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I first came on here a short time back...Most of the posts are from the 60s/70s brigade (Me included) rabbitting on about Pubs ,Clubs,DJs, and stuff over the last 40 years.

Have any of you lot ever had a chat to your parents or grandparents about old Nottingham?...What did they have to say?

My old Mum was very hard to talk to about her childhood as it was a time of extreme poverty and she didn't really want to talk about it...When she was 17 she worked for Imperial Typewriters in Leicester...catching the train each morning in Nottingham at 6-30 am and getting back at 7pm all for nineteen and six a week.She gave her Mum her wages and was given sixpence a week for herself which was exactly how much it cost her to get in the Palais, where she met my Dad who luckily used to buy her a drink etc as she had no money left.

However I managed to find out where she was born in 1906 in Colwick (Long demolished) How she used to play in the old windmill in Sneinton which was then a derelict building. And how the gamekeepers at Colwick Hall used to chase them off because it was a private estate.

How her father came home from the first world war nearly blind from the mustard gas in the trenches which took him years to get over.And how being a bit of a Jack the Lad and believing the 'Land fit for Heroes' crap the government were spouting on about, decided to build himself a new fangled bungalow.He found a place in Colwick woods he liked and decided 'That's for me'...Mum remembers her and three sisters helping him load the horse and cart with building materials and dropping them at the site where he was busy building the foundations.(Around 1920) He was most surprised when a bloke in a bowler hat from the council turned up and told him he couldn't build on Common Land without the necessary building permissions...and he had to pack it in.

He used to work down the pit then and told her how he worked at the face with a pickaxe up to his waist in water.With just 4 foot headroom.

He in turn when she was a little girl told her how his Grandfather told him as a young lad how he was at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837

It's incredible how word of mouth can go back nearly 200 years.

Can your family's memories go back so far?

Paul.

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I used to talk to my Gran over a fag whilst we washed up on a Sunday dinner time. The whole family were in awe of her and nobody spoke to her like I did. I found out all sorts of dark secrets regarding that side of the family that nobody else knew (Or knows for that matter ,I still haven't let on)

She was a divorcee when my Grandfather met her, and nobody knew why , so I asked and she told me , just like that ,I found out she was approachable.

She told me some great tales of collecting acorns and swill to feed pigs during the Great War, and being rewarded with apples for the table at home, (Her dad was in the trenches, so there was no real income) on the odd occation the farmer would treat them to a chop or two!!

I can only go that far back unfortunately, although my great Aunt, down in Oxfordshire, used to regail us with tales of being in service for the FFines family (As in Sir Ranulph.) although I was only about 5 at the time so I can't remember much about the tales. apart from the house was full of secret passages and they used to play tricks on the new starters using said hidey holes

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Another memory from my Mother was living in Llanberis Grove,Nuthall Rd during world war 2.My Dad was in the R.A.F. and while he was away a land girl was billeted on her in the spare room.No choice in those days the powers that be placed people helping the war effort where they liked.

She said the girl was very pleasant,going to work at the crack of dawn each morning.My Mother never noticed anything unusual,and after about a year the girl left.

Shortly afterwards another girl was placed with her and Mother decided to give the room a good clean.Under a load of clutter in the wardrobe Mother spotted a parcel and on opening it found a dead new born baby that had been there a while.Whether it was stillborn or not I don't know,the police were called and the body removed.

Thousands of girls got pregnant during the war and of course in those days having a baby out of wedlock was a shameful thing.Obviously the reason the girl hid the birth....The thing that astounded my Mother was that the girl showed no signs...going to work daily.And the most astonishing thing was that Mother slept just the other side of the wall to the girls room....and never heard a sound from the girl giving birth.I never found out who the girl was or what happened to her.

My own Brother aged two died in that house shortly afterwards from burns after playing with a box of matches in the days when nightclothes were inflammable.

Another sad war story.

Paul.

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My maternal grandmother who died in 1955, at the age of 95, was a wonderful source of memories on 19th century life and the Edwardian era. Her own grandfather had been born in Eastwood at the end of the 18th century and she spent many of her childhood years living with him...certainly makes me feel old when I think that I knew someone who knew someone from the 18th century! Being merely a young child I was only able to absorb a portion of what I was told, but I can recall certain general observations The abject poverty which accompanied life in those times was rarely touched upon as, like everyone else from the working class, she regarded that as very much the norm- they hadn't experienced anything any different - in the same way that today's relative affluence is our norm.

Her grandfather's father had died from wounds inflicted in the Napoleonic Wars and his own son had met a similar fate in the Crimea, just before my Grandma was born.

Seems that lifestyles didn't differ much throughout the 19th century in the way they did during the 20th century.

Her early working life had involved employment at her Uncle's coach (as in 'horses') painting business, in a variety of roles.

She viewed the coming of electricity, especially used in it's lighting form, to be the major innovation of her age and also recounted the thousands of folk who died simply due to what we would consider was the lack of basic medical attention and their inability to pay doctor's fees - her own mother had died from an infection which spread arising from a cut finger!

