Prefabs, Wigman road Bilborough

[dgbrit 258]

Another name Mel Thorpe & his brother Craig. Elsteree dr

Mel played sax with Spencer Davis group.

I do remember Darch's dad smoked the most evil smelling pipe !!!!

[DAVIDW 1,681]

Another name Mel Thorpe & his brother Craig. Elsteree dr

Mel played sax with Spencer Davis group.

I do remember Darch's dad smoked the most evil smelling pipe !!!!

Mel Thorpe , more recently in my brothers jazz band ( Mel is the guy with the sax )

[Mess 616]

Another name Mel Thorpe & his brother Craig. Elsteree dr

Mel played sax with Spencer Davis group.

I do remember Darch's dad smoked the most evil smelling pipe !!!!

I remember Mr Darch and his pipe. I think he worked for the Electricity Board. Mrs Darch worked at The Theatre Royal and once gave my mum a couple of free tickets.

I learned to play billiards on a half sized table the Darch family had in their front room. It took up nearly all the room but was great fun.

I think the Darch kids all went to Robert Shaw. Ian the youngest wore NHS pick framed specs and was very keen on collecting birds eggs (naughty boy!)

They were a very nice well balanced family.

[Mess 616]

Mel Thorpe , more recently in my brothers jazz band ( Mel is the guy with the sax )

Mel's brother Craig was at High Pavement with my cousin. He took up the trumpet but wasn't much good.

Their dad (like most in the 1950's) was in the forces in WWII and Craig used to teach me military marches he learned off his dad.

Craig was fancied by nearly all the girls on Elstree Drive.

Mel was quite a bit older than me. He was pals with Keith Richardson at number 27.

Keith Richardson was a very bright lad who went to Nottingham High School. He went into banking and now lives in Surrey. He was a brilliant chess player and became a Grand Master in correspondence chess.

[bobw 0]

Mel Thorpe played sax with Pete York ,drummer with the Spencer Davis band ,in the Hardin-York band. Also R & B band Blues &Roots. Mel last year moved to France.

[dgbrit 258]

Bet you didnt know the Darch parents were the high divers at the fairs , The ones that dived into the water tank from 5 miles up

John went to Peveril.

I lived next door to Mel & his wife Denice for a few years . Her dad built them a big house in the country somewhere.

I got to repair Mel's car a lot, A Simca that used to rev to 10,000 the way Mel drove it he had no idea about his right foot maybe thats why he wasnt a drummer.

[Paul Dilks 2]

When I was born in 1947 we lived at Number 34 Plungar Close.

I remember the Pavier and Alan went to the same school as myself.

When I was seven , we moved to the top of Wigman Road.

I later went to Glaisdale School.

[plantfit 7,580]

My mother lived in Plungar close after the pre-fabs were re-built as bungalows

 

Rog

[Cliff Ton 10,458]

This is the pre-fab area in the late 1940s when they were being built.  The red X is where the Beechdale pub is now located. Plungar Close is the semi-circle road above that X.

[Mess 616]

2 hours ago, Paul Dilks said:

When I was born in 1947 we lived at Number 34 Plungar Close.

I remember the Pavier and Alan went to the same school as myself.

When I was seven , we moved to the top of Wigman Road.

I later went to Glaisdale School.

Paul, You must know my sister Marion Cresswell. She was at Beechdale 1952-8 before moving on to Glaisdale.

Alan Pavior was in her class. She trained as a nursery nurse before becoming an OFSTED inspector for nurseries. She was also a JP but is retired now in Tamworth. There was a picture on Friendsreunited of her class at Beechdale taken around 1953 or 4. I can post a copy if you haven't seen it.

I was at Beechdale 1955-61. Most of my classmates lived in the prefabs. One lad called Terence Lane used to live  on Plungar Close.

[Mess 616]

14 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

This is the pre-fab area in the late 1940s when they were being built.  The red X is where the Beechdale pub is now located. Plungar Close is the semi-circle road above that X.

You come up with some brilliant pictures Cliff. I was born in 1950 and lived on Elstree Drive which comes off Hollington Rd just before the start of Wigman Rd. You can just see the start of it in the upper left corner of your picture. IIRC The Beechdale Pub was built later on in the 50's as was Peveril school.

You can see the shops are there by the Beechdale island. I guess they were built before the war for the residents of Felstead Rd and the other houses on the left in your picture. We used the shops on Ambergate Rd close to my primary school Beechdale. The school closed in about 1962.

I used to get my hair cut at a barbers called Peel I think which was in the Beechdale Rd shops. My friend Randolph Carter from Elstree Drive used to regularly use the Newsagents which I think was called Starbucks or something similar. There was also a bike shop where my mum bought my first Raleigh bike on HP. When my dad came home from work that evening he was furious because he didn't believe in credit and always wanted to pay cash or go without so he sent mum along the next day to pay it off. He must have had some cash squirrelled away somewhere.

My dad's discipline with money has stayed with me broadly and kept me debt free over the years although I would have loved to have bought a nice guitar and amplifier on HP when I was in my first job as a 16yr old, but back in 60s you had to be 21 to enter into HP agreements

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

1 hour ago, Mess said:

dad's discipline with money has stayed with me broadly and kept me debt free over the years although I would have loved to have bought a nice guitar and amplifier on HP when I was in my first job as a 16yr old, but back in 60s you had to be 21 to enter into HP agreements

Your dad sounds like my mum. If you can't afford to pay cash, you don't buy it! Very sensible advice and I've always tried to stick to it. As Shakespeare put it: Neither a borrower nor a lender be!

[loppylugs 8,427]

That's what me mam quoted to me when I tried to borrow a bit off her for the down payment on my first house.  I was not happy at the time, but she was right and I've never forgotten it.  

