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I find reading books as a gateway to life,teach a child to read and it will stay with them for life,without the ability to read you are stuffed,can't learn everything parrot fashion can you? even people who can't read all that good or claim to be dyslexic still learn from books

 

Rog

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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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These memories might be from the 60's as opposed to the late 50's as the topic title suggest but,can you remember when we were kids how different seasons attracted different games,marbles,cards (flicking em not poker) as Chulla has reminded me through one of his posts,pea shooters,spud guns,catapults etc,the one I'm on about now, and its been covered in other posts,Trolley's or soap box carts if you prefere, I think trolley season was around the autumn time although I might be wrong,we made them from old planks of wood,nails,and some old pram or pushchair wheels,ther was two methods of driving these things,number one was to sit upright on it holding the string that was tied to the front axle beam,this was used to steer the trolley similar to how you would steer a horse (I think) for this method you either had to start off on a hill or get a mate to push you everywhere, the other way was to lay on the trolly lying on one side holding the steering string or holding the axle beam to steer it,this method dint require a mate to push you because you could scoot the thing using the leg that wasn't laying on the trolley,the only drawback to this method of propulsion was if one of your front wheels hit an obstruction the axle beam would swing in that direction trapping the hand between axle beam and main frame in particular the bit of loose skin between the forefinger and thumb, bloody painful as I'm sure most of you boys know,the axles of these things was held to the frames of the trolleys by a row of nails either side of the axle and then bending them over to trap the axle between the nails and the axle beam,the steering pin which was the hardest componant to find was usually a long bolt with washers between the axle beam and main body of the thing,how any of us survived some of the stunts we pulled on them things I will never know

 

Rog

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I've just seen on Facebook that St Francis Church has - or is to be - demolished, then came on here and found Fairham Comprehensive School is derelict.  I wonder if there is anything left of Clifton that I would recognise.

 

I know churches aren't much used nowadays, but where do all the boys go to school if Fairham has gone?

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VWGolf - nice to see you back after quite a long absence.

 

I think (can't swear to it) that most of the secondary pupils - male and female - on Clifton go to the expanded Farnborough School.

 

There's been a massive population change on Clifton in recent years. When I was at Fairham (60s - 70s) there were around 1600 pupils there - all male; along with about 800 girls at each of Farnborough and Charnwood - and a few hundred at Clifton Hall as well. These days there's nothing like as many teenagers on the estate as there used to be, so the number of school places required has dropped.

 

 

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Did Farnborough school used to take all secondary school pupils from Clifton before Fairham and Charnwood schools were built?

 

Rog

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Just noticed Clifton played a part in the last entry of my 1958 schoolboy Diary of Padstow football results

 

Glaisdale..............we won...6-0

Farnborough........we won  .3-1

Cottesmore..........we won...4-1

Glenn bott..............2-2

Wm Sharpe...........we won  5-1

Wm Sharpe...........we won  2-0

Farnborough.........we lost  1-2

Huntingdon............we lost  1-2

Glaisdale..............we won 5-2

Morley...................we won 4-3

Cottesmore...........we won 10-0

Glenn Bott.............we won 4-0

Morley...................we won 6-0

Huntingdon..........we won 1-0

 

 

Padstow won the Nottm schools championship..........and Farnborough were one of only 2 defeats..........they must have been lucky,.....amazing thing is I can still remember playing most of those matches.........and my team mates.............

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I think they started off as Thistledown Rovers back in about 1964/65 by a guy called Mr Lambert who happend to live on Thistledown road Clifton,smashing bloke who only wanted the best for kids,an inspiration to anyone

 

Rog

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They had some good teams over the years and produced some good players.........inc. Viv Anderson,...think they had to drop the 'All-Whites' from their name some years ago...............

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Thats right they did drop the name,I seem to remember when they first started they played in green,Viv Anderson did play for them he also attended the same school as me but about 3 years later,other names that come to mind but not all at top clubs were Jeremy Jennings,Richard Pack and quite a good goalkeeper who's name escapes me at the moment Tony S?????

 

Rog

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First manager of the All-Whites was Mick Walker, later Notts County. At the time he was PE teacher at Mundella, 'Wack' as he was known. Wielded a mean slipper if you did wrong, but a good bloke.

