An Expats view of Nottingham


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Many of you on this forum, like me, no longer live in 'The City of Dreams'. Do many of you go back very often, how do you view the place if you do.

I was born in Wollaton in 1950, I had a great childhood, I went on to Bilborough Grammar, surfed the pubs in the late 60's, lurked around the Boat Club, the Uni, the Poly, had a lot of fun, had a missing period when I went to college then came back for 5 years, lived life to the full, thoroughly enjoyed it then ended up Daan Saaf.

Ever since, it's been difficult to get involved, you go and spend the odd weekend with your parents and do what they want you to do, it's not the same.

Unbelievably, my Essex son chose to go to Nottingham University, I've visited, but it's not the same is it. He takes control, I've been on a pub crawl but it's like going to the moon, I've had my moments, but things are so different. My best moment was on my last visit, I made him and his pals go for a hike up Mam Tor in a blizzard, they loved it, but it doesn't reconcile an old git with the fun pubs he once loved, they don't exist anymore, sad, but not unexpected is it.

So what are you 'expats' relationships with the place, is it on another planet, or what, I'd like to know what you think.

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Re: #41. Guilty as charged M'Lud. It's just a habit from another forum where I don't get moaned at within 3 or 4 posts of bringing my scintillating wit, charm, intelligence, integrity, good looks a

I lived on Bestwood Estate and went to High Pavement from 1960-1965. My Mum lived on Bestwood Estate for over 60 years from about 1951 to 2011, when she was obliged to move into a care home. Sadly

# 39 and # 45 I know Grahame Wyville, he's in the Billy Fury Tribute Band 'Halfway to Paradise' and is a fantastic cabinet-maker. I first knew him late 60s early 70s when he was in Mosaic Sunset and

Difficult to respond in some ways as I have no desire to come across as critical of Nottingham. After all I spent the first 25 years of my life in and around it. Got married there. Had our first child there. Enjoyed working there for the EMEB as it was then. Don't know what they call it now. I think someone once said, "You can never go back." I think what they meant was, it will never be the same.

We left for Canada in 1970. We loved it there in both Toronto and Calgary and Edmonton Alberta. We both went back numerous times but it was never the same. Good to see family and friends but always glad to get on the plane and head back to Canada. The city and surroundings had changed so much it hardly even seemed like the same place. I guess when you live in a place the change seems slower and you just adapt to it. When you see your friends every day you do not notice how they age and so after not seeing them for ten years you say, Wow! So and so sure has aged. Not thinking that they probably think the same of you.

My last trip back was in 1997 with my late wife. We sat in a MacDonalds in Netherfield (Where the old railway yards used to be) and looked out of the windows at the shopping center which now covered the area where I used to play as a kid. We commented that it looked just like a similar area in Canada! Yet some how it had lost its character. I left the place feeling strangely sad. In fact my eyes mist up now at the thought of it.

Even reading Nottstalgia gives a taste of it. One reads of pubs closing, and the changes in the social structure with seemingly almost unlimited immigration and a lack of the old standards. The nice thing about Nottstalgia is that it shows it as it used to be. Folks talk of places I remember and I can visualize them. Takes me back to times and places and experiences which can never be again.

Now I really have nothing to go back for only to move forward. My new American wife would like to visit and see where I grew up etc. She has been to Canada with me but never over the pond. Maybe we will next spring, but for me, I could take it or leave it!

Don't wish to sound negative just in a melancholy mood this afternoon I guess.

Dave

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I left Nottingham in 1977 to live in Surrey, before coming out here in '86. Nottingham seems totally 'foreign' to me now, I expect because I've been away so long. Any changes, I wasn't 'involved' in, if you see what I mean. I didn't live there to see the changes come about, so all of a sudden something familiar has gone, and a strange building is in it's place and I didn't see it coming. I still think it's an excellent shopping town, and it's so good that you can walk around it from one side to the other, or catch a tram, something I don't do anymore. Here you drive from one strip mall to another to a box store etc. I'm saddened by the crime rate, I look at the Evening Post on-line every day, and all the main stories are stabbings or terrible things happening to good folks. I think I would be hard pressed to live there again, but do enjoy visiting. I still have 2 brothers, nephew/niece and their kids in the Bulwell area, so we usually go for a visit to Nottingham when over there. What is really good is the history of the place, something you don't appreciate until you move away.

