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My father had an allotment down there but it was nearer the bottom on the flatter bit and just before the model aircraft flying field which was very popular back in the 50’s. Just over the road on the opposite hill was a wartime pillbox in the middle of a field. There’s still another one where Bank Hill joins Plains Rd. I suppose that will be listed building now.

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Here's a cracking picture of the top of Woodborough Road showing Mapperley Methodist Church and the top of Porchester Road - hope it inspires some memories  

Rob, I think the picture would have been taken in the 60's when they started building on the land behind what was once Wardles's garage (i.e.before Wheelhouse had it).   We used to play football and g

Plains Road looking towards Nottingham. The road on the left is the top of Westdale Lane.

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I think I can remember the footpath which went from Plains Road down the hill over the fields.  Did it have a privet hedge on the right hand side for the first part?  I remember my brother and I once walked all the way  to Sandfield Road down this path then over the fields.  Last month when we were in Nottingham, we drove along Plains Road to see if I could spot where it used to be, but without success.... well, I am talking about 65 years ago!

 

Phil, I remember the pillbox - it always smelled of wee inside...

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17 minutes ago, MargieH said:

I think I can remember the footpath which went from Plains Road down the hill over the fields.  Did it have a privet hedge on the right hand side for the first part?  I remember my brother and I once walked all the way  to Sandfield Road down this path then over the fields.  Last month when we were in Nottingham, we drove along Plains Road to see if I could spot where it used to be, but without success.... well, I am talking about 65 years ago!

 

Phil, I remember the pillbox - it always smelled of wee inside...

Sorry, that was me Margie!

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Love that pic of Somersby. You can almost see where I live opposite the bottom of the road, although "it were only fields" (and a railway) in those days.

 

And cars were parked at that angle on the hill only the other day - when it was covered in snow!

 

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Mrs PP lived in one of those houses on Somersby Rd. Now no 72. Don't know what it was then. Was always a job getting started up the hill when I had visited on my bike. We got married at St Marks - think it was then Rev Congdon.  Oddly enough I have been sorting out my mothers old papers and letters again today and found newspaper cuttings showing us as bride and groom - photographed courtesy WF Loasby (Rob L's dad).

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Talking of the Sledging on Breckhill fields, my older brother carried a poor lad up to our house, that had hit a stump of a bush or tree half way down and was obviously in a bad way, mam rang for the ambulance and later we found out he had ruptured his spleen ! my brother probably saved his life.

 

Anyone remember the mushroom farm on Beech avenue, used to walk down the field to there and they'd pick the mushrooms fresh and weigh them for you. Think the owners were Polish but may be wrong.

 

There was another cottage abutting the right hand side (Beech ave on the North) edge of the field that I got to know the old lady, she grew heaps of cacti and she gave me some that she had cultivated, I used to tidy her garden for her and cut the hedge. I had an old ex army machete that was razor sharp and made short work of trimming hawthorn hedges. She often used to call me over while I was playing in the fields, think she was very lonely.

 

Someone mentioned horses in the field too, my dad got up one morning and there was a couple in our garden eating his prized veggies ! someone (me ) had left the gate open.

I also used to go and collect the manure from the field for dads garden.

 

Also rode my first motorbike around the field for a while, but soon got a few noise complaints so that had to stop, I was probably 14-15.

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I know people need houses, and the houses that were built were nice, but  I feel sad that we can never walk over those  fields again...  or take my children and grandchildren to see them.  

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If it was my cousin’s horse that ate your father’s vegetables I apologise on her behalf as she is no longer with us. The same horse was kept in a stable on Eaton St., facing the Methodist Church during the winter months. It was fed on rich diet of hay and pony nuts which gave it lots of energy to burn off. This was done on a Sunday when uncle, father and self hitched it to a two wheeled trap and took it to the end of The Plains. It took off at an amazing speed which my uncle was barely able to control. There was not much in the way of cars back in the 50’s so the horse had a clear run. It was extremely exhilarating!

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Ian, spent many a happy hour in the company of Mike in the 60's.  As part of a group that resided in Mapperley we were always in each others houses so I knew both his Mum and his Dad.  When out and about with him we were often halted by a wall and informed "that's Flemish Bond' you  know"!

 

 Driving along Mapperley top a month or two ago I'm sure I spotted him outside the Co-op but I haven't had any contact with him for well over 35yrs.  As for Elaine, I have met her but it was a long while ago.

