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We moved from Sneinton to Clifton around '52. We moved into a brand new house that was barely finished. The roads weren't even finished, just cinder hardcore. I remember we had no coke (coal not allow

Now I never said I was an angel,but even this stunt was low,when I was about 8 or 9 me mam sent me to church on Sundays (Sunday school) now I dint like proper school but me mam perhaps thought I could

Right, a little story about how I got me first two wheeled bike,as I said in a previous post the two brothers down the road had a two wheeled bike,it was a girls bike with rod operated brakes,pump up

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Welcome to Nottstalgia, Steph98787. I look forward to reading your posts and sharing your memories.

I realise that it's your prerogative to PM members but if it's not a private matter then it's best to share your posts with the other Nottstalgians. We can all share your memories if you do this and add our own. :)

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After about a year and a half living in Radford we moved to Clifton estate,Top of Farnborough road and this would be in 1959,I would be 7 years old maybe 7 1/2

The thing that comes to mind first was the fact that we had 3 "lawns" as me mam called them, the front garden one,back garden one and a strip of ground down the side was grassed,never had a proper garden before so I took advantage of the grass and rode my Raleigh Winkie round it like I was mad to the horror of my parents who gave me a clout for spoiling the "lawn" bloody good start to my new home I thought,nothing changes,anyway this was a Saturday and as such was fish and chip day,luckily there was a chip shop across the road and just a little way up,my job was to go there and get the chip order that was written on a piece of plain paper and put in an envelope,me mam thought that looked posh,well better than any old scrap paper anyway,I was fortunate enough to be able to pick what I wanted with my chips so I chose a Cornish pasty with gravy, I tell you sommat,that was spot on,bloody lovely so that was my dinner each time we had food from the chip shop,me mam and dad were busy sorting out the furniture and stuff and I was just in the way so I thought it would be a good idea to ride my trusty steed up and down the footpath and grass verge's on Farnborough road to see if I could make any friends (or enemies) yep there was a couple of brothers living at the end of our section of houses on the corner of Farnborough road and Pastures avenue where the 68 buses used to turn round,soon made friends and we got on well for the rest of their time living there,time to go in and have a bath and get ready for bed,me being the pain in the arse member of the family had the misfortune to have the bath water that my sister had already bathed in,I seemed to be at the back of the queue for everything when I were a kid,anyroadup bathed and settled we were allowed to watch a bit of telly,I remember it being cold on my feet because at that time we didn't have a carpet on the floor and I think the floor was just hat black bitumastic stuff or sommat like that ,it was a long living room that went full length of the house,we had a carpet fitted the following week,what adventures would I be in for now we lived in Clifton on the edge of the countryside,more to follow as the grey cells kick into life

 

Rog

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We were playing with home made bows and arrows on the grass triangle at the corner of Farnborough road and Pastures avenue,there was a footpath through the middle cutting the grass triangle in half,on the left half was quite a mature tree,don't know what sort,the brothers house was at the side of the grass area,as I said we were playing with these bows and arrows,the bows were made from bamboo canes with ordinary string for the ,,,,string,the arrows however were made from pea sticks you know the dark almost black coloured ones about 1/4 inch diameter and about a foot to 14 inches long that we bought from Pettits up at the "Top Shops" (remember them?) ,flights made from discarded cigarette packet fronts probably Park Drive as they were popular in them days,or could have been Players Number 6 (dont see them anymore) for some stupid reason we got around to shooting at each other with these things and one of the brothers kept getting hit by his brothers arrow,not a problem because they didn't have sharpened ends until that was the brother who was losing at the game came back from his garden with a sharpend pea stick and went for his brother with a vengence and shot him in the leg from close range,the arrow stuck in his leg at calf hight and was hanging there when he ran back to his house squeeling like a stuck pig,I was out of there I can tell you,this kid was a raging nutter,in the end it all finished with everyone being friends again but it could have been worse,the brothers shared a bicycle and it was on that that I learned to ride on two wheels,another story of my growing up or down whichever you prefere

 

Rog

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My parents had friends who lived at 394 Farnborough Road which must have been not too far from you, Rog. Noreen and Les Morley, lovely couple. We used to visit them when I was a child and the house was fairly new then. I remember the long living room with a door into the back garden.

 

There was a school opposite if I remember rightly. Les died suddenly in 1976 but Noreen lived there until she died in 2009.They moved in when the house was new in the 1950s.

 

Happy memories.

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59 minutes ago, Jill Sparrow said:

My parents had friends who lived at 394 Farnborough Road which must have been not too far from you, Rog. Noreen and Les Morley, ......There was a school opposite if I remember rightly.

 

In those days called Fairham Comprehensive, later known as Fairham Community College, and currently closed down, half demolished and abandoned. It looks like a ghost town with grass and wild flowers growing through the concrete and tarmac. I spent 7 years there, a few years later than Rog Plantfit's time there.

fairham_zpshmldjamy.jpg

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#11

 

Oh dear. Looks very rundown. It used to be nice. Clifton was, at one point, the largest council estate in the country, I believe. I suppose, like everywhere else, it's suffering from the effects of age, neglect and redundancy!

