Driving lessons - where and when?


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Going back 20 years or so and after driving round aimlessly for hours with eldest son trying to give him practise in between lessons , when it came to younger sons turn , he elected to have an intense driving course .

So for his 17th birthday he had a 1 week intensive course , where he went out with the instructor for hours each day and then took the test at the end of that week ......and passed , aged 17 years and 1 week old !

Saved all the hassle and stress for me and was well worth the money, though I am not sure if its possible to do it like that anymore.

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Bridges School of Motoring...my next door neighbour, in Watnall. I was 18, 1975. Had 6 lessons, then off to Chalfont Drive for the test, and passed first time despite going through a red light. The ex

A few more lessons needed

I had driving lessons with a Driving Instructor who smoked like a chimney. Before I sat at the steering wheel I always gave the car mat beneath the driver's seat a real good shake - if I'd have thoug

I was never shown how to parallel park, and don't know anyone who was. I guess they thought it was inbred in us, LOL.

Now this is how to parallel park.

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Never had any lessons . My dad used to go to the car auctions & i would move the cars around the lot i was about 10 years old when this started. Measham , West Bridgeford &Top of Carlton hill were the places i remember,

Then when i got my provisional licence i was designated driver on a pub crawl took my test next day Passed first time.

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came across this driving school in Madiera the car as 2 steering wheels.I learned to drive in a Pontiac Parisienne that had a bench seat and the instructor had a brake pedal on his side that was attached to the brake pedal on the drivers side,l remember taking my test and having to parallel park this monster but l did and passed my test and then l bought one of these cars

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First test was on my Lambretta. I had been driving on a provisional for three years mostly without L plates when a very nice girl refused to ride with me unless I took a test. Test taken in Newark on Market day but passed ok. I progressed from Scooter to motorbike and thence to Reliant Supervan III (Which I rolled in Yorkshire and temorarily patched up with insulating tape and string, to get me home! Therein after known as the "Plastic Nasty" and name emblazoned above the windscreen).

In 1975 I decided to upgrade again to a car, had four lessons with a lesbian instructress who fancied the wife and went for my test at....., crikey memory fading! The test centre on Glaisdale Drive, forget its name. Had a woman tester who my instructress said loathed men - especially younger men :( My instructor said I would fail and right away I stalled the car on my first manoeuvre. "Well, that's that, stuffed already and I haven't gone more than a few yards" I thought, so I just drove normally as if I was in my Plastic Nasty. No careful overwaiting at junctions and overtaking at 40MPH on Western Boulevard. Eventually arrived back to the centre and the tester said that mine was one of the most confident and inspiring test runs she had ever had. I passed. So much for her hatred of men making her biased.

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Driving lessons.Never had one! I did have this pretty girlfriend however who borrowed her father`s car and she taught me everything I know (about driving) I think somewhere in these pages is the account of the driving test where I was told to take the next left and we ended up driving around Shippo`s Brewery.

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"Taken one more since then - in Colorado. It was only a driving test - in an automatic. It took all of 10 minutes, and really was a joke!"

Eric, probably similar to the one I took in California, as I had been driving a number of years on the left, it was mainly to see if I was safe driving on the right. I wasn't asked to perform any of the things new licensees were required to do, parallel parking, emergency stops etc, just drive in traffic, make lane changes right and left intersection turns..One of which I had to roll over the stop line as I couldn't see traffic in the inside lane approaching me...I lost two points for that and the examiner said he'd have done the same thing, but, he had to dock me points, other than that he was 100% satisfied with my driving, 15 minutes test...

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BSM on Mansfield Road in 1971. They were based in terraced shops near the Victoria centre (then under construction) with their cars parked on what was left of Union Road. Lessons were £1.75 each in a Morris 1300 -my instructor called Pat chain smoked Consulates all through the lessons - wouldn't happen now!

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My instructor was a local bloke who taught in his spare time. I remember getting told off on my very first lesson for driving too fast - I was doing 80 on the Oxton by-pass!

Managed to get an early test date so only had four lessons in the end before taking, and passing, my test around Arnold.

25 years later, decided to get a full bike licence, and even though I'd been driving all those years, I still had to take the theory test.

