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Took a drive up through Netherfield yesterday ,very suprised that Reads cycles was still there, glad to see Victoria tackle still going strong (I have spent thousands in there over the years) The bank on the corner is now a trendy wine bar ,............ smile2 , Garfields of Netherfinkle was nowhere to be seen. imsorry

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I posted this on another page a while ago and I was surprised at the reaction it got.   The railway bridge at Chandos Street; the scene has hardly changed although you won't see steam trains

I was born in Netherfield at No 124 curzon street in my grandparents ( Thomas & Mabel Barratt's) house. I was the first of eventually three children born to Nev & Jean Barratt. Shortly after m

Hi I remember trent fields, muck heaps, colwick loco,played in ouse dyke setting each other to jump across certain places and getting wet through. going under the bridge near the royal oak. Remember

Took a drive up through Netherfield yesterday ,very suprised that Reads cycles was still there, glad to see Victoria tackle still going strong (I have spent thousands in there over the years) The bank on the corner is now a trendy wine bar ,............ smile2 , Garfields of Netherfinkle was nowhere to be seen. imsorry

Got my first bike at Reeds many moons ago. Mr. Reed was running it then in a tiny store at the end of Curzon Street. If he's still around he must be getting a bit long in the tooth now like the rest of us.

Dave

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Got my first bike at Reeds many moons ago. Mr. Reed was running it then in a tiny store at the end of Curzon Street. If he's still around he must be getting a bit long in the tooth now like the rest of us.

Dave

It's now a very big store ,I remember it expanding sometime in the 70's

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It's now a very big store ,I remember it expanding sometime in the 70's

He deserved to do well he was a really nice guy. Gave us Secondary school kids a break on price.

Dave

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Yes indeed...highly regarded throughout a 20 mile+ radius.

Bought my kid's bikes from him in the 70's. Likewise, their children too...in more recent times.

IIRC, initially he had some special concession from Raleigh - which made him ultra competitive.

Next complaint I hear of his business will be the first...

Cheers

Robt P.

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Hi all. The owner of reads bike shop is retired now! Not sure who runs it now,possibly a relative of his seeing as it is still the same name. Higginbottoms butchers was further down into netherfield just before jackie bells if i remember right! As for mick robinsons hair,he hasnt got much now,and i think he has retired as i havent seen him at the shop for ages. Talking of dunstan street the only dianne i can remember had blond hair and she had a daughter. The other couple that was mentioned i dont think i know,but then i didnt go in jackie bells. Chrissy. xx

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Just to add the "trendy wine bar" that used to be the bank on the corner isnt what it seems,to put it bluntly, its a "doss hole" Its a shame really cos it was quite nice when it first opened now they are getting any tom dick and harry in there and i have heard they have a problem with drugs! Just another problem to add to the growing list that gets netherfield a bad name! Chrissy. xx

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Just to add the "trendy wine bar" that used to be the bank on the corner isnt what it seems,to put it bluntly, its a "doss hole" Its a shame really cos it was quite nice when it first opened now they are getting any tom dick and harry in there and i have heard they have a problem with drugs! Just another problem to add to the growing list that gets netherfield a bad name! Chrissy. xx

I was trying to inject a little humour, It's unfortunately a problem everywhere now not just in Netherfield!

In the small town where I live we have quite a problem, amongst the kids, with booze and cannabis .

Just a sign of the times I'm afraid

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A few of us from Carlton used to play in the loco yards and trucks,,,,, I don't know how they wern't robbed blind,,,, as all the trucks were unlocked.

We used to open the sliding doors & play or hide in them,,,,,, they were loaded with all sorts,,,, one of them I recall, was full of new motor bikes,,, another was full of empty,,,, new tins, to name but a couple !

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Sorry Julie Pulie (If you ever read this) I missed your post , Garfunkels was on the left ,if you were coming out of Carlton almost opposite the butchers and pet shop.

We used to play in the sidings although the tracks had long gone (We had little air pistols that we would take pot shots at crows with (Always missed) they were that weak that I doubt if we would have harmed them if we'd hit them!!

