Geoffrey Dennis

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Posts posted by Geoffrey Dennis

  1. Hi jonab ,recent wisdom now suggests that Baileys Pot Shop was at one time directly opposite to Mrs Peppers, which suggests she occupied the premises which is now Boots.Earliest memories are of that shop being Shaws Butchers so just when Mrs Pepper moved in and indeed out to the shop facing the market are as yet, still surrounded in mystery. Can anybody remember? As a direct indictment of my skills of observation I have to confess that I walked round that corner for 5 years on my way to school. 

  2. I drank in the George Street Club during my late teens. They were a typical club of the period,one arm bandits,bingo and turns at the weekend. What was unusual was that they issued brass tokens with their initials stamped on them to the value of every thing you bought from behind the bar.Once a year, based on profit, they would declare a dividend and you would redeem your tokens for a cash payout. I do remember the Playing Fields on Wigwam lane but also remember a business on the right hand side. The company hired and erected marquees and was owned by a family called Cordon,the young son being in my class at Hucknall National School. The company existed for some considerable time but was I understand, burnt down by some disgruntled employee. I did indeed drink and play darts badly in the Station Hotel. Whilst I cannot remember what the stretch of road between the Hotel and the end of the rec was called, I know for sure the lane and it was a lane, that ran from the end of the rec to Linby village was during my formative years called Linby Lane  Would you do me a courtesy and ask your wife if the Cricket Club and Football club, both of which were on Linby Lane are still there and if not what happened to them. .

     

     

     

     

     

  3. I`ve just noticed Palmer Avenue on the bottom of DJ360`s map.The Tebbs brothers, both of whom were Mellish boys, lived at the bottom of Palmer Avenue and although I visited the house several times, I don`t remember the large area of green shown. The Tebbs owned a Tandam  Bike and I can still remember sitting on the back and trying to steer with  handle bars which were locked in position and not designed to steer.Weird. John Tebbs elected to learn to play the Cello whilst at the Mellish and credit to him, used to lug an instrument almost as tall as himself to school and back once a week on the Trent Bus.  

  4. Fascinating map DJ360 but once again poses more questions than it answers

    1 Has Linby Lane become Linby Road?

    2 When did Hayden Lane become so built up?. It used to be really countrified with fields on both sides.

    3 Is George Street Working Mens Club still located on George Street and still the relatively small building I used to drink in 58 years ago?

  5. No mention yet of the " Houses" at the Mellish. Did the School advise parents prior to the Term starting what colour tie to buy or were the houses allocated once the Term had started? I thought joining the CCF was obligatory unless you had a medical exemption? One lad in the class always looked a peculiar purple colour, which was evidence apparently, of a severe heart condition and was therefor excused. Does anybody who was at the Mellish in around  1957 remember a pupil committing suicide? The only reason I am recalling such a sad occasion is that I cannot remember how it was communicated. The surname of the lad involved was Anchor and sadly, because he wasn`t somebody I knocked about with,  don`t  remember his christian name but do, , when I shut my eyes , still recall his face. I don`t remember whether we were told in assembly or in class but remember a story circulating school that he worked in a Chemists at the weekends.One thing for sure,in stark contrast to today, it was never mentioned in school again and there was certainly no shrine erected.                                 

  6. Great Posts. Now struggling with my memory, I cannot recall one breakfast that I sat staring at my jar of Robertsons  Marmalade having racist thoughts.No! my only intention was getting the lid off and spreading some of that golden goodness on my toast. Like every body else in the country no doubt. Pray God it isn`t too late for common sense to prevail.

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  7. You are quite right Ian, there is a cult of people who are over reactionary and over sensitive.I was watching a news programme on the T V this week and a pair of ladies black shoes appeared. The design on the front of the shoe consisted of a pair of eyes and two red lips and my initial thoughts were how cute they looked. Boy how wrong was I, as a lady guest was at pains to point  out. Apparently the motif was yet another insidious attempt to denigrate coloured  people.Absolute rubbish. Did that  lady that day not reaiise  that all she was doing was stoking the fires of racism.What would have been said had the shoes been white ? Not a lot I think. 

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  8. Sorry to hear that. As a Time Line, the song There coming to take  me away, had been released, which Barry insisted on bellowing down my ear every time I met him. That song came out in 1966 and I would have left in 1968 when I got married.I never had reason to revisit the Cavalier but did hear that there had been problems resulting in Barry having to move out. Did the boxers actually fight each other or were they exhibition bouts and did they throw down challenges to the spectators?

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  9. The Landlord of the Cavalier was an ex fairgound boxer called Barry Leanord who despite the air of menace that always seemed to surround him I liked and got on well with He was the Landlord of the Black Swan , which had a Boxing Ring on the premises, before he was given the Cavalier.I got on alright with the locals but kept my head down when ever any of Barry`s barrow boy mates visited with particular respect for their wives.One of the barrow boys arrived one evening with a pot cast on his leg but still managed to fall out with somebody and kick him down the pub steps.Barry insisted I accompany him on nights out visiting local pubs He drove between the pubs and on one occasion his bonnet blew up totally obscuring his vision.Not panicking,Barry indicated, drew the car smoothly to a halt,.got out slammed down his bonnet, winked and set off again One of Barry`s fellow Landlords had put a relation in charge while he went on his holidays. The relative put too much waste back into the mild and ruined a significant amount of beer. I was sent down into the cellar, tapped and spiled a new barrel of mild, ran some of good mild into a stainless steel bucket, poured some of the bad mild in, stirred the mixture, tasted it, put the suction pipe in and told Barry to start filling glasses  .  By the end of the night and having tasted every bucket I was well on the way but all the bad mild had gone Needless to say I was far too gone to drive and slept it off on one of the bar sofas. .   

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  10. When I was in my twenties,apart from holding down a full time job on Colwick Industrial Estate,I also worked part time at the Laughing Cavalier in Bestwood Park. My route from Hucknall took me under the railway bridge on Hucknall Road at the end of Bulwell Golf Course.On starting work at the pub I was riding a solo Francis Barnett motor bike which obviously fitted under the railway bridge easily. I later graduated to a motor bike combination and when I approached the bridge on that for the first time I had a sudden fear that me, the bike and the side car were too wide to fit through and slowed down to walking pace. Irrational I know but the fear was very real at the time. One evening later on I was on my way to work at the pub and passed a solitary car  parked on my side of Arnold Road with the Green Barrel sited on the other side.Hanging off the car was an old fashioned paraffin lamp, the likes of which you would see around holes in the road.As I approached the the parked car on my way home on an otherwise empty road I saw a car in the distance coming towards me. When I was about 100 yds away the oncoming car hit the parked car ,veered across the road and disappeared down an embankment.Fearing the worse ,I parked the bike and made my way to the spot at which the car had vanished, looked down and crawling towards me on his hands and knees was the obviously inebriated driver. The noise of the crash had awakened several neighbours who were converging on the scene. Realising the driver was in safe hands and knowing I had been drinking i opted for a swift getaway. Years later I was relating the story to a sister in law who told me the runaway car had come to a stop embedded in her parents garden wall.I under stand neither of the pubs are around anymore but have happy memories of my time at the the Cavalier.  

    • Like 1