A Walk Down Memory Lane.


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I'm quite intrigued about the Broad Oak not being open on a Sunday, what period was this as I don't remember it at all.

On a warm Sunday summers evening in the 50's we would go for the obligatory family walk. Usually this entailed going to the little cemetery on Bramcote Lane, opposite Parkside and putting flowers on Grandma and Grandads grave, then going up to the Rodney, where we sat outside in the dismal yard next to the bowling alley.

However, sometimes we would walk up Cockington Road then cut up the lane past Catstone Hill to Strelley and have a drink outside the Broad Oak, a place I always preferred. I'm sure it would have been a Sunday evening and it was always very busy, with loads of other kids to play with.

We always thought that Strelley was such a pretty oasis in a sea of housing estates, I suppose it still is, but the Broad Oak has really changed and I haven't been in there since Hardy Hansons were taken over by Greene King.

I do remember the fair on the green near St Martins Church and that funny little police station that looked like a WW2 bunker, which it probably was.

I used to go up that way a lot when I went to Bilborough Grammar, I had lots of mates from Bilborough Estate. Some things up there I remember, like when Catstone Hill was a real quarry, then they constructed that enclosed resevoir, when it was finished we would walk on the roof and sniff the obnoxious chlorine fumes from the airvents and wonder what we were being forced to drink.

Wasn't the water pumped from the Derwent via Breaston Reservoir, or rather, still is, didn't our supply come from artesian wells in the Bunter Sandstone before that and was pretty pure.

I recall when they dug up the fields for opencast mining opposite Strelley Hall and at the same time started constructing the M1, it was a nightmare, not helped by the fact that it was all happeneing across our school cross country course, not that it bothered the teachers, we had to drag ourselves through the mud and slurry all the same.

As national school cross country champions one year, we were challenged by the public school champs, Millfield. I don't know what these kids from this exclusive school expected, but it certainly wasn't being dragged across an open cast coal mine. I seem to remember that we came 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th, the famous Eley and Barnard taking 1st and 2nd postions, me, I was miffed because I got dropped from the team for that match.

Happy days.

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was that ian barnard firbeck?

When I would get taken up Strelley to the pub, I thought it was a Sunday too, but it could have been a Saturday I suppose, and it was always open, and that was the late fifties, early sixties.

But the one thing that stayed in my head was that although I loved sitting outside that pub, the gnats were wicked for some reason, always came back home with lots of bites.

Up the road even further iff you made a left swerve you would get to the 'sand hills' and even further, the 'bluebell fields', tons and tons of them as far as the eye could see, magnificent show of blue that would go on forever, does anyone else remember that?

Another thing that crossed my mind over the weekend was in the early sixties going dancing at The Lecano!

Cannot seem to recall the name of the street that was on, but do remember getting off the bus and walking along that street with the Co-Op on the corner...we would walk a long way, although it didn't seem long when we were young, so does anyone else remember that?

And what happened to the Lecano, was it turned into something else, or was it eventually pulled down.

We used to have a great time there dancing...yes happy days indeed, fantastic memories.

Georgygirl.

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Yes, it was Ian Barnard, you obviously knew him. I reckon that when I was in the first year at BGS he would have been in the 5th or 6th form, so he's probably retired now. I recall that he was a great middle and long distance runner and I always thought that Barnard and Eley would go on to greater things. At the time our PE teacher was John Whetton who'd got to the 1500m finals at the Tokyo Olympics, and with his experience and coaching skills even I got to be a nifty middle distance runner, but later on in life, I couldn't be bothered when I was at school, I preferred to do my own thing outside the gates instead.

Yes, take the left turn past the Broad Oak and that was the old sand quarry at Catstone Hill, great when it was being worked, but turned into a messy dumping ground afterwards.

The bluebells have brought back memories. There was a scrubby wood running across the north end of Trowell Moor that stretched almost to Cossall from just beyond Catstone Hill. We used to refer to it as Bluebell Wood, it really was amazing. Unfortunately it was the first casualty of open cast coal mining in the area and dissapeared in the late 50's, it must be the place you're thinking about.

