Where did you roam.

[... 1,411]

Weekends and holidays to us were a excuse to get out of the meddas always walking although occational lift when hitch hiking usually with the cooksies from next door .Half day adventure would take us into town although favourite was south and into countryside taking in canal at side of radcliffe rd through Gamston Bassingfield Tollerton Holme Pierpont before lake built back then these places where mainly farms and narrow country lanes and a source for the following Blackberries Gooseberries Apples Pears Plums Mushrooms Tomatoes these things were sometimes earnt sometimes nicked we were chased by farmers a time or two had to be careful cos me dad drove for Hovringham Gravels at Holme Pierpoint and if he caught me my ears would be ringing for a week needless to say when we got home with our booty they were always reward for our hard labour Mushrooms would usually be sold to Rosses Greengrcers corner of wilford grove and kirkwhite st .Where did you roam for your adventures.

[Paulus 541]

Sandhills at Broxtowe, before the M1 was built, Bulwell, Bestwood Village, Melbourne Park, Leenside, Hyson Green, all over Aspley estate, King Georges Park, Beechdale Woods (collecting newnuts), Hemlock Stone, Wollaton Park..................wherever our legs would take us kids in late 50's..................

[colly0410 1,181]

All over the Medders, usually being a pest, also the railway sidings, you got to them through a gate at the end of Attercliffe Terrace, if the night watchman (we called him old Boggie) clocked you, you'd get chased. If I was feeling brave I'd roam Bunbury Street, but be ready to run for it.

[... 1,411]

COLLYO410 We used to get on railway near ryland cresent did you ever try any rhubarb that grew on sidings .

[carni 10,094]

We spent many days roaming over 'Greenies Farm Fields', up to the roly poly bank (gone now, the little bushes are now full grown trees) by Gedling Woods, where we would spend the day's playing Cowboys and Indians," yes us girls played that as well," kiss chase ooolahlah , not forgetting Ghosts, "that one all way's scared me!" being the chicken in the gang, climbing trees, at the end of the day, taking arms full of Bluebells home to Mum. Some day's down to Stoke Bardolph or The Gravel Ponds, Colwick Woods or the other way to Lambley Dumbles. Where ever we went; there would all way's be at least six of us in the gang and we never had a penny between us; but all way's went home: Dirty ,Hungry, Thirsty, Tired but most important of all....Happy and Safe. Great Stuff

[... 1,411]

Cami shame kids will never experience what you experienced

[colly0410 1,181]

COLLYO410 We used to get on railway near ryland cresent did you ever try any rhubarb that grew on sidings .

Yes we did, dipped them in sugar, lovely..There were also some allotments & we liberated a few vegies off them. (Hang head in shame.)

[carni 10,094]

I think we all did those things, i don't think we realised it was stealing.I have in my childhood enjoyed the; Rhubarb, Guzgogs, Peas, Mucky Carrots, and many other scrumped pleasures. I have been stuck up many a fruit tree "Why is it always harder to get back down, especially with a jumper full of apples!" Also very difficult to scarper with the same jumper full when you heard that familiar Voice yell.... Hoy Come Ere Ya Little Bo99ers. Sorry peep's but i do know better now. Honest!

[... 1,411]

Sorry but if it was not nailed down i thought it meant help yourself. Wasnt really that bad honest

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Out through Arnold, over Dorket Head and down into Blue Bell wood as we called. A good walk from New Basford was much better when we started getting push bikes.

[banjo48 928]

Pretty much the same ground as Carni, used to spend alot of time at Stoke Bardolph, gulls eggs of the settling ponds, Stoke lock, Gedling woods, Colwick ponds and sluice gates, Trentside at the back of the sugar factory were all our haunts.

Also spent a lot of time exploring Mapperley brickyard ponds and tunnels under Breckhill road.Also a pond up near the golf course, and finally the old railway tunnels from Gedling to Arnold and the pit slag heaps at Podder lane.

Happy times indeed.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

We walked (and later cycled) to Strelley Village and on to either Cossall or Kimberley. Watched them build the M1 through Catstone Hill.

Later when older, we cycled along the canal from Wollaton through Trowell, Ilkeston and onto the Cromford Canal at Langley Mill and up the branch to Pinxton Wharf. We would come back along the derelict railway line through Jacksdale and Eastwood, over the 40 bridges to Awsworth and then by road (the old A610) home again.

By the way Carni. Nowt wrong with a bit of scrumping. We did ours at the old house near the canal on Woodyard Lane.

[katyjay 5,090]

Down to Broxtowe Woods, play in the woods, or over the railway line and into the meadow and on to Nuthall. Or go nutting towards Broxtowe pit, also a dirt track there for bikes. Or, down to Fowler's Pond, for newts, stickleback and tadpoles.

[darkazana 1,736]

When we lived in mucky uckna we played on Piggins Croft (now a car park), collecting tadpoles from the brook which ran through there, tormenting the old tramp who used to sometimes have a nap under the bushes there and my brother and his mates used to do a bit of smoking in a tent that they put up, and of course scrumping from the apple tree there.

When we moved to Watnall it was up at the back of the old hall, now Rolleston drive, and in the old air raid shelters up there, blue bell wood, down on the disused railway line (now the M1 which I too remember being built) and up around Watnall brickyard. Climbing the big trees in what is the Moorgreen Show field (Front park I think its called) One of the trees (Which we called the "Big Tree") still has nails in it which my brother and cousin put in to help us up the first stage. Incidentally this particular tree used to be the local hanging tree, the last person to have been hanged there was a 10 year old boy, for stealing a spoon. The hanging branch was removed when they stopped using the tree.