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

I dislike those Beechdale shops. Way back in 1962 having just joined EMGAS I was working in the houses opposite when my fitter sent me to those shops to buy some sweets. Being completely GREEN I was daft enough to walk in and ask the lady for a quarter of ..............clitoris fruits

[FLY2 10,108]

It's a wonder you didn't get a smack in the mouth. You certainly would nowadays, or more than you bargained for ! 

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

Did you get despatched for a tin of elbow grease as well? 

[Mess 616]

Jill, That was one of my dad's sayings too although I didn't know it came from Shakespeare.

I should add however that back in 1974 unlike loppylugs mam my dad did lend me £500 as a deposit on my first house on Abbot St Long Eaton Bless him. IIRC the house cost £4500 and I really struggled to get a mortgage but eventually Erewash Borough Council lent me the £4K at 4% interest. This was when all the major lenders were charging 4.5% so that was very helpful to a struggling newly married 24 year old.

I sold the house a couple of years later for £6K and bought a new build in Loughborough where I worked for 3M. That cost me £9K. Looking back these prices seem so cheap but I remember being told by older friends who'd bought property in the late 60s/early 70s that property prices had easily doubled before I was looking to buy in 1974.

BTW my dad never did ask for his £500 back.

[Mess 616]

4 hours ago, Jill Sparrow said:

Your dad sounds like my mum. If you can't afford to pay cash, you don't buy it! Very sensible advice and I've always tried to stick to it. As Shakespeare put it: Neither a borrower nor a lender be!

Jill, That was one of my dad's sayings too although I didn't know it came from Shakespeare.

I should add however that back in 1974 unlike loppylug's mam my dad did lend me £500 as a deposit on my first house on Abbot St Long Eaton Bless him. IIRC the house cost £4500 and I really struggled to get a mortgage but eventually Erewash Borough Council lent me the £4K at 4% interest. This was when all the major lenders were charging 4.5% so that was very helpful to a struggling newly married 24 year old.

I sold the house a couple of years later for £6K and bought a new build in Loughborough where I worked for 3M. That cost me £9K. Looking back these prices seem so cheap but I remember being told by older friends who'd bought property in the late 60s/early 70s that property prices had easily doubled before I was looking to buy in 1974.

BTW my dad never did ask for his £500 back.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

I knew from the gasps issued I had dropped one and tried to explain I was sent by someone but when a chap took me outside and explained I was gob smacked shouted sorry through the door and ran.

 

No Jill but went to the heavy tool store and asked for a right handed hammer.

 

These were only jokes but if an apprentice was cheeky or lacking in competence it got worse. One lad went to collect his wages on a Friday and whilst there went to an outside loo. The door was tied from the outside and a fire hose pushed under the door.

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

 My father was a sheet metal engineer and he played tricks on apprentices. Sent out for tins of elbow grease, left handed spanners and, one of his favourites,....a long weight!

 

Cruel, I suppose, but when he caught one lad stealing sweets and chocolate from his coat pocket, he said nothing. Just bought a large bar of laxative chocolate, removed the outer wrapper and left the silver paper wrapped bar in his coat pocket as usual.

 

By lunchtime, it was gone. The following day, said apprentice didn't turn up for work, nor the next. When he eventually reappeared, looking a bit washed out, he explained how he'd felt unwell at home time on his last day at work. He had to cycle some distance home and told my dad...doubtless expecting some sympathy...that he'd left a trail all the way there.

 

At this point my father told him the reason. He never stole anything else! 

[Mess 616]

 

Talking of laxatives. When I worked in Boots QA Labs D10 Beeston I remember a new starter had a very bad cough. My boss said he needed some cascara. When I said I understood that was a powerful laxative and wouldn't help his cough he replied "yes it will because when he's taken it he won't dare cough" 

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Best lesson the lad could learn, one lesson I learnt within 6 months was this was not school, these were men who had been there and seen and done it all.

 

We travelled everywhere by public transport carrying the tool bag with an hammer slung over our shoulder, god help you were lippy the next day your fitter would have put every tool he had in that bag and might even be short of bus tokens so you had further to walk.

[benjamin1945 16,139]

1 hour ago, NewBasfordlad said:

I dislike those Beechdale shops. Way back in 1962 having just joined EMGAS I was working in the houses opposite when my fitter sent me to those shops to buy some sweets. Being completely GREEN I was daft enough to walk in and ask the lady for a quarter of ..............clitoris fruits

 

Thats right NBL the shop was Marsdens.........i was working there Mr Storer..........was the Manager,..........had me looking for em..............lol

only kidding,...........but i did work there...............

[DJ360 6,721]

When I was an apprentie fitter at Linby Colliery, a welder sent me to the stores for some 'Lead Wool'.  I'd never heard of it and was a bit wary after the usual tales of long weights, long stands, buckets of welding sparks etc.  Fortunately I met my Dad on the yard and he confirmed that Lead Wool did indeed exist..

 

Speaking of laxatives.. as you do..

 

There is a substance called Phenolphthalien.. or thereabouts.. which is used as a chemical indicator in laboratories.  IIRC, it turns pink in the presence of alkaline substances.

 

Otherwise, it is pretty much clear, odourless, tasteless and a very powerful laxative.

 

When I worked at the Coal Board Labs, there was a tale that some previous employee was unhappy having been sacked or something.  So, he poured Phenolpthalein into the tea urn, locked the toilets and absconded with the key.

 

I don't know how true that is.  Bulwell Brian may be able to add to it.

 

Col

[radfordred 6,284]

The bookmaker Coral on Beechdale block of shops as just closed down, they have taken all the sign-age down, exposing some real old sign-age think it says BAXTERS.