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The daft thing is , even though I've only been away for 12 years , and been back at least 4 times a year, it seems totaly foreign to me too . All the favourite pubs gone , no body you know if you do venture out etc

Just wrong somehow

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I doubt I'll ever get back now, healths not so good and I hate flying anyway.

I left for North Yorks in 1975 for a better life, new job, brand new mine and living near the coast appealed to me and the ex wife.

When she peed off I decided it was time to look to new horizons and went to Oz.

The new wife and myself visited my parents about 17 years ago now, the last time I saw them alive and the old city was alien to me! Might as well have been Moscow or Peking!

Now live stateside and travelling days are just about over for me.

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John, I can fully empathise with your summary...

On a somewhat nearer theme, I have many family roots in Somerset and consequently was a regular visitor, perhaps 5 or 6 times yearly. In recent times my affinity has dwindled and I haven't felt inclined to make the relatively short journey for several years. Much is due to the progress of time and the subsequent changes - for the worst, in my cynical view - which are now so evident...the ageing process also plays its cruel part!

Cheers

Robt P.

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You put your finger on it, Mick.

Maybe the issue really has nothing to do with distance, but rather to change and our growing resistance to it as we age. Perhaps we also tend to think of things in the past as being far better than they really were. After all, we can't have been that happy or we wouldn't have moved.

Dave

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You put your finger on it, Mick.

Maybe the issue really has nothing to do with distance, but rather to change and our growing resistance to it as we age. Perhaps we also tend to think of things in the past as being far better than they really were. After all, we can't have been that happy or we wouldn't have moved.

Dave

Not too sure about that last sentence, I moved because I had to, otherwise I would have happily stayed in the city, in fact after a year of living down here, I was so fed up with it that I tried to move back. The thing was, my missus to be, well for a time, graduated from Nottingham Uni and found it hard to get a job, she came from Yorkshire anyway. She went for interviews all over the country and ended up being offered a job by RHM agriculture on the proviso that it could be anywhere.

In the end it was Great Dunmow, Essex. She got a damn good, well paid job and her lovely boss pulled a few strings and got me a job in Chelmsford with one of his land agent cronies.

Thats when the problems started, because the bloke was a complete git, I really felt a stranger in a strange land, my aversion to Chelmsford still exists, its my nearest major town but I seldom go there. It wasn't until I got a job with a great crowd of structural engineers that I settled down, but I used to go back to Nottingham on a regular basis and wonder why the hell I left.

Funnily enough, when my old man used to come down, he loved it here, he reckoned it was the last surviving bastion of true original England, he had a point, we have no racial tensions, it's an area of pretty villages and antique shops. I was pleased to move last year into Braintree, a real town, from a cream tea village where I had lived for 20 years. Great, we get police sirens, helicopters seeking out the drug dealers in the park up the road, tattood thugs taking their Staffies for a walk, sounds a wierd thing to say, but I've enjoyed getting back into the real world, but then again, it's still not the same as the problems in Notty, the tattood thugs taking their Staffies for a walk are my pals, we share an interest in dogs, good talking point, I even chat to the junkies and lager louts that hang out down the river, they know I'm a harmless symphathetic old git, sort of, I have a secret relationship with the drug squad, but then again, it's good to talk, I've never once felt threatened here.

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I too wouldn't have left if it weren't for the fact that SWMBO was already settled here , in Cheshire.

I enjoyed being in the city at weekends (And nights in the week) I never felt threatened at any time, mind you I don't feel threatened round here either , it's just boring ,boring, boring!!!!!! there is nothing for the adolescents to do .

The youngsters have Scouts and Guides, the really young have Cubs and Brownies, but between 15 and 18 forget it . For a town the size we are it's pathetic , no bowling alley or cinema , not even any where for skate boarding or BMXing

There was also plenty of employment over there, round here , forget it . I used to see a lot of the same faces down the DSS week in week out ,professionals a lot of them too, and once you're past 45, forget it.

