Nottingham at night in the late fifties


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  • 1 month later...

Nice bit of old footage but I always thought Nottingham coppers had a unique helmet with a silver "knob" on top.

The helmets the coppers were wearing in the drill sequence and the two patrolling slab square at the end didn't have the a silver "knob"

Did they have a different helmet for night patrols perhaps?

I loved the shot of the train at Nottingham Midland. Jubilee class 45557 "New Brunswick" We used to call them jubes.

That train was heading for Leeds then Edinburgh Waverley and would have come past our old house in Elstree Drive. I would have been fast asleep at that time in 1957 (I was 7 years old)

The Leeds Edinburgh daytime service was called "The Waverley" and I'd regularly see it from our house or from the Woodyard Lane Tin Bridge just before lunctime.

Anyone spot the wheeltapper with his long handled hammer to tap the wheels to check for cracks?

The fire engines were very nostalgic. Just like the one that came to put out our chimney fire about the same time.

Dad insisted on burning wooden logs he used to get from work and the build up of soot meant the chimney flue caught fire!

It used to happen to people a lot and the firemen used to have to climb on the roof and put the hose down the chimney which could leave one hell of a mess in your lounge. My mum said we were lucky and the mess wasn't too bad.

Even after all this Dad still used to put logs on the fire which were lovely at Christmastime and kept the fuel bills down because he got them for free.

I often used to buy the Guardian Journal on a Monday morning in the 60's. If Notts had had a good result on the Saturday then the GJ was a must because it would have some great pictures from the game.

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Nottingham police did in the past have a "night" uniform with I think matt black badges, uniform buttons etc guess the idea was for them not to be seen so easier to catch villains etc? Not sure whether such done away with to save money or as per change from black patrol cars to white ones, the thinking being "Visible Policing" where the sight of police was enough to cut crime etc?

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The Officers parading for duty were, I think wearing 'night uniform' Two of them were P.c. Sid Pocklington and P.c Ken Baker.

I recall in 1962 18/20 Officers parading for nights at the Guildhall. These would cover only the immediate City Centre. 3/4 more at Canning Circus. 2 at Bath Street Station and perhaps another at Hyson Green.20/25 Officers to Cover the Division. Wonder how many cover on Nights now?

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The cops uniforms puzzled me also. I have never seen a blackened Queen's Crown version of the City Police's helmet badge so the officers in the film must have been wearing the older King's Crown version.

You'll notice that the dog handlers are wearing the coat of arms cap badge. There was one occasion when a City Police officer wearing such a cap badge was mistaken for a council caretaker. This so annoyed Captain Popkess he ordered the force's badge to be changed so that the mistake could never happen again.

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  • 3 years later...

#2

Cliff Ton

I remember the Guardian Journal. My dad worked there on the night shift. This film is brilliant. Thanks bamber for posting it. The part showing the newspaper office is typesetting by hand. My dad worked on a linotype machine. In the late 1960s the staff were trained to use a typewriter keyboard ready for the installation of the computer system The linotype keyboard was set out differently.

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  • 2 years later...

The shots inside the postal sorting office - with sorting racks for each county and mail being moved around in whisker baskets - were not much different to when I had a Christmas holiday job at Huntingdon Street in 1970.

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My job in the sorting office was wheeling a big wicker basket round all the pigeon holes and taking the sorted mail for individual counties. When I had filled a basket for the chosen county I took it over the bridge to the next building where the lucky people who took mail to Midland Station took over.

 

i was quite good at geography and many of the temporary sorters didn't know in which county many towns were located. A quickly became the roving guru to answer questions like 'where is Okehampton' ? (Devon)'or is Burton on Trent in Derbyshire (no, Staffordshire).

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#1. The scene inside the police control room was interesting - not a computer screen to be seen, only pencils and paper. Note the microphone man in contact with the patrol cars. Shades of old Warner Brothers gangster films and TV police dramas of the 1960 such as Z cars and Fabian of the yard. I listened in on the police  waveband the other day and heard the following:

 

Calling all cars, calling all cars! Control to Tango 2 be on the lookout for a green Rover 45 last seen passing the gasworks on Radford Road and heading for Bulwell. Tango 2 to Control, I had one of them Rovers; nice car, wish I still had it. Calling all cars, Description follows: Driver looks young for his age, with full head of hair. He is wearing Hush Puppies and trousers with turn-ups. Described as having a close resemblance to Errol Flynn. Thought to have his moll with him - Parky Pearl. Wanted in connection with allegation that he writes poetry that actually rhymes. Do not approach - may be armed with a gadder.

   If restrained beware of his subterfuge of slipping split infinitives into his conversation and scarpering whilst you are trying to understand what a split infinitive is. Thought to frequent Bulwell's dens of cordon bleu epicureanism such as Wetherspoons. Known associates include the charismatic Baked Bean Ben - easily identified in that town as the only man wearing a tie and spats.

   We've been trying to nab him for years, ever since he rhymed boys in blue with haven't a clue. Let's get him bang to rights this time, and put an end to versified rhyme, If there's one thing where we see no sense, it's writings in the correct tense.

   Calling all cars, calling all cars. suspect spotted in queue trailing half way to Cinder Hill of sixteen-year-old mothers and their baby buggies at the Benefits Office. Calling all cars, he has made a break for it and commandeered a motor boat on the River Leen and is heading upstream toward Morrison's. If an officer is in the vicinity, nip in the store, they have a sale on and are selling tomato gro-bags for a pound each. Get me two.

   Calling all cars, calling all cars. Here is a relevant observation by everyone's favourite copper, PC George Dixon: 'If there's one thing I can't stand it is a bent copper. They are a sod to get in the gas meter'. Good advice George, keep injecting the embalming fluid.

   Calling all cars, calling all cars. Abandon pursuit; suspect has now crossed the border into Ashfield. But we'll get him. Meanwhile we are sending men to watch his sister's place.

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It's not the 'oss pills that are the problem, it's what he washes em down with !

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#18/19

 

It's neither the oss pills nor what he washes em down with. Its all due to lack of sleep, resulting from the millions of bank rolls stuffed in his mattress! That's why the bed is too lumpy to sleep in and his trousers are creased up!  :wacko:

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