We used to get filthy in the old ash heaps (Two baths a day one at lunch and the other in the evening , mother was not too pleased with me)

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I used to live in Carlton ( Douglas Ave) but we were very near Netherfield and for the best part of 7 years ( 64-71) I used to transit through Netherfield on my way to the dreadful Carlton Le Willows Grammar School. I have a lot of memories of the place and this thread has brought back a few. We used to get the "smells" even in Carlton but the sewage works was the biggest culprit esp in summer. If I recall there was also a company called "Bitterlings" at Stoke Bardolph and it was responsible for the very worst smells. The Maggot factory? Yep I recall that down the track past Hoveringham gravels big pile of conveyors - went in there a couple of times at night - disgusting and rats there were even bigger than cats. If you walked down through Netherfield heading for Colwick Shed you came to a railway crossing (still there) On the right hand side here before the crossing was a small empty field and this was the site for a small annual fair in the mid / late 1960's

If you kept on walking you came to Colwick Loco shed on the left. Keep on walking and you followed a path taking you down the side of Colwick loco yard. Eventually you came to a signal box where you could cross the lines near Trent Concrete. But if you kept walking you entered a kind of underpass taking you through the loco yards and eventually you went through a small tunnel and emerged into what for us kids was some magical place. It was actually a gravel pit with lots of small ponds and lagoons with one great big one. So we called it Trent Ponds. Very few people went here. A fishing club had fishing rights but most of the time the wildlife was left to it. The ponds were sadly obliterated in the 1990's to make two gigantic slurry lagoons but there is one of the original lagoons left - the big one near the Trent and its the flat one - those behind the big earth banks are modern creations.

We used to climb up inside the railway bridge over the Trent and doing this we could get to the first arch but no further. We did discover a trap door which opened out directly under one of the railway tracks. We later used this trapdoor to "escape" over the Trent and we went off exploring Holme Pierrepoint gravel pits as they were before they became the famous facility there today. On a recent visit I noticed that the old timbers under this bridge have been replaced by concrete beams so you cannot climb inside this bridge anymore. Probably just as well. Looking back its amazing that I survived some of the daft capers I got involved with.( I nearly drowned in Attenborough Nature Reserve but thats another story.)

Another place I recall in Netherfield was a small factory very close to the main shops. A rumour went round that buried gems were to be found in the ground in front of it. All you had to do was dig down in the grey clay but you had to be careful you didnt get caught. So one summers night three of us took a chance, jumped over the fence armed with nothing more than pointed sticks and raced over some rough ground. We started to scrape away and sure enough below the long grass we found grey clay. Soon enough we all started finding gemstones! These were very small and I found a blue one and a red one. They were not polished or shiny and looked just like rough and real gemstones. Suddenly we heard a shout so we shot off. We never went back and to this day I dont know what on earth we were digging up. Years later I would learn that gemstones really can be found in clay - so what on earth was going on on Netherfield all those years ago?

I used to frequent some of the shops esp the main ones near the railway inc the newsagent. I used to buy maggots for fishing with from a petshop down a side street and later bought a number of birds for my garden shed aviary.

I have many happy memories of Netherfield / Colwick as it was my playground growing up in the mid / late 1960's. It was simply a great place to be then and I wouldnt have wanted to have grown up anywhere else! Happy Days!

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Hiya Notts Lad,

I've also had a post on these pages about those gravel ponds etc,,,,,, along with the 'bogie' trucks that we used to ride through the tunnel. I'm sure we had 7 or eight kids on a bogie about 3 feet square ! The tracks were on pillars a few feet (probly inches !) high,,,, cos the tunnel was full of water,,,,

We had all manner of 'rafts' on the ponds,,,, most which floated,,,, but the odd one didn't.

I also recall going across the first arch of the bridge. I climbed out onto the central stone pillar,,,,,, I very nearly got washed away as a great chunk of stone lip that I was standing on, gave way & splashed into the trent.

After similar stories I can't help feeling that we might know each other,,,, will PM you (unless you recall a Baz from way back when ?)

Baz

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MORE ON TRENT PONDS..

Hiya Baz - yes I can recall the tunnel under the railway with its lines intact. Me and my mates ( mostly the Linekers or Smiths) found this tunnel and we decided to explore by walking on the rails. We could see at first the tunnel was flooded and were terrified of falling off as we were convinced like you that it had to be neck deep in water at least. As you got further in it was pitch dark. Of course the track lead through to the other side of the railway where there used to be be a huge lagoon ( long since filled in) plus the maggot factory and Hoveringhams massive gravel sorting machinery.

I absolutely loved Trent Ponds. At the age of about 13 and being totally unable to swim me and few mates "acquired" some inner tubes from a garage, filled them with air from an air hose and set off for Trent Ponds. As soon as we got there it was off with the clothes, sit in the middle of the ring and paddle out to the middle of the lagoon - without even thinking about the dangers. Do you recall the big lagoon had an island in the very middle? It was in the 60's also a favourite nesting spot of some rare sea-birds - not gulls but I cannot recall the name. We decided to paddle out to the island but had not got far when both birds started to dive bomb us! We decided to retreat. Later I would read that Gravel Pits can be as deep as 15ft! ( And I can assure you that that Attenborough certainly is/ was in parts!). Like I said previously, I lead a charmed life as my inner tube did not pop or that would have been the end of me!

