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  • 1 year later...
On 10/15/2008 at 12:57 PM, katyjay said:

Does anyone know where there were some Nissen huts for housing? I distinctly remember as a little kid, going with my mum to visit one of her brothers and family in a Nissen hut. I seem to think they were surrounded by dirt, not tarmac, so had obviously been used for something else previously, like commercial use. The inside had been divided into rooms, but I've often wondered since, where they were located.

Nissan hits on Colwick woods were at the bottom of Harrogate rd Bakersfield

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I remember the Colwick woods Nissen huts, vividly. My Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Mark lived there. I often went to visit and stay over with my cousins.  To get there, it was either a Sneinton bus or a 44 trolley bus to the terminus and walk through the woods. I always thought what a wonderful place to live, considering we lived in a slum area off Denman Street. They were eventually moved to a new estate called Clifton. To us, that was like the other end of England.

Kath, if you're still following this, you were right! They did exist for tenants. B.

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Beekay, if they were the only Nissan huts in Nottingham then that's where my uncle and family must have been. They got rehoused in a council house somewhere near Wells Rd after that.

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  • 3 weeks later...

nisssan.jpg.1851d655fe08cdea0e48551ab2c441f8.jpg

If anyone is still thinking ‘cars’, forget it, this is a Nissan Hut    -  the doors at both ends assuring adequate ventilation! When doing my 2 years Nat. Service (1946-48) I had the misfortune to spend three periods living in one, the first time was a real shocker!  Our initial 18 weeks had been at the Victorian barracks at Deal in Kent (nuff said!) moving in September to Lympstone in ‘Glorious Devon’, what a difference. Brick built chalet type huts right on the banks of the River Exe, cafeteria served meals, NO fatigues-guard duties-church parades etc.

 

This ‘holiday camp’ period of training ended the 1st. week in January when 20 of us travelled by rail overnight to a ‘camp’, concentration comes to mind, 3 miles inland from Towyn, mid Wales. On the parade square we were treated to a ‘chocolate box’ view of Cader Idris, the second  highest mountain in Wales at the head of the valley and this morning bathed in sunlight showing off the cap of fresh fallen snow!    A nice memory among some very physically rough ones to end on as ‘life’ in the huts has been well described!                                               

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If the photo of the Nissan hut is what all of them looked like, I am shocked. I visited my aunt and uncle when I was very small, and thought their Nissan hut was enormous, in my mind's eye, it was as big as an aircraft hanger! Just goes to show how everything looked so big when you were little!

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When I used to go with my BILs father and his dog to collect golf balls from the golf course at Bulwell I'm sure we walked by some nissen huts justs before entering the golf course but I of course may be wrong it was a very long time ago and I was a small child.

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  • 1 year later...
On 7/19/2021 at 2:23 PM, bamber said:

Nissen huts ... pah ... that's modern stuff. Parkdale School was using huts from the Boer War as classrooms until the 1990s.

 

I remember we had our school meals served in them not used for class rooms as far as I know.

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Albert, I remember Deal Depot in 1965. The old north barracks were the Musicians quarters. The newer recruit barrack blocks, parade ground and cinema have since been demolished as if it never existed and is now occupied by a housing development.

Most living quarters, consisted of the new four storey blocks lower down the camp. There were still the old mansard huts higher up the camp which remained there until about 1970 when Lympstone expanded.

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In 1944, my mother was 'directed' into the NAAFI. She wanted to join the Fire Service so that she could use her secretarial skills but there were no vacancies, so the NAAFI it had to be.  She ended up at a place called Garats Hay in Woodhouse Eaves, near Loughborough. Nasty shock for a spoiled 18 year old. Her new home was a Nissen hut.  Once she got used to the rough work (as the newest recruit, it was her task to clean out the pot bellied stove and make the fire every day) she said she was pleasantly surprised by how warm and cosy the hut was. The beds were comfy, there was plenty to eat and dances at the nearby hall on a regular basis. Her father came over and planted a garden round the hut with colourful flowers. Mum made some lifelong friends during her time there and always looked back at that time with fondness .

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That has just made me remember that we had Horsa huts at school for metalwork, woodwork and cookery. Had to find out what that was about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HORSA

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William Crane senior girls had a horsa hut for cookery. A hut implies a wooden building, but I'm sure ours was brick painted white.

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Ours were sectional concrete. Built a bit like a concrete fence. ie posts with grooves down either side with imitation stone panels dropped inbetween the posts to form walls. stick a roof on and seal it all up.

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1 hour ago, The Pianoman said:

Horsa huts at school for metalwork,

I can remember Bulwell  Youth Club on Coventry Road Bulwell starting in one of these huts in the 60s, previously it was used by Highbury School. The leader was a bloke named "Spike", He used to live on site in a sectional Bungalow ,were invited to his wedding somewhere up North it had an open bar, a major mistake with young teenagers, the less said about that the better, but spike and his club were a major asset to Bulwell.

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