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Did'nt know that TBI..............Did you know David Pleat ? he was at Mundella...........think you a bit younger ?..........played with Pleat and Birchenall back in the day.............Birch just had heart attack and heres wishing him a speedy recovery.........

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#38

 

No ben, I didn't know David Pleat, presumably before my time. I was at Mundella from '65 so just a spring chicken really... lol. Sorry about your pal, hope he gets better soon.

 

I wasn't in any of the football teams myself though, I was into athletics and cross-country. We competed against Fairham quite a few times.

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A couple of games we used to play in front of the shops opposite Holy Trinity,for those that know the shops they were on their own little road that ran parallell (sp) to the amin road leading from Farnborough road to Southchurch drive a bit of a short cut from the main junction when you was heading down Farnborough road with two pieces of grass and low white steel hooped wire fence around the grass,in front of the shops was a concrete slabbed pathway quite wide that was between the shops and the little road,the first shop nearest to the Grey Mare public house was I think the Co op,then a bit of waste land the size of a shop next to that coming down the road was Farrands,followed by a decorating shop sold wall paper paint etc (can't remember his name who owned it but it might come back to me,(old Bulwell lad I think) Chemist shop,paper shop (Fourboys) launderette then I think the final "shop" was a book makers,after that was just waste land similar to what I described in an earlier post,anyroad to get back to what I was on about,we played football on those little grass islands in front of the 68 bus stop,I suppose hoping to get spotted by some football coach heading to the city,(no chance) we could play there in the dark because of the street lights,the other and different type of game was "Book and Skate" on the path outside the shops,now this was, as far as I know before the Skateboard craze hit the UK,I am talking early 1960's the idea was you had a skate,just one (usually a Jacko) and a hard back book,usually an annual type like the Beano,Dandy etc,put that on the skate,sit on it with your legs off the ground and launched yourself down the slight hill that the shops were on attaining a fair amount of speed,some of the more adventurous of us even stood up on the books like a modern day skateboarder (did we invent the skateboard?) I' ll have a think to see what else the grey cells kick up

 

Rog

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Just remebered the wallpaper shop owners name,,Brian Westwood,Not sure if he ran it with his wife or his sister,he used to drive a dark green Singer Gazelle estate car which he kept round the back of the shops on what I think was a private road for shop owners and shop workers only,

Ben, the name of the goalkeeper I was trying to think of was Tony Strickland,very good goalie who played for Highbank juniors then onto Fairham throughout all his years there,not sure whether he went on to greater things though,also Tim Clements good forward player,now runs the butchers on Broxtowe lane (family butcher) near Coleby road

 

Rog

 

 

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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 allowed) for the fire the day we moved in and dad was on the rough ground in front of the house breaking up wood for a fire, there was no central heating then. Anyway little brother had a yoyo and was spinning it round on the end of the string, not up and down, round and round. At that moment next door opened a window, yup, you got it -  CRASH. He got thrashed, I got thrashed for not watching him and both banished inside. About an hour later little bro was frothing bright purple foam from his mouth. Among all the boxes and paraphernalia yet to be unpacked he found some 'little aniseedballs'. No had hadn't, he'd just downed a whole bottle of gentian violet pills. No phone, no car and with no idea where the doctors were dad set of on his bike to find help. My baby sister upset by all commotion was screaming, mam was having a fit nursing her and for the next two hours I had to drag my semi-comatose brother up and down the lounge because she said he will die if you let him go to sleep so of course I'm crying and frightened out of my wits.. maaam I'm only seven...Welcome to Clifton.

My first School was Brinkhill and there saw my favourite teacher from Sneinton, Miss Marshall. I was the best reader in class and as a reward she took me to the pictures in her little car, a Ford Y. The film was Fantasia and I loved it but couldn't follow the plot. For those of you who have not seen it there isn't one. Still my fave film of all time. Sadly Miss Marshall was murdered in France whilst on a cycling holiday.

I passed my 11 plus and was due to go to Mundella until I saw my mam crying at the cost of all the kit I needed. I threw a wobbler and refused to go saying I would run away if they made me, she never knew why.