Another memory of the area. Before the M1 was built we used to walk along the bridle path from Strelley Hall that went on to Kimberley. Roughly where the M1 is now was a junction in the track and we used to meet up with a really old boy that used to sit on a wall smoking a pipe. According to him, he was the younger brother of Jessie Chambers of Haggs Farm and D H Lawrence fame, I'm sure he was, why would he pretend to a bunch of schoolkids. I'm sure it was at the time of the court case with regard to Lady Chatterley, an illegal copy of which my mates dad had hidden in his sideboard and which my mates horny sister used to take great delight in reading to us.

I recall the old boy telling us about Lawrence and life in general in Edwardian times, it was one of those unforgettable experiences that you can look back on and wished you had a camcorder.

Incidentally, didn't the Broad Oak have a pond out the front, didn't that encourage the gnats and midges.

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Don't remember the pond, but I know there was a ton of gnats.

But you mention Lady Chatterley (the book) and that took me back in time too...

I was still in school when every Sunday they put in the paper another piece of that book for people to see, an 'EXPURGATED' version or something like that, anyway, it was supposed to be a rather mild version of the actual book.

But ofcourse I was not allowed to read that paper, it was totally off limits, which iff you think about it, is the dumbest thing a parent can say to a kid...I mean, then they want to read it more, right?

This was about a year before I left school, so when I left I got a little job for a short while in a sweet shop, maybe it's still there, but probably not, it was called Sauls' on Aspley lane, but every now and then they would get shipments of books, and so I think you know where I am headed here........

Yes, one time in came two or three copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover, and I only got fifteen shillings a week spending money at that time, but I bought the darned book!

Was not worth the money, but I did read it from cover to cover, I had to, with all of the hype about it I needed to know why.

So the bluebell fields are gone, oh good grief can people not leave anything alone anymore?

Over here in Canada you cannot get bluebells, I have tried since I first came but with no success, shame really as they were truly beautiful.

oh well, another memory to hold onto I guess.

Georgygirl

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that dance hall was the locano though might have been spelt differently! and on St Ann's Well Road, have previously been called the victoria and after shutting as a dance hall became a bingo hall. You must have got off the bus a good way away at corner of derby road and upper parliament street

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The Broad Oak definitely only had a 6 day license. Mrs Edge who's land the pub was on insisted on this.

This was when I was growing up in this area.

When Mrs Edge died the pub was then granted a 7 day license, not exactly sure when this was but I think in the last 20 years or so. (give or take).

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that dance hall was the locano though might have been spelt differently! and on St Ann's Well Road, have previously been called the victoria and after shutting as a dance hall became a bingo hall. You must have got off the bus a good way away at corner of derby road and upper parliament street

Yes it seemed like an awful long way even back then, and it's funny because when we were heading back at the end of the night we would go across the square and up Friars Lane to the bus terminal, which was up there back in those days...so why couldn't we have gone that way heading there?

Maybe we just all met at a certain point, and different people coming from different places, maybe that was a good meeting spot, who knows, I don't remember that part of it, but now I wish I did........that will be on my mind now, sheesh!!!

Georgygirl.

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1." Another memory of the area. Before the M1 was built we used to walk along the bridle path from Strelley Hall that went on to Kimberley"

Along this way ,somewhere was a disused village,I seem to remember a building which was rather unusual being half a church with a door at the back leading directly into a pub. Anyone remember this?

2. Around the time Firbeck recalls, a friend of mine from Thaxted Close(Graham Brandon) was also a bit of a runner. I had photos of him with various trophies and shields won by Bilborough G.S.

3. His girlfriend (cannot remember her name) was a bit of an ace runner at BGS also. Tragically,I believe she went blind around the time she was at Uni.

Finally, caught up with a Bilborough GS girl here in Aus(Daphne Place) who I knew from the Grange Farm dances and youth club at Westwick Rd. Bilborough. She came to visit recently,but is in UK at the moment settling her father`s estate.

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Interesting one Stan, I can't remember the disused village, I've had a look on Old-Maps UK and there is a great map that shows all sorts of wierd and wonderful places that were obviously involved in the coal mining round there. There is a pub shown on there called the 'Queen Adelaide' at Swingate that could fit the bill, it's in the right direction.

The map also shows what I think was Bluebell wood though in reality called Old Moor Wood.

