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I remember the smogs and thick fogs, but can't recall ever being sent home early..

I remember in the early 60's before I started with the NCB, I started work with an electrical contractor and we were doing some work in Hucknall.

The plumber was needed for us to finish our job, so the elec I was working with said he'd come back later in his car and finish off.

This was about 2-00pm, so he said once in town I could go home and he'd cover for me....Yeah right!!

Bright sunny afternoon in Hucknall, got on the bus, just leaving Hucknall, and someone misted all the windows up, Jeeze it was the thickest smog I've ever seen, Hucknall to Huntingdon street was less than 30 minutes USUALLY.... Two hours later we still hadn't arrived!

Eventually the driver pulled into Huntingdon Street bus station, parked up and said that's it for him.

NCT buses had stopped running hours ago from what we could make out, it was now well past 6-00pm and I'd got a fair hike to the top end of Wilford Road where I lived in almost zero visibility.....

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So when William the Conquerer showed up in 1066 he got the smogs under control for a few years? Sorry couldn't resist it.

I remember the smog being a regular occurrence in 1960s, one particular one, as i used to be quite afraid on my own. I worked on Alfred Street in the City and we had a particular dense smog that cam

All very well everyone going smokeless, but do miss that Autumn smell of leaves burning. When I do very occasionally get a whiff, immediately reminds me of those days with the evenings drawing in, hot

Remember the pea-soupers in the early fifties. Us kids used to do all right out it, charging motorists to walk in front of their cars and show them the way to some place. Once walked from Midland Station all the way to the Cremorne down Queens Drive. That would have been worth thre'pence.

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The Avenue Plant at Clay Cross which produced Sunbrite closed a long time ago but there is still some kind of work going on there.

Every time I pass by on the train I have a look, I think it must be de-contamination of the land which the plant occupied.

When coke ovens were discharged, it was a most spectacular sight, particularly so at night. Big lumps of white hot coke tumbling down from a massive tower, probably about a hundred feet high.

The railway line from Sheffield to Leeds used to go right past Manvers coke ovens. I went past on a train once as it was being discharged, you could actually feel the heat from it in the carriage as it passed by.

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I remember the smog being a regular occurrence in 1960s, one particular one, as i used to be quite afraid on my own. I worked on Alfred Street in the City and we had a particular dense smog that came down during the day. Our boss allowed us to leave early if we had to catch buses. I had to keep one hand on the wall all the way down Huntingdon Street and when i heard foot steps i never knew which way they were coming from until the person was within touching distance. At the bus station we would get on what ever buses were still running, if they went any where near where we lived. I was a bit timid so i would often get pushed to the back.Thanks to a big shove from a man behind i did make it onto a bus that day. Why i never stayed at one of my relations living all around that area i don't know?. But what would have been the biggest worry to my parents, as no one in our family or neighbors had phones in those days.

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But what would have been the biggest worry to my parents, as no one in our family or neighbors had phones.

Couldn't you call them on your mobile love. :laugh: :laugh:

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I remember one day having to walk from town back home to Arnold in thick fog/smog with Mum and Dad. Must have been around 1959. My brother would only have been 4 and I was about 9 or 10. We must have caught a bus into town and then they had stopped running. It was a long way for little legs to walk and pretty scary too.

But on the subject of smokeless fuel - I can never remember having anything other than coal on the fire. By about 1962 my Mum had gone out to work and I was the first one home in the evening and I lit the fire.

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I've heard it said that before smokeless zones were introduced and smokeless fuels really took off, most towns had their own gas works and coal was used to produce it (before natural gas too) Coke was a by-product of this process and the gas works apparently used to almost give it away.

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In the bad winter of 1962/63 there were some horrendous smogs. I used to walk home from school along Forest Road alongside the Rock Cemetery. The good news was in the darkness of a late afternoon pea-souper you could use the railings as a guide to find your way - the bad news was to an 8 year old boy the Victorian Gothic gravestones rearing up out of the fog were scary - especially the sad angel!

At that time it took my Dad three hours to drive from his work at Carlton Road/Alfred Street surgery to home just off Mapperley Road.

Tim

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I remember a trolley bus off the wire at the bottom of Piccadilly, they couldn't see the end of the pole or the wire to put it back. The trollies all had to stop behind, quite a row of them.

Another time the buses had stopped running so I went to the Midland Station to see if the trains were still going and got on a Mansfield train. The train stopped at Basford Crossings so that the fireman could walk forward to check that the gates were set for the train.

Fogs in Nottingham were real pea soupers.

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Two of our staff plus a couple of miners were late that traveled together to Clifton Colliery one night shift, the fog around the pit was pretty dense, but not yet a smog.

The Senior Overman allowed late rides for those turning up for work late, usually missed the winding time appointed times and you normally got sent home.

Anyway, the lads arrived about half an hour late, got changed etc...

What had happened was they got stuck at a traffic island at Dunkirk where the fire station was, they got on it but couldn't find a way off..It was a thick smog around there...Driver said he was going around and around and the rest of the lads were arguing it's there, ran up the curb , backed off and around again..

Eventually, the driver stopped, ordered a couple out to form a scouting party to find their exit and lead him into it... LOL

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When i think back to my childhood there were no luxuries as money was very short but there was always roaring fires at home, we never knew what it was like to be cold in the house, every bedroom had fire places and the fire would be timed just right to go out at our bed time. A big old fashioned fire guard put in place, That was one of the bonuses of having a dad who was a miner, we always had coal. I just thought of the delicious toast we used to cook on the brass three pronged toasting fork (yummy) Anyway back on topic.I don't remember when Gedling went smokeless but i do remember getting lost on the bit of waste ground behind the Grey Goose, trying to get to Arnold Lane to catch the bus and not being able to see more than an arms length in front because of the thick smog or fog, not sure which it was. It would be very difficult to explain to anyone who didn't see these times just how bad it was.

Ps, i just remembered that the delivery men would tip all the coal delivery out side the house on Hardy's Drive sometimes (not sure if that was the usual routine) and all us kids would help carry it round the back, Any excuse to get mucky.

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Remember about 1958 going to see relatives at Carlton, and the conductor walking in front of a 65 all the way from Parliament Street, up Gordon Road to Porchester Road. It was such slow going that we got off there, when there was no more hill to climb, and continued on foot - followed the proper route, but the bus never caught up with us.

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All very well everyone going smokeless, but do miss that Autumn smell of leaves burning. When I do very occasionally get a whiff, immediately reminds me of those days with the evenings drawing in, hot dumpling stew on the stove and a kitchen with all the windows steamed up, yet warm and cosy inside.

Funny how in them days you could eat until you almost burst, but people never got fat. Fat people were a rarity, yet the amount of food my parents would put away was unbelievable, as did us kids. I can see the plates of dumpling stew even now, piled high. And they were big plates. Nowadays you just need to look at a lettuce leaf and you put on weight. <sob>

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#41

Just a teeny teeny weeny, alteration to my post.The toasting fork i mentioned was the ornamental one, and the one we actually used was a thin like metal one.sorry about that,must get these snippits of information right. :P

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Alison that's because we didn't sit on our asses all the time watching (2 black & white channels on ) the telly or playing computer games. We were out chasing about and generally burning all that food off.

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