[loppylugs 8,427]

Allotments and empty land at the back of Godfrey street. Now the site of the Colwick loop road and the shopping centre. Spent the time shooting at water rats and occasionally each other with galleys. Pinching the occasional pod of peas etc. Great time was had by all until it got dark each day.

[DAVIDW 1,681]

For us Woodthorpe Park , Standhill Rd Park , Valley Rd Rec . Stoke Bardolph on our bikes , sometimes down the fields from Digby Ave , checking out the tadpoles in some of the ponds and then up behind the Miners Welfare on Mapperley Plains for a game of footy if we could plough through the mud .

We were lucky , had plenty of fields to play on , between Gardenia Grove and South Devon Ave off Marshall Hill Drive where we built underground dens and wire walkways between the trees !

[Rob.L 1,088]

David, funnily enough those were the exact same places I used to go - especially that wooded area on South Devon Avenue!

Plus the field on Valley Road/Marshall Hill - when the bottom of Marshall was still unsurfaced.

I was banned from going anywhere near Mapperley brickyard after a lad drowned in the pond, and going to Woodthorpe Park was a bit of an adventure - the Sherwood kids didn't like us Mapperley lot.

Once I got a decent bike, though, the horizons expanded and I used to go round most of the Trent valley and beyond.

[DAVIDW 1,681]

Rob, we used to go to the Mapperley brick yards too but I always found it scary.

Theres a photo of a muddy Marshall Hill Drive is half way down in this thread

http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10635&hl=gardenia#entry156898

[Rob.L 1,088]

Thanks David.

Those pics bring back some memories! Although I recall the hill being surfaced down to where the blue car is in this pic:

I recall going down there on my bike, aged about 6, and forgetting that I only had a front brake. Cue a forward flip that any gymnast would envy when I hit the rough stuff.

My mum very nearly fainted when she saw the blood all over my head, elbows and knees from my less than perfect landing.

[MELTONSTILTON 452]

Around Langar we had lots of countryside to play in, and the river Smite and Stroom dyke to paddle in and fish, the best place to play was the old RCAF Langar after the Canadians had moved out, and before the salvage companies moved in, rooms still full of furniture, and lots of unwanted military hardware all over the place like old lorry's, cars, clothing, tools, even an old aeroplane, to us local kids it was a real treasure chest of fun, I still have a box of buttons, badges and a few medals, I collected as a kid on the old airfield,

[banjo48 928]

My uncle used to take us fishing for chub in the Smyte, but I thought it was Aslockton but may be wrong, long time ago.

Remember using large chunks of cheddar cheese that I used to eat while waiting for the bites, or luncheon meat.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

I lived in Bilborough until I was 13 so early days were all around Wollaton Hall, Sandhills, Hemlock Stone but mainly down the old Wollaton canal around the old train bridge and up the slag heaps of the pit. Does anyone remember the slag heap that was on fire underneath? We used to call it 'hot sands'. I guess it must had had a lightning strike one day and it smouldered forever.

[Cliff Ton 10,454]

Clifton Grove. A large woodland just across the road from Clifton Estate. Kids went "down the grove" all the time, and even when I was young I was surprised that parents weren't more worried about it. Apart from having a lot of trees, its main feature was a very steep drop (probably 100ft+) down to the river Trent. It's a mystery how more youngsters weren't drowned there in the 60s and 70s.

Looks idyllic, but what you don't see here is the massive drop on the left down to the river.

Opposite direction, big drop to the right.

In some places at the bottom of that drop, there was only a small area of flat land before you came to the river's edge. And that edge crumbled, and it was hidden by trees and bushes, and it got washed away or suddenly changed direction. If you were walking along the riverbank, you might see the ground in front of you disappear, to be replaced by water. And it was the full-blown river, not shallow pools and puddles.

I haven't been down at river level there for over 40 years, but when I visited the Grove in the mid 80s I had a big shock. Clifton-ites who remember it will know that the top part of the grove was a long walk with elm trees on both sides. In the early 80s Dutch Elm disease hit them, and all the trees were destroyed. The whole character of the place totally changed; it was just like walking in a field. Imagine going up Lime Tree Avenue in Wollaton Park and finding all those trees had gone.

A few years later I was in Clifton Grove again and new saplings had been planted to replace the dead elms; I guess by now - 25 years on - those saplings will have grown a bit. Maybe I ought to go back to see if it now looks anything like it did when I was young.

[BulwellBrian 107]

I lived in Bilborough until I was 13 so early days were all around Wollaton Hall, Sandhills, Hemlock Stone but mainly down the old Wollaton canal around the old train bridge and up the slag heaps of the pit. Does anyone remember the slag heap that was on fire underneath? We used to call it 'hot sands'. I guess it must had had a lightning strike one day and it smouldered forever.

More likely spontaneous combustion of coal within the waste tip. Incidentally not slag, slag comes from blast furnaces.

[Paulus 541]

More likely spontaneous combustion of coal within the waste tip. Incidentally not slag, slag comes from blast furnaces.

Quote:

"a hill or area of refuse from a mine or industrial site."