Cliff Ton 10,458 Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Never thought about it before, but it seems trolley - for the thing kids used to make - was a name local to this area. I know the kind of thing everyone is talking about, but if you do a Google search for "trolley", you won't get a photo of a few planks of wood on a pram chassis. You can try the posh name of Soap Box, but even there everything looks a bit upmarket compared to what I remember. Try finding a picture of one. You only got trolleys in Notingham. To the rest of the world, a trolley is a thing you get in supermarkets, or on railway platforms. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tomlinson 879 Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 The very basic trolley was an old Dandy/Beano annual on a roller skate. Could be painful! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Karlton 582 Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 sledging was a great enjoyment i've made many but half moon brass runners were like finding gold. we mostly had to make do with flat tin strip. nailed on. not many screws about in them days. going back to trolly's to make the hole for the bolt to go through we'd use a red hot polka. oh nand what about kites, splitting the sticks with an axe and covering it with newspaper. what times we had. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mgread1200 141 Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 You can try the posh name of Soap Box, but even there everything looks a bit upmarket compared to what I remember. Your right! that was the posh name and I recall they used to hold a soap box derby at Fairham Comp down in the bottom playground near the bike sheds, you had to pay some people to drive em they were so dangerous. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carni 10,094 Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 We have just investigated the name of a Trolley here in West Mids and according to my other half and my Brother in Law. Back in the 40s they called them Soap boxes. In the Scouts they would hold Soap Box Derby's. I like ours best. Trolley is the one I remember! mgread 1200, looks like Soap Box is the popular title! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DAVIDW 1,681 Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Think this might have been the BMW of trolleys ! I don't think we would have dared to have joined our trolleys together down somewhere like Kenrick Rd but this extract from Clive James Unreliable Memoirs is funny . Ozzies called them box-carts . Go-carting I could not build go-carts very well. Other children made superb carts with wooden frames and wheels that screamed on the pavements like a diving aeroplane. The best I could manage was a fruit box with silent rubber wheels taken off an old pram. After school and at weekends boys came from all over town to race along our street. There would be twenty or thirty carts. The noise was incredible. Go-carts racing down the pavement on one side had a straight run of about a quarter of a mile all the way to the park. The carts would reach such high speeds that it was impossible for the rider to get off. All he could do was crash when he got to the end. On the other side of the road we could only go half as far, before a sharp right-angle turn into Irene Street. The back wheels slid round the corner, leaving black, smoking trails of burnt rubber, or skidded in a shower of sparks. The Irene Street corner was made more dangerous by Mrs Braithwaite’s poppies. Mrs Braithwaite lived in the house on the corner. We all thought that she was a witch. We believed that she poisoned cats. She was also a keen gardener. Her flower beds held the area’s best collection of poppies. She had been known to phone the police if even one of her poppies was picked by a passer-by. It was vital to make the turn into Irene Street without hurting a single poppy, otherwise the old lady would probably come out shooting. Usually, when the poppies were in bloom, nobody dared make the turn. I did because I thought that I was skilful enough to make the turn safely. But I got too confident. One Saturday afternoon I organised the slower carts like my own into a train. Every cart was loosely bolted to the cart in front. The whole thing was twelve carts long, with a big box cart at the back. I was in my cart at the front. Behind me there were two or three kids in every cart until you got to the big box cart, which was crammed full of little kids, some of them so small they were sucking dummies. Why did I ever suggest that we should try the Irene Street turn? With so much weight the super-cart started slowly, but it sped up like a piano falling out of a window. Long before we reached the turn, I realised that I had made a big mistake. It was too late to do anything except pray. Leaning into the turn, I slid my own cart safely around in the usual way. The next few carts followed me, but each cart was swinging out ever more widely. Out of my control, the monster lashed its enormous tail. The air was full of flying ball-bearings, bits of wood, big kids, little kids and dummies. Most terrible of all, it was also full of poppy petals. Not one flower escaped. Those of us who could still run scattered to the winds, dragging the wounded kids with us. The police spent hours visiting all the parents in the district, warning them that the carting days were definitely over. 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Annesleyred1865 137 Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Sledging was the big thing in Annesley Rows, brillo pad the runners or you would get on the Choch (Church) Hill. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mammasue 33 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 sledging was always great fun ofcourse we all had wooden ones , nothing like the plastic ones of today...we still have a wooden one in our garage form when my husband was little ...our grandchildren now use it ...we have purchased plastic ones in the past which have not lasted long as they crack... 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sue B 48 1,226 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 I had six brothers so there was always a trolley of some shape or form on the go, but us girls had to fight to get on them. Me and my sister had a pair of roller skates between us she wore the right foot and I wore the left. GREAT FUN 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carni 10,094 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 They were real roller skates in those days weren't they Sue. I can't remember if the Wheels were wood or metal! Though I do remember tying them onto our feet with rags or Mams old Stockings. I remember the clattering noise on the pavement. You can cover some distance when you get going. I never did learn an easy way to stop. I just used to make a grab for a Hedge or gate and hope for the best! 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
