You know your from nottingham when....


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"AY - UPP MI DUCK" I met a chap in Nottingham who had come to see the sights; he'd travelled from Blackpool, where he'd visited the lights. "He said " I've been to Nottingham castle though i

Peculiar to Nottingham? Maybe so. My folk's house had 'the twitchell' next to it which was a short walkway from Redhill through to a housing estate leading to Arnold. It was only characterised by the

Stu..................dunt yuh mean sat'deh!! & it's difficult for a nottingham lad to say 'you couldn't' , in the nott'm dialect, some people are easily offended!! Try it in yuh best notts natter

'Twitchell': a magic word Stu and do you know it's not even listed in my dictionary?

I loved twitchells when I was a kid: running through them, hiding in them, shouting down them and listening to the echo. Magic Places.

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'Twitchell': a magic word Stu and do you know it's not even listed in my dictionary?

Peculiar to Nottingham? Maybe so.

My folk's house had 'the twitchell' next to it which was a short walkway from Redhill through to a housing estate leading to Arnold. It was only characterised by the six to seven-foot private hedges that so many people used to own, lining it on either side.

'Back Twitchell' had much more interest. It lined (as it still does) an outer perimeter of Redhill School. The other side had the one-after-the-other ends of back gardens of the neat council semi's on a nearby road. Half way along lived Ted the car mechanic with his higgledy-piggledy little wooden workshop at the end of his yard. A trusty blue overall which was mostly oil and a French beret at a jaunty angle. A bear of a man with a long bushy beard and always a kindly word for us young laddies - especially if he knew our dads. For decades Ted had a row of motors in various states of decay and disablement along the black ash twitchell. We knew it was the end when all those old motorised carcasses were finally strapped up and towed away...

The twitchell was also used for conkering, hide and seek, practical jokes on passers by, football, letting off fireworks and many other childhood pastimes. Then came a certain age and girls...

All grown and at work, still that twitchell persisted as a short cut through from a pint or three in Arnold back to Redhill, under the stars at last thing at night. Halley's Comet came along and I remember standing transfixed for several minutes on that old twitchell of my childhood, looking up at this wonder in the skies from the inky blackness and thinking of the several decades I tramped that same dark ashy path.

Most of all I remember the wonderful distant sight of my dear dad walking home from Arnold during the afternoon. Always clad in an immaculate navy blue suit incongruous with the overgrown old twitchell, head held high and his unmistakable slightly nautical gate earned from many years at sea in the Merchant Navy. As he got closer and smiled at me I would see the familiar sprig of hawthorn he would always pick from the hedges and pop in the corner of his mouth. I would give everything I owned to see that sight just one more time on that little pathway.

The Twitchell.

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A lovely piece of writing Stu; I've given you a tick. I've read it of course but I'm going to give it a slow read later so the words can work on my imagination. The hawthorn tree is connected to the fairies - magic - I wonder if your dad knew this when he picked a piece?

The twitchells I remember were those down Radford Woodhouse. With my grandma I'd visit my great grandma and along with my sister and uncle we'd be made to go off and play whilst my grandma 'did' for her mum and dad. Lovely memories. We'd go off to the park, chase around the streets and run through the twitchells yelling. They were always a special place for us because we'd journeyed all the way from Aspley, across Cherry Orchard - together with Scruff the dog - to reach the tiny but fascinating area of Wooders (Radford Woodhouse).

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Hope the hawthorn springs up for your dad.

Years ago in the garden, I planted a hawthorn root with my children - told them it was the fairys' tree - I still have that memory as still it grows.

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We'd go off to the park, chase around the streets and run through the twitchells yelling. .

This captures the sheer devil-may-care and total lack of inhibition of youth. Didn't we all make so much more noise?

What cares or worries did we have?

Very few.

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The hawthorn tree is connected to the fairies - magic - I wonder if your dad knew this when he picked a piece?

'In Gaelic folklore, hawthorn (in Scottish Gaelic Sgitheach) 'marks the entrance to the otherworld' and is strongly associated with the fairies.

Considering where my dad and our family are largely from, maybe you are right Christine. It is a nice thought.

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Sgitheach - pronounced 'Ski-Ack' There's a sgitheach on the A9 just south of Alness in Easter Ross, about 17 miles north of Inverness.

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We've got a twitchel right next door to our house , it's only me that calls it that mind you, but we've got one !!

(It's also called a 'Jitty', pronounced "Jiteh" so I told the kids, but don't tell SWMBO to her it's the 'alley' !!)

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  • 2 months later...

Slightly more recent than others' memories, but...

"Four paaand burnarnurs wumpaaaand!" (is she still there?)

...and the purple bus with the recorded female announcer that sounds terribly posh until she gets to "Beeston... Boos Stayshun."

EDIT: Oh, and when you feel a little bit sad when you remember that The Xylophone Man is long gone :(

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  • 6 years later...

                                                   "AY - UPP MI DUCK"

I met a chap in Nottingham who had come to see the sights; he'd travelled from Blackpool, where he'd visited the lights.

"He said " I've been to Nottingham castle though it looked more like a hall. I'v see the statue to brave young Albert Ball.

I took a trip to Sherwood Forest and saw the old oak tree,

Took a wonder round your council house,sat in the old market square, loved the flowers up the poles, and all the pigeons there.

Next  the Galleries of Justice , and  Tales of Robin Hood, even around the sandstone caves as folks told me that i should.

Visited your oldest Inn partaken in a pint, cruised along the river Trent it was very pleasant there.

BUT !!!! There is one thing though that I think I've missed Please, Please, Tell me where to look ??

"WHERE CAN I FIND THE NOTTINGHAM DUCK"

I have hunted high and hunted low. Every place I've been I heard the locals talk to it but never once I've seen.

                "AY UP MI DUCK"   "TA RAH MI DUCK"    EVEN     "SEE YOU MI DUCK"

 

                               Yet never once have I observed this bird.

 

The time has come for me to leave and it really is a pity, as the one thing i did not see was !!!!!!!

                   "THE LEGEND OF YOUR CITY"

 

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