Nottingham WW2

[Evab 0]

Ey up Ducks!

Does anybody remember growing up in Nottingham in the wartime era? What was it like living in the once industrious areas of Nottingham like Basford, Radford and Lenton? I would love to hear your stories!

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

Are there any Nottstalgians old enough to remember growing up during WW2? That would mean being born in 1942/3 or earlier, and therefore being in their early 70s now. I'm not sure if anyone falls into that category.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

I wasn't around in the war, but just about everything that has been printed in the local press about it I have copied and filed. And there is a lot. I also have copies of letters sent from the front lines. It is all interesting stuff.

[DAVIDW 1,683]

They may have to be older than that to remember anything . My brother was born 1940 and swears the only thing he can remember was a dogfight high in the skies . It was though , in the more rural (at the time) Mapperley .

[BulwellBrian 107]

I have a few vague memories: of blackout blinds in the windows, of the air raid shelter in the back garden, of a bonfire on the cobbles on VE day. of my father in a blue police uniform, he was a civilian in the RAF police during the war, living at home and guarding RAF instalations in and around Nottingham including AA guns on the castle green. I remember blowing his police whistle, He had a flat hat not a helmet.

I was born in 1942.

[tomlinson 879]

I was born in 43. My dad was a miner and didn't go into the military. All I remember, or think I do, is of a Mosquito flying over with a shattered elevator; someone coming down on a parachute; receiving food parcels and immediately after the war, an AA gun in the city square. Unless memory serves me tricks, I also remember some sort of exhibition on the Forest, including a Lancaster bomber, or a part of one.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

I was born in 51 but was affected by the war in effect that SWEETS WERE STILL ON RATION!!!!!!

How cruel was that?

[banjo48 928]

Remember my great aunt had a large piece of bomb shrapnel that landed in her yard after a bombing, she lived on Caunton avenue and there was some military places just off coppice road as I used to go and play there with Stu Morris when I was probably 6 or 7.

I was born in 48 so really missed it all thank god.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Should have gone on the black

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

I have a mate born 1933 who can tell some tales about the last years of the war.

[poohbear 1,360]

I was born in 51 but was affected by the war in effect that SWEETS WERE STILL ON RATION!!!!!!

How cruel was that?

Candy letters weren't...no coupons required....dunno why. Mind you they tasted like coloured chalk.

[fch782c 144]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/45/a7714145.shtml

just found this article from a bbc website, fascinating stuff.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

Never tasted coloured chalk. Preferred the white. LOL.

My mum used to take us shopping from Bilborough to Denman Street. We always got the bus back but we had a choice the other direction. We either got the bus or had sweets and walked.

Reading the stuff I saved, although Nottingham was affected by the war, it was not as bad as other places. But for at least 10 years after the war the effects were still there. Like ex squaddies for teachers (discipline), the austerity and sheer poverty. When I was a kid, my mum seldom told me not to talk to strangers but always told me NEVER to pick up anything metal we found lying about on wasteland. Possible fear of UXB cluster bombs.

Then there were the single parents who were war widows. And war buildings utilised for other purposes, and I think Beechdale primary school was made partly of the admin and messing facilities for an Ack Ack gun that used to be there. I'll bet other forum users can remember more.

[Bramcote 2]

Are there any Nottstalgians old enough to remember growing up during WW2? That would mean being born in 1942/3 or earlier, and therefore being in their early 70s now. I'm not sure if anyone falls into that category.

I was born in 1940 in Bramcote but the only memory I have really was the sound of the sirens! My father, I think, worked as an armament examiner possibly at the ROF and I am still trying to find out more about him and that workplace without much joy.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

Welcome to Nottstalgia, Bramcote. I look forward to reading your posts and sharing your memories. If you want to find anything out then you've come to the right place.

[Limey 242]

He may also have worked at the depot in Chilwell.

Good luck in your search - but I think you will find a lot about both the ROF and Chilwell Depot on here!

[Riddo 47]

I was born 1950 and can't remember anything until I was maybe 4 or 5 yrs old. But my mum worked at the Co-op bakery on Meadow Lane that received three direct hits from bombs during the night of May 8th/9th 1941 - the "Nottingham Blitz". Fortunately she wasn't on shift at the time, but lost some of her workmates. There's a great book, "Battle of the flames" by David Needham, that tells the story of Nottingham's Fire Brigade during the war years and also how the Auxiliary Fire Service was set up and the in-fighting that went on between the Fire Service, who were officially meant to take control during an air raid, and the Police, who were meant to take orders from the Fire Officers on duty. The author (an ex-fireman) doesn't speak highly of the boys in blue!

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

Ey up Ducks!

Does anybody remember growing up in Nottingham in the wartime era? What was it like living in the once industrious areas of Nottingham like Basford, Radford and Lenton? I would love to hear your stories!

