Did you know?

[Trevor S 2,003]

On top of the Council building in Market Square, there are four statues, representing Commerce, Civic Law, Prosperity and Knowledge.

[DAVIDW 1,683]

July 28 1813
An eccentric framework knitter named James Hutchinson died this day aged 93 . He never was more than seven miles from Nottingham,
never drank a cup of tea in the course of his long life and for fourteen years , never tasted ale

His principal food for more than thirty years was milk , which he liked best when thick and sour and which he boiled till it
coagulated and then called it cheesecake .

He usually had fourteen pennyworths of milk standing in a row ,which he made use of in
order , always taking the most ancient that he might have it as sour as possible .

He had worked in the frame 76 years during 56 of which he was employed by one firm that of Messrs Rawson and for 29 years he
worked by the light of one window during which time his frame never was moved .

He died at the house of his granddaughter in Narrow-marsh leaving more than thirty descendants
.

[mick2me 3,033]

In my working life I met many strange people.

One house I visited had a room devoted to storing the occupants urine in flatop milk bottles.

The rear ground floor room had bottles filled to the top, neatly placed covering most of the floor.

Another one, a chap continued to use his loo after it got blocked, for a number of years, it was stacked in a cone shape on the top

of the pan and crap had overflowed to fill the gap between the walls and the pan on each side of the toilet.

Just thought you would want to know that?

[Trevor S 2,003]

Are you sh*tt*ng me???

And as for James Hutchinson....reckon his breath would stink as bad as the crapper above!!!

[denshaw 2,872]

Flat top milk bottles, not heard that for years Mick.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

There was a John Hutchinson hung for the murder of a five year old boy(January 1905) in Narrow Marsh in March 1905.

[DAVIDW 1,683]

Sept 28 1818 from The date-book of remarkable and memorable events connected with Nottingham ... By John Frost Sutton .

An event of the most appalling description of which the local records afford no parallel rendered the day truly
memorable . A few minutes before three in the afternoon Monday nearly a ton of gunpowder exploded and by its tremendous
effect involved both the men and property within its range in one common ruin .
The catastrophe took place at the wharf belonging to the Nottingham Boat Company , the scite adjoining Carrington street bridge
now occupied by the wharf of D Brown and Co . A boat had arrived that morning from Gainsborough laden with flagstones cotton wool
molasses soap and twenty one barrels of gunpowder each barrel containing about lOOlbs .

The explosive material had been shipped by Messrs Flower of Gainsborough and was on its passage for use in the Derbyshire mines . The boat was moored in tbe basin partly under the archway of the extensive warehouses of the Company and Hezekiah Riley the captain and his two men Joseph Musson and Benjamin Wheatley proceeded to unship the powder on the south side of the building .
They landed the barrels on the wharf and rolled them along into the interior of the bottom warehouse. Riley survived the explosion and at the Coroners inquest the following day presided over by Mr H Enfield and Mr J Dunn thus stated this part of the transaction.

"The end of one of the barrels was out and had been matted up and as I was carrying it from the boat into the warehouse the peg fastenings
broke and a considerable quantity of powder as much as three or four pounds fell upon the wharf side between the boat and
the warehouse door. I at once put back into the barrel as much of it as I could collect leaving perhaps a couple of ounces
or so amongst the dirt but whether any had fallen into the boat or not I cannot tell ".

Having thus as he supposed seen the
powder safely deposited, Riley walked towards the counting house and Joseph Musson a native of Edingley but living with his
wife in the Meadow plats of this town went across the wharf to a boat belonging to Mr Simpson in which were Richard Allcock
William Bish and Joseph Champion and addressing himself to the former said , "You ve got a fire in your boat I want a live
coke" adding "Lads I m going to have a flush" .
Musson accordingly took a live coke and carried it a great part of the way
between two sticks but letting it fall he picked it up with his fingers and chucking it repeatedly from one hand to the
other finally dropped it on the powder that Riley had been unable to gather up.

The result was awful. The flush being doubtless connected with the barrels by a small train , the whole of them exploded and Musson and nine others were in a moment utterly destroyed .

