Bilbraborn

I can't remember ever paying Friday or Saturday night. One Saturday, Liverpool played Forest at city ground. Some of the Liverpool fans found their way into the folk club upstairs. They were a bit merry (which was good considering they had lost) and also a bit rowdy. Eventually the MOC stood up and said to them "If you want to contribute then get up and sing, if not then shut up and listen to the singing" or something similar. So the merry scousers got up and sang a medley of about four or five songs including The leaving of Liverpool and My old Liverpool Home. They were brilliant and got a

Mr Robinson was called Fruit but the name started as Fruitgum. Mr Rogers (History) was called Hamerabi then Hammers. I liked Mr Downing but he bored the hell out of me. Remember John Sillito (chemistry) he hated me.

Yeah I remember him now riding around on a big flat iron. I reckon I used to work for a guy like him once. And I remember Harris Tweed and Luck of the Legion. And Mudgie 49 it was the daily Mirror we used to hang up in the Bog. I reckon I'd wipe my Ass on the Guardian these days.

Put them slugs on a sandwich (only jokin)

Can anyone remember Miss Trail (RE) and her little Austin seven with the old fashioned running boards, and Miss Scott 6foot tall driving a mini.

Great. I have my own copy. When he was compiling it he asked about for contribution so I put my bit in. Mr Robinson was great with outings. He used to take us on hikes in the Peak District along with Mr Sullivan and Miss Skedge. He was also one of the main organisers of the Autumn half term youth hostelling trip around the Lake District.

I had the Eagle for years. Who can forget Dan Dare pilot of the future and his side kick Digby. And the enemy the dreaded Meakons. Fave toys were model railways - Triang OO gauge. I spent a lot of time in my early teens building Airfix kit WW2 planes and also vintage cars.

SHURRUP! I work in the catering trade and eat too much as it is. Now what's for breakfast??? Here I go again. Nosh nosh nosh slurp. Jamie Oliver eat your heart out!

I have an interest in the Barber-Walker mining history, mainly because I was raised in Bilborough. Bilborough housing estate is built on land that was mainly part of the OLD Wollaton Park before 1588 when Wollaton Hall was built, hence the name of the farm which used to be by Graylands Rd - Old Park Farm. A lot of the land upon which Bilborough was built (especially towards Beechdale Rd) was outcrop coal mined by the primitive Bell Pit system. The old Bilborough Cut followed the 200 ft contour and ended near where the stadium is now at what is recorded as being Walkers Pit. I d

Nowt wrong with chips!

Mansfield is only small but is not a bad place to live. You don't have to walk a marathon to get round the shops. There are plenty of clothes shops in the four seasons and a market (not too brilliant) where it should be IN THE MARKET PLACE!!! It is not too far from the car parks into town and there are quite a few free spaces (1, 2 0r even 3 hours) nearby. Also, although parking wardens patrol regularly, motorists are not made to feel as if they are the lowest life forms in the universe. There are a lot of open spaces nearby and the old pit railways have been converted into places to walk,

You mean garden gnomes? The Newshouse did two Folk clubs. Friday night was mainly traditional folk singing (beards and wooly jumpers) but Saturday night was more of the modern (then) stuff like Bob Dylan and Joan Bayez. The clubs were in an upstairs room and you had to go down to the bar to get your drinks. The atmosphere on both nights was great. I think the MOC was a bloke called Don Winters.

AYUP Compo! I have just remembered. I know this sounds a bit like sacrilege but it's an old trick me dad taught me. Get some beer and half fill some empty margarine tubs or suchlike and put them in the garden so that the top is flush with the soil. Try to put a bit of a cover over them because of the rain, but allowing the slugs to get in. The slugs are like us. They love a good booze-up. Trouble is they drown in the stuff. So p-----d they can't climb out. Another trick is to put grit around the tater plants. In the old days of coal fires me mam used to put ashes around them. Slugs can't mo

I have cut roots off taters and ate them (the spuds I mean). If you don't want to do that give them to someone with space for them and they will have an early crop next year. As for slugs? Well they are just things sent to try us and mess us up. You know like traffic wardens and other nuisances.

That's it. Mr Grealy. He was a helluva nice bloke. He died about twenty years ago. I wanted to go to his funeral but I was working nights and did not get up early enough.

Yes. She was a close friend of my wife's mate Barbara.

Can anyone remember the Folk singing clubs in the New House pub on St. James St. in Nottingham?

My wife asks if anyone knew Gladys Whitehead and what became of her?

She is home now and says she definitely remembers you as that good looking geezer in the office. She says can you remember the rubber room downstairs. She says she is sure the rubber room was downstairs and what was the middle floor for.

Barbara Percival actually worked there longer than my wife. In fact the two of them still regularly knock about together. I'll ask her about the good looking bloke bit when she comes in. Everyone used to call her Buzz.

I loved working there. I used to develop all my black and white films in Mr Austen's dark room. He was a nice bloke. Never minded me using his photo paper. I am struggling to remember the name of the headmaster who replaced Mr Higgins. I remember making distilled water up in the chem lab prep room up stairs so that we could make up pure bench strength acids for analysis. Trouble was, as soon as I had made a load up, all the teachers came and nicked it for their car batteries (not many sealed units in those days).

Whatja mean Stan. Me and me mates were behind a tree watching yer. LOL. Tuffys is the word we always used. Everyone had a Tuffy shop nearby. Tuffys were still on ration when I was born. Now How cruel is that?

Things we don't see anymore? Drivers indicating BEFORE they go round a corner. Ordinary cyclists wearing ordinary clothes. Coppers on the beat. Me running up the stairs (or anywhere else for that matter). A proper pub bar full of smoke with blokes in cloth caps putting the world to rights.

Hello. Bilbraborn here. I went to Bilborough borstal sorry I mean Bilborough Grammar School. I was there from 1962 until 1967. I was off sick with pneumonia for most of the first term and never really caught up. I used to think it was all my fault. I was given loads of other pupils exercise books and told to copy up and learn it. It did not work. I loved history but Mr M Clarke in the first year had no patience with anyone who had got left behind and he terrified the hell out of me. Then the following year Mr Downing made history about as interesting as watching paint dry. So I dropped Hist

My wife looked at that photo of your dad and knew him straight away.