BilboroughShirley

My first visit to the cinema was to see "Reach for the Sky", all about Douglas Bader. A war film. I was about 5 years old at the time. I went with mum, dad and granddad. I think it was at the Odeon in Nottingham. I guess that films did not have an age certificate in the 1950s??? DVDs are OK but I still love the cinema.

Thanks. Her name was Ellen Newton and she died in January 1917. It could be that not all of the local paper has been digitised. The free weekend was very useful in other ways. I found the trade union membership record of my grandmother's eldest brother. This means that the records from the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University are being digitised. Very useful.

Slide projector and film for colour slides.

On the trains it is often too packed for a ticket inspector to get through the crowds in the packed coaches.

I “Googled” Portland Primary School to see if it has a website with some up to date photos of the school. I was amazed when the first site listed (http://portlandprimary.weebly.com/) said this under the heading Portland Primary School: AAre you battling to control pests? Do you worry they'll take over your house? Do you need expert help yet have no idea where to look or what to do? It seems that the school is sponsored by a local pest control business. This may be good from a finance point of view but the initial impact of the site is very off putting! There is nothing about the scho

Thanks. Yes I did mean 1917.

Was one of them Kingswood Church youth club on Lambourne Drive in Wollaton? Some of the neighbours used to complain about the noise. Eventually it moved to a youth centre in Lenton, Monty Hind I think it was called. 2 bus rides to get there instead of one but much better as the music could be louder.

Shops shut on Good Friday.

This free access is very popular. Just tried it and the site hung up 4 times. I have used it to answer one question. The death of my grandmother in 1817 was not reported in the Nottingham Evening Post or the Guardian Journal. Rather odd as grandfather worked in the newspaper office. The list of newspapers on the site is impressive.

The new big library in Birmingham has Ancestry but not Find my Past.

I remember when you could buy a large Kit Kat with 6d! Now the chunky ones cost an arm and a leg at motorway services! In about 1966 my dad drove out of a petrol station without buying petrol because it was 37p a gallon! The coins and notes bring back good memories. Thanks.

Thanks. This is excellent news. It will be good to try out this site. I use Ancestry a lot but quite a few Family History Societies and County Archives are now releasing electronic copies of their parish records to Find my Past not Ancestry. Most libraries have free access to Ancestry but most do not have this access to Find my Past. Looking forward to some interesting research as my ancestors moved around a lot!

It is good to hear from other members about these problems. In the keep one drop one thread I put in a new word and several times found that someone else had put in a different one at exactly the same time. I felt a bit silly thinking it was me being slow. On the positive side the site is so great with lots of members using it so these things will happen sometimes.

On the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway website it says that Toby was the nickname of James Hartley the founder of Toby's. The site gives interesting short histories of some of the main iconic stores of old Nottingham. A nice read.

Hi Blondie Mr Bettinson was the department manager for the household linens department. When I was there I worked in his department sometimes. A very nice guy.

An excellent site. Thanks very much for this Mick. Brilliant photos.

As a child I went to a dentist on Mansfield Road. The dentist was Mr Arksey (I think that is the correct spelling). He was good and he also looked after my Mum's teeth. He knew I hated injections so he did my fillings without one at my request. In the early 60s he moved to run his own practice at a big house on Private Road, off Mansfield Road up by the Cemetery. Most of his patients there were "private" but he still took care of my teeth on NHS and did a good job. After I left Nottingham in 1972 I still came back for an annual appointment in February half term. Over the years, every time I we

Hi, I loved going in Toby's and as a teenager I thought the make up counter was the most interesting. The only item I ever bought was a bottle of Revlon pink pearl nail varnish. I also liked the coloured glassware but when I wanted such an item I bought it at the Co-op at a much more reasonable price! At that time I was not pestered by staff as you describe. From 1969 to 1972 I worked in the Farmer's store in Exchange Walk. This was a student holiday job. The management told us very firmly that we must never ever approach a shoplifter and we should just tell our department manager if w

Hi, This book is an example of the excellent work done by professional associations (trade unions). The history of the London Society of Compositors and the Typographical Association describe how these print workers trade unions ran their own pension fund and sick pay fund from the mid 1900s until the dawn of the welfare state. In more modern times NASUWT has worked hard to improve the lot of the teaching profession. To return to the theme of housing in Nottingham, I was brought up in a new council house in Bilborough. My late father was born in Nottingham in a street that has since been

Thanks Michael, I hope we have some members with memories of Portland.

Hi Bilbraborn and Firbeck Many thanks for these replies. I have been reading the Bilborough Grammar School thread again and put something on there as you will see. I am beginning to get my head around how the site works. I did not see Spike Milligan in 1971 as that year I was away being a student and mixing with a number of others who enjoyed his work. It is getting a bit late now, or perhaps early!

Donald Scrimshaw's grandmother used to live in the flats opposite where I lived back in the 1960s. My mum and I used to talk to her a lot. A lovely elderly lady. She said Donald only wanted to be a jockey and he was not happy at Bilborough Grammar School. I remember him. Tats was in our maths set. I am sure that he was the one who brought a small tape recorder into school with a recording of a loo flushing. We were not normally quiet for Miss Conway in maths but on that day we all knew about the recording and on the signal we were quiet. He turned the recording on and the poor woman wa

I looked through the list of schools and could not find Portland Junior School Bilborough so I am adding this to the list. Looking at some old school photos from the late 50s I counted the number of pupils in the class. In Miss Martinson's class there were 40. Amazing by today's standards! I remember the day of the 11+ exam. We arrived at school to see desks set out in the hall. They never told us the exam was that day! In a way it was probably a good thing as we just went in and did it! I only joined nottstalgia last week so I hope I have gone about setting up the new topic cor

Hi, I think this all started in the winter of 1962/63. A great winter. It snowed so much we did not go out for games so they taught us barn dancing with all the crazy moves. There was one called "the basket" where people sometimes got thrown across the floor. We went wrong so often it was one big laugh. The events were led by a member of the 6th form.

Hi Bilbraborn and firbek, It is great to see your replies. In my third year I was in Mr Crompton's form. He was a great English teacher and he introduced us to science fiction. I loved that. English literature is the only exam I failed! The books we had to read for the exam were deadly, though going to see Judy Dench in Saint Joan at Nottingham Playhouse was quite good. I much prefer the works of Spike Milligan! Mr Crompton left at the end of that year and he went to Clifton Hall Grammar School. A good friend of mine went there and she said he was a popular teacher. I have found the