St Ann's Documentary 1969.


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Wow!! I spent the early part of my life up to 13 years old in St Anns, I don't remember any houses as bad as that.. Just shows also how poor we were back then, my Mum and Dad were typical of those in the first part of the film.

We lived in a two up two down, outsdide toilet and coalhouse, no bathroom and only one cold water tap in the kitchen.

We don't realise how bad things were until we see something like that film.

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Blimey, I've only had time to watch the first 15 minutes of that film but was it REALLY that bad? I didn't think we had much money but that was terrible. My Mum and Dad used to make cardboard boxes on the dining room table every evening, to make ends meet, but we didn't live in squalid conditions like that. Dad worked standing up in a factory all day but they had a mortgage and took us on holiday for a week every year. When us kids were old enough to be latch-key kids Mum got a job in an office in town. Not much spare money in the house but we had a happy childhood. This film to me looks more like the early 50's.

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We must have been one step up on the first part of the film, Dad drove trucks for a living and Mum worked full time when I was old enough to leave on my own.. The house we lived in didn't have holes in the roof, nor was it damp, I have no idea what the rent was.

I do remember Mum doing lace work, like the ladies in that film, she also did outdoor work on an industrial sewing machine she invested in,

Most of the film looked like the 60's Lizzie, note the womens hairstyles etc... I think some old 40's 50's footage was slipped in to make things appear worse than they were though..

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I remember Mam Doing outwork, she used to sew sleeves on her sewing machine in the kitchen, for City Uniform based on Woolpack Lane in the Lace Market, and also at a different time she used to assemble the card board boxes as well Lizzie, we all used to help if we could.

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It was nothing like that. My dad had a couple of shops on Alfred Street Central and I lived over the shop for a while in 1967. It was a film justifying the demolition of a whole community and replacing it with with an urban slum. The council wanted to apply for regeneration grants and were trying to prove a point with a load of bollox.

£15 per week was a pretty good wage if your rent was only £3.

As an adult in 1972 I was earning £8 per week.

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I doubt many were on 15 quid a week back then, in 68, I came out of my apprenticeship as an electrician, my gross pay was 18 quid a week, on shifts, underground with face allowance etc...OK that was for a basic week, I could and did earn more with weekend overtime.

I know as an apprentice in my last two years, I was earning far more than my Dad, I used to take all the overtime available when I worked at Clifton Colliery, sometimes earning 20 quid a week to take home, Dad was making 14 quid back then.

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Thanks for this Compo.

It was shown early last year at The Lakeside (Nott'm University) as part of the Saturday Night Sunday Morning exhibition being held at the time. The audience was a mix of older St Anns (pre-demolition) and current, younger residents. When the film had finished, most comments came from the older people, most of whom, like posters on here, said things were not as bad as the film showed. But demolition didn't start until late'69 early '70 and many houses owned by private landlords, having been under threat of demolition for some years, were not all properly maintained as a result. So I think yes, the film makers chose their properties carefully to make their point, but they didn't make them up!

From my own experiences as a kid in the '50s, I can agree with ayupmeducks #3 about the facilities our house had. However, mum & dad kept it clean, and dad even managed to coax flowers out of the bit of soil he'd built in as a raised bed in the backyard, en-route to the outside lav. On the other hand I do remember a few kids in my class at Elms Infants who turned up in really tatty clothes and shoes, so their homes may well have been in poorer condition than ours. My mum also did lace work, and I remember she'd found a way of pulling several threads at the same time to separate the rows of lace. There was also something to do with hairnets - slicing them out of a line of nets and stretching them over a cardboard disc.

The presenter of this filmclip, Ray Gosling (died Nov 2013), was very active in the old St Anns and takes a deal of credit for organising the residents and getting their voices heard when it came to planning the new layout. Some say things were rushed and that Wimpeys gave out backhanders to get redevelopment rolling. Mistakes were made and had to be put right within a few years - the younger residents I mentioned above still have complaints about the area they live in today. But it has to be remembered that many St Anns people complained that things were moving too slowly once demolition had started, and couldn't wait to get into one of the new houses.

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I see some similarities to my own childhood. The two up two down Victorian terrace, out side loo with yesterdays paper to wipe your arris, and no hot water system, tin bath. Dad down Calvo, mum at Bairnswear and doing smocking on a frame on the dining room table well into the evening. I was always very well fed and clothed and didn't feel poor in any way.

Our house was never in such bad condition as those shown, it was always spotlessly clean and well looked after. However if you went up Suez St to the corner of North Gate on the right hand side there was a place known locally as Casey's Court that area was seemingly very poor. Scruffy, many kids with no socks and wearing tatty plimsolls even in a winter, shared loos in the courtyard, broken windows etc. Used to feel sorry for them until it was pointed out that my mum and dad went to the pub for an hour once a week whilst their parents went every night and never came home till kicking out time. I still felt sorry for the kids but looked at their parents with distain.

If the same documentary had been made about New Basford and concentrated on Casey's Court it would have looked much the same but it would not have been indicative of the general area.