There's another wood in that area called Springwood, which had a large pond and still partially survives next to the M1. I recall happening to be down there once and the police were dragging the pond for some unfortunate kid that had gone missing, presumed drowned, there was a bit of an altercation which meant they'd found his body, we didn't stick around to see the poor lad being pulled out.

I don't recall the names of those BGS people, Stan or the poor girl that went blind, what sort of time period are we talking about, I was there from 1962 to 1969, inevitably, despite it being a relatively small school you never got to know the names of all those much older or younger.

We seemed to have had quite a few tragedies involving pupils when I was at that school. At that age, you think you are immortal and nasty things don't happen. Right from the beginning when I was in form 1W in the first year, one of the girls from 1R went home for lunch on her bike along Bilborough Road and never returned, she'd been killed by a car, I won't mention her name.

Then of course the terrible death of our head boy during a rugby match. Then we had a lad who was a 'Blue Baby' ie he had a hole in his heart, nice lad, he died during corrective surgery. Then another 6th former got killed in an accident while on holiday abroad. Apart from all that, there always seemed to be all sorts of nasty accidents to pupils in or out of school every week, there was always someone hobbling about with a leg or an arm in plaster, sometimes we thought we were cursed, or was it the same for most schools, I know that in my brothers case, who was at Mundella Grammar, they had to put up with David Pleat, now THAT was a terrible thing, sorry, I digress.

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Daphne Place was in the 1st intake to BGS. I remember her going around in a Mundella uniform as there was talk of Mundella moving upto Bilborough. ~Bunny Williams and a few other members of staff transferred there. Graham would be in the same year.

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Yes I remember that the awfull, devious Williams came from Mundella, how he got to be headmaster was odd, there were very few teachers at the school that we actually hated, but he was top of the list, a very wierd man with no integrity or honesty, and a liar to boot, that based his attitudes and principles of teaching back in the 19th century. I never had any problems with Harry Peake, the previous Head, he was a great man, and, yes I got into trouble with him, but he dealt with it in his inimitable way which still left you having the greatest respect for him afterwards. As far as Williams was concerned, he hadn't got a clue how to deal with anybody, including the staff, I had many problems with him.

Many of the staff and pupils though, came from Forest Fields in the beginning, which I seem to recall was 1958, the school being opened by Hugh Gaitskill of all people.

Did you go there then Stan, there seem to be a lack of BGS people on here.

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Stan

You may have known my brother then, part of the gang known as Fuzz, Buzz and Truzz, to recall, at Mundella from 1955 to 1962. Buzz Ball lived on Brindley Road and was an ace Airfix kit manipulator, Fuzz I don't remember much about and my brother was Truzz, They had another mate called 'Sambo' who came from South Africa and was a bit of a div, then 'Worthless' who lost an eye in a sledging accident and used to take great delight in taking out the false one and leaving it lying about, and 'Stowie'.

I remember that they always reckoned that David Pleat was better at tennis than football and should have stuck to that.

PM me your full name Stan, I've got to phone my brother later, lets see if he remembers you.

Williams did indeed live in Wollaton, but I don't know where, probably in the churchyard. He used to drive home every lunchtime in his Rover, I couldn't figure out why until I got caught with, in his opinion, a non standard school scarf. After he attempted to strangle me with it, seriously, my mother gave him hell, in these days, he would have lost his career doing what he did, but then things were different and he partially got away with it. I reckon thats what he did, drive around at lunchtime looking for, in his eyes, misdameanours amongst his pupils, strange man.

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Those that you mentioned would have been `fags' (1st formers) in my time ,Firbeck. I left Mundella in1956.

Can`t say I was at all impressed with the education received there.(although some high flyers in my year-due mainly to their oustanding I.Q`s)

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  • 2 weeks later...

To start a new topic, wondered iff anyone could answer this one for me...?

Is Mortimers Hole at Nottingham castle open to the public at all yet?

I remember when I was a little girl my parents would pay a penny for each of us and myself and my brother would get to go on the excursion tour down inside of it, underneath the castle.

I then recall hearing many years later that it was closed down because it was not safe anymore.

Can anyone tell me whether it was ever opened up to the public again, or is it still off limits?

Did they fix it up so that it was safe, or did it cave in or something, or is it just not usable at all ever again?

Georgygirl.

