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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.


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looking back in my childhood we really knew how to play...many of us lived a simple life and money was short..but we really loved the outdoors... watching my grandsons sit on a skate board whizzing do

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 M

I have a photo of my Dad standing outside his home around 1930 and there beside him is a lovely 'trolley' probably built for him by my Grandad.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Think this might have been the BMW of trolleys !
Seifenkisten02.jpg
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.
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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...

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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 kickme

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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!

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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. :)

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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. :)

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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 .

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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!!!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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 :hand:

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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.

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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.

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