Memories Of Nottingham Central Police Station.


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Having been away from Nottm for more than 40 years, I don't recall the Police being in Shakespeare Street. I seem to vaguely recall them being in the Guildhall, but may be wrong. I do recall the Fire Station though.

The police station is at the side of the fire station. If you look at the fire station front where the fire engines are parked then the left hand corner is the police station. It runs all the way down and backs onto the Guildhall Court building.

And to add to that, in the NEP article it states

The Central Police Station and Central Fire Station building at the corner of Shakespeare Street and North Church Street was opened in 1938.

Police moved over from the nearby Guildhall, which had opened 50 years previously.

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Further to recent posts about von Werra and Hardy Kruger, here is the latter with me at R-R Hucknall in 2000 when scenes for the documentary on von Werra were being shot by a Swiss film company. Here,

There have probably been some famous/notorious people who have spent time at the Central Police Station and who had wished that they were somewhere else at the time. None more so, perhaps, that German

I attended Recruitment at Central PS in February 1975. I failed on my eyes, they were "too close to the ground" 1/2" short! I went to my doctor and asked if there were any exercises I could do? His

There have probably been some famous/notorious people who have spent time at the Central Police Station and who had wished that they were somewhere else at the time. None more so, perhaps, that German POW Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, who had been arrested when attempting to steal a Hurricane from the Rolls-Royce site at Hucknall aerodrome in December 1940. He was taken to the station by detective sergeant Calladine (I have been trying to locate a photo of Calladine for years). When I was researching the details of this now famous episode, I found a small amount of information about him in the old records kept at the Nottingham Records Office. There was very little, just a list of what his possessions were at the time of his arrest; which were: 2 boxes of matches, a pencil, a packet of PK chewing-gum, a pair of spectacles and 2 shillings and 3 pence. Whilst there he enjoyed a tea, two dinners and a breakfast.

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I attended Recruitment at Central PS in February 1975.

I failed on my eyes, they were "too close to the ground" 1/2" short!

I went to my doctor and asked if there were any exercises I could do? His reply was,

"Shame, they will only end up with tall thick coppers" "Try hanging on the back of your bedroom door"

It never worked and I eventually ended up in a job that I needed my eyes close to the ground.

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POW Oberleutnant Franz von Werra ...

Well I never knew that. I wonder why von Werra was being handled by the civil authorities rather than the military as a POW. Was DS Calladine attached to Special Branch?

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The military - an RAF officer accompanied by four army soldiers, arrested him. The RAF held him until the civil police came to take him away. He was held at the Central Police Station overnight until an RAF escort picked him up at 12.15 the next day; 22nd December. He went back to Swanwick, was sent to Canada, escaped into the neutral United States, went down to Mexico, through Central America into Brazil, taken by plane to West Africa, then Rome and then back the Germany. Got married in the August and went back in to the Luftwaffe and was killed shortly after.

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Actually, he looked like this. This was taken when he entered the USA from Canada, six weeks after he was at Hucknall. I have a picture of me together with Hardy Kruger, at Hucknall. Bet you didn't know that Chulla was a fillum star.

v%20Werra_zpsxnwcwzcz.jpg

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You could imagine Hardy Kruger piloting a Bf109, but the real Von Werra just does not have the looks to be Luftwaffe ace.

Cinema Nazis always have to look the part. Anton Diffring, who made a career out of playing sinister Nazis, was Jewish; as were Derren Nesbitt, the black-uniformed blond in Where Eagles Dare, and Frederick Valk the Kommandant in The Colditz Story.

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Cliff Ton #26. Thanks for that.

Col

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Further to recent posts about von Werra and Hardy Kruger, here is the latter with me at R-R Hucknall in 2000 when scenes for the documentary on von Werra were being shot by a Swiss film company. Here, he looks more like Ernest Hemingway than the fresh-faced chap in the films The One That Got Away, and Flight of the Phoenix.

DB%20and%20Hardy%20Kruger%20544x800_zpsd

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#37. It gets better, Ian. Just after that picture was taken HK said he wanted a pee. I took him to the nearest Gents and we hung out together, side-by-side. How many people can say that. Does that have more kudos than seeing Guy Mitchell?

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When we were first married my husband used to have to check in to the desk at PHQ. He had to take his passport and report in every month. When Tug Wilson found out he was married to me ( a colleagues daughter) he put in a good word so he didn't have to report in again and he  (Tug ) kept him under his wing.

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It’d be a good exercise to get all the immigrants to do that nowadays.  Oh, hang on ...... it wouldn’t be as easy   as it was in the 60s and 70s. 

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1 hour ago, nonnaB said:

When we were first married my husband used to have to check in to the desk at PHQ. He had to take his passport and report in every month. When Tug Wilson found out he was married to me ( a colleagues daughter) he put in a good word so he didn't have to report in again and he  (Tug ) kept him under his wing.

There were two Tug Wilsons, Big Tug, (The one we know) and Little Tug, both brothers. Little Tug was a motorcycle cop. And he was not little, but not as big as his brother! 

One night there was a big snowstorm and I was patrolling between Ollerton and Worksop. No chance of getting to Worksop. Little Tug was in a bit of difficulty but I got to him and we just made a brew, cooked some tinned sausages on a hexi stove and got in the car and waited it out. 

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Ha ha, I bet half the beggars here haven't got bleddy passports. 

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12 minutes ago, FLY2 said:

Ha ha, I bet half the beggars here haven't got bleddy passports. 

Let’s not go there FLY!   Actually I think, (I I honestly don’t want to get political here) most of the ‘immigrants’ here are hard working, and really WANT to work.  I’m only going on personal experience, as we’ve employed several Eastern Europeans and they have all been hard workers, they would never resort to begging, nor need to.  Nuff said. 

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Lizzie, I didn't mean beggars literally, just a slightly disparaging term. A bad choice of words on my behalf I'm afraid.

Likewise, I think Eastern European folk are generally very hard working.

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