if they didn't really drink it) was Guinness, so when I went into the Playhouse with some mates I had to have Guinness to make me look as though I knew what I was doing. But I thought it was revolting. Don't know how I got through one pint without totally throwing up. To this day I've never had another Guinness because of that first memory. Maybe if I had another today, I might find I like it now.

Was the one "near the Futurist" at the Valley Road/Nottingham Road junction, because I know there are/were a few shops there? (i.e. the next junction along from the Valley Road/Hucknall Road shop which is the one I remember) And most old shops on North Gate have probably disappeared now, so not much chance of working out which one it might've been

You're right about the one on the junction of Valley Road/Hucknall Road, that was definitely a Pear Chemist. The location of the Basford shop is what I've wondered about for years. The reason is my dad worked there for a long time. He was at the Valley Road shop for at least the late 1950s and first half of the 1960s and I went there quite a few times with him. I heard him talk about "the Basford shop" and I think maybe he worked there before he went to Valley Road, but I never knew where the Basford shop was. Amazing that I should get the answer to that after all these years.

Obviously quite a few people here have memories of various shops in the Basford area. Does anyone remember a chemist shop owned by E.R. Pear which was somewhere around Basford, but I don't know exactly where

Me too. I noticed it in the last few days. Sometimes you get in and sometimes you can't. You sign in, then go to reply to a post and get an error message which doesn't allow you to do anything else. It's worse on my computer at work and I thought it might be the security firewall they have there If anyone technical is interested I've just got it to do it again and the error message is Your secure key, used to verify you are posting the topic, did not match the one submitted. Please go back, reload the form, and try again.

Small world. My Lenton lot (on my dad's side) were on Dunlop Avenue, which is almost a continuation of the top end of Cycle Road

I'm not an ice cream expert, but looking at Google aerial view of Medway Street, where you've mentioned Coronato's are..... Look at the faded name on the roof. Ice cream

This might ring a few bells. One set of grandparents lived in Radford, the others in Lenton In school holidays we'd visit one or the other for the day. The strongest memory is how quiet the two houses were when we got there. Life definitely was much more peaceful back then. Get off the bus and walk down the road to the house, maybe there were a couple of parked cars, but otherwise you could've been on a desert island. When you walked into the house you could literally hear the clocks ticking, and maybe a very low volume radio; otherwise it was like being in a library or a church. The

I think those changing rooms are the remnants of the larger compound which was used for the POWs I've raided the Old Maps website again, and here's Wollaton Park immediately post-WW2. Look at all the buildings just inside the gates off Wollaton Road

Back on the subject of my dad's motorbike and sidecar, the sidecar itself was basically a plywood box on a pram chassis Like this Sidecar There was no security or locking on the thing - just a door handle. These days it would be burning within a few minutes of it being left unattended at night. But we had one for over 10-15 years outside on the street (with it's paraffin light) and never once had any trouble connected with it

Now I've looked at that photo again, I'm even less certain where it is within Wollaton Park. At first I thought it was Wollaton Road running out of view along the left centre, and the Hall itself would be further up on the right (the road in the foreground leading up to the Hall). But In the distance towards the right side there seems to be a bridge of some sort, and that spoils my first idea of the location

So if it was near the gates (as I think - but not remember - as well), I can't work out the angle of view of the photo I linked in my previous post

If you drive into Wollaton Park from Wollaton Road, as soon as you go through the gates on the right there were (still are?) some old huts and sheds which I think may be where the POWs lived Easier if you can work out where this location is Wollaton

This thread brings back big memories. My dad had a motorbike and sidecar in the late 50s/early 60s and he always used a paraffin lamp next to the bike on the street at night. Incredible performance to light the thing and fix it up outside. Whenever I get the smell of paraffin these days, it reminds me of the evenings in the kitchen when he was filling and lighting the thing. Like others have said, those lamps were useless when it was windy; but it says a lot that I don't remember any occasion when the light was knocked over/vandalised/pinched by kids. It was always still there the next day.

That'll teach me. I was just looking at the black lines on a map, and I hadn't thought about which railway company owned which bit of line

It eventually went all the way to Kimberley/Ilkeston/Derby Here's part of it from the 1920s

Take a look at this map from the 1930s The area to the right of the words "Belle Vue" seems to be what you are talking about On this late 1930s map there doesn't seem to be any riverbank at that point, but look at the same map in the mid 1950s and all the lines join up

Probably the longest piece of spam I've ever come across. But, unusually, it isn't full of spelling mistakes and strange use of capital letters

It's been possible to walk all the way from Trent Bridge to Wilford along that side of the river for as long as I've ever been aware of it (meaning since the early 1980s). The area where you suggest there was a ferry seems to be roughly where the Rivermead flats are now. (but if you left Nottm in 1955 that won't mean anything to you). I believe that those flats were previously the site of "Pleasaunce" which was a kind of exotic social club built by Jesse Boot for his staff and friends. It was demolished in the early 60s, but maybe, when it still existed it prevented anybody from walking all

Is this the one you are thinking of on Parliament Street....cinema According to Picture the Past "From 1914 to 1931 this building was the Parliament Street Picture House. In 1931 it was renamed the British Cinema until in 1933 it became the Regal Super Cinema. From 1935 to 1956 it was the News House and then from 1956 to 1957 it was the Odd Hour Cinema" My memories of the Scala on Market Street started in the mid 1960s when it had turned into a place showing cartoons and kids films. Went there with my parents quite a few times, and I must've seen loads of Tom & Jerry, Donald Duck, Di