Shops on Alfreton Road & Stork Club


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Can anyone remember the Stork Club that used to be on Alfreton road. I used to go there early seventies, there was a ruling at that time if you were going to a club you had to have a meal. To get punters in mid-week they gave you a free meal before you started drinking. It was only a small club but quite popular.

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My parents owned the Capitol Fisheries chippie at the junction of Churchfield Lane and Alfreton Rd.. We lived on Truro Cres behind the Capitol cinema up until 1963.

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I lived off Churchfield Lane and other than Players Factory having gone the immediate area it is much as it was.

My parents owned the Capitol Fisheries chippie at the junction of Churchfield Lane and Alfreton Rd.. We lived on Truro Cres behind the Capitol cinema up until 1963.

Small world. My grandparents - on my mum's side - lived on Grimston Road which is about half way between these two. We visited there a lot in the early 1960s, so maybe I walked past letsavagoo and basfordred in the street when we were all kids.

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My parents owned the Capitol Fisheries chippie at the junction of Churchfield Lane and Alfreton Rd.. We lived on Truro Cres behind the Capitol cinema up until 1963.

It is a small world. I lived on Truro Crescent for 18 years, until 14 years ago when we moved to the sticks. I am trying to place the chippy. Was it the one under the Stork Club. The bottom of Churchfield Lane was a sweet type shop on one side near the Cappo and the other was a petrol station.

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Yes, under Stork Club.

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The club was in those days called The Capitol Social Club when my parents had the Capitol Fisheries ( Late 40's till 63). When things were good in the late 50's they bought the shop on the left side of the archway under the club. They turned that into a cafe for teas and light snacks. Mum ran that and dad carried on with the chippie. When I drove by the other week, I noticed Polish wording over the arch so presumably it's in their hands now. Possibly a polish club or restaurant. The area is a right 5hit hole now.

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When we were kids 1965 ish we would go under the arch and around the back to the Stork club (or whatever it may have been called) as it was a 'gentleman's' club with exotic dancers. They would have a sandwich board outside with posters of who was appearing that week. They often had bows or rosettes covering their nipples and I wondered for ages how the hell they fastened these on. Never thought of glue. The doorman would often shoo us away with cry's of you dirty little boggers.

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Does anyone remember Mrs Green who ran "The Library" as it was known (actually it was a stationery and fancy goods shop near to Mr Searcy's electrical shop, just up from the Stork Club. This would be in the 1950s and early 60s. She ran a private lending library (hence the name) and also sold toys, Post Office Sets (ah, yes....I loved those!) and other treasured childhood toys. She had a daughter named Wendy, after whom I was almost named. I believe Mrs Green may have had Parkinson's disease as she had a severe tremor which I noticed even though I was only a small child. There was also Mr Hobson, the chemist. A talented chap who made his own medications...which you were allowed to do in those days. Mainly water and a bit of colouring- probably a hell of a lot safer than today's offerings!

Personally, I can't bear to go near the area now. Too painful. Someone destroyed by childhood environment. Prefer to remember it as it was, in my head. Oh, dear...growing old!

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Yes, I remember Wendy, we used to play together, and I think she had a younger brother. Along that row of shops was a beer off and a green grocers, a chemist where we bought chemicals to make our own fireworks, and at the far end opposite Le Grande, was a papershop.

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I remember when Diana Dors came to open the papershop. It wasn't new of course but taken over and revamped by a chap who I think was called Paul Taylor. Big Forest fan. Miss Dors came in a big pink American car. There was a huge crowd came to see her. I am sure you must remember the CoOp in the shop row. I used to go with my mum for the main weekly shop. I can still remember the white plastic shopping baskets with red handles and our CoOp number. Used to pick my own cerial with the best free gift. Further along towards the Stork Club was the fishmongers and I believe there was a CoOp fish dept along side the main CoOp shop. Steans removals bottom of Berridge Road. Clarkes of Retford cleaners bottom of Grimston Road and a tiny jewellers squeezed in next to it. Had my first watch from there. There was a ladies hairdressers along the row, did a bomb with the Players angels. Being interested in electronics I spent plenty of pocket money in Mr Searcy's shop although I changed my allegiance to Lou Palmers TV and radio repair shop on the corner of Wordsworth Road and Radford Boulevard. He was a really nice chap and took me under his wing a bit and let me watch him on repairs. I remember the toy shop but didn't know it was a library too.

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Just remembered "Parisienne" which retailed rather "posh" ladies' wear. My older sister bought a dress and a bikini from there in 1969 prior to going on holiday abroad for the first time. I found a photo of her wearing the dress the other day- she's a pensioner now!

I too remember the Co-op where I often went shopping for my mother- with the divi number!

Anyone remember Norman Hirstfield's grocery shop and the Sunshine Cafe on the other side of the road? They did very well at lunchtime as many of Players' employees ate there. Mrs Hirstfield (Norman's mother) was a very kind lady and once gave me a Chinese parasol! I was thrilled.