 

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Once a week our class trekked up Woodborough  Rd. to use Elliot Durham swimming pool past some stables up to St.Jude's church and then a short way down Ransom Rd.

If my memory serves me was there a garage with a large Dragon/Griffin on the wall that sold early Datsuns? Near the Cambridge pub.

Anyroad after trying for me learners and paying 2p for a hairdryer, there was a oxo/Bovril vending machine,haven't seen one in yonks.

The swimming instructor had a son as a member on here... blowed if can remember his name... Chubby faced with a moustache... Think Peveril knew him to...from cycling?

And Elliot Durham's football pitch was crap...it was on a slant.... learnt banana shots long before Pele!

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Another good aerial photograph showing the extent of the housing (1948) with Somersby Road under development.  Note how wide and posh Melbury Road is and if you zoom in top centre-right you can see the coal wharf near the top of Gorse Hill!

 

Somersby_Rd_B-1.jpg

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The open field directly facing was very popular with model aeroplane flyers. I remember an uncle having to retrieve one from the top of those flat roofed houses on the left. Another uncle, Bob Burton, was a coal merchant and he used to load his lorry at that coal wharf. I think the coal was hauled up the hill from the pit by a stationary engine which went back down the hill at the end of the day.

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Well done Paradiddle.  Glad the photo's are getting a far wider viewing than just the former occupants of 137!  Makes the scanning well worth the effort.  

 

Any other former members of the 110th Mapperley Methodists Scouts and Cubs on here?  I ran the cubs for a few years from the age of 18 to 21, taking over from Derek Ringer, who was Akela when I joined the cubs. I moved away then when I returned 1973, was Akela again for a few years.  Paradiddle, along with Mick Jefferies and Pete Mason, Peter Braham etc., were 3 years younger than  our mob, which included fellow Queens' Scouts, Andy Wood and John Williamson.

 

We were also founder members of the first Nottingham Scout and Guide group, created by the late Phyllis Ramsell and Don Varley in 1963, when scouts and guides were first allowed to have their tents less than 400 yards from each other!  This was in fact the first ever true Scout & Guide group in the UK, with members drawn from various Troops and Guide companies from around the City and was initially just a one off experimental camp at Elton - but we refused to disband.

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Socram, I  once went to Elton for a weekend camp with the Guides.  It was either when I was at a Mapperley troop or at one in Woodthorpe which I moved to after I was 13.  At Elton we were walking in a field and I saw what I thought was a piece of rope so I went to pick it up - it slithered away and frightened me so much that I've had a dislike of snakes ever since!  

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110th Nottingham Mapperley Methodists, cub outing to Barrow on Soar 1955.  Happy for anyone to fill in any of the gaps - or correct any errors.

 

155_0700_02%20110th%20Named.jpg

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Some of the shops and establishments on Woodborough Road, north of Porchester in the 1950's.  Not all and I know there was at least one other green grocers. 

 

Reg Leafe the butchers - football referee I believe

Frudd's - plumbers?

Dr's Carson, Lock etc.

Was it Twigdens newsagents or was that the one at the top of Westdale Lane?

Judges - bakery and groceries and the Post Office

The 'Clinic' - where we all got our pre school smallpox jab and that disgusting cod liver oil - and small bottles of orange juice to avoid rickets.

A Vauxhall garage corner of Breck Hill?

Elizabeth Bramley's toy shop - where I'd gaze monthly at the brand new Dinky Toy releases that I couldn't afford, but were in Dad's Meccano Magazine.

Russells cake shop/bakery

The barber.  Brown coat, miserable as sin, slow, short back and sides only.  Yuck.  Hated that regular visit.

Albert Abel - butcher.  Lovely chap and stalwart of Mapperley Methodist Church.

Beardsleys Fish & Chip shop.  Cooked in lard and Mrs B did the best mushy peas.  Beautiful haddock (straight from Grimsby) or plaice to order.

Bailey's green grocers

Dry cleaning shop

A builder's yard

Gilberts Tea Gardens - before the self service Co-op.

Fresh fish shop

Burrs the Opticians

A C Butler - builder.  (Gordon Butler's sister  married Jim Briers of ACHS).

There might have been a Co-op grocer's before the supermarket, but I'm a bit hazy about that.

Dewhirst butchers

Marsden's Grocers

Trustee Savings Bank - still there

Scales, Green Grocers - Pete Scales was in our class at school.

