John Player's Radford factories


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Interesting...But I thank God that I was fortunate enough only to work in a factory for the first few weeks of leaving school.

It has provided thousands of people with a secure living for many years,sadly lacking nowadays....But to clock into a giant factory year in year out would have seemed like a prison sentence to me.I'm glad I spent most of my working life on the road.

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Clifton, this is Brilliant; I'm going to need some time looking through this lot (I'm not going to say: "I'll save it for a rainy day!" - No way!) Let's keep the sun foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :)

The smell of tobacco from the vast Player's factory on Radford Boulevard remains with me today; I'll be kind and say: "it wasn't very pleasant!"

It's certainly a question of taste (& smell), i remember walking along Prospect street as a kid of 6/7 with my gran tightly holding my hand, & going past a warm air vent at ground level from side of Players No 3 Factory, the smell was lovely..........................I later worked in Factory 3, aged about 17, the smell then made me feel sick...........................

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  • 4 months later...

In the late 1960's as a pupil at Toothill school Bingham, I went with my class to visit the Players factory in Radford, and as someone has already said I can still remember the smell today.

Players also had a shop in the 1970's also in Radford, where you could exchange N°6 and N°10 cigarette tokens for gifts ,you needed 1000's for one small gift

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  • 2 months later...

I remember the smell vividly from when I walked up Radford Boulevard as a small child. Crossing over onto Hartley Road and round the corner into Norton Street, there was a much nicer smell for a little girl- coming from Barnett's sweet factory. Anyone remember that? That smell, if anything was stronger than Players.

My grandfather worked for Sidney Pullinger's Cigar Manufacturer which was somewhere down near Traffic Street. I don't know whether the building is still there. So, we had boxes of cigars around the place. All these smells still drift back occasionally and, as they say, the sense of smell is probably the most evocative sense we have.

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there was a much nicer smell for a little girl- coming from Barnett's sweet factory. Anyone remember that? That smell, if anything was stronger than Players.

Jill Sparrow, I seem to recall it being a cough linctus or throat sweet type smell?

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  • 3 months later...

Apart from an uncle on my wifes side , I don't have any family connection to Players but as its been a major employer for over 130 years thought I would post a few old images from Victorian Nottingham magazines that I can't see posted anywhere else .

Firstly a brief history from National Archives site :

John Player (1839-1884) was born in Saffron Walden, Essex. He came to Nottingham in c1862 and worked as a draper's clerk. A few years later, he set himself up in a shop on Beastmarket Hill in Nottingham, where he acted as an agent for Prentice and Co's agricultural manures and seeds.

He also sold pre-wrapped tobacco from the shop and as it proved so popular, it soon became his main business. It was during the early 1860's that John Player married Ann Goodacre. They had two sons, John Dane Player (1864-1950) and William Goodacre Player (1866-1959).

In 1877, John Player bought William Wright's tobacco factory in the Broad Marsh, Nottingham. He also opened two more shops in Sheep Lane later Market Street (1874) and in Broad Street (1878). His business quickly expanded and in 1881 he bought land in Radford and had 3 factories built on the site. The Castle Tobacco Factory was opened in April 1884 in one of the factories. The two remaining factories were leased to a number of lace manufacturers but by 1900 tobacco was being manufactured on all three sites.
John Player died in December 1884 and for the next nine years, the business was run by a small group of family friends until W G and J D Player were ready to take over the firm in 1893. The business became a private limited company in 1895, with a share capital of £200,000.
In 1901 a powerful association of American tobacco manufacturers launched an attack on the British market. In an effort to protect their business, 13 British tobacco manufacturers joined together to form a single company, The Imperial Tobacco Company.
Although the 13 firms became branches of the Imperial Tobacco Company, they continued to trade under their own names and competed with each other for business. At the formation of the new company, W G and J D Player were invited to join the board of directors.

John Player and Sons Ltd continued to expand during the inter-war years, building two new factories and a bonded warehouse. In 1926, W G and J D Player retired from the board of the Imperial Tobacco Company, but continued to take an interest in the affairs of their father's business until 1932.
Production continued to grow until at its peak in the late 1950's, Player's was employing 11,000 workers (compared to 5,000 in 1926) and producing 15 brands of pipe tobacco and 11 brands of cigarettes.

In 1972 Players opened their new "Horizon" Factory on the Lenton Industrial Estate. At the time, it was considered to be the most advanced factory of its kind in the world. Production continued at the Radford factories until 1974 and 1976 when the No 1 and No 2 Factories were closed completely and all manufacture transferred to Lenton. In 1986, the Imperial Tobacco Group was taken over by the Hanson Trust .