Her own husband - my Grandfather - died in a Bristol air raid during the early days of WWII, having survived the trenches of WWI... and of her four children, the two males both took their own lives by hanging - following affairs of the heart. The second suicide being 20 years to the day from the first one...1907-1927.

Cheers

Robt P.

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I never asked many questions, and it's too late now.

My paternal Grandfather died when Dad was a youngster, that was Grans second marriage. She outlived three husbands! All I knew about that Granfather was he was injured in the pits and died later. I later found out he worked as a hewer at Clifton Colliery, thats on his death certificate.

That Gran as far as I ever remember always lived on Raglan Street in St Anns.

I never asked either Grans questions, never gave it a thought! My maternal Grandfather was a window cleaner, had his own business for years, he and Gran lived on Dane Street for years. He'd lost an eye as a youngster, Dad always told me it was through an accident with some wire.

Just wished no I'd been a nosey so and so and asked questions, bit late now though.

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All I have left of my parents generation is my aunt who lives in Heanor - she is now 96! I make it a point to try and talk to her as much about the "old days" as possible because her knowledge will be gone when she goes.

One of the stories that makes Mary (my wife, an American) realize how things were in England during the war is when she talks of a bomb landing in the field opposite their house which blew out the front room window. Without batting an eyelid she then says "but the men from the council came and fixed it in a few days, so that was all right". Mary was amazed at how easily she took the difficulties of living through those times, even the threat of being bombed - classic British resolve!

My uncle was a Midland General Bus driver and, to this day, my aunt has a bus pass such that she can travel almost anywhere on the bus free! Until a couple of years ago, she would often just take the bus into Nottingham or Derby for something to do. She still loves to ride in the car, and will happily chat about the sights, and how they would travel to Matlock for a treat when she was a girl.

She worked for a while in Nottingham, and would ride the tram from Heanor both ways. The tram went all the way to Ripley - the longest tram run in the country (possibly the world)!

When she was born, there were few cars and no airplanes. She has seen man learn to fly, go to the moon, and have her godson visit from America quicker than she used to be able to go to London! I wonder if any future generation will see so much change in a single lifetime!

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A mate of mine who resides in BC Canada watches Coronation Street, he knocks it into his kids thats how they lived years back. His kids were brought up in Canada, Trev I knew when I was an apprentice, I worked with his Dad and Uncle.

Tell anyone of the two up two down terraced houses with outside bog and coalfire, no hot water, no bathroom, DC power, yes St Anns was still on DC during the 1950's! and they are in wonderment!

I can still remember the changeover from gas street lights to electric around 1956/7! The bloke who used to ride a pushbike and balance a small ladder to clean each lamp and wind it's clock up every week!!

So even we "young uns" have summat to tell. Well I aint that young!

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Limey said:
All I have left of my parents generation is my aunt who lives in Heanor - she is now 96! I make it a point to try and talk to her as much about the "old days" as possible because her knowledge will be gone when she goes.

*******************

That's a very good point...

Any of you out there with elderly relatives...get 'em talking.Not just about their lives but what their parents and grandparents told them...You'll be surprised how much interesting info is bottled up because 'I didn't think you'd be interested' ...Parents tend to pass on stories about the war or a coronation and ignore all the other stuff....Ask them about their school and their first job,boy/girlfriend,visit to the pictures,trip to the seaside etc.

My Mother died a couple of years back aged just over 100...I didn't have a computer then, if I had I could have photographed all the places she told me about and showed them to her on here which would I'm sure would have jolted lots of other memories....Shame...Too late now.

There are thousands of books full of minute detail about the lives of the rich,famous,and educated.But very little is known about the ordinary man and woman on the street.

Paul.

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Tell anyone of the two up two down terraced houses with outside bog and coalfire, no hot water, no bathroom, DC power, yes St Anns was still on DC during the 1950's! and they are in wonderment!

My dad's mother lived in a 2-up, 2-down terrace - with a shared outhouse out the back, a single tap in the kitchen, coal fire for heating and cooking, and GAS lights! That was in 1964! Heanor must have lagged behind St. Anns!

What amazes me is that same terraced house is now worth over 100,000 pounds!

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A great Thread, and the stories do not even have to be about Notts.

Its lifestyles of previous generations that are important.

AND YOU ARE THE LINK.

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My maternal grandma went into service at age 11. Can you imagine today's 11 yrs olds going to work full time, from maybe 5am till dark everyday, with maybe one day off a month? She lived in Coston, nr Melton Mowbray and went to work for a Mrs Johnson in Old Dalby. She stayed 10 yrs there until she married my grandad. I think it was a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire, as life didn't get any easier after that. Grandad changed jobs like some folks changed their underwear, and they moved around Nottingham quite a bit. She had 8 babies, 2 died as babies. Her mother had a hard life too, she had 5 children before she married, never have found out their father's name. Then she married my great grandad. We always thought it strange that there was a big gap between the last of the 5 and my grandma, so did some digging. Found out that the first 4 children after marriage, died within less than 8 weeks, aged 1 to 5, of diptheria, before my grandma was born. Times were very hard then.