With the advent of the supermarkets, Norman could not compete and the shop/cafe closed. They moved to Long Eaton. He could be very sarcastic but I was fascinated by watching him cut cheese on a large marble board with a cheese wire and then wrap it in greaseproof paper. I would still be in my pushchair then.

My mother had a blue order book which lived on the bottom shelf of the pantry. It was taken to Norman's once a week and he delivered the order in a cardboard box later in the day- at no extra charge. Who needs internet shopping, eh?

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Someone reminded me only the other day of the annual event of being treated to a "whip and top" at Shrovetide. I remember my mother buying these for me from Mrs Green's shop (more usually referred to in our household as "The Library") on Alfreton Road. The "tops" were usually green and we spent hours playing with them. The person who reminded me of this (who is slightly older than I am) wondered what today's children would make of this once-a-year treat. She thought they would probably not be able to divert their attention from their i-phones, tablets and I-pods for long enough to notice!

Times have certainly changed but I know which childhood I have would prefer to have. Now then....is it too late this year to purchase a whip and top? I'll be very out of practice!

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Kids nowadays wouldn't have a clue how to use a whip & top.

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hellothere Hi Jill - long time no communicate - thanks for reminding us of whips and tops.

I remember buying mine around Shrove Tuesday; along with the delicious pancakes mum made at this time, it proved a double treat.

Used to chalk designs on my tops; much preferred the mushroom ones, could never get a winder-breaker going -even though I tried and tried.........

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Very reassuring to read of so many people who also remember "whips and tops". The "Library" on Alfreton Road (alias Mrs Green's shop) sold a great many wooden toys. I also had a "diabolo"- a diabolical thing you had to balance on a rope. Now, that I couldn't get on with. She also sold tins of "bubbles" which came with a circular "wand". I enjoyed those when I was very small. I suppose it was only washing up liquid but I don't think we had washing up liquid in those days, did we?

I don't really know whether I am old enough to remember packets of "Rinso" or whether I just remember my parents talking about them! Isn't it terrible when their memories start to merge with your own? For the same reason, I seem to remember Beecham's Pills, Carter's Little Liver Pills, Monkey Brand, Oxydol, Sunlight Soap and...Brasso (well, yes, I do remember that and think I still have some)!

As a young child, I listened to so many of my relatives talking about WWII that I sometimes feel I lived through it!

Am I the only person of my age who (despite using a computer to post these rambling thoughts) would rather "nostalge" about things that happened before I even arrived on Planet Earth than express an interest in what goes on around me today?

My partner recently bemoaned the fact that so many people today never take their eyes off their mobile media appendages for long enough to observe their immediate surroundings, far less to notice the arrival of spring, the early bees, the brave snowdrops and daffodils; eager frogs and toads depositing their spawn or- hopefully, the imminent arrival of the swallows. The world might as well not be there. So sad, when we spent most of our time as children out in the garden, parks or (in his case), fields and countryside, observing our surroundings, playing with skipping ropes, hop scotch, learning about birds' nests/ants nests and wildlife etc.

Shut up Jill! You're showing your age!

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I remember the only way to get the whip and top going, was to kneel on top of the top, thus steadying it ready to pull the whip as fast as you could. The knee didn't do much good to the pattern you had chalked on to it, though.

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Funny - I could never get a mushroom one going, only the fat carrot type. It was my impression that the mushroom shaped ones were the "winder breakers".

I'm with you on this one. The mushroom ones were always known as window breakers to me.

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Thinking of things you could buy at Mrs Green's shop on Alfreton Road, my favourite (when I was very young) was the "cube puzzle". Nine wooden cubes with part of a picture pasted to each face which could then be used to create 6 different images, usually of nursery rhymes or fairy stories- eg Red Riding Hood.. The cubes were contained within a wooden box which fastened with a brass hook and clasp fastener. They retailed for something like 2/- (2 shillings, a florin or, for those who aren't old enough to remember what that was...the equivalent of 10p, I think!).

I loved them, although no one of my age seems to remember them at all.

My mother was persuaded to buy several for me and I spent hours playing with them in the time before I went to school.

Modern research suggests that very young children who are encouraged to undertake matching activities with their toys create the requisite pathways through the brain to facilitate language and writing/spelling skills later on. Pathways which, apparently, if not established by the age of two years, prove extremely difficult to develop later. So, I'd argue that my mother's florins were well spent.

I really wish I had kept those cubes because they represented such happy memories.

Anyone else remember them?

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Yes Jill, I remember them. I'm not sure whether I ever had one, but my younger sister certainly did. Of course the smart alecs amongst us soon realised that the pictures were all related in the same way, so that having got one correctly matched picture, you could get the others easily by picking up each whole row of blocks, and turning them in the same way. This sounds very complicated when you put it into words, but no doubt your Irish maths teacher of "Pie-tagoras's tea-room" fame would instantly see what I mean !

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Shops on Alfreton Road & Stork Club

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