In 1887 the John Player business consisted of , the Castle factory Radford and shops at 5 Beastmarket Hill, 27 Market Street and 26 Broad Marsh.

Castle Works or Castle Tobacco Factory opened in 1884

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John Players first shop , Beastmarket 1877

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Players shop Broad Marsh


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Some pictures from inside the old factory :

8617586604_fbd8f1f88d_z.jpg

Tobacco warehouse

8616473547_52f6128519_z.jpg

Navy Cut department

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I've put this link in before in another thread, but it will certainly fit in here as well.

Hundreds of old Player's photos to keep you amused. Click on the Newer/Older arrows on the top right of the photo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/50284741@N02/4906606685/in/photostream/

Thanks Cliff for that link , the first three images I posted are on that flickr site but I can't see some of these (after a quick glance through)

Tobacco sorting and shredding

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Packing room

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Players "angels" making cigarettes

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Ahh... brings back memories! As a student I worked in the holidays at Players. Mainly in the warehouse where the money and really hard work was! The huge casks had to be opened by hand a sequence of cutting the steel bands from around the casks and lifting them into stacks. I also worked in the offal mill were we filled hundred weight sacks of offal( tobacco powder) and returned them for offsetting tax. Looking at the pictures I remember the fierce regimentation and discipline imposed by the `white coats' and ` grey coats 'on the workers,- watched them like hawks! Worse than the army!

Finally although tobacco is a ruthless killer,I remember that in 1960 1/3 to 1/2 (!!!) of the cost of the NHS was covered from the tax collected on tobacco.(kill`em and cure `em)

Horrendous place! People treated worse than slaves/animals. On a slightly different tack the sweat shops in the hosiery and lace trade must have been as bad(not forgetting the mines!)

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Cedars Hospital was a large house off Mansfield Road donated by Sir Charles Seely in 1897 as part of the Nottingham General Hospital. It originally provided 20 beds for convalescing patients. At the formation of the National Health Service in 1948 and the take over of the hospital by the Sheffield Regional Board, the hospital at the Cedars comprised 114 beds. The hospital at the time of this photograph was run by the Nottinghamshire Area Health Authority.

Thanks for the correction poobear!

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Coincidently, John Player's house on woodborough road now is the home of the Nottinghamshire Hospice.

Nottingham - NG3 (Alexandra Park)This section of Woodborough Road hosts the Nottinghamshire Hospice, whose entrance and exits gates are seen on either side of this stationary car. Apparently this was once the home of John Player, the tobacco giant and his family. His former coach house, with the pitched roof and cupola, sits opposite the two cars ascending from the city centre, adjacent to Magdala Road.

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I think a link has got slightly lost in the previous message, so here's a bit of compensation. This is the former John Player house on Woodborough Road, now the Hospice.

player.jpg

play2-1.jpg

And according to Picture the Past

This picture shows the former home of John Dane Player, a son of the founder of the Players cigarette business (John Player). When John Player died his firm was run for nine years by a group of his close friends until his two sons, John Dane Player and William Goodacre Player could take over the running of the business. William Goodacre Player lived at Whatton Manor and had previously resided at Lenton Hurst on Adams Hill.

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I went inside that house last year, very, very beautiful it is too.

Ciincidently, I am led to believe that a neighbouring house at the back (Alexandra Park) was once owned by Jesse Boot !

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Catfan,there is an interesting thread elsewhere on this site,describing Jesse Boot`s house on the Trent overlooking the Memorial Gardens which he purchased for the city and gave him a clear view all the way to the other parcels of land he donated to the university and city. I noted a remark by Paulus (Paulus

"Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.”) ,which caught my eye. John Player (1839-1884) only lived a short life (probably the tobacco got him!) as did John Boot father of Jesse who had the first herbalist shop in Hockley Village (John Boot (1815–1860), born in Radcliffe on Trent in Nottinghamshire.) So neither lived long enough to enjoy the spoils of their entrepreneurship! Wonder if the natural remedies did for him! Lots of quack remedies about today!

Finally did you know that Walter Raleigh before starting his cycle making business in Radford (in one of John Players` 2 empty factories ) used also to have a shop on Beastmarket Hill selling potatoes AND tobacco. However his recommendation to smoke potato plant leaves never took off so he sold the tobacco half to John Player and went back to making cycles.

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