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Thanks PP and Cliff Ton. I have one of the enamel badges somewhere, if i ever find it i will post a pic. Pretty sure that was their purpose as there was another peculiarity about them, it may not have been East Riding on them it was an area which didnt actually exist.

PP, I served my apprenticeship there but started in 1972. The facilities were excellent for my motorcycle interests, although getting my bike bits out again was not always as easy, as security was tight.

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Just been watching an episode of Foyle's war on the box, and it brought back memories of my much younger days in Nottingham. I have quite distinct memories of sitting on my uncle's shoulders watching

Welcome back Alison . Did you sell that hat?? I'm over in Nott'm at my mums at the moment I'll see what she has to say on the subject, (Don't hold your breath........."It's me age you know ")

Or one of these !!

Just to add a family story to this interesting thread.

My family lived around the Carlton Rd/Thorneywood area and I can recall my Mum telling me that there was a house on a street corner that faced onto Carlton Rd that had been bombed in BOTH world wars. It's about 55 years since she told me this but I looked at the map posteed earlier that showed the bomb impacts and it does look as if the street was Lancaster Road. I think I recall her saying that in WW1 the bomb fell outside the house in the street but the WW2 bomb demolished the place - or it could have been the other way around! :laugh: Either way, she said that was an unlucky house to live in!

I also recall Mum telling me Nottm was only lightly bombed c/w Coventry, etc because "we bent the beams", which was a mystery to me at the time but after spending my working life in electronics I now realise she meant the German radio beams that guided the bombers and which we successfully jammed, apart from the night Coventry got it when the jamming was incorrectly done by the RAF.

MB

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re Sneinton bombings. Great Aunt Liz (nee Simpson born 1883) lived in Sneinton at this exact time. She had a son Alfie and daughter Elsie. Married surname unknown. She was out the next morning picking through checking for neighbours. Any recognition of the family please? (not much to go on- sorry)

Other family member at the hospital dealing with the burn victims from the bombed bakery who were splattered with dough which was then baked into their skin by the heat. Uncle said they scrapped down the layers of dough day by day til they got to the skin. All the hurt men had tracheotomies and had their heads bandaged up, more than a dozen of them in a row in the ward.

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In addition to the bomb sites pinpointed in Firbeck`s map at #23, a photo on PTP and also published in N. Post, shows a

badly damaged house in 1941 on Ribblesdale Rd., Daybrook.

My interest is in a another property in similar condition, close by, in the mid 1940`s. Behind the `Five Ways` hotel and to

its North, was the remains of the delightful looking property, `Daybrook Vale House` with its small lake formed by a concrete

dam across the Day brook. The grounds of the property fronted onto Edwards Lane and the driveway to the house was very

close to the line of the current `Larwood Close.`

In the left hand corner of the Ted`s Ln/driveway junction, was the damaged dwelling, indicated on maps of the time as `lodge`

(Not to be confused with the lodge across the road which still exists and is slightly higher up Ted`s Ln. in the hospital grounds.)

From around 1945, as 5 year olds, we all knew it as `The bombed house.` We wouldn`t have invented the name, it will

have been hearsay from elders and adults. I`ve never seen it mentioned when Nottm. bomb damage is discussed but if a

ruler is placed on a map across the site of that house and any point on Ribblesdale, even the furthest near the `Roxy`, it

would have only been a matter of seconds to cover that distance in a plane.

Ribblesdale at that time was only developed at its ends, about two or three houses a year were built, tubs n poles for anyone

in the game.

Any thoughts anyone?

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The area your talking about behind the 5 Ways pub was in fact the training ground for the Civil Defence in the early 60s.

There were several deliberately partially demolished house's, Nissan huts for classrooms and an underground nuclear bunker. This all started to vanish later in the 60s when the CD was wound up.

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In response to Ashley re: the lone fighter and the bullet holes in the church; when my dad was a baby he was in his pram outside on Melton Street and he said that he was almost hit by a single plane offloading it's spare bullets so that would tie in with the church on Arkwright Street. He was born in December 1940 so it was probably spring/summer of 1941?

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On 13/11/2015 at 3:26 PM, NewBasfordlad said:

The area your talking about behind the 5 Ways pub was in fact the training ground for the Civil Defence in the early 60s.  There were several deliberately partially demolished house's, Nissan huts for classrooms and an underground nuclear bunker. This all started to vanish later in the 60s when the CD was wound up.

 

1 hour ago, Radio Pod said:

My mum lived in the Daybrook Vale house for 5 years when it was civil defence.

 

Surprising but the place is actually marked (upper centre) on maps from the 1950s.  Five Ways in the lower centre.

 

five%20ways_zpspc8hf7f7.jpg

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I have seen a photograph of the devastated St. Christopher's church in Sneinton which was a casualty of the Luftwaffe. It showed the vicar conducting a Service among the rubble.  He was, in fact, Rev F G Ralph, an RAF padre who later became vicar of St Peter's church in Old Radford and officiated at the marriage of my parents on 25 June 1949. He appears on their wedding photos, his ecclesiastical stolla decorated with wings!

