philmayfield

Yes, I’ll take Welsh as a second Language, Mandarin Chinese and Home Economics. I’ve got most of the others!

It's owned by Celine, a private limited company which is itself a consortium of international lenders.

An easy mistake to make. You could never find any damn thing/thong in that shop.

At Burton's fish counter you had to pay for you purchase at a desk so you never got fishy smelling change. Very genteel.

I read that people were queuing outside Primark from 6am today. Is that where you get vaccinated?

I've just discovered that Griffin & Spalding were sold to Debenhams in 1944 but continued to trade under their old name for many years.

Back in the 50’s didn’t Griffins have commissionaires out front who would assist you with car parking?

Read the rules

Shops like Debenhams and H of F have never appealed to me. If I want a department store I go to Boundary Mills on the A1 near Grantham which is readily accessible with free parking.

I think time would have been up for a lot of these high st. retailers over the next few years. The lock down and online buying has just accelerated it. It's very sad for the employees though, especially at this time of year.

She was scrapped in Radcliffe on Trent in 1962. It's said that the keel can still be seen in the mud of the river. I thought it might have been a Dunkirk 'little ship' but so far I can find no evidence.

I just Google it BK!

Built in Norfolk in 1892 and came to Nottingham in the 50’s.

2000 was the year when we had severe floods in the Trent valley. We took my inflatable on its transport wheels to the bottom end of the village and then rowed at hedge height down to Gibsmere. The old houses there are built high to avoid flooding. The care home at Hazelford had been earlier evacuated as by then it was cut off by water. We avoided the floods at home as we are on much higher ground.

There’s a board just by there showing the highest water levels over the years. I think the most recent highest was in 1947. I know my auntie Ethel Mayfield who, coincidently lived on Mayfield Grove in the Meadows, was badly flooded and I remember as a young child standing by the Midland Station and seeing the floodwaters on Arkwright St. Edit: I’ve just checked and the water levels are, in fact, etched into the stonework next to the bridge. It’s so many years since I was there.

The old Nottingham /Melton line is still used as a test track by Network Rail so it could feasibly be reopened. I don’t know if it’s still accessible beyond the tunnel at Old Dalby though. If it were opened would it get much use? I did know a few people who drove from Melton to Nottingham on a daily commute some years ago and it must now be a bit of a pain in the mornings as you drive into Nottingham. Melton station would require good parking facilities as well. Edit: I’ve been looking on Google Earth and see that there has been house building over the line at the Nottingham end so

When we had a boat in the 80’s and used to ‘cruise’ the Trent between Newark and Nottingham the depth was between six and nine feet. There was a deep stretch around Farndon where it was about thirty feet for about hundred yards. I think by then barge traffic in the main had ceased and they had stopped dredging. There was a fuel barge run by Whittaker’s than ran between Hull and Colwick for a time and more recently, but no longer, a gravel barge plied between Gunthorpe and Hull. Further downstream, on the tidal stretch, below Cromwell lock, there is still gravel barge traffic and seagoing boats

No BK. The Pleasure Park was on the riverside at the end of Trent Lane. The park at Radcliffe is a much larger open area.

I was thrown into the Trent once. It was when I coxed the school four to victory in a race. It was traditional to do that although not very funny at the time!

I remember the Colwick pleasure park as a child. I think we used to get there by boat from a stage on the Embankment just upstream of Trent Bridge. I also remember travelling on a much bigger boat, The Pride of the Yare, which I think went from the Embankment to Radcliffe and back. When we around 11 a friend and I used to hire a rowing boat and go up as far as Wilford Bridge. No life jackets, no parents. Couldn’t do that now!

I knew someone who was a fireman on goods trains on the Nottingham to Melton line pre war. He told me they used stop and pick apples and take a shotgun to bag rabbits!

Texas was on Castle Boulevard but on the opposite side of the road.

I think they've built some expensive apartments there and kept the old dock as a 'water feature'. British Waterways used to advertise themselves as 'From Humber Ports to the Midlands'. Goods were offloaded from ships in Hull direct into barges which came up the Trent. When we came to live in the Trent Valley back in 1962 there was still quite a lot of barge traffic on the river. They often used to moore up at Fiskerton overnight for a beer in the Bromley Arms.

Yes, it was Clowes before MFI.

Hallelujah!