I used to fish the ponds ( without permission) and we camped overnight there a couple of times, with nothing more than a cheap tent between us and the heavens and a blanket each. We were always interested in nature/ animals etc so could spot most birds/fish/ butterflies. The latter were profuse here plus two varieties of dragon flies, one a real monster. Great nested newts were here too - Oh how I wish I had known about the plans for those awful big slurry lagoons - the presence of a couple of crested newts would have stopped any development of this wonderful oasis. Ok time to go but I have many more Trent Ponds/ Colwick/ Netherfield/ Carlton memories. Bye for now and Baz maybe we should have a meet some time in the summer of 2009 for anyone interested in a tour round "Old Netherfield" and especially Trent Ponds??

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Notts Lad:

Did you know a pair of Sisters from around Douglas Ave - surname Bradbury ?

We used to meet up in the Cavo pub,,,,,,,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There used to be a telephone box almost opposite the top of Douglas Ave. Am going back to when they had the old bakelight phones,,,, that one could 'tap' if one knew how (apparantly !?) We used to spend hours in that box calling all over the country & a broad some times,,,,,

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Righty oh off we go

The annual fair was held in Jackie Bells Field next to the Railway Pub (Nick named to this day Jackie Bells), it later moved to the top of Marhill Road , Carlton, in the old scrap yard.

The ponds were owned by the "Nott's anglers association " and later sold to Gedling Pits fishing club.

On the Island in the middle were a pair of Mute Swans , I think you are thinking of when the Roseate Terns bred there for a few years.(Very rare)

Now the world of weird coincidence.... When you nearly fell off the bridge Bazzer do you recall a young lad fishing from the railings on the bank ?? I remember someone nearly falling in when a lump of stone fell off whist I was down there one day in the early 70s!!! It must be a coincidence but it would be nice to think our paths crossed before 6th November just gone .!!

I can't help re the Gemstones I'm afraid.

RE the telephone box at the top of Douglas Ave , I'm pretty sure it's mentioned elsewhere on here , I may be wrong and read it elsewhere, but the reason it could be tapped was something to do with the Electrical place next door

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Me and hubby enjoy a walk down to the lagoons every so often,it is lovely and peaceful and a nice long walk if you go right round the ponds and back. Ah oop notts lad,you werent far from where my hubby was born on gladstone street off foxhill but i suspect he is a bit older than you! both my kids went to le willows, son left about 1984,daughter left about 1988.

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Hi Beefsteak - yep you are right - those birds were Terns - we thought they were Arctic Terns but we were no bird experts. And they were nesting there as we saw young - definitely 1965-69 era. At the same time swans were nesting on another island in another lagoon - we got too close a couple of times only to be driven away by a big angry swan! The water level has risen in the big lagoon now so the island is no longer visible.

Baz - I recall watching a young bloke "tapping" a phone in a box at the top of Douglas Avenue just in front of the Coop supermarket. We thought he was messing about but even then we had heard it was possible. And yes I do recall the surname Bradbury and might have been in class at Parkdale Primary school with one. At the top of Douglas Ave in fact at No 1 lived a family with an amazing 7 daughters ( well think it was 7!) and I think they may have been Bradbury's.

Dont recall any electrical place at the top of Douglas Ave - on one side was the Coop Supermarket with a garage opposite and on the other side a small group of shops inc newsagent, grocer, womens clothes shop and off licence. The newsagent was broken into a number of times with fags the chief targets.

Amazing what you can recall isnt it?

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Tunnel: It seems like nothing now, but the tunnel had a bend in it,,,, and the bogies ran by gravity,,,, so for the 'first timers' it was a leap of faith to go trundling into a dark tunnel with no idea where you were going,,,, gathering speed as you went.

Ponds: One of our rafts was a great thick thing,,,, wooden,,,, but it would only float when no one was on it. With a couple of us kids on it, it sort of hovered about 2 inch under the water,,,, didn't sink further than that,,,,, but it was quite a sight to see 2/3 kids 'apparently' sitting on the waters surface !

As far as I recall, these ponds were still in use by - I rekkon - Hoveringham gravel. I find it difficult to think that it belonged to anyone other than them at that time. I guess about very early 60's.