The unthinking cause of this catastrophe (Musson ) was blown across the canal into the Meadows and over the
Tinker's Leen on the opposite bank , of which it appeared that his body first touched the ground .One of his legs was left
here while the other mutilated fragments were propelled with great violence along the ground at least a dozen yards further
leaving a hideous track of blood and brains pieces of skull and flesh upon the grass over which they had passed.

Benjamin Wheatley aged 28 a single man of Stoke Bardolph , a boatman George Hayes of Trowell , labourer to the Company aged 25
who left a wife and one child and Job Barnes labourer aged 36 , were found dead in Riley's vessel , their bodies being dreadfully
disfigured , the latter had a wife and six children .
Samuel Hall of Bridge street stonemason was also in the boat but happening
to be stooping down at the moment to lift up a flagstone his life was preserved though he was much injured . Of the other
victims of this direful catastrophe.
One afflicting case was that of John Howell a youth aged 11 the son of one of the
Company's bookkeepers who resided at the house in the yard. He was fishing in the Canal and his body like those of the others
was so disfigured that it was only by the remains of the clothes that it could be identified.

About fifty yards east of the building in a direct line from it stood Mr John Pyatt a respectable wharfinger who Providentially escaped unhurt. He was at the fatal moment calling to three of his men and giving them directions respecting the loading of a cart they were drawing
into the yard one was holding up the shafts and the others were pushing behind.

They were thus caught by the blast and driven with the utmost violence towards Canal street .Their names were John Seales a single man aged 30 of Highcross street Win Norman a widower of the same street aged 60 and William Steveason aged 23 from Leicester .The two former were killed instantaneously and the latter , manifesting signs of life was conveyed to the General Hospital, he exclaimed
several times "Oh my heart " and died about six o clock in the evening.

Another of the victims was a lad aged 15 named William
Parker the son of a poor man living at Carlton . This youth had an ardent desire to engage himself in a boat and on the Saturday
previous to the explosion rose at an early hour to collect mushrooms which he sold that day in Nottingham market and with
the proceeds bought some small articles of clothing as an outfit for his intended employment.

He came to Nottingham on Monday to hire himself to go in Riley's boat and was standing within a few yards of it when the catastrophe took place . The blast took him across the canal and hauling path through a hedge into the Meadows and there his corpse was found most terribly
mutilated . The last of the shocking catalogue of those thus suddenly deprived of life was Thomas Baker aged 42 He was
Mr Richard Hooton's maltster but the regular waggoner being unwell had undertaken that day to discharge his duties .
He was standing near his waggon in the yard when the building fell and crushed him and the shaft horse to death . He lived in
the Three Salmons yard and left a wife and five children.
Other parties had very narrow escapes.

Riley who was near the counting house was laid prostrate on the ground. The three men in Mr Simpson's boat were also overthrown but not materially injured.

Mr Richard Barrows the owner of Riley's boat and the principal director of the Boat Company had been in the warehouse
a few minutes previously and had sent Mr Fauband a bookkeeper on an errand and to a person named Ashton he had given orders
to go to a wood shed across the yard which the man was entering just as the building he had quitted blew up. Mr Barrows also
had but just entered the counting house when the glass flew out of the windows and wounded him in the face but inflicted no
further injury.
Another remarkable case was that of Mr Stainbank a large corn merchant . He had been in the warehouse till one o
clock superintending the delivery of a great quantity of corn and having been home to dinner was returning again to the wharf
but was met and detained in the street in converse with a gentleman who was thus unwittingly the cause of his preservation .

And considering the extensive nature of the business transacted on the premises it was indeed Providential that more lives were
not sacrificed.

The loss of property though secondary to that of life was immense It must be remembered that nearly a ton of
gunpowder exploded at once and the concussion was so tremendous that it was not only heard throughout the town but also at
Ratcliffe Bingham Loughborough Alfreton Loscoe and even at Newark and at Castle Donington it was considered by many to be a
sudden clap of thunder .

