jennifer

Hi Jill,

Sorry about the delay but I've now (finally) managed to digitise a few old photographs. Unfortunately these images are quite large ( average size around 10MB each) which is slightly higher than the 0.05MB limit on the forum. Do you have another E-Mail address I can send these images to so you can view them?

Hi Jill,

I don't think Olive ever lived in Beeston. I believe the family moved from Heanor straight to Radford Boulevard (probably because it was a larger property). The Nottingham birth was probably at the old Hucknall Hospital. I was also born there. I have found a few of the old photo's - I just need to find my camera so I can copy and send them. Some of the photo's are very old sepia ones which have faded badly so I'll have to mess about with these images to make them clearer. 

Many thanks for your posts on hairdressing. I remember those old hair dryers well. The "new" one was a putrid shade of yellow and the old one was a pre - war machine that originally had a 240 volt DC motor which Rex converted to run on AC - he was an expert rewinding motors and generators. He also insisted on painting everything with Hammerite - hence the stove enamel finish. That machine would still be working now if we had kept it! Visiting 234 was always a test for the nostrils as you either had the eggy stench of Olive's perm solution or the eye watering vapours of Rex's Carbon Tetrachloride which he used to clean the motors with. 

With regards to Peggy, she did marry Charles R Swift and had three sons by him. John Michael Swift took my father's name of Grant and is still alive and living in Stapleford. The other two sons, Ricky and Roger sadly both died. I believe one died shortly after birth and the other one after about six months. Peggy eventually divorced Charles. Charles didn't die until around 1990.

Hi Jill,

Olive was one of the Regent Girls and I know that she used to dance at Shipley Hall in the 1930's, but the introduction of talking pictures destroyed the dance industry. Ironically, David was born from her short affair with a major movie sound engineer! Sadly, apart from one meeting at our old house, she never had the chance to keep in contact with David even though it was her one desire. He had been adopted and it was felt by the powers that be, that he was in a stable environment within his foster family and in his best interest to stay put. This was the main reason for her depression and suicidal attempts.

I was too young to remember grandpa Percy as he died when I was young. I do know that he and Hattie used to run the Old Curiosity Shop at the bottom of Bath Street in Ilkeston and later ran a tobacconists shop at Beeston. My mother used to help out and met my father when he used to come in for a cup of tea from the garage across the road. Prior to living at Radford Boulevard, Percy and Hattie lived in Heanor, so you are probably correct about the Ashbourne connection. They were distantly related to the Gatsby or Gadsby family if that's any help.

Rex had a really tough time. He never really got over his war experiences. Shell-shock, shrapnel and severe mental health problems plagued him and he was rarely seen during the day, preferring to live a nocturnal life. He continued to live at the house after Hattie died and sadly he died a few years later in absolute squalor. 

I also remember the cats - Pobby was the large white one and Jinx was the black and white one. Oh - don't worry about Hattie's rough ear pulling. I used to get my own back on bonfire night with a jumping jack tied to a length of fishing line connected to her ankle!