So enjoy your lovely city and make the most of what you've got ,it could be far far worse

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I was born in Arnold, moved to Long Eaton when I was 6. Lived there on and off 'till 1976 when I went to South Africa, then came to the USA in 1978.

I guess my perspective is a little different. I didn't expect places to stay the same, but I do have fond memories of the Nottingham area and Derbyshire. Probably my favorite memories are of trips to the countryside, or the seaside which are still, sort of, intact. I never really was a "city" person.

That said, I still think that Nottingham is a great city to visit. The center of the city is always "alive" with people working or shopping and it is a pleasant city area. Interestingly, Mary (my all-American wife) frequently comments on how much she likes to visit Nottingham and she also claims it is the best British city she has seen for shops, pubs and a feeling of activity.

I still love to visit - a pint in the Bell and a walk through slab square, down to Broad Marsh and up to the Vic Center all bring back pleasant memories, even though those places are not what they were in my childhood. It saddens me to hear of the violence in the suburbs and that there is a generation who do not seem to be proud of the city. Nottingham is a wonderful place still, I just hope it is not allowed to fall in dis-repair due to its current rap as a "dangerous" place to be!

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Point taken about having to move because of job situation.

That would be a difficult choice to make if you are happy and settled.

Just finished watching Saturday Night and Sunday Morning on Turner Classic. Don't mean to start a discussion on that here I know it has been addressed on other threads. It sure was interesting to see some of the shots of Derby Road, the Castle etc. All those steam trains and smoke. Things have changed!

I suppose we adjust eventually. When I first moved to Edmonton from Calgary I went back to Calgary every chance I could get. Eventually the new area grew on me and now Edmonton is home.

Don't think I will EVER adjust to the deep South, but that's another story

Dave

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I love it down here Dave!! They all talk like Larry The Cableguy in these parts! Gettttterrrdone!

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And before anyone asks in old Blighty, here is Larry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fm4LdcCwFU

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I love it down here Dave!! They all talk like Larry The Cableguy in these parts! Gettttterrrdone!

Yeh the accent is definitely different down here.

My problem is more with the extreme humidity of the summer months. I tell my wife its like the &^%@# Amazon down here. Even the natives complain about it at times so its not just me. I do not miss thirty below too much either. I think that its is just the Rockies and the shear beauty of the Alberta area that I miss. Lot of memories there.

I suppose I had expected to retire in Alberta. I am not complaining I made my own choice to move. Really comes back to the whole issue discussed in this thread how we view our former haunts. I'll find out this week, cos' I'm headed back to Edmonton to bug my kids, and spoil my grand-kids.

Dave

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This has been an exceptional summer Dave, nowhere as humid as past summers! I'm in the Ozarks, so we get northerlies, westerlies and easterlies, plus when it swings around to the south miseries!! LOL

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I too wouldn't have left if it weren't for the fact that SWMBO was already settled here , in Cheshire.

I enjoyed being in the city at weekends (And nights in the week) I never felt threatened at any time, mind you I don't feel threatened round here either , it's just boring ,boring, boring!!!!!! there is nothing for the adolescents to do .

The youngsters have Scouts and Guides, the really young have Cubs and Brownies, but between 15 and 18 forget it . For a town the size we are it's pathetic , no bowling alley or cinema , not even any where for skate boarding or BMXing

There was also plenty of employment over there, round here , forget it . I used to see a lot of the same faces down the DSS week in week out ,professionals a lot of them too, and once you're past 45, forget it.

So enjoy your lovely city and make the most of what you've got ,it could be far far worse

Absolutely incredible to read of your lack of facilities, I would say that Braintree and Winslow were about the same size, our population is 35,000.

The thing that endeared me to this place 30 years ago was it's similarity to a 'Northern Industrial Town'. We had Crittall Windows, Courtaulds Mills, Lake and Elliot and Rayne Foundries, the town centre was very reminiscent of Ilkeston, very faded and a bit naff, but having the advantage of amazing medieaval streets like the one just down the alley from me, which I gather has more Listed Buildings than any other in East Anglia.

Things have changed and all the traditional industries have gone, Crittalls are just about hanging on in a small way, but all the Courtaulds Mills have been swept away and Rayne Foundry was knocked down only a few weeks ago.

