Nottingham Smells

[.... 23]

The mid-morning smell of hops in Church Drive School playground from the nearby Home Brewery at Daybrook.

I miss that.

[Braddy 160]

Love tarmac smell

[Ashley 288]

Talking of train smells think I've mentioned it before (or others have) but you always knew if the the fish train had recently been through on the former GCR route

[nottinghamite 8]

Used to love the smells in Burton's food section in the Council House Arcade, coffee, cheese, etc, what was the cafe or shop on Wheeler Gate where coffee was roasted near to the window, the coffee smell was really strong and always made me long for a cup, was it called the Khardoma or something like that?.

Dennis

[Roosta 2]

The maggot farm by Rectory Junction signal box at the bottom end of Colwick industrial Estate. One of the most disgusting places I've ever been.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

You'd never been near Bitterlings on Freeth Street, Meadow Lane then, Rooster.

[StephenFord 866]

As I understood it from my mum the Trent Bridge area was an olfactory riot comprising Bitterlings, Boney Halls and Turney's tannery.

On the subject of the maggot factory, when I was commuting by train between Derby and Sleaford, I and my regular travelling companions always tried to make sure the windows were closed until Radcliffe. On hot Summer Friday evenings the bucket and spade mob heading for Skeggy would pile on at Nottingham and immediately throw all the windows open - minds totally closed to reason or persuasion - until the train headed down towards the Trent, and the pong suddenly grabbed you by the throat. By this time, of course, they were all troughing their cheese sandwiches and quaffing cans of pop. There was a strangled chorus of "aaarrgghh...phwaaaw - wassat - ayer done summat?" followed by the slam of windows. So the train continued half way to Grantham with the miasma trapped inside - lovely!

[banjo48 928]

Remember putting a new phone system in the maggot place at Colwick ! should have took me half a day but took 2 days as I had to keep going outside to breathe every now and again ! Missus reckoned I stank of it when I got home too.

The putrid smell was outside but inside it stank of ammonia ! Got the guided tour by the owner who seemed oblivious to the smell's'

He said there was good money in it once it was established, but the council were always on his back making him put more filters and extractors etc trying to reduce the smell.

Matt Laings scrap yard was next door, he used to dismantle "Bells" old one arm bandit fruit machines, dont know how he stood it either.

[Beefsteak 305]

It's one of those strange abilities we have, our bodies (After while) filter out stuff we smell all the time so that we can smell things that we need to in emergency (If that makes sense!?)

IE , if you work with a strong smell all the time, you wouldn't be able to smell the gas leak till it was too late to do any thing about it.

I know this from my days at Pork Farms , there was always a distinct smell to the place when I passed on the bus as a kid, after working there a while I drove passed it with my Mum who commented on it's "Nice" smell, of course I couldn't smell it any more. It's was years later that I finally started to smell it again.

[mick2me 3,033]

I spent a lot of my working life in mortuaries.

No matter how bad the smell, you became oblivious to it after a while.

I had one rule, always take more than you need with you, going out into the fresh air to the vehicle to then returning was a mistake.

Always made me laugh to see people using paper dust masks to stop the smell, or even better stuffing their nostrils with Vic.

Why would you want to open up your airways.

[.... 23]

The detergent smell standing at Gunthorpe weir and lock.

The distinctive smell of Stoke Bardolph!

The sugar factory at Newark at certain times.

[Trevor S 2,003]

The same detergent smell at the weir at RoT, Stu - thanks for the memory boost.

[piggy and babs 544]

my grandfather clements worked at turners leather worls turn of 19th centuryas a leather dresser.in the 1960 i had a job cleanning telephones and one of the places i had to go was the leather works at bobby mill the offices were fine but then you had to go rounf the different departments i hated it the smells in various stages of processing was terreible untill i got to the dressing and polishing shop and then i loved it the loverly finishes and smells on the leather and it was ammazing even then the amount of different colours in the leather it was not untill i saw it being done i know what a leather dresser was a very skilled job it was to.