I went to Farnborough on the first day it opened and also Fairham on the day that opened. Dad was a machine tool fitter so had what I suppose was an average wage but with seven kids it didn't go far. I remember him coming home one day proud as punch, he had a large piece of white paper in his wage packet. A five pound note no less!

Sometimes I look back through the wrong end of a rose tinted telescope and think about my childhood but really I have mixed emotions about it. One thing it gave me was a great determination that my kids would have it better but then I suppose you could say that about every parent.

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I really enjoyed reading your post, Brew.  Thank you.  I think you had your hands full looking after your little brother!   Did you ever regret not going to Mundella?  You were obviously a caring sensitive child...

Please keep posting more of your memories

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Brilliant Brew,this is what Nottstalgia is all about,memories of our growing up in this great city of ours,keep em comimg

 

Rog

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I recently read about the murder of the Notts teacher murdered in France whilst on a cycling holiday . 

Has it been covered on here already ? If not will have to see if I can find the story again . 

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Did I ever regret not going to Mundella? How would I know? I went to what they claimed was the grammar stream at Fairham, at that time a shining beacon of education, the largest comprehensive in the country I think at that time.

I seem to have spent a large portion of my life in schools. Nottingham Technical college . Peoples College.  Nottingham University and Nottingham Trent University (at 45 yrs old) .

Thinking about it I suppose what drove me was a hatred of being 'poor'. I was the kid with the second hand clothes that classmates recognised. The one who's family didn't have a TV, never went on holiday etc. You couldn't give me my teenaged years back if you paid me in gold.

There were some great times though. Making a raft on Fairham brook and seeing how many we could get on it with inevitable result. My dad going with us to what we called giants foot pond in what eventually became the Glapton part of Clifton to catch newts. After a dire warning of consequences if we fell in it was quite hysterical seeing him up to his knees in the water, we learned some new words that day.

My best friend who lived just down the street had a bike. We went miles on that thing. Me pedalling, him on the 'croggy' sometimes sitting on the handlebars which made life interesting going down hill when you can't see - hello Anderson ward in the old General hospital. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I made a brilliant trolley (well I thought it was) but rather than steer with the bit a clothes line I pinched (it musta got wet and shrunk mam) I made it so I could sit upright and steer with my feet. Magic!  flying down the hill from the 'top shops' on Southchurch drive. There was small stream at the bottom, so were three ladies pushing babies in prams. With no such fancy things as brakes I used the soles of my boots but though Blakeys made a lot of sparks they were not actually very good at stopping - I don't have to draw a picture do I? Later there was a short interlude when father reintroduced me to the razor strop he called 'the kid socker.'

Ruddington had an MOD disposal depot. Absolutely brilliant place to sneak into. Army motor bikes, Bedford lorries and Bren gun carriers. We killed hordes of enemies in those things.

Playing in Bluebell woods (Bunny) we found an entrance to a tunnel that we were later told was a wartime ammunition store and that the big hill was mostly hollow. Don't know how true it is but there was certainly a small gauge railway track going into it.

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Thanks Brew for the link .

 

It shows what a big story it was in France , as this 50 minute documentary was made a few years ago with reconstructions of the case .

Need to brush up on your French though .

 

https://archive.org/details/LAffaireMarshall

 

A translation about the documentary ;

 

Famous French criminal case. On August 28, 1955, the body of a half-undressed young woman was found at Chaussée-Tirancourt, a village in the Somme. It is Janet Marshall, a British teacher in Nottingham born on September 7, 1925, who was traveling by bicycle during his summer vacation. Just three years after the Dominici affair, this new murder of a British tourist makes the headlines of the press in France and the United Kingdom. The beatings do not give anything. The inquiry, entrusted to the commissioner Léon Castellan of the Lille Criminal Police, tramples. After several months of difficult investigation, the murderer was arrested on January 7, 1956. Robert Avril, a forty-year-old vagabond, previously convicted of rape, whose anthropometric photo resembles the photo fit . Robert Avril goes on to confession on the fourth day of interrogation. On May 7, 1958, he was sentenced by the Assize Court of the Somme to forced labor in perpetuity.

The case has remained famous for having given rise to one of the very first diffusions of a photo fit in France.

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