Players Girls

[Jill Sparrow 10,302]

4 hours ago, benjamin1945 said:

Katrina from Carlton,...

Alice from Arnold, Bernice from Bulwell, Catrina from Carlton, Denise from Derby, Ermintrude from Eastwood, Fenella from Farnsfield....it's an A to Z of Ben's old flames! Bet he goes through those at night when he can't sleep! 

[catfan 14,793]

I once knew a Sandra in St Anns  !

[Gem 1,430]

When i was accepted at Nottingham Uni asked them to help me find somewhere to live.  They found us a flat in Radford seemed ok on paper so we accepted, bit of a shock when we arrived.   It was directly in front of players factory and the first thing we noticed was the smell we had no choice than  to move in. We were living next door to a muslim family who were nice but killed chickens in their backyard on Fridays. We stayed 3 months before moving to West Bridgeford sharing a house with a girl I met at uni.  My friend had got a job at players and travelled back to radford as the wages were good.

[loppylugs 8,427]

You forgot 'Maude'. Jill.  She could keep our Ben in line from what he tells us.

[Jill Sparrow 10,302]

15 hours ago, benjamin1945 said:

9 hours ago, loppylugs said:

 'Maude'

He wouldn't have the nerve to set fire to her trousers! 

[mercurydancer 1,104]

I lived for almost all of the 1960s and all of the 1970s in Bobbersmill Road. 

 

The predominant smell was soap, from Gerrards, but I do recall the pungent smell of tobacco, which started to become apparent at the chippy at the end of Bobbersmill Road. I have always hated smoking and cigarette smoke more than anything, but the raw tobacco had a very distinct smell. 

 

Aspley Lane cricket ground was Players ground for many years. Many happy hours spent there. Michael Holding once bowled to me there! 

[MelissaJKelly 2,120]

The only place I recollect a very strong tobacco smell from is from Imperial Tobacco when I worked at Audi. It was especially strong during the Summer months and I really liked the smell even though I'm not a smoker myself. 

[DJ360 6,720]

Watched the documentary with interest.  I searched in vain for a shot of my late Sister Pam.  She worked at Players from leaving school around 1962/3, but I don't recall which factory. I don't remember ever going near the Player's factory myself and Radford wasn't part of my stomping ground.

But, I did work for a while around 1971 doing exterior finishing work for a firm called Gunac.  We were doing work on the exterior of the British American Tobacco company in Liverpool. It was a cigarette factory and bonded warehouse  They made some odd brands which I believe were for export or for the UK forces.  The only name I recall is 'Scissor' Brand.  I recall the smell of the raw tobacco.  They used to put bales of it under plastic covers and 'steam' it ready for the next process.  We were allowed to use the factory canteen so long as we took off our outer overalls.  Factory workers would always approach us and drop a handful of cigs onto our table.  They told us we could smoke as many as we liked 'on site', but must not under any circumstances try to take any off site.  The factory employees had an allowance which they got either free or at low prices... can't remember exactly.

 

Col

[letsavagoo 960]

I was born in the mid 50's and grew up in the shaddow of Players Radford factories. The smell of raw tobacco filled the air. I always found it a sweet pleasant scent, nothing like the smell of cigarette smoke. I worked at Raleigh offices for 3 years when I left school but applied for Players. They rarely advertised for staff but wanted about 20 men for what they called 'the pool'. I was encouraged to apply by my dad and father in law. Job for life, you'll never look back etc. Hundreds applied as Players were acknowledged as a decent firm to work for and I was lucky and taken on. This was about September 73. The idea sold to me was that you were in a pool of men that could be called on if someone was off sick etc and fill in for short periods. I thought this would be pretty good as you would get moved around and not get too bored. The reality was you were stuck in one department doing a crappy job no one else wanted. My job was in the 'stripper'. When the machine starts making cigarettes the first few hundred are mis-shaped or too fat/thin etc until they get the machine calibrated properly and those reject fags were sent to where I was and tipped into a long machine which split them and extracted the tobacco. It was in the basement, no windows and I was on my own at the end of a vibrating chute collecting the paper into a big sack. It was noisy and dusty and I had to cram the paper down and swap sacks when it was full. I had been at Grammer school and was enquiring and bright and it was so mind numbingly boring I couldn't believe a human being was expected to do it. When I enquired how long I'd be there he told me the last chap did it 4 years. I was horrified and on the third day I went to the personnel dept and told them I was leaving. To their credit they told me they would move me and did so. I went to the primary where the dry raw tobacco was steamed and cut. I was with a number of other men and on a mornings and evenings shift system with early finish Friday's and although it was boring still it wasn't so bad with others to talk to. There were several different tasks and so I got moved around doing similar but not the same job constantly. One day I came out at 2pm and found it had snowed heavily. I hadn't noticed all morning. I don't know why but it came over me at the that moment that I couldn't be stuck inside a factory for hours on end and I left soon after. I'd been there about 18 months.

A few basic jobs followed but I then went on to have a rewarding but stressful career elsewhere and outdoors.

The management may have been male dominated but my god to a youngish lad several hundred Players angels could be quite intimidating and very rude!. Sexual harrisment or what. The girls outnumbered the boys many times in the factory where I was.  I didn't particularly enjoy my time there but strangely now have fond memories and in a way I wish I'd stuck it out there as I'm sure I could have got on. Over the years I've met a few I was there with who did quite well there. Having grown up next to the factory I'm glad I worked there and saw what went off inside. All gone now.

