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Just read your post Banjo48, about Gedling Pits. My Dad was there around 1969/70 after leaving school and remembers the ponies underground. Gedling pit was where he started his career and progressed to working on the Channel Tunnel. He met some great characters at Gedling.

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Or Freda Avenue off Westdale lane?

Aah yes I misread '1 topic' for 1 post

I lived on Kelvin Road, Thorneywood as a child and well remember what we called Donkey Hill. It seemed VERY steep then. Used to play around the Holly Gardens area where there was a pickle factory. Als

SeanF

Yes lots of characters at the pit in those days ! I think Gedling colliery was one of the biggest employers in the area at the time.

I was an electrician just come out of my apprenticeship but wages were poor then, so I had a contact there who got me the job as an underground sparky.

Our charge hand was Reg Bennet (a well known Identity in the area) his son Terry Bennet used to be in a band. My wifes dad worked there, and a couple of my neighbours too.

Was a very good camaraderie underground where everyone looked out for everyone else. Also used to love the miners welfare club on Mapperley tops.

I only lasted around 18 months down there, as the dust got to my asthma quite bad, so had to leave.

Sorry to go OT.

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Its funny how your mind (and age) plays tricks !

Just idly thought I would see if I could get a streetview of the back of the maisonettes that we used to live in on Cherrywood , to see how high they were above the old brickyard . As mentioned before I thought of it as a sheer drop .

So searched on Honeywood Drive , which was built within the old brickyard off Thorneywood Mount and came up with this . Maisonettes are top right but because of all the trees and shrubbery that have grown since we left it , hardly seems much elevation at all :

9107057332_8600277728_b.jpg

After looking at this , thought I would search for the old car auction site on streetview , where I used to enjoy going (but never actually bought anything) but got a bit confused as its all changed.

Then came across one of the streetview anomalies . Click the link and you should see a large Sound and vision shop but move the curser a little to the right into Old Brickyard road and the shop magically changes into a convenience store

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Honeywood+Drive,+Nottingham&hl=en&ll=52.965823,-1.116802&spn=0.00099,0.002411&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=8.08612,19.753418&oq=honeywood+gardens+no&hnear=Honeywood+Dr,+Nottingham,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=52.965784,-1.116736&panoid=WSE6orxs54PnLdgca0CiXw&cbp=12,338.43,,0,-0.16

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banjo my dad was still at the pit till 1973/4 if you worked a night shift you would more than likely have come across him he ran the main belt for many years but always on nights he was known as little wemmy only 4ft.9 in tall and like me as wide as he was long had a very infectious laugh and the gradnd kids called him the laughing gnomb.

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Blue Bell Hill runs parallel to St.Anns Well Rd.

From St.Ann Well Rd go up Donkey Hill (St.Bartholomews Road ) and two thirds the way up , turn right . It lies between St Anns Well Road and Gordon Road

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had a suite very simmilat to that was it suade mine was also had a turquise one with a matching coat white strech lacey boots for my cousins wedding love to know were she is now and see her wedding photoes.

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Yes Babs my wifes suit was suede too . The " kinky" boots were in the fashion at the time . We were just heading off for our honeymoon in Benedorm ......wasn't that warm in March !

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Yes Babs my wifes suit was suede too . The " kinky" boots were in the fashion at the time . We were just heading off for our honeymoon in Benedorm ......wasn't that warm in March !

Those white boots were certainly the footwear to be seen in for any fashion conscious young lady at that time. The trouble was that they were plastic and used to crack (well mine and my friends did anyway) and we were always going back to Dolcis to get them replaced. The manager of the shop was OK about it to begin with but then he decided that enough was enough and refused to change them for nothing. By that time the fashion had changed anyway!

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Then came across one of the streetview anomalies . Click the link and you should see a large Sound and vision shop but move the curser a little to the right into Old Brickyard road and the shop magically changes into a convenience store

brickyard1_zps8a1b818f.jpg

brickyard2_zpsffbfe17f.jpg

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I also notice that all the shops are boarded up in the top pic and the telephone box is smashed up in the second !!

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However, going back to #31, if you project the line of Donkey steps back towards town, it seems to link up better with the path that always did, and still does, run down from Porchester Road (opposite the end of Florence Road) through what used to be allotments to Wells Road, rather than with Donkey Hill = St Bartholomews Road. (I have a faint recollection returning from my grandparents of walking down that path to Kildare Road trolleybus terminus, after missing the rather infrequent no.9 on Porchester Road - that would be about 1953).

Back in the 1890s, if you'd followed that path down, you ended up at St Ann's station on the Suburban Line

garden1-1.jpg

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So a commuter link for those in Thorneywood / Mapperley . Probably a busy thoroughfare in rails boom times .

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Just snatched this image of a chimney demolition in a Mapperley brickyard , from a 1901 magazine . I've read it was a huge business and judging by the number of chimneys in the background that proves it .

I've only just come across the saying that "Nottingham once stood on Mapperley Hills," meaning that Nottingham was built on bricks made from the clay from Mapperley .

9134533893_4a75d1ab77_b.jpg

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Thanks for that , looks a good book . Following the link to one of the brickyard pictures in that thread , the picture above with the chimneys in the background , could almost have been this same yard on P of P.

http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?action=printdetails&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;NTGM003328&prevUrl=

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It amused me (but not him) to read that a small businessman in the early 1800s set up a brick making business on the 'Plains' unfortunately without the permission of the Nottingham Burgesses (council) The court ordered the closing of his business and the demolition of his hovel (their words) on the site.Despite the fact that the authorities had been buying bricks off him for years.It seems councils haven't changed much have they? :biggrin:

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In 1971 my BSM driving instructor taught me hill starts on Donkey Hill - if you could do it there then you could do it most places. However it was not good for the car's clutch!

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I lived on Kelvin Road, Thorneywood as a child and well remember what we called Donkey Hill. It seemed VERY steep then. Used to play around the Holly Gardens area where there was a pickle factory. Also in the brick yard opposite Radstock Road where there were ponds with newts in and very long grass where we played cowboys & Indians. The plains at the top and the " cliff " down into the brickyard which we used to slide down in a variety of conveyances - a cast iron bath once! As well as the hill there were lots of other hilly road in the area which were great for sledging, albeit dangerous with traffic. Many lucky escapes.

I was always roaming around and whilst still very young was found lost by a policeman at the bottom of Donkey Hill. There was a police station at the bottom near to Ransom Road. My mother eventually found me, sitting on the police counter eating an ice cream bought for me by one of the constables!

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