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Just before we moved back to Bathley street the meadows,early 50's perhaps 1953/4 we used to live opposite that school looking out towards Summerwood lane,I don't remember my time there then as I would only be 2 or 3 years old an aunt or second cousin lived very close by too but can't rmember her name yet,it might come back to me,I think that house number was around the 370's/390's,I must have a drive over there and have a look sometime,the last number I spent there was 665,in between the top end of Summerwood lane and Pastures avenue,I went past the place last year when I took a tram ride on the new route and I took a picture of the old place,I will try and find it tomorrow night and put it on here

 

Rog

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#13

 

You must have lived very close to the Morleys, Rog, when you were a nipper. They spent the first few years of married life with Noreen's parents in Burnham Street, Sherwood and were thrilled to get the offer of a brand new house in Clifton.

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Right, a little story about how I got me first two wheeled bike,as I said in a previous post the two brothers down the road had a two wheeled bike,it was a girls bike with rod operated brakes,pump up tyres and a sprung saddle,I had a go around that little triangle of grass at the corner of Farnborough road and Pastures avenue the very first time I was on two wheels,I was a bit wobbly to start with but after about half an hour I was the kid on the block,or I thought I was,so I rode home on this bike to show me dad what I had achieved on two wheels and asked for a two wheeler for the coming Christmas,he said he would "speak to your mother" well after a fair bit of begging/pleading from me as to how this new machine could turn me into a better human being and by making all sorts of promises about improving my behaviour,doing better at school,stop being cheeky,washing and drying the pots after meals etc she decided that she would think about one for Christmas,the big day arrived and sure enough there was a shiny new Raleigh two wheeler complete with pump,saddle bag and mud guards,yippee freedom,I guess it took about a good hour of making more promises to behave etc etc before I could hit the road,well pavement, but I was free and could go where I wanted,I knew that if I faulted on any of my promises the bike would be confiscated,it was bloody hard work to at least try to behave but I managed it for the most part until there were other things I could be threatened with to behave over other than me bike,I used to ride to Ruddington to the Great Central station and do a bit of spotting,in me saddle bag was all the essentials for a young boy,pencil,Ian Allen loco spotters book,Ian Allen combine (for the more serious train spotter) a pair of pliers (can't remember why) and a puncture outfit that I didn't have a clue how to use,In tha summer months me and a couple of mates would cycle to the little bridge over the Midland railway at Ratcliffe on Soar before the power station was built,that was long distance for a couple of little legs on a bike with no gears,that was the start of my cycling as a passtime that I still persue to this day.

 

Rog

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Now I never said I was an angel,but even this stunt was low,when I was about 8 or 9 me mam sent me to church on Sundays (Sunday school) now I dint like proper school but me mam perhaps thought I could be saved from the devil by becoming a good christian,I don't know,I was given a threpenney bit to put in the collecting box for me "subs" you had to pay the vicar Father Evans at The Holy Trinity on Farnborough road near the junction of Southchurch drive,once he got his money he would put a star stamp on your "young christians" card,at the end of the year all the card owners with full cards were awarded a certificate for attendance,now for threepence you could get a fair few sweets from the paper shop near the church,we came up with an idea,get a school rubber,you know the type for rubbing out mistakes you made with a pencil,carefully cut a star shape in the rubber using a Stanley knife (they were bloody sharp as I found out in another chapter of my life) anyroadup if you rubbed the star shape over using a black ball point pen you could put a star shape (like a stencil) on your attandance card  for young Christians,got it sorted,off we dutifully went every Sunday,got our sweets from the shop "Fourbouys" sat behind the shops and stamped our own cards,after a few weeks we had quite a following and made a bit of money stamping other kids "young Christian" cards,at the end of the year all the parents as well as us kids went to church to collect our certificate in front of all the parents,it came to my turn and I didn't get a certificate along with one or two other kids,me dad were'nt too pleased as it had cost him quite a lot of threepences and he duly marched to the front of the church to confront the vicar who told my father he had no record of my attendance,dad being dad dragged me out of the church saying It's the last time you go there lad,the vicars a bloody crook,in a way it was a result because I dint have to go again and Sundays were my own to ride me bike,Can I take this opportunity to apologise to Father Evans,Me Dad and Me Mam and all the other parents who had such high hopes for their little Young Christians

 

