sputnik

One of the old writers (it's online) was talking about the hollows and the gobbins. I couldn't work out the difference. I thought the hollows was where old bell-pits used to be.

I was called Sputnik by my father after we watched the Soviet satellite go over Clifton in 1957. I came here to the website after an old school-friend from Fairham told me news about old class mates dying. I was surprised enough to come and look for myself (he was wrong, partly). My first home at North Down Road was only a few hundred yards away from where my great great great grandfather Cutts lived (he was a collier at the old Radford pit before it closed) and my interests range from Nottingham Crocus to Corporation Oaks and from the Kardomah to the old Running Horse.

So, where was the gobbins, Compo?

But surely it was 'art' because they because they were saying 'art thou going?' If you don't speak the dialect...

Also in the fifties girls were moving out of the area to new estates like Clifton and Strelley but carried on going to the school.

I think a lot of the girls came from the whole Radford/Basford area, but they are the only two I know of.

My sister Nancy and her friend Pauline were at the Manning - I think 1952 to 1959.

He replaced Sid about 1964 and was still there when I left in 1968. I remember his first day at Fairham. He stood out. Richard Warren might know because he was in the same house. I've got a contact. The other guy to ask would be Chris Perry, another PE teacher, who I saw the other week. So, stand by.

Dialect words like sorry or serry are nine times out of ten closer to the really old pronunciation . The Oxford English implies it is older than sirrah. It's a bit like the Dublin and NE England word gosson or gossoon, a boy or someone naive. It's probably pretty close to Old French. Once you try to write them down, you lose the flavour.

Re the demon trolley. Wishbone was an adventurous boy. I remember him breaking his leg when he was six or seven and being brought in by his mother to Greencroft Infants in a wheelchair and sitting in front of us in the hall looking uncomfortable. I don't think he ever spoke but he was very impressive! Then he had his appendix - oh, never mind!

Yes, I remember Wishbone. He had a tin-can telephone he strung across Rivergreen once.

My uncle who was on leave from RAF reconnaissance (shot down over France) befriended two POWs and they eventually went out on outings with all the family who lived on Western Boulevard and Ringwood Crescent. Once the war was over, they were sent out to work. The man called Lewis worked at Wilwell Farm on Ruddington Lane near the old brickyard. He eventually became a farm manager in Shropshire I think. The other man (I don't know his name) went back to Germany. There is a photograph of them both on a day out with my grandmother, great aunts and uncle, mother and sisters (before I was born). I

I lived on Greencroft 1953 - 1960 near to Wishbone and was at Greencroft Primary and Fairham 1955 - 1968 with Wishbone, Rob Underwood, Anth (Ginn) & Phil Barradell. Another fan of Georgina Taylor - one among many it looks like from the comments here. My mum (Mrs Clarke) was a dinner lady at Greencroft Infants about 1957 onwards. I saw Chris Perry the runner and PE teacher only about two weeks ago on Central Avenue in WB. He must be 70+ but never changes. Richard Warren still lives in WB as well. Pat Smith the maths teacher also used to be around in Bridgford and Burley the G

Jopip asked about Ron Hailey. He was head of PE and my tutor. Not your average PE type. Very smart, always wore cavalry twills. He used to plead with me to let him know was at school because I never went when he took the attendance register but never got heavy-handed. He had me sussed.