Cussons Soap Factory (outside views)


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Hiya,

Not sure whether they'll work, but took a few pics of the outside of the Gerrards/Cussons soap factory yesterday. Looks like they're starting to demolish some of it :(

anyway, fingers crossed the pics work lol.

MansfieldGeneralHospital067.jpg

MansfieldGeneralHospital068.jpg

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MansfieldGeneralHospital070.jpg

MansfieldGeneralHospital071.jpg

MansfieldGeneralHospital072.jpg

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MansfieldGeneralHospital074.jpg

MansfieldGeneralHospital075.jpg

sorry, didn't realise id done so many ooooooooops

:) Sal

grrrr and they're still not coming up as thumbnails. grrrr sorry

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Here you go Ian ! Bet you remember seeing this !    

Small world innit, had mates who lived that area, Bobbers Mill Rd. Also rented a lock up garage at the back of Gerrards, the owner of the garages was a old man called Herman. Billy Jenkins, Steve Man

He is some more redundant factory photos we'll call it "inside another Nottingham factory" think I've taken about 3000!   

I saw the ex soap works when I visited Nottm,we had to walk up Wilkinson St to catch the tram [which we loved by the way]. I didn't realise what a massive area the soap works covered. Any idea what will be built there to replace it? My guess is units ,at a very high price too,as they are so close to the tram station.

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I cycled by Gerrard's Soap Works daily, en route to school, from 19** to 19**.

The vapours were even stronger, but considerably more acceptable, than those experienced at Burton Joyce!

Some months ago we were debating the amazing width of Wilkinson Street and concluded it was built as a 'feeder' to the new projected Ring Road.

The fact that it is not on the recently posted 1920's map would seem to support that theory.

Cheers

Robt P.

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Nice to see you using PHOTOBUCKET* Are you copying the right URL from the right box?

I am puzzled as to why the image address is

photobucket.com/albums/h185/lilmisscheeky39/MansfieldGeneralHospital075.jpg

lilmisscheeky OK, But...MansfieldGeneralHospital

* you can post as many images (of any size) as you like in a posting here, by using FREE Photbucket remote image hosting.

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While at Windley school we played football across the road from Gerrards soap factory1963-1966. Must have been just off Wilkinson Street where the trams are now. The smell will stay with me for ever

I also caught a tram there today and saw that they were demolishing the pathway at the front.

CSI

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  • 3 months later...

There's even less of it now than there was when we walked by to catch a tram in October. I don't remember it being so vast,but I suppose the building hid the hugeness of it? What's going to be put there in it's place, apartments I suppose?

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aaah, thank you for the newer pics. They were all taken on the same day as i explored the Mansfield General Hospital, and hadn't realised i could change the names of each place i went to. (what a prat lmao).

Is the security still at the front of the site, near to the main front gates? and last time i was there, there was a large yellow digger and dumper truck as well. and (sorry for all the questions) are there still any gaps in the fence? (when we were there, there was one just off the lane next to the robin hood line, but someone else said the gaps have all been filled in now. :'(

Cheers again.

:) Sal

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  • 2 months later...
While at Windley school we played football across the road from Gerrards soap factory1963-1966. Must have been just off Wilkinson Street where the trams are now. The smell will stay with me for ever

I also caught a tram there today and saw that they were demolishing the pathway at the front.

CSI

Wow that takes me back some years I went to windley school and yep I remember those trips

to play Football opposite the old Gerrards!

I wish I had a camera as a kid what a story I'd have to tell now

Lez......

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Better get your pictures now as it looks like it will shortly be a new housing estate

http://plan4.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/WAM/pas...p;action=Search

PLANS for a housing development of up to 200 homes on the site of the former Cussons soap factory are due to be unveiled.

Councillors and community leaders in Leen Valley and Basford will be briefed next week on proposals to transform the site in Wilkinson Street.

The plan is to develop the six-hectares predominantly for family housing of three and four bedrooms.