In Nottingham the houses were shaken as if by an earthquake and people ran out in agitation inquiring
one of another what was amiss. Many supposed that their neighbours houses or their own premises had
fallen and others sunk down in terror. While the astonished inhabitants were running about the streets and looking in different
directions for a clue to the mystery an immense cloud of smoke came rolling along from the south and guided by the direction
from whence it was rising thousands sallied forth towards Canal street.
Some of these were arrested by seeing affrighted women
with children in their arms in Chesterfield and Finkhill streets , locking up their doors and seeking refuge in higher parts of
the town under an expectation of another shock . Every moment rendered this less probable and numbers entered the yard where a
scene of devastation presented itself such as they had never before witnessed .

Bricks slates tiles human bodies huge masses of timber and all kinds of goods lay strewed and smoking upon the ground in appalling disorder Many women and others were running about distracted anxiously inquiring after the fate of husbands or relatives and the piercing cries that burst forth from several on a conviction that their fears were too well founded were agonizing in the extreme.
None could behold the scene without the most touching emotion .The noble range of warehouses was found to be completely destroyed not a vestige of the building remaining in its former position and even the stone floor of the compartment in which the powder was placed was seen
to have been forced into the ground a most astonishing depth .

A gentleman who happened to be crossing the Meadows at the
time of the explosion subsequently expressed the amazement that struck his mind when looking that way he saw the whole building
lifted up in the air and then suddenly divide into innumerable fragments , the bricks beams bales hogsheads &c flying to all
points of the compass. The spectacle was terrifically grand . The property in the warehouses consisted principally of oil vitriol
paper groceries wool cotton and several thousand quarters of corn . Most ot this was entirely lost and the rest greatly damaged
Some parts of the ruins were on fire but the fire engines soon extinguished it. Two neighbouring houses occupied by Mr Howell and
Mr Wilkes were greatly damaged .The window casements for instance were completely blown out , the roof partly stripped and the
furniture considerably damaged the carpets and hangings in all the rooms being torn to shreds .Most of the buildings in the
wharves along the canal were partially unroofed and more or less injured .Scarcely a house in the neighbourhood escaped some
trace of the desolating shock.
Canal street Navigation row Finkhill street Chesterfield street Broad marsh Sussex street and
Drury hill suffered the most extensively but the devastation reached the Castle Standard hill Castle gate Bridlesmith gate
and the Market place in all which localities panes of glass &c were broken .

A liberal public subscription was immediately raised
for the relief of the families of the unfortunate sufferers

[mick2me 3,033]

You can read the Book of Remarkable and Memorable Events Connected with Nottingham on Google Books

[Gibbo 04 188]

Stewardesses is the longest word that you can type using only your left hand.....( bet you have a go!! )

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Stewardesses is the longest word that you can type using only your left hand.....( bet you have a go!! )

I only type using one finger

[Gibbo 04 188]

I'm slightly better Bubblewrap.....I use one finger from each hand..........!

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Well I do use my left thumb for the capital letters.

[Gibbo 04 188]

Genius, you're a keyboard wizard!!

[StephenFord 866]

Well, of course, you CAN hit any of the keys with your left hand - but like crossing your hands when driving, it is frowned upon in official circles! (I must tell you some time about the typing bureau supervisor at Derby Railway Technical Centre in the 1980s - the fearsome Betty Lansdell - nicknamed by one of my bosses "The laughing policeman." )

[DAVIDW 1,683]

You can read the Book of Remarkable and Memorable Events Connected with Nottingham on Google Books

Two more snippets from the same . This sounds like a beautiful house , shame it had to go.....I guess nothing changes ! Wonder what a peruke is ?

May 29 1775

Workmen commenced the demolition of an ancient house on the High Pavement , the most picturesque probably in the town . It stood at the corner of Garner's Hill nearly opposite the Charity School and had latterly been in the occupation of Mr Edwards an eminent peruke maker . The style of the building was the early English , each story projecting two feet or more beyond the one beneath it so that the one next the roof was more than nine feet wider than the ground floor The whole was composed almost entirely of oak and chestnut and was supposed to be nearly six hundred years old

Secondly we had a whip round for the Germans !

March 2 1814

A public meeting convened by the Mayor was held in the Guildhall at which it was resolved to enter into a subscription for the relief of the suffering Germans £900 were subscribed

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Peruke is a wig

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453294/peruke

[DAVIDW 1,683]

Peruke is a wig

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453294/peruke

Just what I need !

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Just what I need !

