50 years ago

[Bazza 123 34]

Are yes the youth club near the Admiral Rodney my mate Mick Ash used to play guitar in a band there I think they were called Jailhouse Rock or something like that.This was all around the 50s and yes I used to have a pint of bitter in the beer garden at the Admiral Rodney whilst underage.

[FLY2 10,109]

I think it was Wollaton Village Hall.

[benjamin1945 16,191]

Used to go to the Coop youth club (now coop arts centre) Broad st?,when i was 15 with my mate Keith Attenborough,and we 'plucked up' the courage to venture into the 'Old Angel' around the corner, in my deepest voice ordered '2 PINTS OF MILD PLEASE' and a voice behind me said 'get me one Benjamin' it was a Teacher from school,we just scarpered.

[firbeck 860]

Yes, it was Wollaton Village Hall, from the Rodney, across the square down Bramcote Lane and it was on the right hand side opposite the library. The disco's etc held there were the notorious 'Wednesday Club', things used to get a bit rough during the 60's when rival Mods liked to turn up and engage in a few good kickings between themselves. I didn't go very often, we locals tended to avoid the place as much as possible. The Rodney did indeed seem to operate a policy of not questioning underage drinkers as long as you behaved yourselves and didn't sit around with half a pint all night ( 10d I recall ). We used to go into the corner of the front bar and play darts all night from age about 16 onwards, the landlord was a nice bloke and the pub was eventually taken over by his son, another nice chap, well they were to me. I went in 20 years after I left and he remembered me straight away and was genuinely pleased to see me after so long. I remember the night of my 18th birthday, we were in there playing darts as usual and the landlord said 'I rather get the impression that it's your birthday'. 'Yes', I said, 'It's my 18th' He laughed his socks off and gave me half a pint on the house.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

The other pub was the Willoughby Arms on the corner of Lamborne Drive. We used to frequent the youth club at Kingswood Methodist church. A real rocker stronghold.

[FLY2 10,109]

Until it hanged to the Greenhouse, the Willoughby sold one of the best pints of Guinness in Notts.

Six of them plus a Berni or a Chinese set you up for a good Saturday lunchtime session prior to a Forest match.

[dgbrit 258]

The newsagent opposite that pub was who I had my paper round with,

Kingswood was where I was in the cubs .

Never knew it was a rocker hang out though.

[dgbrit 258]

The person on the right is 6 years older than me on the left

[annswabey 599]

I think most people at BGS went to the Rodney. Well under age, of course. When I used to go there were 2 oldish men working there who used to bring drinks to the table - I think their names were George and Harry - this would have been in the 70's.

I remember Mr Yarnell although he didn't teach me. I dropped Physics as soon as possible - couldn't stand it.

[Karlton 582]

feeling left out here guys I was twenty four. hard work's the key if you can get it. good luck to yer' youngens.'

[firbeck 860]

dgbrit, are you thinking about the newsagents opposite the Wheelhouse pub on the corner of Russell Drive and Wollaton Road, it was run by Mr Beardsley, another local character with a most peculiar way of talking, Bilbraborn will tell you how hard it was for us to go in there without falling about laughing. The Rockers at Kingswood Youth Club used to come from Radford, the 'Radford Rockers'we used to call them. Most of them were nice blokes, one or two were a bit dodgy, it didn't pay to upset Fitzy for instance, he wasn't very bright and you had to watch what you said to him.

[firbeck 860]

I think most people at BGS went to the Rodney. Well under age, of course. When I used to go there were 2 oldish men working there who used to bring drinks to the table - I think their names were George and Harry - this would have been in the 70's.

George and Harry worked in the lounge as waiters where each table had a push button set in the timber wall panelling to bring one of them over. They had a special railed off area at the bar where they would order people's drinks and take them over from. At busy times woebetide you if you went anywhere near this area as they'd just push you out the way. I can picture them still, they wore white jackets with shirt and tie, Harry was short, with brylcreemed hair and not very talkative. George was older, grey hair, bald on top and more forthcoming, I don't recall us BGS people ever ordering drinks through them, as it was the age of left wing student unrest and anarchy we were all 'In support of the Downtrodden and Oppressed' and all that crap. I think they were both retired or redundant miners from Wollaton Colliery.