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In 64 I was still living at home, 17 years old, we lived on Kirke White Street East then, just a few doors down from the Rifleman pub. That was a three bedroomed house, outside bog, coalhouse, just the cold kitchen tap, no bathroom. Before that it was a two up two down etc in a terrace of Briar St, opposite the old Hosene works. All this lot was redeveloped around 1972 or thereabouts.

I was married then we lived in an old terraced house in Ryehill Cottages off of Kirke-White Street, and was transferred to Clifton Estate that must have been around 1973 roughly. Now that was luxury!! Inside bathroom, lashings of hot water!

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My mum has written (Or is writing ) a journal about her early days ,having moved to Nott'm as a kid from the country and her experiences of the differences between lifestyles.

I am pretty sure it's on her computer so I will try to upload to mine next time I'm over there.

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She had 8 babies, 2 died as babies. Her mother had a hard life too, she had 5 children before she married, never have found out their father's name. Then she married my great grandad. We always thought it strange that there was a big gap between the last of the 5 and my grandma, so did some digging. Found out that the first 4 children after marriage, died within less than 8 weeks, aged 1 to 5, of diptheria, before my grandma was born. Times were very hard then.

A quiet walk round the rock cemetry or St.Mary's in the city can be very thought provoking.Most of the gravestones I noticed are horizontal and quite heartbreaking. Dozens and dozens of them with babies names on from birth to five years old.Some stones with ten names on,many with the same surname.

Mortality rates were horrific...I wonder how many working class women in the early years of the 20th century DIDN'T lose one or two children,if not more.My own Mother lost one younger sister to diptheria.

Paul.

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..I wonder how many working class women in the early years of the 20th century DIDN'T lose one or two children,if not more...

Very true - my grandmother had six children, three girls and three boys. Two of the boys died as babies (I have no idea why) and when my father was born (he was the youngest child), his sisters wrote him off as "another boy to die"!

Not only hard times, but it took a certain hardness of heart to deal with the hardships!

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Another little tale to show how things have changed over the last century. My great-aunt Alice was engaged to a parson, who was a tee-totaller. He was visiting her family one day and Alice's brother [my grandad-to-be] came in drunk as a skunk. Parson took one look at him and broke off the engagement and was never seen again. Alice, who worked in the lace trade, swore off men for everymore and emigrated to the States to be a nanny to the wealthy. She came over in 1923, went through Ellis Island and worked for a lady in Chicago who'd paid her fare over. She worked in that area for a long time before moving to California, and retired to the British Home in Sierra Madre. She died in '64, still a spinster, age 83, and is buried in Forest Lawn cemetery, Glendale.

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As You Know from elswhere, I have an Aunt at The British Home, and have been a regular visitor.

The photo in my profile was taken there. Regarding Forest lawns its a great Place to WARDRIVE.

I dont know where the internet signal was coming from, but people were amazed that I chatted to on yahoo

that I was sitting in the middle of a Graveyard in L.A.

These are better times than I had as a child. I dont know about our Grandparents but when I get time I could

ad some stories of hardship.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 7 years later...

BUMP

I have found this old thread and there are some really interesting stories on here told by some of our members. Another example of my  not being able to add more information because of my sorrow on not talking more to my parents and grandparents about there lives while they were growing up.

 

Through Ancestry.com I have got an idea of the kind of lives some of my ancestors lived, but it would have been far more interesting to have heard them from my Grandparents and Parents themselves.

 

It appears from the posts above that the majority of people had similar hardships and some of the tales relate to my discoveries of ancestors in the earlys19/20 century. Always interested in these tales and hoping that some of our new/old members can add a few more stories.

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I feel the same Carni, but don't forget that when we we kids, children were to be seen but not heard. Then of course when we were older, and in our teens, we didn't want to listen to our elders as we knew best. Twenties onwards, it was work, marriage, families, setting up home etc. Then when we felt the need to talk on a similar level to our parents, it was too late. Most grandparents were dead or incapable of holding a sensible conversation, and our parents were ageing too. 

One of my main regrets in life is never being able to talk to my dad man to man, until it was too late.

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I agree fly......even though in his last years my Dad and i lived together never really did the man to man bit...........it was usually just funny one liners of the moment,never got deep,..........two ways of looking at it i suppose.............i'm very much the same with my sons in their 40s.........but deep down i really want to say so much..........but never seems the right time.........ah well perhaps one day.............

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It's ironic that you only think of the questions to ask your parents and grandparents after they are no longer around.  When you are young - and able to speak to all of them -  you aren’t bothered about exactly who is who, and what they did, or where they came from.

 

One of the main reasons I’ve done a lot of family history research is to try and fill in a few gaps. There are a lot of people who I can remember seeing and hearing about when I was a kid, but now I look back and think “who exactly was Uncle so-and-so” or “what was our connection with Mr & Mrs XX”.   If I’d been as interested then as I am now, I could’ve asked them in person.

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I now try to discuss as much as is humanly possible with my girls on most matters in life. We don't always agree, and maybe I'm not the best person in the world to give advice, but at least most subjects get discussed in one way or another. 

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