Rog
 

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There was a patch of bare ground on the corner of Southchurch drive and Farnborough road near the Holy Trinity church not Saint Francis church,thats at the bottom of the estate,I think they built Holbrook court on there in the mid 60's,sorry I drifted off then,on this waste land there was little earth footpaths that people used as short cuts to the shops etc,every so often was a mound of earth forming little hillocks maybe 4 foot high,this was our playground for various games,hide and seek,war games,cowboys/indians that sort of thing but,the best of all was bike scrambling,an early form of mountain biking well before mountain bike was invented by the Americans (yeh as if) what we did was strip the bikes down to bare essentials,off came the saddle bags,mudguards,lights anything that we didn't need for the bike to function,we would ride those mounds of earth like we were crazy,(some of the stunts we pulled we had to be crazy) riding as fast as possible the suddenly hitting one of these mounds of earth and launching ourselves skyward,great fun and completely harmless to the local population,at the end of the day we would put all the stuff back on our bikes (this was where I learned about the mechanics of the bicycle that served me well for DIY maintenence in bikes that still serves me well today) and go home shattered,there was other patches of waste ground dotted all over the estate,Near the Fairham pub and alongside the Fairham brook,down Swandown drive, the land that they built the Grey Mare on,  we would ride these as other challenges with lads who lived in that part of the estate to see who was the best riders, Great fun

 

Rog

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As I said we lived on Farnborough road and the back garden backed onto Avebury close where me mate Dave lived,we were aged 9 so the date would be 1961,remember long summer,cold winter,Dave had a Teddy bear (this story is not for the squeamish) the bears name was Turpin,a bit of a boring bear if I'm honest,nothing special about him,dint even growl when you tipped him over,anyway,the othe Dave from down Farnborough road near the 68 bus terminus was with us so was Chris from the corner of Pastures avenue,we were playing the usual rough and tumble stuff when someone suggested we include Turpin in the games,not a problem, he wasn't going to argue,as the day wore on the games got a bit more boisterous and it was decided to put the blame for breaking Daves dads shed window on Turpin the boring bear,just to show we weren't heartless little toads he got a fair trial but unfortunately for him he was found guilty,the sentence was to be decided over a glass of orange juice which Daves mam provided along with some jam sandwiches (strawberry jam) after the feasting Turpin was frog marched to the back garden and duly hanged by the neck until dead,(I warned you if you were squeamish) anyroadup Daves mam came out to see what the cheering was all about and when she saw what had happened she went potty,shouting and screaming at us,we all got the same treatment as Dave,a clout in the earhole and our mams told what horrible little so and so's we were,I was sent to bed with the usual walloping from the garden cane that was ever present near the back door,as I was in the bathroom having a cat lick,oops I mean a wash, I climbed on the edge of the bath to look out of the little bathroom window that was open to see poor old Turpin was still hanging from Dave's mams washing line,I started to laugh,mam heard me and sammy the stick was employed across the back of my legs again,so that night I went to bed with sore legs and tears in me eyes,it was only a stuffed bear after all

 

Rog

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Not sure about that Katy as I was grounded for what seemed like ages Dave's mam wouldn't let him play with us again and I couldn't see Daves mams washing line from the bathroom window in case I got caught standing on the bath side again,I'm sure I did some good things as well as the not so good but,there's none coming to mind yet,Just as an aside from the hanging,we did consider Burying Turpin alive,shooting him with Chris's air pistol and burning him as in Joan of Arc,hanging seemed to be the more humane way of doing things so we weren't all that bad was we?

 

Rog

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My first school at Clifton was Highbank juniors which was sited on Winscombe Mount,My first day there I was put in a Miss Switzer's class,there was about another twenty pupils there and we were all aged 7 years,I remember there was windows along one side of the classroom and at the end of it was one big window,seemed to go the full width of the room,at the side of that window was a cupboard door where the teacher kept different materials for different projects,one thing that sticks in my mind from the cupboard was a stuffed crocodile about 18 inches long,not got a clue what that was used for unless it was to threaten us kids with being eaten by it,along the top of the chalk board (blackboard)which was opposite this big window to the left as you walked through the door was a long rolled out sheet of paper about a foot in width and the full length of the board,on this paper was the alphabet in capitals and small letters,at the end of class each day we had to recite the alphabet all of us together in unison starting with A (obviously) but they pronounced it as A as in apple and B as in ball and C as in cracker,now when we lived in Radford and I attended Berridge road school we learned the alphabet as A sounding like Hay and B sounding like Bee and C sounding like Sea if you follow me,when the other kids in Miss Switzer's class started to recite the alphabet like that I was completely lost,dint have a clue what they were on about,I recited the way I had been taught,all the kids looked at me as if I was some sort of thicko,I think the kids progressed on to the correct pronounciation of it later in the school term,at least I could read and write without prompt from Miss Switzer which was a good testement to the teachers at Berridge road school,(note for Jill)

 

Rog

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Yes, Rog. I think the teaching of phonics was in its infancy then. My grandfather taught me to read long before I even went to school, aged 4. I wasn't popular with the teachers for that reason. Since I also see letters and words in specific colours (known as synaesthesia) I was always arguing that the letter chart was incorrect. The response of the teaching staff was, basically, bugger off Sparrow, and find something else to do!

 

Didn't prevent me progressing though. I'd reached the end of the reading test several years ahead of schedule and basically provided my own reading material from Hyson Green library on my father's tickets. Isaac Asimov, DH Lawrence, John Wyndham, etc. Still prefer books to all other media, all thanks to my grandad and his taking the time to teach me my alphabet!  I owe him a great debt!

 

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