Meadows Boys Club


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Any old Meadows Boys Club members out there? The club was on Wilford crescent east and opened most nights of the week. It had many different groups and clubs and I belonged to the fishing, archery, basketball,pottery,woodwork, fishing rod making and drama. Skip(Ted)Mason was the leader and a great chap he was too. Kept many of us on the straight and narrow. We used to have two week holiday trips to Torquay during the summer. The drama group enjoyed great success at the Nottingham youth one act play competitions. Usually doing an act from Shakespear, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Cesaer plus others. One year we went to the national finals in London and Bill Owen (Compo in "Last of the summer wine" was the adjudicator.John Shooter was the drame tutor and he had infinate patience with us. Alan Heywood used to have an Austin mini bus and took us fishing on Sundays.

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I was wondering the same thing Den?

I Knew that Alan from the Boats dahn Trent (Treverthicks)

Also Dancing Slipper and Boat clubs around 1970.

I think he was known by a few members and is worth a search here.

Regarding Meadows boys club, back of Trent Bridge School Metal work Room.

The caretaker there late 60's would let us lads in at dinner

to play snooker and table tennis. Bit doubtful if you ask me!

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What year would this have been Hawarden and would that be Alan Heywood from Woodward street aged about 55 now?

Hi! I think Alan would be a fair bit older than me. My guess he would be into his 70s now. He had a Blue Austin (Commer) minibus, about 12 seats.I say took us fishing. He also took us to play away for basketball and I think he also took the various Meadows football teams to their away games. I do not know much about Alan outside the boys club, but he did always enjoy fishing.

I remember the caretaker, he was actually the caretaker of Trent Bridge senior boys school (and maybe the girls too) He was also responsible for the Meadows Boys Club buildings. He was a bit of a :creepy" character and we had a nick name for him "Spook" I think from memory!

Cheers Tim

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I was wondering the same thing Den?

I Knew that Alan from the Boats dahn Trent (Treverthicks)

Also Dancing Slipper and Boat clubs around 1970.

I think he was known by a few members and is worth a search here.

Regarding Meadows boys club, back of Trent Bridge School Metal work Room.

The caretaker there late 60's would let us lads in at dinner

to play snooker and table tennis. Bit doubtful if you ask me!

Hi Mick2me! I was just thinking about the date when I belonged to the Meadows Boys Club. I was a member from about 1955 onwards, later was a member of The Meadows Old Boys from about 1965 to 1975 when we emigrated. You are right, the building at the back of the boys club, known as the "new block" was used by the school for some lessons, as was the club hall itself, for music with a music teacher known as Harry Williams. tim

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  • 1 year later...

I was also in the drama group at the MBC along with David Homes, Melvin Smith and others whose names will come to me. The year I joined was approximately 1965.

May I say that John Shooter was definately blessed with patience abounding but also he was a very astute and experienced director, who could recognise and nurture that spark of talent even in the roughest Medders youth. His time and commitment established the MBC as a formidible competitor in the National Youth Drama Festivals. During my time in the drama group we appeared on a television prog called 'Action' which was a weekly programme introduced by Pete Murray

and were even asked to perform a play in St Pauls Cathederal about events before and after the crucifiction. John, always looking for a new creative angle on a set, placed David Homes who was narrating the play, high up in the actual pulpit of St Paul's; The effect was simple but stunning.

John is still with us, and at the age of 82 is remarkably well preserved and is still working !!

I would like to thank John who, all those years ago gave those Medders lads not only a rare opportunity and insight into the arts, but certainly in my case the acting skills I learned, and the personal development has stood me in good stead over many decades. A recent example being that I got off paying a £60 penalty for not putting my car on SORN by convincing the woman and her supervisor on the phone that I was a totally illiterate and partially deaf farmer who had a woman come in to read me mail and tell us the important stuff, but she ran off with the butcher int village and now I got no one to tell me if owt's wrong and anyroad cars int barn waiting for Eric ont farm next door to pick it up cos I swapped him four sheep for it, and talking about sheep, am I going to be much longer ont phone cuz I got to fetch em in soon ?

There was a silence for a minute and then the supervisor took a deep breath and said " Look, don't worry Mr George, you fetch your sheep in and we'll take the details off the system and everything will be ok again and you'll get no more letters from us " Result !!!!!!!! cheers John

Vaughan George

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Hi I was a member of the club in the late 50s and also had school music lessons there with the infamous "Pop Williams" I remember being in a skit where my lines were "beans and potato's" called out at the correct moment along with 3 others calling out their lines(if that makes sense) little did I know I would later become a life member of the Bunbury Musical Comedy Group playing lead roles and directing musicals,although my dear wife comes from Rugeley she lived with her grandmother on Bunbury St it's a funny world...

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Mike, Bunbury W.A. was named after a Lt Bunbury R.N. and one of the first settlers in the early days sent by the East Indian company was one of the "Clifton Family" and I know quite a few of them in fact just outside of Bunbury is the same townsite of Clifton so you see the connection with Nottingham is closer than you think..

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Trevorthegasman, did you go to Trent Bridge Boys Senior School? Pop Williams was certainly a character but you can't always say what you want to say.

Michael I'am never shy to say what I think,these days he would no doubt be "inside" and half the teachers would be on assault charges I'am not making a judgement here but stating a fact as I see the present world..
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  • 8 years later...

Any Trent Bridge School and Meadow boys club lads out there?  My age is 83 I played football and basketball for the club. Went to the Lakes twice for the summer camp at the Hammerbank Hostel.  Re the school I was in the A classes each year. Skip Mason was still going strong when I left.

BRIAN BAKEWELL

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  • 1 year later...

Gawd, I remember Pop Wiliams at Trent Bridge school. Alway chewing sweet scented mints as I recall?

We used the Meadows old boys gym.

Remember the boxing matches? I had a 100% record.... boxed four, lost four! Haha!

 

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