[Jill Sparrow 10,302]

I have never smoked and also hate the smell of cigarettes but have to agree that the aroma that pervaded the air outside the Players factory was not unpleasant.

[Cliff Ton 10,449]

1 hour ago, letsavagoo said:

I was born in the mid 50's and grew up in the shaddow of Players Radford factories.

 

Letsavagoo, I think I remember you saying were on Grimston Road, where my grandparents lived. You may not have noticed a couple of pictures I put on another thread recently, which  just show your house before you existed.

 

https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/2545-alfreton-road/?page=5

 

[radfordred 6,284]

12 hours ago, MelissaJKelly said:

The only place I recollect a very strong tobacco smell from is from Imperial Tobacco when I worked at Audi.

 

Think I must of got immune to the smell I never smelt it  but what I did smell when leaving the factory was garlic from that pizza place across the road from Audi?   

[letsavagoo 960]

On 9 September 2017 at 9:40 PM, mercurydancer said:

I lived for almost all of the 1960s and all of the 1970s in Bobbersmill Road. 

 

The predominant smell was soap, from Gerrards, but I do recall the pungent smell of tobacco, which started to become apparent at the chippy at the end of Bobbersmill Road. I have always hated smoking and cigarette smoke more than anything, but the raw tobacco had a very distinct smell. 

 

Aspley Lane cricket ground was Players ground for many years. Many happy hours spent there. Michael Holding once bowled to me there! 

This post got me thinking. The smells I recall were dependent on the direction the wind was blowing I suppose. At home near to Players it was always tobacco. A pleasant aroma I liked. At Berridge in the playground it was either Players or suds, the cutting oil from the engineering firm on Berridge Road. They made ships horn among other things and occasionally you'd hear one tested. At FFGS you often got the fermentation from Shipstones midweek, a smell I didn't like although I got a taste for the end product few years later. Gerrards soap works was occasionally noticed especially if I walked home down the side of the Leen to wards Plantation side.

Going back to Players angels though. When I was very young just 2 or 3 years old, I used to go and stand at the top of our entry at 1pm and 5pm which living near the top of Grimston Road came out on Churchfield Lane. I would be fascinated by the hundreds and hundreds of predominately women that would suddenly march down the Lane past the entry. It would be quiet with barely a soul about then suddenly filled with bodies, cars, bikes and life and chatter. And then all quiet again. One day for some reason best known to myself I stepped out and got swept along with the crowd. I can just about remember being outside the shops on Alfreton Road by the bus stops realising I was somewhere I shouldn't be alone and must have looked lost as apparently one of the Players women recognised me as the lad always standing at the entry and took me back and found my house. Thank you whoever you were. Probably missed your bus because of me.

[philmayfield 6,103]

When we lived off Thackeray’s Lane in Woodthorpe back in the 50’s, if the wind was in the right direction, there was a lovely beery aroma which came from the Home Brewery in Daybrook. I grew up on that beer - never really acquired the taste for Shipstones which had a taste all of its own! A couple of years ago I bought some “new” Shipstone’s beer from the Vale of Belvoir Brewery but they had not succeeded in reproducing the unique  flavour. When we later moved towards Newark I found the local beers quite disgusting. Holes and Warwick and Richardson’s both now long gone.

[FLY2 10,108]

Holes and Warwicks Ales were truly disgusting. The Goldsmith Tavern on Goldsmith St sold Warwicks if I remember rightly. We used to have light and bitter, as a full pint of bitter was virtually undrinkable. 

[Cliff Ton 10,449]

1 hour ago, letsavagoo said:

When I was very young just 2 or 3 years old, I used to go and stand at the top of our entry at 1pm and 5pm which living near the top of Grimston Road came out on Churchfield Lane. I would be fascinated by the hundreds and hundreds of predominately women that would suddenly march down the Lane past the entry. 

 

Although a bit before your time, this is early 1930s.  A good demonstration of how big Players No2 factory was. Churchfield Lane is the one across the lower part of the photo and Grimston Road is the last one going off left. 

[letsavagoo 960]

Thanks. You can see the house I was born in on this. The top of Churchfield Lane was very different in my time, Players had expanded their factory complex and the development on the opposite side of the Lane of Kingsford Avenue etc. It looks like allotments there when this was taken.

[letsavagoo 960]

11 hours ago, philmayfield said:

When we lived off Thackeray’s Lane in Woodthorpe back in the 50’s, if the wind was in the right direction, there was a lovely beery aroma which came from the Home Brewery in Daybrook. I grew up on that beer - never really acquired the taste for Shipstones which had a taste all of its own! A couple of years ago I bought some “new” Shipstone’s beer from the Vale of Belvoir Brewery but they had not succeeded in reproducing the unique  flavour. When we later moved towards Newark I found the local beers quite disgusting. Holes and Warwick and Richardson’s both now long gone.

Shipstones I agree could be truly awful. I recall back in the day you could get a tee shirt with the words ' Shippo's Meeks yer arse sore' which were a bit crude but rather apt. But a nice, well kept pint of Shipstones could be lovely. I used to like 'hoppy' beers and drank Kimberley when I could. Barely drink at all now. 

[oldphil 331]

On ‎08‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 6:57 PM, katyjay said:

i used to walk past the factory on Radford Blvd morning and night to go to work at Raleigh. Never forgot that smell of warm tobacco, the only way I can describe it. It was not a bad smell at all. 

It was a pleasant smell; I used to drop dad off at Raleigh Island (Crown Island now) when he had the 6 'til 6  days so mum could have the car later, and I always remember the smell.