On the other hand, we have a brand new swimming pool opened only a few months ago, next door to that a bowling alley, a superb new multiplex cinema too. The skateboard park in one of the many parks in the town is absolutely amazing, no crappy bits of earth bank, it's a custom designed stainless steel gem. The BMX track is next to the Equestrian and sports centre, currently being developed as a training base for the 2012 Olympics.

The town centre has a very tastefull little shopping mall, with some of the historic buildings preserved within it. The big selling point is Freeport, our own 'Designer Village', complete with it's own railway station, where else can you buy a pair of genuine Versace jeans for £20.

Nice place, brilliant chip shops too, but whatever the attractions and facilities, the kids still lurk on street corners, thinking they are misunderstood. We had a run in with some last night, they were arrogantly standing in the road when we came home, only about 13 too, message sent, 'Try that again old pal and we won't f###### slow down next time, is that understood'. Point taken, mind you, they know us and recognise the fact that we have kids older than them who will make their life hell if they don't comply. It's up to them.

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This is Winsford not Wilmslow

A little example of the kids boredom,

There is a little ' gang' of four or five teenagers who started to congregate opposite our house of an evening in summer (about 8ish) , no problem , just strange that they would sit on an iron rail but ,hey, they have nowhere else to go , I started to worry slighlty about the rubbish they would start leaving , but it dawned on me there was no rubbish , they congregated there to be near the litter bin!!

They now congregate down the alley at the side of our house why? because there is a street light !!, still nothing to worry about , as I told them about having two kids in bed and could they keep the noise to minimum, no problem ,they say ,and they do keep it down. I don't know what time they go but in a way I feel a bit safer (Daft as it sounds ) in the knowlege that no one will be trying to get into my back garden during this period and pinching the kids toys !!!

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This is Winsford not Wilmslow...

He actually wrote Winslow (Bucks, Terrence Rattigan etc) slywink Equally, could have been Wimborne (Dorset, Thos Hardy etc), Winscombe (North Som), Wincanton (South Som,'osses), Windsor (as in Castle) or even Winster (Derbys) :tease:

Winsomely,

Robt P.

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He actually wrote Winslow (Bucks, Terrence Rattigan etc) slywink Equally, could have been Wimborne (Dorset, Thos Hardy etc), Winscombe (North Som), Wincanton (South Som,'osses), Windsor (as in Castle) or even Winster (Derbys) :tease:

Winsomely,

Robt P.

Don't forget Wansford near Peterborough, Wattisham in Suffolk, or Wiveliscombe near Taunton, how many small towns have two such significant breweries, one of my fave places, had I won the Euro Lottery on friday, I would have moved there today, and of course paid for Beefy to move to St Annes and get himself some dreadlocks, he deserves the honour.

Lets excuse the poor old boy, this Jimmy Sirrell and Vulcan stuff must be getting to him. Actually he deserves a medal for struggling through the odds to get to Meadow Lane on saturday, I applaud him for that.

Wellingborough, Whatstandwell, Witham, Wallingford, Wirksworth, Whatton, Worthing, Wymondham, Worksop, Wollaton, Welney, Whitby, Workington, West Runton, Whithnail and I, the list is endless, he could be anywhere.

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  • 1 year later...

I coudnt go back to live there now, when I last went to Bulwell it was 2001 and I was shocked, it wasnt the same place, the people seemed different, it was dirty and I didnt feel safe. Contrast this to when I was growing up there in the 50's, the council houses had lovely gardens, people were proud of their houses, young kids could walk to school safely, it was clean(except after Market days).It had a lovely assortment of shops etc. Maybe its because I am older but I didnt like it one bit and I was quite sad to see it actually. What I do like though is reading about Bulwell,Basford and Nottm as a whole and looking at the pictures on here, it brings back some lovely old memories to me!

Thanks so much everyone!!

Owdtite.

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I think you'd enjoy The Basford Bystander, owdtite, bi-monthly magazine, not very big I admit, but some interesting articles in there submitted by the public. It covers Bulwell, Basford, Cinderhill and areas around these.

Kath

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