Swans: There seemed to have been swans all over the place in those days,,,,,,, one sad one had flown into the power cables & was cut to ribbons - literally,,,, it was all over the place.

Phone Tapping: We tapped all the phones in the day,,,,, but for some reason we used to congregate at that one,,,, whilst sniffing around a couple of local girlies. I think that they were slowly being replaced by untappable ones,,,, & this one - I think - was one of the last to be done.

Fair: I remember the fair with great affection. As beefy knows, I am related (somewhere along the line) to a local Fair family,,,,, but I don't recall the Netherfield Fair as being theirs,,,,, tho' I could be wrong there.

Trent: Sadly not Beefy,,,, it must have been about 1961/2 (don't forget I moved away in '70) It was easy enough to get out of the fabrication of the bridge,,,,, and I have no idea why I did it,,,, but I must have wanted (!?) to climb down the central pillar,,,,, but where to ? It didn't go anywhere 'cept 'wet' ! The chunk that fell off was a rounded lip like structure of solid sandstone,,,, & I'm sure I wasn't that heavy in those days - so I am still surprised that it just fell off.

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BACK TO TRENT PONDS

Hi again Bazzer. My first ever visit to what we called Trent ponds at Colwick/ Netherfield would have been 1965. At that time the ponds were quiet and not being worked indeed you could tell by all the grass and vegetation that they had been left for a fair few years. I recall there was a great big skip thing half sticking out of one lagoon - it looked like a WW2 landing craft and it was the only man made thing visible to show these were gravel pits and not natural ponds.

The tunnel with track must have been for taking gravel and sand under the railway lines to Hoveringhams gigantic sorting machinery at the top of the lane past the maggot works. Do you recall the one really big lagoon over here? Obviously another big gravel pit and likely earlier than Trent Ponds. Dont suppose Hoveringham could easily have got their big machinery over or under the raillway hence the tunnel and track although the tunnel must have been put there when the railway lines were first put in. By the way that tunnel is still there today and I dont doubt the track is too - trouble is the water is about three feet deep now as the big new earth banks stopped the water draining into the ponds, so raising the level - so sadly its not possible to get back inside there any more.

By the way in 1965 Hoveringham excavated a huge amount of sand and gravel from two sites at Colwick right by the sluice gates - these formed two big lagoons and are still there today - forming part of Colwick Marina. They were amazingly deep - at least 50 feet and of course I just had to explore them. Luckily a pump was working constantly to pump water out. I knew that bronze age arrow and spear heads had been discovered in the gravel workings at Holme Pierrepoint which was directly opposite this site. I reasoned there had to be some down in this big hole. There were some amazing blackened tree stumps in the pit which must have been there for literally thousands of years. Sadly no arrowheads etc were found but then I didnt have metal detector. The climb out of this 50 foot deep pit with gravel and sand sliding down was interesting to say the least. It very soon filled with water and before you know it became a popular fishing spot. I am sure few fishermen could have any idea how truly deep that water was! Another great adventure for me and once again I didnt spare a thought for the huge potential danger

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Hi again Bazzer. My first ever visit to what we called Trent ponds at Colwick/ Netherfield would have been 1965. At that time the ponds were quiet and not being worked indeed you could tell by all the grass and vegetation that they had been left for a fair few years.

I guess we it would be about 1960 when we went. In '65, I had wheels & was chasing the other birdies !

The tunnel with track must have been for taking gravel and sand under the railway lines to Hoveringhams gigantic sorting machinery at the top of the lane past the maggot works. Do you recall the one really big lagoon over here? Obviously another big gravel pit and likely earlier than Trent Ponds. Dont suppose Hoveringham could easily have got their big machinery over or under the raillway hence the tunnel and track although the tunnel must have been put there when the railway lines were first put in. By the way that tunnel is still there today and I dont doubt the track is too - trouble is the water is about three feet deep now as the big new earth banks stopped the water draining into the ponds, so raising the level - so sadly its not possible to get back inside there any more.

The track going through the tunnel did lead to a giant steel girder built thing,,,, I suspect some sort of hopper device as well. I can't remember a lot of it,,, or even how many ponds there were,,,, but as you say - we were oblivious to the dangers,,,,, Although they were 'still' water,,,, they were bloody deep. I recall one time when the water level had dropped,,,,, you could see about 30 feet between 'usual' level & the level on the day,,,, & it was still half full (in my guestimation !)

Can you see the tunnel/track on Google-earth ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Incy Dentally Beefy (& Co)

Highfields Lido. How long did it stand empty & when was it finally demolished - please ?

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