philmayfield

I think it was called Twigdons and was just over the road from the end of Woodthorpe Drive as you turned right. Still there but no longer a confectioner/newsagents.

Was that ‘The little shop with a big reputation’ ?

Sorry, slip of the finger. Catfoot it is. The bungalow is almost opposite the new Gedling crematorium so hearses pass your window daily. That must have reduced the property value.

Charlie Pearce, the ice cream man, emigrated to South Africa years ago. He used to live in a bungalow with a mini lighthouse in the front garden at the top of Catford Lane, Mapperley Plains.

Killjoy was here!

No, they were green with white lettering, slightly shield shaped as I remember. A bit smaller than a 'bus stop sign.

There were signs on posts that said ‘Nottingham Corporation Protection Point’ or words to that effect. I remember one in Daybrook Square. It was so that the longer distance buses couldn’t poach City Transport customers.

I’ve just been to the butchers’ in Southwell. A man came in wanting a nice loin of beef for Sunday. ‘How many are you?’ ‘Just three of us’. So the butcher goes to the chiller cabinet and hauls out a piece of beef almost the size of a dustbin lid. ‘How much?’. ‘£33’. ‘O.K and can I have a small sausage roll as well please?’ Only in Southwell!

May have been that name. I'm going back to around 1955!

The Hutchins barber I knew had a shop on Mansfield Rd. In Daybrook, next to the old railway bridge. For a good reason he was known as ‘Carver Hutchins’. You only went there once! My own barber is in Blidworth. He used to be in nearby Southwell but moved his shop some years ago. I suppose a 25 mile round trip for a haircut is a bit excessive!

Someone who practices philanthropy!

I'm usually a misanthrope but he had such a hard luck story to tell and I'd just drawn £200 from the cash machine I felt the urge to give a large tip. I regretted it afterwards of course!

Yes, but think what I've saved over two years! I like to make people happy.

I had my first haircut in over two years yesterday. The last occasion was just prior to my hip replacement in early March 2020. Then came the first lockdown and a period when I wasn’t allowed to drive. I’ve been hacking at it myself as necessary but last weekend I recognised that I was a becoming a rather scruffy unkempt bugger. Just as I expected my barber’s first words of welcome were ‘who’s been cutting your bloody hair!’ I confessed I was the culprit and he made a very professional job of tidying me up. There was a lot of hair on the floor. I didn’t ask the price, I just gave him £20 which

There’s Bulwell stone to be seen all around the city. I remember my father sending me to McCarthy’s quarry in Bulwell in a Bedford van to select and pick up some walling stone when I was 17, during the school summer holidays. We were building a rockery at our house.

Have you considered castration?

I’ve just bought 18 ring culture pots for my forthcoming tomato plants. They cost me £24. I could buy a lot of tomatoes for that price without the bother of looking after the plants but they’ll taste much better than the supermarket variety. I now have to buy 8 grow bags now for the cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. I don’t know why I bother really. We give more away than we can eat!

‘It’s only make believe’

Now Arnold Lane is going to be closed off for three months to link it in with the new Colliery Road through a system of islands and traffic lights. I hope they make a better job than was done when they put the traffic lights on the Arnold Lane/ Plains/ Gedling Lane junction many years ago. Right turners on the Plains going down Gedling Lane didn’t have much of a chance as there was no filter so they just had to risk it! My late uncle’s father, Elijah Burton the builder and coal merchant, used to own, pre war, the land and the old farmhouse just off the Plains where the new road comes out. I th

Colliery Way, although appropriate to the history of the area, is not a particularly inspiring name and conjures up memories of slag heaps and winding gear. Who In the nearby posh houses wants to say they live ‘just off Colliery Way?’

To be pedantic, the equinox starts this Sunday the 20th. You’re getting ahead of yourself.

Everybody except me and Margie went to Berridge! I knew Kersall Drive well when I was at Mellish. I wouldn’t have called it a rough area by any means.

Relations or relatives? There's a subtle difference!

Probably had the poshest accent on Kelsall Drive!

We do have Portmerion pottery for everyday use. We buy ‘seconds’ from the factory shop at Stoke on Trent. It’s just the plates with the exterior pattern but without the botanicals. It’s cheaper to bin it rather than put it in the dishwasher.