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Stephen Frears who directed the documentary was given by Nottingham City Council guidelines of what to film. To those who didn't live in Nottingham the documentary was shocking, and gave the council the extra strength in their argument that St Ann's had to go . . . Sadly the whole project was fraught with problems and issues. When the first phase of houses were built many it seemed were happy to have the new housing, but wanted to retain the pubs, shops and the sense of community many had lived with...... I was interested to learn yesterday that the Chase Shopping area is now being demolished. They really did know better back in the 60's didn't they? But all in all it is an interesting documentary, but it is perhaps better known as a piece of council propaganda. I always hoped that a follow up would be filmed to see how the changes of St Ann's affected those that featured in the original.

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A bit of a heavy read is "Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen" K.Coates and R. Silburn

A detailed survey of "slums" - St Ann's Nottingham. - no pictures!

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One of the things that struck me was the accents, were they upper class working class??? I know for fact I never pronounced my aitches, they all did, in fact as we used to say "they all talked posh" Nowt like working class.

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I remember peoples houses where they had newspaper for a table cloth, lard, sauce,stained tea cups on the table ,lino ,no carpets i knew kids that had nits fleas there was hard times for some ,i knew kids whose parents were alcoholics,and housework and laundry were not a priority,teachers thought such kids were scum and rarely sympahthetic. Kids grand parents had it even harder, these tv programmes never mentioned what some of these people had gone through during war years, either direcly or because of .Forign hardships were different they endured horrible hardships, but a lot of ordinary folk had gone through hell and never ask for or got sympathy. I think as kids you did notice that some people tried to speak posh to anyone who was seen as being official , including doctors and solicitors etc,and possibly those being interviewed are an example.

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My first house as a child was demolished as unfuit for habitation in 1955. I haver fond memories of the tiny terraced house but that's because I was very young and didn't have to worry about anything.

I once went to visit a chap in teh Meadows. He was water bailiff for a lake in Wilford; I forget his name but I do remember that he was living downstairs because the roof was collapsing and upstairs was too dangerous for habitation. This would be about 1969/70ish when demolition had begun.

Never had bread and lard for sandwiches until the late 1960s when I was an apprentice at the NCB. However, I do recall my dad taking bread and dripping for his work sandwiches regularly.

My clothes were handed down to my younger brother but I never thought about poverty - we just lived and as far as I knew we were normal. Now that I am able to think back, it becomes obvious that we had nowt.... but then neither did most of my friends.

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We left St Anns in 1955 and it always seemed to me that the housing stock in the area between Huntingdon Street, St Anns Well Rd and Peas Hill Rd were of a slightly better build standard than some of those on the other side of St Anns Well Rd up to Bluebell Hill, although as time passed up to the eventual demolition it became obvious that they were quickly deteriorating.

The film was produced a year after Mrs C and I were wed, and because I had the luxury of a Company subsidised mortgage we were able to get a new Wimpy in Ruddington, but my take home salary was about £45 per month, and the mortgage payment was about £11 per month which came out of that but we did not a that time have any kids and Mrs C's monthly take home was about £30, so we did manage but had nowt left over at the end of the month. To think that at that time folk were living in parts of St Anns in the conditions as shown is deplorable, but I reckon as do others on here that there was perhaps some element of justification as Riddo states.

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i watched the documentry yesterday, and to be honest some things on there did ring home . such as the outside toilet at the bottom of the yard . its was horrible cold, damp , spiders etc , in the winter the water was frozen , and the heating was non existant apart from the massive fire place in the front room , which i enjoyed watching burn every night , the tin bath was our only means of bathing in front of the fire, was freezing when we got out , then the sparks out the fire used to jump out at you ! was proberly the same for everyone else that lived in the old St Anns, we weren`t that poor as the programme portrayed i believe , we didnt starve and we were happy , my dad worked away alot, and my mum did the lace work which we used to help with , she used to weave wool between our hands with us arms held out , got a bit tiring after abit ! suppose when you grew up in them conditions you didn`t know any better, personally i loved living there, got some really happy memories growing up in the old st anns....

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  • 1 month later...

Can someone jog my memory re The Hero of Waterloo pub as shown at the beginning of the film? I had thought that it was on the corner of Hutchinson St and Alfred St, but now recall it was on the corner of Hutchinson St and Hedderley St so what was the pub on th corner of Hutchinson and Alfred St?

Answer eagerly awaited. Ta!

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Going back a bit but have seen a couple of mentions of The Bay Horse Inn, one quoting its on Hutchinson St in the late 1920s and an earlier mention its on Alfred St.

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  • 11 months later...

My name is JOHN SHEPPARDi live in Holland.

I lived in St Anns in those years.

When i watched this i was a bit in shock

MY SISTER VIVIAN SHEPPARD was the girl heling in THE SHOP.

She passed away in 1971 by a car accident.

THAT SHOP was from my DAD REG SHEPPARD.

Does anyone know the other girl KATH CHURCHILL in the shop.

Can anyone remeber us ? My mum Maria came from Holland.

I did not know my sister was in this film.

John Sheppard. Mail adres is sheppard@ziggo.nl

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Mentioned this before May casey a friend of ours featured in this film in Washouse sequence. My mam refused to appear ( 1) there was no fee. (2) there was two bed wetters in our house and my mam was fed up of trundling a pram up Bath St. twice a week.

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