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I hate bad parking like that. The Dukeries Filling Station on Nottingham Road in Mansfield gets very busy with casual shoppers at various times of the day. Not everyone filling up. I went one day for a newspaper and there was a queue waiting to park. Two big off-roaders occupied two places each (just bad parking) and the two drivers were stood leaning on one of the cars having a natter. I asked them if they could release at least a couple of parking places and they just looked through me. They didn't ignore the woman from the shop who reminded them that the large sign says 40 mins free parking and a huge fee for anything over, and they were on CCTV. They were off like a shot. arrogant selfish b------s.

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Learned with Trent but not the Trent here. It was the Peter Trent driving school in Sydney in 1975. The instructor was a cantankerous old bugger named Cliff. Chainsmoker. Twelve lessons and passed first time. Took the test in Five Dock, lived in Ashfield at the time.

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East Yorkshire driving school,Friar lane,Nottm,1964,16 lessons,instructor named Keith,passed ist time,car was Triumph Herald

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BSM on Mansfield Road like Tim in the North East, but after a few months I changed to a man in Bingham, because the BSM never put me down for a driving test, so I changed driving schools, when I made my first appointment the instructor put me down for a driving test and about a month later I had my driving licence...

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Bridges School of Motoring...my next door neighbour, in Watnall. I was 18, 1975. Had 6 lessons, then off to Chalfont Drive for the test, and passed first time despite going through a red light. The examiner put his glasses on as I reversed round the corner and ended up in the middle of the road. I suppose I should add I was wearing tight jeans, low cut top and my lurve beads. Sometimes you just have to play the girly card!!!

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Stared learning with my dad at the disused airfield at Wymeswold aged 10 or 11. Old Ford Prefect and a cushion to sit on.

4 lessons with an instructor, test round New Basford past first time, 1964. Damn well should have done to all 4 lessons were spent going round the exact route I would take my test on. I even knew the emergency stop would be on Wilkinson Street just over the hump of the bridge coming from Valley Rd towards Hyson Green.

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I was lucky. I was a bus conductor in Glasgow in the early 70s. With the advent of one man operation, as soon as we turned 21 we were sent for weekend assessments for bus driving. If we were deemed competent, we were sent on a five week course. Mind you, some of those old buses were seriously hell to drive but I passed first time and didn't have to pay a penny. AND we were taught how NOT to hit low bridges.

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  • 3 years later...
On 2/20/2014 at 2:16 PM, Bilbraborn said:

AND we were taught how NOT to hit low bridges

Go on then, let us into the secret!

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Years ago I used to be good friends with an elderly man who had been a travelling showman. When he was a young man he took his driving test in an old diesel electric lorry that was used for transporting a ride and towing huge loads. This had a diesel powered generator which fed electric motors which actually moved it. These faded out of existence as clutch and mechanical drives improved. A similar principle to diesel electric trains. The examiner obviously didn't understand the type of vehicle he was in and at the end of the test congratulated my friend on a very smooth drive saying he never felt a gear change and gave him a licence to drive just about anything. It should have been for the specific class only. 

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I swapped a push bike for an old NSU moped when I was about 12. A neighbour saw me and gave me an Ariel Leader motorbike he was parting with when I was 13 or 14 and I rode these around the land at the bottom of Woodstock Avenue in Radford. Never went on the road of course. I swapped it a few weeks before my 16th birthday for a Lambretta TV 175 and put in for my test. I got a cancellation so about 3 weeks after my birthday got my test. The day of my test I was at work at Raleigh in the offices and got time off to do the test. I went to the bike shed and try as I might my Lambretta refused to start. I was stuck and in desperation went to the toy manufacturing dept where a lad worked who had a scooter. I barely knew him as we started and finished at different times but he parked his scooter in the same shed as me and we sometimes said hello if he was on overtime. I asked if I could borrow his scoot and to my surprise and gratitude he said yes. The test was at West Bridgeford so I rode there a bit late and rather downhearted as the scoot I was on was tricked out, a dozen mirrors backrest etc. The full mod monty which I thought wouldn't go down very well. Anyway the examiner told me to ride down the road, turn first right and keep turning first rights until he would tell me to stop. So I set off turned right but found it wasn't a road as such but a back alley behind shops. I came out the far end turned right and found myself going towards Trent Bridge which I knew was wrong. I headed back and found the irate examiner who gave me an almighty bollocking but sent me off again. All went well and he passed me first time. Eternal gratitude to the scooter lender whoever you were. 

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