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plus, has anyone got any pictures of this place?

thanks...Georgygirl.

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We took our grandson down the cave in Dec 07, so it was up and running then. Don't know if it ever closed, but I do remember something about a big chunk of the walkway around the castle collapsed and fell off castle rock. But it was all fixed when we were there. Perhaps someone still living there can enlighten you more than I can. I took lots of pics, but being technically challenged, I can't transfer them on to here.

Kath

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,,,, we were at the Castle two weeks ago, & yes, they do still take trips down there. I wanted to take my son down, but we were on our way home & couldn't wait.

Apparently, a small bit of the first is now closed off,,,, but a bit more is open - to make up for it. Also, I don't think you enter via the old door in the cliff face any more.

If you go into the main door at the Castle, there is a board with Times etc.

(I'd love some pictures if you manage to get down there,,,, my son still has no idea what I've been on about)

BAZ

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Thankyou so much Katyjay, very much appreciated.

Georgygirl. (hug)

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  • 2 months later...

Hi there friends,

I was surfing the net yesterday, always tried to get things about Glaisdale school, but never been able to till now.

But yesterday I hit the jackpot...there she was, in all her past glory, Glaisdale school, the one that I had gone to in my youth from years 1957-1961.

I was born and raised in Nottingham, and had lived on the Bilborough estate most of my young years, going to Saint Martins church, and living on Melford and Melbury road until I came with my two brothers and my mum and dad to Toronto, Canada.

I was tickled pink to see the old school and all the Nottingham stuff so I joined straight away.

So hello to all, and what's up over there?

I was not shocked to see the old school in disrepair, as let's face it...we all get older don't we?

However it was alarming to see the caretakers house had been sadly neglected, although I am sure they will bring both back to their former glory, I really hope so anyway.

As I said before, I went to Glaisdale school, so I was just thinking that maybe someone would know of a way to get pictures from that time period (class pictures and things) although they could have been thrown out, or hopefully tucked away in some 'Archive' somewhere?

It also would be wonderful to find old friends that wereat school at the same time as myself.

Has anyone got any ideas that could help me, I would be very happy to hear from anyone.

Now sixty three years old, with five children of my own, and five grandchildren over here in Canada, my mind wanders daily to my youth, my beautiful England, and all that I still miss.

Yes absense does make the heart grow fonder. :-)

please write back...Georgygirl (no not after the Beatles, but the movie Georgygirl)

Hi, I went to Peveril from 56 to 60. I knew lots of people from Glaisedale. One that I would love to here about is Pauline Shawcroft. I think she was a couple of years older than you though. I lived on Felstead Rd. I now live in Jacksonville Florida. I discovered this web site last Friday. 8/5/45 or is it 5/8/45 in canada.
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Dear Georgie Girl, (I loved that movie).I knew quite a few people that went to Glaisedale, but They were all a couple of years older than you so I don't know if you will recall them. The one that comes to mind most is Pauline Shawcroft. My brother also went to Glaisedale but five years earlier. Him and his wife now live nearSt. Martins Church on Yatesbury Crescent. I lived at the bottom of Wigman Rd on felstead. I went to peveril from 1956 to 1960. It's now the Manning school.

I now live in Jacksonville Florida. My husband and I went back to Nottm three years ago and I was amazed that places I rememered as being a long way away, were really close by. Now I can't say to my Grandchildren "when I was young we had to walk to school in all weathers."

My freinds and I used to go to a youth club on a Thursday night at Glaisedale, and I sometimes went to one on a Sunday at St Martins church hall.

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Hello there Bratty Brit,

you just got me with a lot of place names there girl.

I went to Saint Martins youth club on a Sunday night in those years too, great times, do you remember any of the names from the youth club then?

I lived back then at the top of Wigman road on Melford, so there is a good possibility that we knew each other, so how do we find this out?

O'k then so you would remember Dianne that lived opposite the youth club that was a hairdresser, she went out with a boy called Norman.

Do you remember a Marilyn Twigg too, or a Jaqueline Hooper?

How about Jimmy Jones, Lynne Hopkins, or Christine Mc.Keag...any of these names ring a bell with you?

I would love to know your real name, and tell you mine.

Oh heck....mine was Avril Horton back then...did you know me?

Georgygirl. :-)

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