Another one of those odd ones. Evab has never logged in again since this first - and only - post; even though he/she "would love to hear your stories".

[benjamin1945 16,158]

i was born in March 1945 on the old bestwood est about 6 weeks before the war ended,so i dont remember owt directly,however i grew up surrounded by lots of uncles and aunts and used to listen to them talking about war times.most of them very funny and my favourite was regarding my Grandad and grandma,bill and mary jackson,the story goes (and it may have been exagerated for effect)that during a raid Grandad was running for the shelter with his brasers trailing behind Grandma was running behind him(she was known for having big feet)and stood on his brasers whereby they shot violently into his back,Grandad shouted "keep running MARY THEY GOT ME",

[albert smith 803]

guilty as charged M'lud. born 1928 & a bin full of memories but it takes a nudge like Riddo post 18 to unlock the box. My Aunt Hilda Frost also worked at the Co-op bakery, she went into work at 6.30 am as usual despite being in the street shelter since just after midnight. We knew it had been hit but the number of casualties wasn't known for some days until a barge was secured in the river to the outside wall and a hole was broken through into the basement where all the staff had taken shelter. My Aunt collected the time cards from the burning office! I can't remember if it was the bakery bomb or the one that hit a house on Freeth St., killing a family of five, that decided Dad to move us from under the stairs at 10 Brand St. to the brick surface shelters on a patch of waste ground at the bottom of Moreland St. We had to carry Grandma Frost (No. 14) to the shelter on a dining chair, not easy as she didn't want to go! About 4am we were allowed out of the shelter to warm our hands from a factory fire on Daleside Rd.the railway carriage sidings across from Meadow Lane was also burnt down.

In the Council House foyer some months ago was a display of photo's and also a list of the dead (149?) from that very sad, frightening night.

[mercurydancer 1,104]

My mother was born in early 1934 and can recall the raids when she lived in Hyson Green. She can remember running from her house to a communal shelter during a raid with a cushion on her head!

My father lived in Birkin Avenue during this time and I can just remember the Anderson shelter remaining in place in the late 1960s which was in the back yard ( and between the house and the outside toilet! )

[LizzieM 9,507]

I was born in 1949 so well out of it thank goodness but my Mum worked in a Munitions factory somewhere in Nottingham and my Dad was at the ROF serving his apprenticeship until a month before his 21st birthday and then went into the RAF in December 1942. Dad was ill in bed at home on Devonshire Promenade, Lenton, when Nottingham was bombed and said he remembers nothing about it. He had pleurisy apparently. My uncle, Dad's brother, was in the RAF from the start of the war but was discharged because he developed epilepsy. He then worked 'on the land' but had an epileptic fit at Gamston and fell face down into mud and suffocated and died aged 24, poor guy. My parents met in 1946.

[carni 10,094]

My parents met in 1946. Dad was away at sea until the war ended and Mam worked on the Railway during the war but I don't know which station she worked at or what she did. Neither of them talked about the war very much but I know Mam talked about walking past the bomb craters on the walk to work, and some experiences during black out. I always wished I had talked to them about their lives during the war as I know they had some stories to tell. What I have got, is a lot of letters from my Gran to my Dad when he was on the HMS London, he saved them all and I have got a Book with Dad mentioned in Despatches. His account of a Battle and the injuries he had while they were under attack. I cherish them all, and I hope my Kids will as well one day.

[FLY2 10,108]

I was born in 45 and we lived in Sutton-in-Ashfield at that time. Dad was a baker at the outbreak of the war as he hadn't fancied going down the pit like the rest of his family. When things hotted up, he joined the Auxiliary Fire Service, but was posted permanently to Birmingham as the wast Midlands were getting a bad time with nightly air raids. I remember him telling me stories of unexploded bombs and incendiaries and molten glass from high factory windows cascading on to the firemen. And of the endless hours moving to different areas because of insufficient manpower and appliances. Also how some properties were just left to burn as they were beyond saving. I think we were very lucky in this area thank goodness .

[garrywhiting 7]

I was born in 1948, so what follows is a family anecdote, and I assume that it relates to the night of 8/9 May 1941 ( the Nottingham Blitz ).

My maternal grandparents then lived in Charlbury Road, my mother then aged 22 worked in the quality control department of Players's No.2 Factory,

As the raid progressed my grandfather who was doing a bit of amateur firewatching in the back garden suddenly rushed into the house shouting that everybody should put their gasmasks on as the Luftwaffe were dropping gas bombs, he could distinctly smell it in the air and that all the neighbours should be warned immediately. My mother was highly sceptical of this and insisted that she accompany my grandfather back to the garden to "smell" for herself.

Having sampled the aroma, my mother turned to my grandfather and said "You silly bugger! That's not gas, it's the night scented phlox you planted!"