[.... 23]

The smell of good old fish and chips being fried at Easoms's chip shop at Redhill (interchangeable this). Down the step off Redhill Road, in the queue and a good gleg at the newspaper cartoons pinned to the wall for us customers while we waited for the delicious offerings.

Sent regularly up the road by mum to bring back fishcake and chips for the family (and batter bits if lucky). I can still smell the delicious aromas that little long-missed chip shop produced.

[littlebro 234]

From school days: Animal glue in wood workshop, whale oil the engineering workshop -and the smell of 'suds',.

[denshaw 2,871]

'suds' was it Silkolene coolant?

[littlebro 234]

Probably, oil/water emulsion used to cool cutting tools. Quite a distinctive smell but not a bad odour, just don't get it on you clothes .

[sneintongal 12]

we used to buy a bag of pet food from wheatleys butcher on sneinton boulevard,when you put it in the pan there were bits of tails bits of meat with fur and hair on it,but when it was cooking,what a stink,the maggott factory on mile end road,we used to get maggotts for fishing for just a few pence,but one of the nicer smells was the soap factory in colwick,near pebbly beach,we used to go scrumping in soap factorys grouns,and there was always bits of soap about that we used to take home,that was a little bonus

[Beachbum 68]

Victoria baths in the late 50s early 60s especially the Oval pool, the overpowering smell of chlorine, often mixed with feet if Friday night bathes had been skipped.

The Colwick Cheese Factory.

[Commo 1,292]

Very similar aroma between them both?

[Mess 616]

Smells are so evocative.

As a 5 year old in the mid fifties my mum would take me shopping with her to the local Beechdale shops.

The sweetshop on Ambergate Road had a very special sweet musky smell whilst the hardware store was paraffin and candles and the smell of cheese and bacon in the Co-Op on Ranmere Rd (now gone) was also memorable. The Co-Op chemist next door also had a distinctive talc/soap/cough sweet smell.

My favourite smell came from the bike shop on Beechdale Rd where the owner a balding man with specs used to smoke a pipe.

My enduring memory from there is a mixture of pipe smoke and rubber from the new bike tyres.

In the same group of shops was a bakers (Crowshaws?) and the smell of bread and cakes was wonderful.

Even the barbers (Peel?) had a unique smell of Brylcreme and cigarette smoke.

When I smell Old Spice I always think of my dear dad at Christmas and wafts of perfume will bring back memories of girlfriends and lady teachers.

The smell of new mown grass will transport me back to Spring time at Beechdale Primary School or the Ambergate Rd grass.

Goose Fair and Shipstones Maltings are my favourite smells of Nottingahm.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Soluble oil Littlebro, we used hundreds of gallons of it underground, I believe the smell came from disinfectant added to help prevent dermatitis. All out latter day powered roof supports used soluble oil, "suds"

I remember it well from Castle Engineering Works and Foraky's.

Smell of beets being processed into sugar at Colwick, was such a sickly smell.

[Paulus 541]

Smell of Beets being bolied up during the 'Campaign' as the 'harvesting/processing' season was called, hard to believe it produced sugar.....

[radfordred 6,284]

Ah, the cock on a stick, that's what I meant by the big lollipops. They lasted for ages. I'd forgotten about brandy snap.

Glad to report the brandy snaps (Sharp & Nickless Long Eaton) & cinder toffee (Traditional sweet co Radford) which we brought from goose fair for the in-laws where both made in Nottingham.

[carni 10,094]

Great Stuff, Both my favourites. Nice that they are Nottingham made. More often than not, when you read the labels on your purchases, they can be made anywhere in England. "Are you going again today radfordred"? It's horrible and rainy here today, I hope the rain eases off for the last day of the Fair at Nottingham. I had a look at the forcast and it might cheer up later today, so late afternoon looks like the best time for a last visit to the fair.