Cliff Ton
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Posts posted by Cliff Ton
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Am pretty certain Pear's Chemists was at bottom of Eland Street, virtually opposite gas works gates, if not there was one v near the futurist, and I think another on North Gate?
I think we had a Pear's Chemist on Valley Road somewhere. Could have been at the junction of Valley and Hucknall Road.
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.
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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
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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.
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My paternal grandparents were dead long before I was born, but my mums lived in Lenton too (Cycle road.)
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
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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.
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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. There were never any kids playing in the streets or knocking around on bikes. All you ever saw were a few housewives doing the shopping. As well as not so many cars around, there didn't seem to be as many people either. Were all roads in Lenton and Radford like that in the early 60s? Certainly no students or "houses of multiple occupancy".
At Radford my grandad worked at Players and had a five-minute walk home for his dinner. In later years I discovered his local had been the "Pheasant" on Prospect Street, which was even closer to where they lived. Nobody ever seemed to travel very far in those days. My other grandad - at Lenton - had retired, but in summer he was out at Lenton Rec playing bowls with his other retired mates (and as far as I know that bowling green is still there). Otherwise, during the day the two grandmas were the only people in their houses. Those were the times when women scrubbed door steps and polished brass door knobs. Maybe the men just kept out of the way to avoid being dragged in to the cleaning.
Those visits could be a bit boring because there wouldn't be anything for kids to do. The Lenton house had a telly but in those days TV only transmitted for a couple of hours around midday so all you could watch was Lunchbox with Noele Gordon, or Bill and Ben/Andy Pandy/Woodentops. I'd watch it because it was there, not because I liked it. And that house had a real attic with a proper staircase and two more bedrooms, one level beyond the normal "upstairs", so If I felt brave I'd go up there. But it was even quieter than the rest of the place, and definitely spooky and creepy for a 7-8 year-old, even though up there I could find some of the toys my dad had when he was a kid.
At Radford, one of the neighbours grew fruit and veg, and it was a big thing to go to their house with my grandma to buy "some of Mr Turner's tomatoes". Probably cost something like 4d. And then we'd go back to my grandma's to do something exciting like polishing the fireplace tools (brush, pan, poker, tongs) which sat at the side of the fire and used to fascinate me.
To relieve the boredom in the afternoon, at Radford we'd either walk up the Alfreton Road area to "see if we can see grandad in his factory" (which never happened), or we'd go down to Bobbers Mill bridge near the old level crossing to watch the trains. The equivalent at Lenton was to go to the Rec for the roundabouts and swings. I remember sitting on one of the swing-things and through the park hedge I could watch the traffic go by on Derby Road - which would've been Standard Vanguards, Hillman Minxs, Ford Zodiacs and Vauxhall Crestas.
You can always tell when I've had a quiet day at work.
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The only huts I know of through the gates are or were used as changing rooms for football teams, don't know whether they'd be the ones your on about
Rog
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
might have got this wrong, but wasn't there some law re ok to park without lights if within so many feet of street lamp?
I'm not sure about that because ours was parked literally under a street light
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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
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The railway up Hempshill Lane was over the road, it ran alongside the corpo tip and went to Sankeys pottery. Did it go further than this? I thought it ended there
It eventually went all the way to Kimberley/Ilkeston/Derby
Here's part of it from the 1920s
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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
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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
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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 the way along the riverbank at that point
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Wasn't the News Theatre on Parliament Street? In my day the Scala was on market street. Which I think was previously a zoo called the Hippodrome?
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, Disney material. In its later years the Scala turned into the 'Classic" and specifically catered for the dirty mac brigade
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We'll have to make sure we don't get you confused with Ayupmeducks who already lives here
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Sven's been at Leicester for at least a fortnight. Must be time for him to be thinking of moving again. He knows the area fairly well
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mick2me's previous post has just reminded me of this............
Can't say I've really got any musical memories connected with Nottingham even though I've been around a long time. But there is one song which brings back memories from just down the road.
When I hear this I'm back in 1967-69 going with my dad to Long Eaton Stadium to the Stock Car racing. This was always being played over the PA between races and God knows how many times I heard it over the roar of engines, shouts from the crowds, and all the other noises. I can't listen to this song without thinking of standing on a grass bank on a Saturday evening watching the battered Humbers and Fords and Triumphs (all with highly tweaked V8-type engines) hurtling around the Station Road track
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Try again now.
Bad timing on my part. The site I was linking to had gone for a few minutes, but it's back now
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Nowt to do with Nottingham at all, but this a fascinating 10 minutes.
You think traffic is worse now than it used to be?
This is amazing and - in a way - hilarious. Watch cars pull in front of others, pedestrians get attacked from all angles, traffic appearing at right angles from nowhere.
You'll never see so many near-death incidents in such a short space of time
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Found this a few days ago. It's in a book of old Nottm photos which I bought in the 1980s (and that book itself now hasn't been available for years)
Sums up the atmosphere of Drury Hill as I remember it
Old Basford late 50's
in 'Mucky Ukna' Bull'el Baasford & Hyson Green
Posted
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