[firbeck 860]

Until it hanged to the Greenhouse, the Willoughby sold one of the best pints of Guinness in Notts.

Funny that, I thought the same thing. A decent pint of Guiness was very hard to get hold of in Nottingham. Top of the list was the Buttery Bar at the University, it was ALWAYS perfect in there followed, surprisingly, by the Flying Horse, but only on the day they'd cleaned the pipes out properly. My late ex father in law ran a pub in Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, his Guiness was amazing, why, because as he told me, you have to carefully wash the pumps and pipes out every day, not once a week.

We used to call in the Willoughby on a Saturday night for a drink on our way to Kingswood Youth Club, or if the club was crap that night and we hadn't spent our pocket money, back again for another session. I used to go with Mick Soppitt who's father was an 'infamous' station sargeant at Beeston Police Station. Being a Scot, he was very fond of the various wee drams he used to aquire from Aberdeen and he would always insist on giving us a tasting session before we went out. By the time we got to the Willoughby, after the rare malts we'd been sampling, their Bells tasted like pee.

[annswabey 599]

Firbeck, you've described George and Harry exactly! I remember Harry more and can picture him still - your "not very talkative" was very polite. -I'd say he was a right old misery!

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

I remember Mr Beardsly very well Pete. Quote: ' ere they come, both the four of them'. Like Pete says, Radford Rockers (one or two were from Lenton) were OK. Fitzy wasn't the dangerous one. It was his brother Dave. They lived on Marchwood Close. A strange coincidence here. One of the gang at Kingswood youth club was a Glaswegian called Tam. I lost touch with all the gang there as I grew older. I lived in Glasgow for five years and made many friends. The last week that I lived there, I had to go to the local health centre for a prescription. Walking back, this man crossed the road to ask me the time. You guessed it. It was Tam. We had a few minutes to catch up on things, but I've never seen him since.

[dgbrit 258]

No it was the pub on Lambourne Dr the newsagent was on the right side if you faced Woolaton rd if i remember if you turned right towards the park the road divided into a V at some shops the Wheelhouse was further down towards the Crown island.

[Chulla 4,946]

I hope this works.

Ah, the Log Cabin - I used to be part of the furniture there in the late 50s/early 60s. The photo shows the main attraction in those days; Norman Langham on the yellow piano

accompanied by Austin Nealon on drums. They were later joined by Colin? on guitar. Those whowent there might remember that he always finished the night with an extended version of

Giddy-up-a ding-dong. Norman used to play at the Robinsons Hill Club and the King Billy, both in Bulwell.

[Chulla 4,946]

Got the picture back! Lesson - don't delete picture from Photobucket.

[Compo 10,328]

Chulla: In order to dispaly the picture, the forum thingy has to have access to it. ie the url. If you delete a picture from the internet, the url is no longer valid and thus the forum cannot display it.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

#66 That pub on Lambourne Drive is now called the Wollaton, reasonable food last time I was there. I thought the Wheel House was further up at the bottom of Russell Drive between Russell Avenue & Liddell Grove.

[Cliff Ton 10,483]

...and that's the location I would have said as well. http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?action=printdetails&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;NTGM004513&prevUrl=

[Michael Booth 7,364]

NewBasfordlad (#70), I agree with you regarding the food at the Wollaton. My wife and I had lunch there in the week and the food was excellent.

[Chulla 4,946]

#69 Compo. Thanks for that. I had sussed that out, but still find it strange. I thought that once planted in the message, the image would remain there. I'm still learning.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

When you post a photo here via Photobucket, the image isn't on this site, just the link, it's a bit of "smoke and mirrors" LOL

[dgbrit 258]

You lot don't know what you are talking about I was just there 40 yrs ago.