The Engineer

I'm meeting guys from Rowland Emett Society and Intu next week to scope the work of dismantling the clock.

Thank you for that poohbear. Facing the main entrance to Newton Building - handy for students! I'll ask Mam if that's the one.

Among my family history records, I have a note saying that one of my Mam's cousins called Ray owned an espresso shop somewhere up Mansfield Road, opposite side from Victoria Station - Burton Street would fit - whereabouts on the street was it? I'd like to look it up in the archives to see whether I can make the link and tie down the date of ownership/occupancy if it were Ray. Mam reckons it might have been the first espresso shop in town. El Toreador is an interesting name - cousin Ray retired to Spain in later life.

Bridlesmith Gate caves were excavated on Wednesday evenings. There would be a skip each week that we had to fill in a couple of hours. I was apprentice to a guy called Martin (sadly no longer with us) who did all the lighting and ventilation. I remember he rigged up some car heater blowers (from the scrappy) and made inflatable tubes out of bin liners, which we could extend into the caves. I do remember a family with one or more "youngsters" now that you mention it. Didn't know about The Bell well but expect most Nottingham town centre pubs had one!

Is there a playlist anywhere for the test transmissions that were broadcast? Being bored with BBC Radio Nottingham, we used to leave the wireless tuned to Trent, waiting for it to start live broadcast. I recall "Misty" by Ray Stevens and "I'm not in love" by 10cc engineer

I was a member of "The Nottingham Historical Arts Society" in the 70s and recall excavating caves in Bridlesmith Gate (West side). I got a "pre-commercial" tour of the Drury Hill cave complex that was discovered during demolition in readiness for building the Broadmarsh Centre. Someone from the NHAS also showed me around the Peel Street complex, which is probably the biggest set of interconnected caves we have. The fascination for Nottingham caves is that they are all man-made. Temperature down there is pretty constant (cool) and therefore ideal to use as pub cellars. Other uses have been

I am liaising with with Tim Griffiths, founder of the Rowland Emett Society, who will be leading on the restoration. I'm confident that it will be a good outcome, I've added a comment to the other thread about the clock (Emett water clock - Help?). I'll continue to add information there, rather that diverge into two threads. engineer

Not pre-50s and don't know whether "eccentric" is quite the right adjective but I do recall Jack Redfern (of the family owned carbonated drinks manufacturers, top of Ingram Terrace, Bulwell). I'm going back to late 60's, early 70's. I presume he suffered from some medical condition that affected posture and speech. He was crouched over, leaning to one side and it was near impossible to make out what he was uttering. This made him appear a bit scary to us kids. However, if he approached you, he generally just wanted you to light a fag for him and was quite harmless.

Changes to the Emett water clock are coming...... Intu (Vic Centre owners) understand the importance of the clock to the people of Nottingham and its visitors. The plan is to take it away (in a few weeks time) for restoration by volunteers from the Rowland Emett Society. It will then become a temporary exhibit in a Birmingham venue, to coincide with exhibition of other Emett works in Birmingham. This will allow Intu time to refurbish the Vic Centre, without risk to the clock. All being well, it will come home in a better state than it left and with a more impressive presence. There shoul

I thought the same so as I said, I contacted "the management" when the story broke, intimating just that. They say they'll let me know if there's any movement on the movement, so to speak. engineer

Hi Gem, You probably want the "general chat" part of the forum for that, but thank you anyway for kind comments about our fair city. The "town square" is know locally as "slab square" and "the lions" sitting in front of "the council house" are a favourite meeting point. Another well used meeting point is the Emett Clock (see what I did there to pull the thread back on topic?) There's been some recent media speculation suggesting that Emett's finest could be relocated. I've checked with "the management" and can confirm what they say, i.e. no decision has been made yet. I did say that I'd

The brand of cooking appliance is Stoves. I'd say a cooker comprises an oven, a hob and often a grill. A stove seems to be another word for a cooker. Lavatory originally came from the Latin lavatorium; "the room for washing" (the French also inherited this). Those Romans also gave us conservatory, dormitory, laboratory, observatory, refectory, atrium, fenestra, auditorium, vomitorium, crematorium and many other building related words. Apart from that, I'm not sure what else the Romans ever did for us. Of course the French have toilette and "eau de toilette" - I never really got that conn

DAVIDW, None of the marks match but I'm convinced that you've found the manufacturer. The ROCO... must be the name for the range or pattern. Under that will be C. ALLERTON, ENGLAND and below that is just an R followed by a tiny squiggle, probably abbreviation of Registered or Registration No. Thank you. Just need to work on those initials CN... The most likely candidate for the third letter is A, so that would be CNA. However, I can't find anything relevant that would be abbreviated to CNA and form part of a Nottingham crest and motto. Engineer.

