Bilboro-lad

I don't think it really matters anymore. If the trams are built in Spain they are built by a bunch of foreigners and if they are built in the UK then the same applies.

It would be 1970 for me. Went to Oz for the first time and hitched around the place alone as a 16 year old. Joined Sole Bros circus and travelled with them from Bundaberg (Q'land) to Darwin. Left them in Darwin and lived in a cave on the beach. Saw ball lightning. A great old time but very tough. Survived by picking up coca-cola bottles and getting the deposit back for a carton of milk, and stale bread in the bin out the back of the bakery.

I don't think Bombardier make trams, though if they do they had the opportunity to tender for them. Like it or not, we are part of Europe and everyone has the opportunity to tender. We can't realistically launch a whole new tram making industry just because we need a handful of trams. When they turned out to be as good as Rover cars were - would you still insist it was a good idea? The car you drive is probably not a British car but no-one complains about that.

It's still a bikers haven up there, but the bikers are now in their seventies. Nice bikes though, not short of a few bob.

I don't care for it personally. I went off it years ago when I went through there early one morning and saw that it was working quite happily without water. It's an electric clock with a little water pump that operates like a fountain in a fish pond. It's just too garish and tacky for my likes. However, I realise that a lot of folks do like it (kids I can understand), so here's a simple way to save it. The owners can sell it to Nottingham Council for £1 million. The Council can then pay for its maintenance and then pay commercial rates for the square meterage of the Vic Centre that it takes up

Waterloo Sunset? one of my all time top three favourites. Does anyone remember those other sweets called Lucky Numbers?

It was because they were the first that they were so well-known. If it had been somewhere else we would have gone somewhere else.

My Mum saw Saturday Night Sunday Morning , and Phantasia there. She loved the first and hated the latter.

Ilkeston Road cinema in late fifties. Saw Robin Hood and Hiram Holiday there. Does anyone remember the adventures of Hiram Holiday? Then in 68 I saw Born Free at the Cavendish on St anns well rd. Also saw the rock band Curved Air there in 72.

Yes Saunders. He's still alive and in a nursing home. Nice chap. I remember the blind piano player with smoked glasses. We had to lead him all the way back down the drive to get his bus. I looked up under his glasses once and he had no eyes at all - just sockets. It was like the Twilight Zone to a 10 year old.

I sat next to David Bignall in Glaisdale. He wanted to be a vicar in those days. I remember Cooper and Pavey and Mrs Moody and another nice chap whose name eludes me but he is still alive.

I'm pretty sure it was the big Co-op. When we were 8 or 9 we walked all the way from Bilborough to the co-op just to walk up them the wrong way. We lasted about 5 or 6 seconds before being booted off, so we tried the lifts with the same results. Finally we went to the very top of the black staircase and dropped aniseed balls down the centre of the bannister - then we were kicked out. Would be around 61/62.

I'm still a railway fan too. Often up Butterley way. If you don't know me, then the likelihood is that you will know at least one of my brothers as we were always down there. They are: Robin Gavin (sadly deceased), Anthony Gavin (lives in Denmark) and Ian Gavin (Eldest who emigrated to Oz in 1962 and has never been back to this day.)

I remember coming home from Glenbrook infants in fog that thick you had to just hold onto the hedge and try and see in your minds eye. I remember I got home one day and left the back door open and my mum shouting "Close the door quick, it's coming in". I turned around to see this big thick greeny black wave rolling into the house. It was like the 'day of the triffids' or something. Then you blew your nose and found a load of greeny black stuff up there too. Kids today think coke's just for snorting.

In the winter of 62/63 it was Wollaton Park for us, down the slope that you see when you go in the main gates. We couldn't afford a proper sledge (only the Wollaton kids had those) and there were no cheap plastic ones so we used to use whatever we could find on the way. That year we found some barrel slats, curved so the front stuck up. They were as good as any sledge. Another brilliant place was balloon woods that had a path down the middle that was like a big groove in the ground and when it froze it was like a toboggan run around the corners.

Hello Jackson, I'll definitely seek your advice when I get nearer to completion on the book. I'm still at the stage of collating memories and this site will help with that. I used to go into the Bracebridge library around 1964/5 and we would play an embarrassing trick on the librarian - but I'd better wait until you know me a bit better before I tell you about it. Oh and the allotments were down Old Coach Road, starting as it goes around the left hand bend and down to the train bridge. The main gate was next to the train bridge. That place had more barbed wire than Colditz. Only ever got in th

Hi folks, I'm a newbie here, but I was born in Bilborough in 1953 and lived there until 1966 when we moved to Colwick. I remember the area and the times really well and am just starting to write it all down for a book I'm writing. I was born on Staverton rd just at the crest of the hill near Bramerton Rd. and the green on the right. It was a fantastic place to grow up as I had the freedom to wander far and wide with my mates. It was only a five minute walk to Old Coach Road so the train bridge and canal were our favourite playground.