Farrands, Marsdens, Maypole, Dewhurst, VG, Vernons, etc


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Son in law of the owners worked with me,,,can't remember his name.........me and him went on a course in London about 71'' had a great night in the Hammersmith Palais........think we were the only English in there,, full of Chinese for some reason,, i didnt ask..........lol

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By Request then.............. Like all other aspects of my Teen years,at Marsdens,loved doing deliverys to customers on the Granville with big Basket..no gears and hardwork up the hills of Bestwo

Next delivery was Mrs Taylor....who lived 2 doors from me on Andover road  .......knew her all my life...even Babysat me when i was a little un....a very formidable lady had 5 kids all much older than

Last delivery to Mrs Timberlake...Hucknall road..... Morning Mrs T....Where you want me to put your Order ? Just leave it on the Hall Table Ben...How much is it ?  (she was a customer that p

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There wern't that many VG stores in Nottingham,,, Thompsons Chingford road,, Bilborough,, Marshalls Beckhampton road,,Bestwood Park,, noticed the other day part of the sign still up,,more VGs in the county.......Walthams,,East Bridgford,,Beaumonts ,,Gedling,,and Cotgrave,, a few round Mansfield and one on Carlton Hill and oh yes Mr Roberts on Southwark street old Basford,, first one i signed up...............now a Chinese takeaway,, where i got barred in about 87,, lol,, not my fault,, got home no Rice........went back told em........politely ,, called me a ''Fuc... Riar'..........next morning found Rice inder me seat,,

went back to them same night to apologise.........but woman still ranting........told her to Rollocks and left..................lol

        

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1 hour ago, benjamin1945 said:

There wern't that many VG stores in Nottingham,,, 

England's,  on Alfreton Road, Bobbers Mill, became a VG store for a while in the late 60s. Remember the blue and white stripes!

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Don't recall that one..............but further along on the right  towards Hyson Green proper.......i used to deal with a great character with a tiny general store,,Scotsman by the name of 'Walter Muir' and his wife........it was constantly busy with a Bus stop outside,,his wife always made me coffee while Walter and i did business between him serving customers constantly,, the shop would only hold about 6 or 8 people,,

                                This was about 1973...........anyone remember little Walter ?

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When I was seven or eight Dad used to send me for his beer to a beer off on Watnall Rd in Hucknall. Rather than an Enamel Jug, I took a screw top bottle. Once the bottle was full the Shopkeeper would stick a pilferproof label strip across the top to stop me having a swig .Wouldn`t have dared. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Only worked at Marsdens Arkwright st a couple of times,,,about 1961........i remember it was on a sharp corner and near a bike or motor-bike shop,,,

               But they did sell Lux flakes at 2/6 for the more discerning housewife,,, and a twin pack of Fairy Soap at 1/3,,,for Roger's Mam to scrub the collars on his school shirts   lol'

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I haven't read the whole thread, but Mum used to catch the Barton's bus from Lambley, to shop at Marsdens in Mapperley, when I was still a toddler...

 

She shopped there when we moved to Mapperley.  I can't remember the manager's name, but remember he had a Terry Thomas gap in his teeth.  Nice chap.

 

My first job on leaving school was via the Daybrook Labour Exchange, (I was supposed to be getting some life experience before joining the Nottm City Police force) who sent me up to AB Gibsons, Sherbrook Rd, for an interview for Purdy's, Berridge Road, September 1962.  I'd just missed out on a job at ABG in the printing dept, but fortunately, they rescued me with a job offer a few month later, early 1963.

 

HATED working at Purdy's.  I think I was the role model for Granville (complete with a lecherous old Arkwright manager...).

 

ABG were the wholesalers for VG and I eventually ran the silk screen dept, printing the weekly VG posters.  Happy time working there.

  

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Silk screen dept. Socram,,became Sherebrook Advertising,,,,ran by Bill Mason,,was you still there?...i worked for ABG from 1969 for a few years,,and ended up at their Peterborough depot................

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Among Ben's shop tales, he's often mentioned various branches of Vernons - which is a name I don't remember. To find out if they really existed I looked in the old phone books around 1964-65 and this is the result.

CBYoeGH.jpg

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It was either his imagination is overactive..or my memory is failing.

 

Looking at the phone book list, I probably saw the one on Parliament Street (opposite the bottom of Hockley) but wasn't old enough to be paying attention. The others would've been off my radar in those days.

 

 

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Thanks Cliff ton,,i know you believed me eventually,,,,,the only Vernons i worked apart from Queen st Mansfield are on your phone list,,,thought there was more,,,.looking back i think the only stores that became Vernons were Marsdens that were failing.........great days indeed,,,,Dorothy Hucknall,,Mary Denman st,,big Val broxtowe lane,,and Sandra Parliament street....not forgetting Christine Queen st Mansfield.....:rolleyes:

 

Edit...........God,nearly forgot the lovely Babs at St Anns well road...........

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1 hour ago, benjamin1945 said:

,,,the only Vernons i worked apart from Queen st Mansfield are on your phone list,,,thought there was more,,,.

 

One possible reason why there might be more.....back in the early 60s was it likely that a shop wouldn't necessarily have a phone ?   There may be more which were phoneless.

