Jill Sparrow

#216 Vesta also did chow mein in a box. Everything inside had the appearance of shredded cardboard. Desiccated noodles. All had to be hydrated and then cooked. Tasted like....soggy cardboard...but it was the novelty value, I suppose!

He loved mustard too, Merthyr, but it was always brown sauce on Christmas morning, either HP or, appropriately enough, Daddies! Ben will know the prices for both! Ta, Ben!

Welcome, d'Artaignan, to Nottstalgia, where I'm certain you'll find much to interest you and to share with members. My father, a Beeston lad, was also a pork pie and brown sauce on Christmas morning devotee. He always ordered a whopper of a pie and collected it on Christmas eve.

Reminds me of the Anthony Trollope novel, "He knew he was right!" One of the most boring books I've ever read!

#33 Reckon you've always been a snazzy dresser, ain't ya?

That would have been Peter Ustinov, Chulla. It was one of his best known jokes!

#220 Stan, no one on this site has done more moaning, complaining and generally droning on about the horrors of their old alma mater than I have! It amazes me no one's told me to shurrup!! I find it cathartic and its way cheaper than going to see the trick cyclist once a week. You carry on posting. We all enjoy reading it and it imparts a sense of solidarity to those of us who didn't enjoy our school years!

#130 The slides and other photos belonged to Caroline Isabella Fryar, the daughter of Mark Fryar and Louisa Mary Strelley. There have been marriages between the Barber and Strelley families centuries ago, I believe. Caroline was a cousin of Ruth Barber, later Haslam. The Haslams were also coalmasters in Derbyshire. Ruth Barber was the grandmother of Richard who rescued Caroline's photographs and papers at her death, as the auctioneers had bagged them up be destroyed, having removed all her antique furniture for future sale. In my humble opinion, they should

#86 Hope she didn't sing!

#84 Wasn't the dreadful Ethel Merman in either the film or stage version of Mame? Just the sound of her voice makes me want to commit suicide! Aaaarrrrggggg!

They don't want any damp squibs!

In the late 70s when I worked at BJ&R, Friar Lane was literally awash with solicitors. Perry Parr & Ford, Rotheras, Ashton Hill, Fraser Brown White & Pears, Leman & Leman...to name a few. Now, they all seem to have been swallowed up by the bigger practices. These were family firms which had been established since late Victorian times and the procedures we carried out there were equally antiquated, long before the days of computers. It's not so very long ago but the changes are enormous.

#34 Standard school issue gramophones they were Ian. We had one at Berridge. We used to skip around to Danse Macabre by Saint Saens...more suited to the Manning I'd have thought, but there it is. Also had a huge square of teak with a round speaker in the middle of it for schools' radio broadcasts. "Find a space, children, and stand still!" Then it was a case of imagining you were a giant/elf/tree/seed in the ground...or whatever the theme was that week. Your teacher was probably slurping a mug of coffee while all this was going on. Didn't have cop out lessons like that

#83 Fascinating photo, Cliff. Thanks. My office there looked out over Maid Marian Way but would originally have opened onto the gable end of the, by then, demolished block.

#848 Employing agency temps who clearly won't be able to cope with the job (obvious after 4 or 5 days) but refusing to get rid of them for weeks, thus preventing staff from getting through their own workloads due to having to prop up temporary workers who are being paid more than they are! Spending money on trendy furniture no one ever uses/fancy perspex framed notices that announce "kitchen", "toilet" etc when it is obvious what these places are. At the same time, people are using clapped out laptops which break down or half the keys don't connect but are told there is

#79/80 Granby Chambers, yes. I'd forgotten the name. I didn't know BJ&R had been there so long! Is there any mention in street directories of its use further back. I always wondered if it was a hosiery factory as people said?

That's triggered a memory. When I worked at BJ&R, one of the partners was a bull of a bloke who kept us all entertained. Once a week or so, he'd turn up in a foul mood and charge round the probate department, beetroot red in the face, firing anyone he encountered! An hour later, overcome with remorse, he'd apologise abjectly, go out and by those he'd fired an expensive present and beg their forgiveness. I tried to get transferred from the litigation department as it sounded like a lucrative number...to no avail. On one occasion, he fired the chief cashier who, fed up with "bully's" antics

#74 If it's the one I think you mean, it was the offices of solicitors Browne Jacobson & Roose for many years. I worked there in the late 70s. I was told it had once been a hosiery factory. It was a rabbit warren inside. The floors sloped, health & safety, especially the electrics, was very dicey and if you went to the loo, the door wouldn't open from the inside! Search parties rescued me many times!

#71 Which building do you mean, Ian? The one on the corner of MMW and Friar Lane where there was a newsagent's at street level?

#40/1 Hope you both had the nous to plead insanity! I was a regular visitor to the cells myself for a few years and spent a lot of time in Court...with me shorthand note book! Don't remember seeing either of you two!

#38 Well I'm shocked, gobsmacked and incredulous. An affable gent like you being bound over to keep the peace? Shattered all my illusions that has, Ben. Is nowt sacred?

#67 Many years ago, I was clerk to the Senior Partner of a firm in solicitors in Friar Lane. He was passionate about Nottingham and its history and told me that great effort had been made by various groups to save some of these buildings. He was particularly angry that the almshouses on Friar Lane were summarily demolished, I think at night, to avoid those who opposed it trying to prevent their destruction. You're right, it was criminal.

Welcome to Nottstalgia, CCGGS58. I hope you will enjoy this friendly and informative site.

I heard someone on the radio singing Cwm Rhondda this morning. Well it is Sunday. It's been stuck in my head ever since so I've had to take drastic action to oust it. This is the result. I'm sure you all know the tune. NOTTSTALGIA There's a site you really need to look at If you hail from Nottingham. There you'll find all sorts of information, Photos, maps, posts...there ain't no spam! Click Nottstalgia! Click Nottstalgia! Courtesy of Mick 2 Me! Open every day and all quite free. You can search among its learned members For

#69 Consider yourself in detention, young Chulla, for wearing non-regulation knickers! It was for penning such anthems and encouraging other girls to sing them that I earned the contempt of the staff at Manning! I was warned not infrequently that my pen would get me into trouble! They weren't wrong.