Nottingham Festival 1970


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

The Whitakers petrol barges finished around 1995 give or take a couple years Phil. Your friend should have had no reason to worry for his safety the crew were very  safety conscious, they ha

We used to jump off Clifton Bridge in the early 50's. The water was almost black. It was also much deeper then and large barges would come by quite often. I always assumed that the barges carried coal

Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime, Pushbike Song and Lady Rose, De de-de-de de de-de-de-de..... great stuff Guinness - One of the essential food groups during the sixties and seventies

  • 3 years later...

I always liked bands that were suitable for festivals. There's not much better than LIVE music and a few beers. 

Taste, Family and Atomic Rooster were brilliant. Been to dozens of real festivals over the years. Best acts ! The original Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallagher, Stone the Crows, The Groundhogs, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Nazareth, Chicken Shack, Whitesnake, The Who, The Kinks, The Nice etc.

Worst were Yes, Roxy Music zzzzzz.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I remember as a boy seeing a high diver launching himself from a board built up with scaffolding on Trent Bridge. Don't know how high it was but at least twice as high as Trent Bridge itself. I remember he did a swallow dive and it seemed ages before  plunging into the Trend which had been set on fire. I assume that this was something to do with a festival in the 40's early 50's?

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

You'd have to wonder how deep it is at Trent bridge?  Diving in there from a good height might result in a headache if it's shallow.  It was always so murky when I lived there you never had any idea how deep it was.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've never seen anyone go off Trent bridge but youths jumping (not diving) from the suspension bridge was quite common on a hot day.

Link to post
Share on other sites
13 hours ago, loppylugs said:

You'd have to wonder how deep it is at Trent bridge?  Diving in there from a good height might result in a headache if it's shallow.  It was always so murky when I lived there you never had any idea how deep it was.

I used to do a bit of scuba diving many years back,and have dived the Trent a few times. I can't ever remember the Trent being more than 15ft deep at normal levels. Some places near Clifton bridge were shallower than that!.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Your right there, it was pretty murky, a sort of dark green. Not quite zero viz but it was good training. The pollution side of it is just the same as when you go white water rafting at holme pierpoint!! And at the end of the day, nowhere near as bad as the ganges!!

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Brew said:

I've never seen anyone go off Trent bridge but youths jumping (not diving) from the suspension bridge was quite common on a hot day.

We used to jump off Clifton Bridge in the early 50's. The water was almost black. It was also much deeper then and large barges would come by quite often. I always assumed that the barges carried coal but could have been any bulk item. The wash made by the barges eroded the banks quite badly.  I remember sitting on my fishing basket seat at Farndon when the whole bank gave way,  just sort of slid down into the Trent. Got away with a scare and wet feet.

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

Can't work out where those barges were going there's a damn great weir just upstream at Beeston Rylands. I know we used to get large petrol barges coming up to Colwick industrial estate and general goods to British Waterways at the end of Trent lane but never seen any further up than that.

 

Are you sure you have that one right PP as Clifton Bridge was only opened in March 1958 with the west bridge opening in 1972.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I remember seeing those barges while parked at Stoke Bardolph.  I always thought they might be carrying oil or petrol.  There was a big tank farm at Colwick just a few miles from there.  My folks told me they were probably going to Hull.  Not sure if that is correct I just accepted what they said.  They could certainly have carried a lot of oil.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the oil barges came from Torksey terminal, up Gainsborough way. The big terminal near Colwick was served by the railway only as far as I'm aware.

Link to post
Share on other sites

John Harker barges used to ply the Trent carrying oil and like PP I had to hang on to my basket and keep net as the draught sucked all the water out and the wash brought it back with a vengeance often washing the basket away if you had not moved it far enough up the bank.

Link to post
Share on other sites

For many years there was a wrecked barge virtually under the Halfpenny bridge - its cargo was sand. There was a ford across the Trent close to Clifton Grove and even today you can walk/wade about halfway depending on the river level. Only the smallest of boats can get past and go as far as far as Beeston weir.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry for mistake - it was Halfpenny Bridge we used to jump off not Clifton Br. There was a large steel pipe running on the outside of the bridge and we would sit on that a then slide off into space. We also used to nick railway sleepers from near the bridge and use them as boats. Trying to stand on then. Great fun but a long swim/wade back upstream to where our clothes were stashed..

Link to post
Share on other sites
13 hours ago, FLY2 said:

I think the oil barges came from Torksey terminal, up Gainsborough way. The big terminal near Colwick was served by the railway only as far as I'm aware.

There was a regular barge service from the Humberside refineries to Colwick some years ago. Until relatively recently, Whitaker’s of Hull used to deliver petrol by barge to Colwick. An old friend of mine who lived on the riverside at Fiskerton once scrounged a ride on one from Hull to his mooring on Fiskerton wharf. He and the crew spent the evening drinking in the nearby Bromley Arms before their morning departure. He said he slept uneasily that night knowing that a barge loaded with thousands of gallons of petrol was moored at the bottom of his garden! :biggrin:

Link to post
Share on other sites

My mate worked for Esso, in the old days deliveries into Colwick were made by railway and barge they used a pipe from a jetty on the Trent.

 

This all changed when the underground pipe arrived, they could put an inert liquid plug in first then select what fuel was to be sent to the terminal, that way you could send all grades of petrol and of course diesel down the same pipe. The same pipe also automatically recharged the tanks at the TA drill halls eventually.

 

It always seemed strange to me it took so long to arrive as they were doing this in WW2 for operation PLUTO, where a load of refineries were linked together with under ground pipelines which then went under the Solent on to the Isle of Wight and finally under the Channel to the Mulberry harbours.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...