Home Ales

[DJ360 6,734]

 @benjamin1945Yep... it's very interesting that the shop which sells booze and fags is the only one still trading.... 

 

I recall Marlow's obviously because I was at school with their Nigel. Marsden's too.

 

A lost age...

[DJ360 6,734]

On 6/18/2023 at 5:43 PM, Marrowman said:

I have a booklet from Home Ales (cost 25p) listing all of their pubs. Unfortunately there is no date of publication but I'm guessing early '80s.

It makes interesting reading, especially of all the pubs that have disappeared. Home Ales also made Apollo soft drinks, which I remember, but I didn't know they also produced their own wines and spirits under the Killingley brand.

 

 

Hi Marrowman,

I'd be very interested in anything it says about the Bestwood Hotel, Bestwood Colliery, which my Grandparents kept in the 1950s-early 60s.

[Cliff Ton 10,487]

1 hour ago, DJ360 said:

In my memory, the term Beer Off, was definitely applied to shops, not connected to pubs, which sold  draught and bottled Beer.

 

That's where I first encountered the name Beer-Off. Where we lived on Clifton there were two Beer-offs within short walking distance. I don't know if was coincidence or otherwise, but both were normal grocery shops which obviously had a licence to also sell alcohol.  I'm pretty sure they only sold it in bottles.

[DJ360 6,734]

Interestingly, or maybe not... there's a pub in Dale St. Liverpool, near the Mersey Tunnel entrance, called the Ship and Mitre. As far as I know it's a 'free house' and stocks a huge range of real, draught and bottled beers.

A short distance away, they have retail outlet called the 'Ship In A Bottle', which stocks a vast range of bottled beers.

[The Pianoman 1,535]

The 'off sales' in The Beacon on Aspley Lane was always referred to by my grandmother as "the bob 'ole". We are going back to 60's and early 70's.

[Beekay 5,191]

There were three beer-offs on Boden Street, off Denman Street. I was a regular visitor to all three at various times, (it depended on how much my mums tab was at the time). They filled your bottle then stuck a seal over the cork/stopper, wetted with the froth running down the bottle neck. I always thought beer-off stood for 'Beer Off Licence'.

[philmayfield 6,201]

Woodthorpe in the ‘40s/50’s was too posh to have a beer off. I used to walk with my dad into Sherwood to an off-licence directly opposite the ‘bus depot.  He used to buy beer and a bottle of Tizer to make Tizer shandys.

[Jill Sparrow 10,323]

Tizer shandy? That sounds absolutely disgusting! 

 

 

[philmayfield 6,201]

It probably was. I knew no other. You can still get Tizer apparently.

[LizzieM 9,514]

4 hours ago, DJ360 said:

 

Interesting Lizzie. I had never heard of Oxengate, so had to look it up, even though it was only a mile or so from my 'stomping ground' in my 'Yoof'.

 

Probably not surprising you’d no recollection of Oxengate as those properties were built in the mid 60s when you weren’t wandering around the estate so much.  I remember my friend moving there when we were still at school, we both left in 1966.  The row of terraced houses between The Ram and the Waggon & Horses were knocked down to build a pub car park I think but they seemed a bit uninhabitable anyway, nothing like the brand new house I was living in in Arnold …… but the family were happy there so that’s all that mattered.  

[DJ360 6,734]

True Lizzie, I was at High Pavement just up the road until Summer 1965, but most of my spare time from about 63-4 onwards was spent in and around Boowul..

[mary1947 2,090]

11 hours ago, MargieH said:

@mary1947 Your mum must have been very talented - was that her full time job or just a hobby?

It was here full time job, she trained at Debanhams then made wedding dresser's for Griffin & Spaldin . She also said if ever she had a daughter she would make her Wedding dress, Mum made my dress and the veil.  My dress was all silk and the material was brought from John Lewis  in all my Dress and Veil cost me £8 00 my headdress was from Griffins cost £3  10/- and my shoes were from shoefare white satin  cost 7/6 

[mary1947 2,090]

PS    to continue This is where mum trained to make Bridleware.

Debenhams & Company 

91 Wimpole st London W1

Factory Castle Boulevard  Nottingham

 

I found this referance when mum passed away it was to the Estates Serveyor Guildhall Notttm. it was foe her and my dad so they could rent a house, it said that she had worked for them for 3 years and dated 6th janurary 1937 rent was 3/6 a week, 

 

You never really appreciate any one till they are no longer with us 

[Oztalgian 3,331]

15 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

I don't know if was coincidence or otherwise, but both were normal grocery shops which obviously had a licence to also sell alcohol.  I'm pretty sure they only sold it in bottles.

The beer-off or off licence was in a shop in our village and you could take jugs, flagons etc. there to have them filled up from pumps like in the pub. They would also fill you a sherry or port bottle from a small barrel too.

[mary1947 2,090]

Remember it Oz  this Port from the woods as it was called was probably my first alcohol drink,  A Port  and  Lemon   (what more could one want)

 

Home Ales also had there own soft drinks   can any one remember ?

Cream Soda   mixed with milk beautiful   plus add a dolop of ice cream Haven

Dandylion n' Burdock  what i would give for a Home Ales there own band. Must say these new drinks are not the same.

The only soft drink that I can think of that has never ever changed is (Wait for it) 

     Coke a Cola        when we lived in South Africa  a song came out about this drink but not sure if the song was sung in the UK  it went something like this !!!!!

 

I'd like to buy the world a coke and keep it company ,   I'd like to buy the world a coke and live in Harmony !!!  

Very Appropriate  Considering at the time South Africa had an apartheid    this was in the 70s (I think)

[Jill Sparrow 10,323]

The cousin of a friend of mine worked for Coca-cola for some years in a managerial capacity, including a stint in the USA. He said he wouldn't drink it if he were dying of thirst.  I gather it's excellent at dissolving Superglue should you manage to bond your fingers together with it and is also one of the most effective spermicides known to man! 