The land is one of the largest city sites to be freed up in recent years.

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  • 8 months later...

I went to Bentinck Primary and was in the school football team. We played our home games on the pitch next to the soap factory. I will always remember the big clouds of white steamy fumes that would be emitted at random intervals engulfing quite a sizeable part of the pitch. The smell will also live with me forever - LOL

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Did they ever do anything with the old gas works site on Radford Rd? Lived opposite it (at the back on Western Boulevard) for over 30 years, Remember it in full swing (and 3 coal trains an hour, every hour on the now Robin Hood Line) Went along the bully the other day, what a ****hole that road has become! the odd well kept house/garden but as for the rest! and hardly a front fence in sight. I can remember when you HAD to get planning permission to fit gates, our next door neighbour cleverly made a gate out of his front fence but it was spotted and he had to reinstate such, and this was after he'd bought the house.

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Sad to see that it's all gone, I remember the smells well, on a good day, if you were in the right place you could have a mixture of the gasworks, Shippo's brewery and Gerards, too much to take in.

Our chemistry teacher organised a class trip round Gerards one half term, unfortunately, my pals mother, who was a friend of the station master at Midland had organised a tour of the station for some of us on the same day, it was no contest, we jumped on the trolley bus and tried to get to Basford on time but we were hours late and missed it.

There was another soap works at Bullwell which we had to visit, BGS was clearly obsessed with soap, or perhaps simply cleanliness, I can't recall the name of that factory, was it all part of the same company, I know the smell of carbolic inside the place was overpowering.

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I worked there for 10 weeks during my university summer break in the soap finishing room.

My father also worked there for over 30 years as a shift manager before retiring. All the production moved to Nigeria but they still have some works and head office in Kersal Vale.

Dependent on which area you worked in depended on the smell you enemated at the end of your shift. In soap finishing I tended to smell quite nice at the end of the day, but in soap processing the large fat containers only had to be walked near to stink of animal fat.

Its the first and only time I worked continental shifts..... and I'm still recovering 15 years later!

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I thought I had posted the following in this thread, but it must be somewhere else on here.

Any way when I worked at the Raleigh I used to catch the 72/39 home , on a Friday a youth who I knew from Carlton also caught it, he worked for Cussons and on a Friday his job was cleaning out the talum??? tanks. He stank so bad that he always got a seat to himself (and usually one or two others too!!!!)

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Had been trying to work out where these football pitches were! (somebody said where tram depot is) but think I now remember them, were they other side of the railway line near "Whitemoor Garages"? For those not in the know these were rows of lock up garages accessed off Whitemoor Avenue, late 1960's/early 70's quite a few rented by teenage bikers, one with girlfriend actually lived in one. There used to be a level crossing over the railway near there in times gone past at back of Gerards though probably closed when Wilkinson St built? footbridge to such (or modern replacement) remains still. names I recall from the era were Gary and Pete Brooks, Billy Whitlam, Geoff Baldwin, Billy Jenkins, Steve Manson,

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Recall, by reference to maps of the time, that we deduced - in a much earlier thread - that Wilkinson Street was built in the early 30's as a feeder road, to and from the then new ring road at Western Boulevard. Hence it's extreme width...

Cheers

Robt P.

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yes that's billy, lived on berridge rd, can't remember his brothers name? worked for the gas board, also can't remember which came first that chip shop or the wool/clothes shop his mother had? Funnily enough my wife bought a pair of "Lucy Durose Nylons" there (our surname), asked my aunt about such and the picture of a young girl on the packet, she said HER aunty lucy but never found anymore out, still have the (now tattered) packet somewhere

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Hi Ashley, had to go digging through some family history to find details. James Whitlam was born in 1946 and Billy was born in 1954. I didn't really know either of them very well, only saw Billy if we went to the fish and chip shop after going to Goose Fair. Not sure about the clothing shop, whether it was before or after the chip shop [which was on a corner if my memory serves me well].

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