colly0410 1,181 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 Had a few 'bats round the tab' for using the toe of my shoe as a trolley brake & ruining them. Pity if anyone stepped out of their front door straight onto the pavement as they were liable to get run over. Well they should have looked so their own fault. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
katyjay 5,090 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 Carni, my skates were all metal, on a rough pavement they sure rattled your teeth. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carni 10,094 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 Katyjay, I thought our Skate Wheels were all metal, but when I asked Chris, he said his were wooden! Perhaps they were posher in W-ton! When sueB48 comes on, I will see if she can remember. We did most things together, so i'm sure we will have shared Skates at sometime. That is if her Brothers hadn't snaffled them. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sue B 48 1,226 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 They where definitely metal Carni. I can remember our Trevor running over my fingers when I tried to take them of him, only metal could feel like that. Tell Chris they must be some his Dad made earlier . 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tomlinson 879 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 Even BMWs have faults. The one in the design would be awkward to self propel if you were not on a slope. The body of those I remember consisted of just a plank, so on the flat, it could be propelled by one leg or a run and a jump aboard. Buy British I say!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Michael Booth 7,364 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 carni (#19), you had me looking on Google for 'snaffled' as I'd never heard it before. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carni 10,094 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 You got me Googleing it as well Michael. It seems to have more than one meaning. One being something to do with reins. Coming from a big family it was used often in our house. You had to get in there quickly because somebody always snaffled the last of something before you got chance! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
StephenFord 866 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 O yes, snaffled is part of the local vocabulary ! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carni 10,094 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 "Is that Shropshire, Nottingham or both Stephen"? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
StephenFord 866 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 Nottingham, Carni, (and possibly the rest of the East Midlands). I haven't quite got the measure of the Shropshire language yet - although a hill is usually referred to as a bank. No doubt I shall learn as I go along...! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carni 10,094 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 My husband refers to a hill as 'Up the bank' but he is W-ton born and bred. If you google 'Shropshire Accent' you will find quite a lot of information and hints on the accent and dialect. It's probably more fun learning from the local people though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 16,139 Posted October 16, 2014 Report Share Posted October 16, 2014 O yes, snaffled is part of the local vocabulary ! I WAS ONCE 'SNAFFLED' in Shifnal nr shrewsbury in Shropshire,..............try saying that after a night on the Sherbut. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mammasue 33 Posted October 18, 2014 Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 They were real roller skates in those days weren't they Sue. I can't remember if the Wheels were wood or metal! Though I do remember tying them onto our feet with rags or Mams old Stockings. I remember the clattering noise on the pavement. You can cover some distance when you get going. I never did learn an easy way to stop. I just used to make a grab for a Hedge or gate and hope for the best! the ones we had were metal....i absolutely loved my roller skates was the best ever Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Karlton 582 Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 I too believe roller skates in them days were metal; and the ones my sisters had could be adjusted in length to fit the appropriate shoe size with a wing nut underneath. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trevor S 2,003 Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 I had roller skates back then and they were metal, metal wheels and as Karlton describes, a wingnut under the platform to adjust (extend or decrease) the length to the correct shoe size. Thought I was a crash hot roller skater, having learnt around the house, garden and local street.................until I went with friends to a roller skating rink and found that I was absolutely hopeless unless it was in a straight line with something close by to grab onto.......a couple of hard falls later and I finished up watching the others from the sidelines. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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