Not one of these then?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkin

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Wig known to "Cockneys" as a "syrup"

[DAVIDW 1,683]

Wig known to "Cockneys" as a "syrup"

I always wondered how "Harris" or "arris" was the slang for backside , now I know :

.

The correct rhyming slang for "Arse" is "Bottle & Glass"

but once people knew this , the term couldn't really be used anymore without offending people. That prompted people to use the slang for "Bottle", which is "Aris-totle" as a slang for the first insult. "Aristotle" became "Aris" which in a London accent sounds the same as "Harris"

[Beefsteak 305]

Wig known to "Cockneys" as a "syrup"

Incedentally the word comes from a corruption of the words 'cocks egg', and therefore meaning wierd, and was originated in the Peckham Rye area of south London,. A phrase that gradually became aimed at any one to the north of the Thames.

Just for certain peoples information.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

A "Cockney in real terms was born within hearing distance of Bow bells(East End)

[Beefsteak 305]

That is the 'modern' version yes, although it is only a very recent (In real terms) inovation. I'm not sure on the era, buy I think it was only in the late 1800s early 1900s that that came into being

[Trevor S 2,003]

Gentlemen (and Ladies),

1. To be a true Londoner - A Cockney, you have to be born within hearing distance of the church bells of St. Mary Le Bow, Cheapside, in the City of London of London. Before the advent of motor traffic, the sound of the Bow Bells apparently reached 6 miles to the East, 5 miles to the north, 4 miles to the West and 3 miles to the south.

'Cockney' or 'cock's egg' was a 14th Century term applied contemptuously by rural people to native Londoners who lived rather by their wits than their muscle. In time, the term became synonymous with working class Londoners and it lost its once denigrating qualities. To most outsiders a Cockney is anyone from London itself. Today's natives of London, especially its East End use the term with pride - 'Cockney Pride'.
(courtesy of cockney.co.uk)

2. A Cockney is a Londoner; the original definition was someone born near enough to hear the bells of Bow, which meant people in the east of the city.

The word Cockney means the egg of a cockerel (male hen) and was meant as an insult, implying dishonesty in business deals by trying to sell non-existent or low quality goods, or so the story goes.

The term is now used happily and proudly by the people of the east and north of London, who regard themselves as the 'real' Londoners in a very cosmopolitan city where a lot of the population have come in from other areas of the country or abroad.
(courtesy of english for students.com)

3. The cockney language can be traced back to the early part of the 19th Century.

4. The region in which "Cockneys" are thought to reside is not clearly defined. A common view is that in order to be a Cockney, one must have been born within earshot of the Bow Bells. However, the church of St Mary-le-Bow was destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire of London and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. Although the bells were destroyed again in 1941 in the Blitz, they had fallen silent on 13 June 1940 as part of the British anti-invasion preparations of World War II.

Before they were replaced in 1961, there was a period when, by the "within earshot" definition, no "Bow-bell" Cockneys could be born. The use of such a literal definition produces other problems, since the area around the church is no longer residential and the noise of the area makes it unlikely that many people would be born within earshot of the bells any longer, although the Royal London Hospital, Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital are within the defined area covered by the sound of the Bow Bells.

The closest maternity units were the City of London Maternity Hospital, Finsbury Square, which was bombed out during the World War II blitz, and St Bartholomew's Hospital (or Barts), whose maternity department closed in the late 1980s. The East London Maternity Hospital in Stepney, which was 2.5 miles from St Mary-le-Bow, was in use from 1884 to 1968. There is a maternity unit still in use at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. Home births were very common until the late 1960s.

A study was carried out by the city in 2000 to see how far the Bow Bells could be heard, and it was estimated that the bells would have been heard six miles to the east, five miles to the north, three miles to the south, and four miles to the west. According to the legend of Dick Whittington the bells could once be heard from as far away as Highgate (5 miles). The association with Cockney and the East End in the public imagination may be due to many people assuming that Bow Bells are to be found in the district of Bow, rather than the lesser known St Mary-le-Bow church.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

Therefore, while all East Enders are Cockneys, not all Cockneys are East Enders.

And really gentlemen, it means that you are all right and after that, I'm cream crackered!

[denshaw 2,872]

Those who pretend to be Cockney are Mockney.