Dangerous or unusual places you played as a kid.


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When I lived on Alfreton Road in the 1960s there were derelict houses in the area between Independent Street and Boden Street where flats were later built. My friends and I called this area "Bomb Buildies" and we enjoyed many a happy hour exploring.

 

Different times...

 

 

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I often went waterskiing there, on the gravel pits, in the late 60s/early 70s.  The waterski club used the Trent around Gunthorpe or Hoveringham but for a change would go over to Holme Pierrepont on a Sunday afternoon.  

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Yes Stuart this is it looks different now there was a spur railway line off the Kimberley to Nottingham track where theywould deliver supplies and on top which was well camouflaged was a pill box we would play in.

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The local pit tip had endless hours of fun, truck inner tubes on the settling ponds, sliding down the slopes using old conveyor belt as a track and stupidest of all trying to ride on the aerial ropeway buckets. Often got chased off by the dozer drivers that were spreading the spoil.

Now it is all groomed green slopes with walking trails and fishing in the old settling ponds, no clue that it was ever a pit tip.

 

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My wife tells me that a lad who lived on her road, a little younger than her so born about 1958 drowned at Hoveringham in the 60’s. His name was Vaughn but she doesn’t recall the surname. What or how he came to be at Hoveringham we don’t know as it’s a fair trek from Radford.

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There was a boy at Berridge who, being a bit of a tearaway, used to play chicken on the railway line near Bobbers Mill bridge. I remember him being caned in front of the whole junior school for risking his life in such a dangerous pastime.  Some time later, I recall the headmaster telling us in assembly that the boy had continued his risky escapades, undeterred, and been killed by a freight train. I think the lad's name was Terry Hill. He was older than me but I've never forgotten it.  That railway line was a magnet for little boys in those days.

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In the 60s, we would play on the pond on the old Mapperley Brickyard (behind what is now a KFC, and where Springwood Gardens has since been built). We slid down the clay cliff right to the water’s edge and used any old bits of wood to make rafts. Parents were livid when we’d get home covered in clay.

 

All got stopped when one lad drowned.

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Clifton Grove was - and probably still is - a good place to nearly kill yourself or receive serious injury.

 

Most of the Grove is a very steep bank - almost a cliff face - which kids would climb/fall up and down. And at the bottom of that bank there’s the River Trent. The bottom of the cliff almost goes directly into the river, with nothing to break your fall; and in many locations you can’t see where the ground ends and the water begins.

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32 minutes ago, Rob.L said:

In the 60s, we would play on the pond on the old Mapperley Brickyard (behind what is now a KFC, and where Springwood Gardens has since been built). We slid down the clay cliff right to the water’s edge and used any old bits of wood to make rafts. Parents were livid when we’d get home covered in clay.

 

All got stopped when one lad drowned.

I was once being looked after by my brother - I was about 7 and he was 14 - when he and his friends went to play in that  particular brickyard.  They decided to slide down a steep clay slope off the top end of Woodthorpe Drive and I followed them.  Little girls only wore dresses in those days (1950 ish) so I ended up with very grubby knickers!  I can’t remember whether we got into trouble by our mum….

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The worst  I remember is a kid called Adam. He took his dads shotgun out and shot himself in the groin climbing over a style. He was popular pre-accident, but after they took his leg off at the hip he became  quite a nasty piece of work.

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  • 4 months later...
On 1/3/2022 at 10:31 PM, Rhymester said:

When I lived on Alfreton Road in the 1960s there were derelict houses in the area between Independent Street and Boden Street where flats were later built. My friends and I called this area "Bomb Buildies" and we enjoyed many a happy hour exploring.

 

Different times...

 

 

Hi Rhymester, i lived in st annes well in the 60,s before the demolition squad moved in to flatten all the buildings i lived in Rushworth avenue just off leicester street , back of hungerhill road , we used to climb in those half knocked down houses in them days , no health and safety mob in those days!

I used to attend morley school in those days , also went to st augustines catholic school top of Dame agnes road , and remember a milk float crashed through boots the chemist window in the snow .

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