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You probably right cliff ton,,,you said before ref Marsdens Andover road,,,however in the case of Vernons think thats all there was,,

                             Really enjoyed working them,,,Self-service was so new,,,and enjoyed showing the ladies this new idea,,,,

                    Qtr cooked ham madam ?   certainly,, next aisle in the fridge,,, Tub butter ?   sorry don't do it now,, got Lurpak 2/6 half pound,,,same stuff.

           Binghams salmon spread,,,and Barkers Potted meat ?   sorry don't sell it now,,, deliver ? don't do that either,,,but if you put kettle on i'll be there in an hour,,, lol

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Thought i knew all the Marsdens shops,,,but thats a new one on me WW......................

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Lurpak! Still my favourite butter.  Now available in NZ which amuses my Kiwi friends - but although they don't buy it, they all like it. Yes, when at Purdy's, it came in either 1cwt or half cwt wooden barrels, sold 'loose', 3/8lb.  Unloading the Gibson''s truck and carrying a 1cwt barrel on my own, down to the cellar, bearing in mind my slender frame, was a struggle.

 

Any grocer's shop backroom assistant will relate to this. Customer hands in their order in the morning and either picks it up later or has it delivered.  If we ran out of 'tub' butter, we'd put the foil packed Lurpak in.  Needless to say, someone would complain that it wasn't the same (it was) and bring it back.  We'd just take it in the back room, unwrap it.  Knock it about a bit and rewrap in greaseproof.  Always 100%customer satisfaction. 

 

benjamin1945 - yes, Bill Mason was the Print/Advertising department Manager and one of the best managers I ever worked for.  He had his hands full as the department grew, with a bunch of youngsters.  They moved us downstairs in the basement below the cash and carry once we did our own silk screen printing (smell of turps etc). That meant we were away from the general office and the girls (and away from Ron Fox in Work Study)!  Little did I know back then (1963 - 1965) that eventually, I'd become  a well qualified Work Study Engineer myself and that would be my career from then onwards.

 

Loved my time at ABG but only left as I wasn't learning anything new and at 19, that wasn't on.  As an aside, in 1973, I met up again with the prettiest girl ever to work at ABG (her brother worked for me for a time as my silk screen assistant) and went out with her for about 3 months.  Sadly she moved to Cornwall and never kept in touch.

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Loved my time at ABG too Socram,,,,they were soon to be taken over'' again when i left about 1979,,,i was offered a job with em down at Eastliegh on the south coast,,,considered it too close to France so declined.   lol

                        Ron Fox is a member on here and visits very occasionally,,,and yes SAS had some very pretty girls work for them. I believed (may be wrong) that Bill Mason took over SAS completely and moved to premises in Arnold ?

 

 

Edit,,thought i'd throw in some names to see if you recall any,,

David Kitchen,,be about your age worked in Sales office,

Pat Warwick ,,Warehouse Manager

Geoff Parr,,Pats number 2

Roy Lander Sales Manager,, great fella

Pete Ward  Sales Manager,, another top man

John Talbot  Salesman

John Coote,,salesman,,also played football with him

Horace Butler  Salesman,,liked a game of Dominoes in the 'Vale''

Bert Fletcher Salesman and could play Piano

Keith Scotney,,an old friend i lost touch with,,great character,,,we went to Spain together for long weekend,,unforgetable  lol

Brian Brindley  Salesman and brother of Bill ex Notts and Forest footballer

Tommy Deans,,big rough Scot,, ex Notts county player,,lovely bloke,,

and the pretty girl in Silk Screen' wouldn't have been Janet would it  ?

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I'm repeating this from another thread because it fits here as well.

 

It's Loughborough Market Place (not too far from Nottingham) in the 1950s and shows a collection of shops which have all disappeared (including Maypole on the blind on the far left).

y87UnFz.jpg

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Yes there are a few that ought really to be on here,,from Talking Pictures'' yesterday............

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Had a great result this morning,,,been looking and making comments on ''Nottingham way back when''........at troggs instigation,,,

               Well you all know of my love of Marsdens/Farrands days which i always go on about,,,i always knew that they joined up in the 50s but didnt really know much about their History............Anyway the great grand daughter of Frank Farrand contacted me thru NWBW this morning,,and filled me in as to Farrands beginnings...............First shop 1850s on Fishergate,,,plus Fulforth street opened in 1870...........she gave me other snippets about them too,,,

                            She made my day,,

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Think this is probably the right thread for this. We can test Ben's memory and mine at the same time. Was thinking about the old Marsden's store on Andover Rd and the sort of things they used to stock.

 

Those cylindrical loaves of bread with moulded lines all around.  'Milk Loaf'?

 

Big round flat bread things which in my memory were about the size of a dartboard.  Again, moulded in lines so they could be broken up into small 'cobs'. No idea what they were called.

 

Ben mentioned a 'Roy Lander' above.  That name rang a bell. not the Roy. just the Lander, or Landers.  Was there a bakery under that name?  I have a vague memory of sliced bread under that name, though we mostly had either Co-op or the stuff from the bakery by the Mansfield Rd/Haydn Rd junction. Was that Sunblest?  If not a Lander's bakery, maybe a Landers shop?  Can't get that name out of my head now...

 

Over to you Ben!

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Farrands, Marsdens, Maypole, Dewhurst, VG, Vernons, etc

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