[Marrowman 34]

On 6/18/2023 at 10:49 PM, LizzieM said:

I’m from a family of drinkers!   My Great-Grandparents kept the Station Hotel in Hucknall in the late 1800s.  They used to open very early in the morning so that miners from Hucknall pit, coming off the night-shift, could get a drink.   My Gt Grandfather died relatively young and my Gt Grandmother had to leave the pub because women were not allowed to be tenants or licensees.  She moved across town to Long Eaton and ran an off-licence.  I have a shoe-box of old family postcards going back to the early 1900s and there’s a postcard addressed to my Gt Grandmother and the address is just ‘the Beer-Off, Long Eaton, Nottingham’.  Beer-off must be a Nottingham term, we lived in the Home Counties for 30 years and never heard an off-licence called a beer-off!

I used to love the smell of beer-offs, a yeasty mix of bread and beer, especially the ones that used to sell beer on tap. There was one near Noel Street Baths that used to sell cups of pop to kids for a penny. We used to stand outside the shop and drink our pop (cream soda for me) and then take the cups back in. There was never any thought of nicking the cups.

[Marrowman 34]

Hello DJ360, the Bestwood Hotel on Park Road is listed as having a bar, lounge and room available for private functions. It had bar snacks, pool and live entertainment on Fridays. 

Picking up on the soft drinks does anyone remember the shippos drink Portello? I used to love it. My grandma used to kid me that it was made with real port!

[Hey Arnold 88]

 

1978 was Home Brewery's centenary year and every employee received a pewter tankard to mark the event. This was my dad's who worked as a managed house stocktaker at the time, previously having worked in the transport office. The Robin Hood symbol is incredibly evocative to me bringing back memories as if they were yesterday 

 

 

Unfortunately not the clearest picture

[Hey Arnold 88]

[Oztalgian 3,331]

5 hours ago, mary1947 said:

Home Ales also had there own soft drinks   can any one remember ?

It was Apollo soft drinks. They were made at the rear of the brewery

The brewery and Daybrook laundry were signs we were not far from Nottingham when travelling on the B8 or the Trent bus.

5 hours ago, mary1947 said:

I'd like to buy the world a coke and keep it company ,   I'd like to buy the world a coke and live in Harmony !!!  

Yes, those are the correct words Mary. The ad was from a song "I'd like to teach the world to sing" by The New Seekers formed in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break up of the original Seekers

Here is the advert

 

[philmayfield 6,201]

Coca Cola is a good rust remover and toilet bowl cleaner. Phosphoric acid is the active ingredient. Using as a spermicide is one of the many Coca Cola myths - no I’m not speaking from experience!

[Jill Sparrow 10,323]

Neither was I!

[mary1947 2,090]

Not sure if this fits in this thread but one of my boy friends many many years ago gave me a silver charm of a beer tanked.  It was a Whitbread Tennant.   

I wonder if its worth anything.

[DJ360 6,734]

On 6/23/2023 at 8:52 AM, Marrowman said:

Hello DJ360, the Bestwood Hotel on Park Road is listed as having a bar, lounge and room available for private functions. It had bar snacks, pool and live entertainment on Fridays. 

 

Thanks for that Marrowman. I dropped into the place maybe 20 years ago and it seemed pretty dead but not very much different to when I knew it in the 1950s and early 60s.

 

Back then, there was a fairly typical Public Bar, which had tables used for playing Dominoes, or just drinking. There were those old bentwood chairs.... and at least one dart board. One thing I always remember was a hand cranked grindstone mounted on a mantlepiece and used for sharpening darts. It fascinated me when we grandkids ran riot in the bars during closed hours..usually when we were there for family parties at Christmas.

 

There was a lounge, which seemed to be always empty except for the odd Sunday evening when some poor bloke would be seen sitting next to (presumably) his wife, in best bib and tucker and looking bored out of his skull as he gazed through to the bar, where presumably his mates were having lots more fun playing darts and dommies.

 

Upstairs in those days were The Club Room, which seemed a bit boring and empty to me… and The Billiard Room, which was huge fun. There was a window with a little bit of a balcony and I remember at one time there being some bunting up there which was something to do with the Coronation of Elizabeth II.

The Billiard Room was ‘re-developed’ sometime in the late 50’s and became a ‘Palm Lounge’, full of wicker chairs and glass-topped wicker tables and, it has to be said, fairly awful murals, depicting beach scenes. All a bit odd really!

 

As for 'Friday Night Entertainment'. I used to visit a few times when I was an adolescent, in that uncomfortable period when you are too old for 'kid's stuff'', but too young to be allowed much else.  Grandma would allow me to sit in the upstairs 'palm lounge if I behaved and would even give me the odd half of beer. One night two lads turned up with guitars and started setting up on the small stage, which also had a basic drum kit and piano. My Nan didn't seem too pleased but they persisted until finaly they managed to blow a fuse with their 'amps' or whatever and she chased them. I never did get to find out if they were any good.

 

The view from the upstairs living room in the pub was out over the colliery yard. I spent hours watching little green painted old steam engines  puffing about moving stuff. That whole area is now a housing development, with all roads apparently called 'High Main Drive', after the 'High Main' coal seam.
The pub had central heating which ran off a steam pipe which I believe came over from the same boiler which fed the pit baths. It was never cold in there!

 

It's now flats. The 1930s houses on that side of Park Road remain, but the pithead baths which stood feet away from the pub's other flank are gone, as is the canteen to the rear of the pub where we used to get sent for ice cream if we were lucky.

 

A lost world.