Jewellers - can't remember the name

Pickerings - who ran the chemist's shop.

Dentist.

Doctor (Foy?).

A violin teacher - sounded like torture.

Then there was a sweet shop almost next to the school - aniseed balls ten for 1d, or 4 blackjacks for a 1d.

MIss Wrath - piano teacher - or another torturer depending on your love or otherwise of classical music. 

The police house.  Remember the Glenn's, a bit later on.

Dewsbury's newsagents and bakery.  Best fresh wholemeal bread and hot cross buns ever.

What was Butlers (Jill was also in our class at school - a fellow Pinks Disease survivor) then to Wainmans - yet another green grocers.

Roys Motors, or better known as (Roy) Sharpe's garage.  (If anyone has any photos of Roy's buses, would dearly like a copy.)

Piano tuner opposite the garage - but can't remember his name.

Worsley's dairy - run out of what could best be called an outhouse.  Tiny one person outfit, right next to...

Wardles garage, then to Chick Wheelhouse, garage and car sales.

Tree Tops - but used to be a (Spencers?) farm alongside who grazed his cattle on Crossland's fields, behind.  Our playground.

Gedling Miner's Welfare - where several of us used to get chased off by the groundsman - or we played football on the practice pitch.

 

No doubt there are a fair few gaps in that list and hopefully, someone will fill them in, but as this relates back to the 1950's, memory lapses are acceptable.  Maybe I should also post it in the 1950's thread?

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Socram, I remember several of the places you mentioned...

Dr Foy was my doctor but I can't remember much about him.

Was Leafe's butchers the one with green tiles on the walls ?  If it was he had an assistant whom my mum called 'Frank the butcher'. He used to deliver our meat.

Twigdons newsagent was where my dad bought his cigarettes.  It was near the top of Woodthorpe Drive

Judges was a lovely place because it sold iced buns - I loved them.

Elizabeth Bramley's toyshop was was also a 'doll's hospital' where my mum had hair stuck on my bare headed pot doll - I didn't like it and picked it off again, fickle child that I was!

There was a shop next door?  that sold lovely ice cream - it had little bits of Ice in it

Baileys greengrocer which has been there forever....

Pickering's chemist was  where I was tested on my First Aid badge for Guides (I passed)

Tree Tops was where we tried to have our wedding reception in 1966 but it was already booked so we had to have it at the Grey Goose.

Later, in the 70s, our children used to love going to Fords in the precinct with the small change given to them by my mum.  They sold very cheap toys and other stuff

 

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Socram, you just jogged my memory when you listed the Drs Carson. My friend Frances who lived for a short time next door to me, moved onto Mapperley Plains after that. Her mum went to live-in as a housekeeper to some doctors. I used to visit her there, the doctors had no children, and gave Frances and I the wife's old dolls. I still have mine, from 1910. Their house was down an unmade cul-de-sac, it had a name, but I think 'unadopted'. I had forgotten the name of the donor of my doll till I read your post.

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The Doctor's surgery (Carson & Lock) was right on Woodborough Road itself and probably the only house we spared from 'doorbell ringing' on the way home from cubs.  Oh what little rascals we were!  Didn't really enjoy going to the Docs, not because of the problems, but of the long waits.  It was shock to get to NZ, as Dr lock was always immaculately turned out with dark three piece suit with white shirt and sober tie.  My (current!) wife introduced me to her GP, who was dressed in shorts, open necked shirt and sandals.   He used to live on Private Road Mapperley and had a practice in Hyson Green or Radford!  Needless to say, he lapsed into Nottingham speak and we always got on like a house on fire.

 

The surgery was almost opposite the new KFC which was initially the site of Frank Sytner's first garage/showroom, before he headed into the City as a full time BMW dealer.  Seeing a Ferrari Daytona (BTV 4 K) outside his place in Mapperley was a lift from the usual Vauxhalls, Austins and Fords and I managed to grab a pic.

 

Dr Lock performed my 1982 medical for entry to NZ - but not at the surgery.  Dr Foy's daughter, Vivienne, went to ACHS and was my Scottish Country Dance partner.  I think she too became a Doctor (should have retired by now!) and married another ACHS pupil - and I have caught up with them at mini ACHS reunions.

 

I collected my weekly copy of Motoring News from Twigdons for my last three years in the UK, plus the monthly Motorsport, Classic & Thoroughbred Cars. 

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