Cussons Soap Factory (outside views)

[katyjay 5,090]

NBL, I wasn't familiar with my Whitlam cousins, once we'd all grown up and started work etc. It was not a common surname so I'm thinking your Billy would be the one on Sharpe's.  Meeowed,  I do believe Jimmy lived quite a long time with his heart problem. 

[katyjay 5,090]

Just looked in the N.E.P obits and found that Jimmy passed away 8th October 2009 age 63. Lived in Awsworth.

[jonab 1,644]

On 22/05/2012 at 7:06 AM, Ashley said:

Recall a fire at Gerards later, maybe 78? onwards, for a while was danger of some big explosion I recall,

2

I was working at Gerard's at the time. If it was the same fire that I remember, that was actually at the back of Gerard's in a small paint factory on Gauntley Street. The paint factory very close to the Gerards glycerine separation/purifying plant and some bright spark(!!) in the fire brigade decided to associate the word glycerine with nitroglycerine - which you may know as the high explosive material. This misunderstanding of the FB was compounded by them noticing some of the glycerine drums (it was shipped in 45-gallon drums) were labelled:

 

GLYCERINE DYNAMITE GRADE.

 

This was a quality of glycerine selected for reasons of purity, nothing else.

Glycerine is perfectly harmless it doesn’t easily burn and is even edible but, try as we might, we could not convince the fire crews there that there was no danger over and above with they might expect from a tiny paint company fire. One thing that scared them most was that there were about 200 tonnes of glycerine there in a storage tank.

The fire brigade was well on their way to calling for the evacuation of probably the whole of Nottingham before they got a message that what we had been telling them was true.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

The reason I asked Katy was that Billy was a friend of mine from the early 70s to the 90s and some how we lost touch. He had had one brush with death back in the late 70s early 80s with some form of blood disease but got over that.

[katyjay 5,090]

I have just found William Whitlam on Facebook.

 

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Thanks Katy I don't usually have anything to do with Faceache but I will have to look. Thanks again

[meeowed 314]

the Whitlams lived on Ewart road when I was a child I would think about 1948 Mr Whitlam used to leave the wagon on the street The last time I saw him would be mid fifties He came banging on our door shouting that the chimney was on fire at my mothers house  We had coal fires then and used to block the grate with newspaper to create a draught  The whole lot had gone up the chimney and set it alight I remember Jimmy and myself wore big floppy caps which would bob up and down when you walked They were compulsory wear in those days  meeowed