 

My mother said he was a lovely man. I've tried to research what happened to him after he left St Peter's in the 50s but without success.

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There is a book titled "Battle Of The Flames (Nottinghamshire's fight for survival in WW11) by David Needham, published by Horizon Press. Included in it are details of the bombing, lots of photographs and a list of fatal casualties. I have had the book for a number of years.

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The Evening Post brought out a book in 1995 called "Nottingham's War" (price £5.99) which had plenty of pictures of damage to the city following the blitz of May 1941, as well as articles on life during the war and how the people of Nottingham did their bit.

 

You might be lucky and find a copy in a charity shop.

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eBay or Amazon, I picked up a couple several years ago. About £8 if I remember rightly.

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Even my great grandfather’s grandfather clock had to give up its weights for the war effort.  We now have the clock in our house here  in Nottingham, minus the original weights. 

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On 13/02/2011 at 3:49 AM, Memories said:

Thanks for this map.

A lot of my relatives were all killed in the Dakeyne Street Air Raid Shelter on that night. This map is useful to put with the Family tree.

My Uncle, Thomas George Raven age 30, his children Beryl Hannah age 4, Barbara May age 23 months and Thomas age 5 were all killed.

Also he was looking after my other cousins, Ursula Brenda Johnson age 4 and Roy Alan Johnson aged 9 months who were also killed.

My mother also remembers going with her sister to tell the grandparents and found they had also been killed in another part of Nottingham.

Gone,but not forgotten.

 

My mother and I have just found this post from 2011 and the father, Thomas George is actually my Grandfather and my mother’s father-in-law. My father, Derek Alan Raven was just 2 at the time and took shelter with my Grandmother and two of her other children in another part of Nottingham that was not bombed. We would love to find out more about the Raven side of the family if anyone would care to reply to this forum or email directly.

 

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Welcome to this great site Mark, I'm sure there will be someone on here who could help you or at least point you in the right direction,have a read through some of the old posts there's probably some reference to the family or some one who can remember

 

Rog

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The safety of the caves was psychological rather than physical! I used to work with Nottingham caves expert Tony Waltham, and so was able to get into places not generally open at the time. When we went on a tour of the Peel St caves/air raid shelter, Tony pointed out that the top end of the caves (sand mine) was so near the surface, and the rock so porous, that if anything of any size had been dropped on the shelter, it would have gone straight through and exploded IN the shelter, similar to the Co-Op bakery incident, but the number of casualties would have been far higher. Indeed, a bomb dropping quite near did penetrate a fair way through the sandstone, but didn’t go off immediately: it went off at midday on the 9th, killing several people (?sightseers?).

 

The belief that anywhere underground was safe resulted in some nasty incidents in London, notably Coronation Ave shelter, Balham and Bank tube stations, and the Cafe de Paris in Piccadilly, which though 20’ below the surface was only protected by the roof and floor of the building above it. Although advertised as ‘the safest restaurant in London’, it was anything but, and many people - including the most famous swing band leader of the day, Ken Johnson - were killed when two bombs went straight through the building above and exploded on the packed dance floor, in March 1941 :(

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The name Tony Waltham rings a lot of bells with me..  Was he also involved in exploring natural Limestones caves in Derbys/Yorks etc.?

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Just looked him up online and yes.. it is him, along with the likes of Bruce L Bedford, who wrote such interesting stuff about Caving, especially in Yorks, back in the 70s/80s when I was an active caver.

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On 8/21/2014 at 8:35 PM, Manversboy said:

Just to add a family story to this interesting thread.

My family lived around the Carlton Rd/Thorneywood area and I can recall my Mum telling me that there was a house on a street corner that faced onto Carlton Rd that had been bombed in BOTH world wars. It's about 55 years since she told me this but I looked at the map posteed earlier that showed the bomb impacts and it does look as if the street was Lancaster Road. I think I recall her saying that in WW1 the bomb fell outside the house in the street but the WW2 bomb demolished the place - or it could have been the other way around! :laugh: Either way, she said that was an unlucky house to live in!

I also recall Mum telling me Nottm was only lightly bombed c/w Coventry, etc because "we bent the beams", which was a mystery to me at the time but after spending my working life in electronics I now realise she meant the German radio beams that guided the bombers and which we successfully jammed, apart from the night Coventry got it when the jamming was incorrectly done by the RAF.

MB

I Lived In Thorneywood in the 60s, what a brilliant place. I lived on Thorneywood Rise with my Aunties, Emma Graham, & Annie Smith. I went to Hogarth School, Then onto St Edwards. Does anybody else remember Thorneywood and what a great place it was, and great friends, & neighbours there.??????.

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