Diggin' in the garden (as you do on a hot Bank Holiday), I found a few shards of broken crockery. It appears to bear a crest with "VIVIT POST FUNERA VIRTUE" round the outside and a cross with three crowns inside. Above the cross are three letters CN? or GN? (haven't got any bits with the third letter). Another shard looks like the manufacturer's details but all I have there is ROCO...? C. ALLER...? EN...? (probably England) All text and logo is maroon on white pot. I know this is the motto of Nottingham (have Googled for translation) but am curious as to what the initials mean. I

I remember Whitebridge but that was after the area was rebuilt (around 1964?). Which of the old roads led to Whitebridge? My old map shows Oxford St (where Oxford PH is now), Deptford St (opposite PO), Albert St (almost opposite Broomhill), Northcote St, Chatham St, Latimer St (in that order, heading for Bulwell). Were the allotments after that?

We (siblings and I) used to take rags to 'endos. We'd get thruppence a pound for wollens and a penny a pound for cotton (old money). We also went 'tatting' for scrap copper, brass and lead and took that down 'endos when we had enough to get a few bob.

Thank you all for the kind comments; I'm pleased to see that many folk derive some pleasure from seeing and hearing the old thing in action again. I do get periodic updates from family and friends; makes me smile when some say "your clock is still working." I still need to get the drive sorted for the big water wheel with the butterflies, etc. It really needs to be moving to get the full effect. You may recall from my previous postings that it was originally powered by an electric motor. The motor must have burned out at some point (I've seen the scorch marks!) and all the associated par

Media coverage done today (between 3.30pm and 5.15pm). Photo for Nottingham Post - to be in print in a day or two. Interview with Carol Hinds for BBC East Midlands Today - to be aired tomorrow (Sat) lunchtime and evening - check schedules for time. Interview for BBC Radio Nottingham to be aired during Monday's breakfast programme (I'm guessing that's somewhere between 6am and 9am). The Engineer

Two sisters, a brother and I went on this 'three week holiday'. I remember having to line up in order of height to be issued a number. I was Red 2. I think there were four coloured groups with ten lads in each, so 40 of us in all. One big dorm, communal showers, no shampoo, just soap, having to participate in boxing, being 'marched' down to the beach, being admonished for deciding to wear a different jumper without seeking permission, waiting for the weekly parcel from Mam with goodies (don't recall content, probably chocolate and comics), being led to believe we were going to see Bob Monkh

mick2me: I reckon I could arrange access with no people around so as to get some decent photos or video done (I've done most of the installation work between 7pm and 10pm across several days (just me and the occasional cleaner or security staff around). Let's leave it a few weeks though because the maintenance guy are going to do some more cleaning and polishing now that it's going again and he wants to balance the water wheel up so that the water stream can make it rotate (still needs motor drive in the long term IMO). They even spoke of some re-painting. BTW I saw a postcard with a photo

UPDATE I had some difficulties with the audio on cassette. I was using a good tape deck with VU meters and could vary the recording level but despite that, I couldn't get a decent recording (too much distortion for some reason, maybe because the tapes were old and worn). Anyway, I gave up with the music for a while until I gleaned a Sony Micro Hi-Fi with CD and started experimenting with that. It is microprocessor controlled and I was able (eventually) to control it via two micro switches on the cam timer. Basically I had to wire across the buttons for 'Play CD' and 'Standby'. The cam t

At least it's dulled down a bit; it was blindingly bright when new. Bizarre to think that there was a competition for the design and this one won. Maybe there was some 'incentive' offered to the judges to pick this one? A wide flat space is undoubtedly the best platform for markets, etc. to bring some revenue in. On the plus side, it's nice when they fill it with sand for the annual 'seaside' event. The toddlers don't realise that they are not on a real beach and it's a lot nearer than Skeggy! How about getting Goose Fair move back there and maybe that statue of Victoria that was relocat

I have a map from the 60s and it looks pretty much the same as today: an 'L' shape from Addison Street to Forest Road East. If you look at old trade directories (some available online) you might get a better picture of the original layout. Try www.historicaldirectories.org.

Update: Vic Centre maintenance got a hole drilled through to the basement a few weeks ago, at the north side of pool (nearest the cupcake stall), for the new cable route (don't know what that cost but concur it probably wasn't cheap!) I have designed from scratch and just about completed building a new control panel (didn't keep a record but I've sunk many hours into this!) Vic Centre provided most of the parts I required (I had some odd and ends left over from other jobs). Vic Centre engineer and I fitted the metal cabinet that will house the control panel in the basement yesterday. The

I've visited site again to discuss cabling issues - a new cable route is required. Various options were debated, paticularly how to protect the cables (pipe or conduit) and finding a route to avoid breaching the water-tight basin. A diamond drilling firm will be engaged to drill through the floor. Meanwhile I will be building the new panel to control the motors, etc. with 12V relays and rewiring the various micro-switches on the clockwork mechanism. As for the music, I'm now looking at a 'quick fix' that employs cassette tape again but long term aim is to convert to solid state. Original