Strelley (sandhills)


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Anyone remember the sand quarry at the top of Strelley Road? It was our playground growing up in the fifties. On hot summer day's it seemed you were lost in Monument valley in some cowboy film, we loved it!

For the athletic and adventurist kids there were the rock climbs with seasoned foot/handholds carved out.

There was the obligatory tree swing, the tree hanging over a ‘gorge' for extra excitement.

It seems to have been filled in later and I believe there's an underground reservoir there now. The Broad oak pub holds lot's of memories too, my first ‘watering hole'.

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You were possibly nearer the truth than you thought, when calling the Broad Oak your 'watering hole', I recall one of the landlords circa 1964-66 being in trouble for watering the beer, of course this was totally forbidden by the Licensed Victuallers of Notts, although it was almost an 'art form' in many pubs....................one of my dad's many caustic comments would be; You'd drown before you got drunk in 'ere!! :bluespin04:

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Hi Shirley and welcome to Nottstalgia . I live in Strelley Village and the Sandhills are still there although mainly filled in they are used by young lads who go motorcycle scrambling as it's an ideal place with its humps and hollows.

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welcome bilboroughshirley, someone mentioned strelley broad oak pub, i lived in bilborough and worked with me dad on the strelley stretch of the M1 when it was being built, we used the broad oak on thursdays, (payday), brilliant days, got to know the irish labourers and welsh earth clearing drivers, lovely pub

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welcome bilboroughshirley, someone mentioned strelley broad oak pub, i lived in bilborough and worked with me dad on the strelley stretch of the M1 when it was being built, we used the broad oak on thursdays, (payday), brilliant days, got to know the irish labourers and welsh earth clearing drivers, lovely pub

Hi Terence,

I live in Strelley Village almost opposite the Broad Oak and you wouldn't know it today.

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hi dave 48, loved the walks up the village to the church, across the bridge toward kimberley, used to park me car at the little triangle where you turn off for the sandhills for a kip, on warm days, a lot quieter then.

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hi dave 48, loved the walks up the village to the church, across the bridge toward kimberley, used to park me car at the little triangle where you turn off for the sandhills for a kip, on warm days, a lot quieter then.

Not a lot has changed really Terence since I remember doing that as a kid. The only difference really was the building of the motorway. The Queen Adelaide has now gone .....spent many a summers evening in the back garden there as a youngster with my parents and later with my own kids.

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remember my dad telling me about when the first trucks and men first arrived at strelley to begin the motorway, a farmer sat in the middle of the road with a shotgun refusing to let them through, i started working for Douglas Construction on the 2 small bridges just after the nuthall access road, toward Trowell services, they have my initials, TLA, scratched on the bottom of the supports. many stories i remember working there.

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  • 1 year later...

Having looked back at this thread and seen the post I made just over a year ago I am amazed how fast the year has gone. I have memories of the Broad Oak. The first was something I mentioned in another thread, about when I was taken there in my push chair and sat outside on the grass. That would have been about 1953. In the 1960s it was a place for a bit of under age drinking and socialising with friends. Last year I was working in Nottingham for a couple of days and I suggested to some friends that we go there for a meal. The response was a no as they said that these days it is noisy and has changed a lot.

To get to the sand pits with friends when we were young we had to cross Coventry Lane at the top of Bramhall Road and go up the lane past the fields. My mum always told us to be careful because farmers had guns! We used to go collecting sticks from hedge bottoms for bonfire night. We had a lot of freedom in those days and such freedom builds confidence in later life.

When they built Trowell Services some of the younger men where my dad worked used to finish their night shift and drive there to have breakfast. In those days they could drive into a service area from an ordinary road. A few years ago I had to visit a person on work experience at a motorway service area. I was told to drive to the barrier and then phone to be let in. I did this and phoned. Before the manager could get there an unmarked police car arrived and I was approached by the police officer. I just showed my ID and he let me in. How times change!

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We used the drive to Trowell services after a session for sausage, beans and chips around 11 at night or later.

Waterloo Lane was so much more convenient than using the motorway. How inconvenient of them to close it.

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  • 3 years later...

That would have been a great sight.  I saw many things fly in and out of Hucknall, but never a Constellation.

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DJ360,

I can confirm it was unmistakeably a Lockheed Constellation with a triple tail plane and swept rear fuselage configuration. It was flying low on its approach and an image which is firmly fixed in my mind.

 

What I cannot confirm fully is that it landed to transport engineers including one (Sir) Stanley Hooker. In his biography he mentions his flight to the USA in a Constellation flown from Hucknall but it is a convincing influence to suggest that this could have been the flight in question around that time.

 

I would have to return to his book to look into this question further of the approximate date of this flight. 

 

Do you know where the hamlet was not far down the lane, (track) as I have described?

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Unfortunately our Chulla is no longer with us to throw more light on this

 

Rog

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Sir Stanley Hooker's biography, 'Not Much of an Engineer', should be visited at is gives a vivid account of his direction in improvement piston engine improvement (super charger) and jet engine (VSTOL) development.

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  • 1 year later...

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