Nottingham's "Pea-soupers"


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Early 60's, when I moved to Nottingham. I remember the 'Pea Souper' smogs we

used to have. Walking down Arkwright Street at night. Fog that thick that you

could only just see the street lights. The light from the shop windows cast

rectangular shapes across the pavement and road. Hunched figures in long coats

would pass you like ghosts. There was very little traffic on the roads. Just the odd

43 trolly bus looming almost silently, and eerily out of the of the gloom.

Much of the smog was caused by the fact that most people had coal

fires in those days. The smoke trapped in a layer of air combined with the fog.

You could smell the smoke. There was a wierd atmosphere on those winter nights

back then. I sometimes wish I could experience those nights again!

What are your memories of those cold foggy nights?

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Back in the late 50s as a 9 year old my friend and I used to attend Lifeboys at The Albert Hall. It was an early evening midweek meet up and we used the bus to and from Beechdale. When we came out the

That's the way I remember it BK.  It wasn't what I would call a full blown island.  Sort of offset,  Gregory blvd came in from one side Alfreton rd A610 more or less went straight.  I used to ride the

Attended a funeral up Willford Hill it was that foggy they buried him in the hole, It was a grave mist-stake 

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Oh I remember the Pea soupers,walking to & from school up London Rd,& later Bunbury St it was really quite earie. It's strange isn't it how the fog masked the sounds of the traffic & noise in general? I also remember my clothes smelling of soot /smoke I suppose? Not surprising really when you think of the junk we used to burn,I remember my mum used to put the slack from the bottom of the coalhouse in a bucket of water letting it all stick together & then packing it into old shoes, & burning them, they would last for quite a while until she could afford for the coal man to bring us another load............now tell me we didn't do it tough!

I thought we were very well off when my ex who was a miner, was allocated god knows how many pounds of free Anthracite to burn in our new fire[which the NCB helped us to buy at a good interest rate I remember!] we were the only ones on the street who didn't have snow on the roof!! :rolleyes:

Caz

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Wow, some of them used to be bad, many a time busses stopped running and had to walk home from work!

Also we had those thick fogs that hung around the Trent and other small rivers around the city.

One night shift, several of our staff on their way to the pit got "stuck" on the traffic island at Dunkirk where the fire station used to be/still is??

They found the island and couldn't find their way to get off it !!! Took them a while to live that one down, I can tell you!

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hi ayupmeducks.. a happy new year!

the fire station as far as I know is still there, and directly behind them is the PDSA animal welfare centre, where if you can claim housing benefit you are able to take your sick animal for free, and if you're not, well tough, its the private sector for you then, at £40 a consultation.. but sorry I digress!

the pea soupers I remember were always around october/november time for some reason or another, and were always an exciting event, as kids we couldn't wait to get out there for a game of hide and seek, the fact it killed so many, well we knew nowt about that!

the last pea soupers I remember were around the mid sixties.. the government probably having to clean up their act asap!

the only pollution we get nowadays is those wicked smokers who will insist on blowing out their fumes in public places!

once they've been curtailed, we can then set our sights on diesel fumes and co2.. knowing full well at some time or another in the future Great Britain will be like a tropical paradise! ... NOT!

ilko..

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we can then set our sights on diesel fumes and co2.. knowing full well at some time or another in the future Great Britain will be like a tropical paradise! ... NOT!

B) Will that mean i must scrap my beloved Picasso Exclusive 2.0 Hdl Diesel with Leather seats ummmmmmmmmmm sounds unfare to me :o

:blink: yes mum i know it's only 9 months old :blink: but he said it's got to go. :angry:

post-14-1104784922_thumb.jpg

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no no BIP ..its not the Picasso thats the problem.. I run a diesel too!

its those adverts on the back of buses that proclaim "don't let your dog foul the pavement - think of your children" .. which can hardly be read through the belching out of black diesel fumes, which obscure the ad, making it barely unreadable!

dual standards.. thats the problem.. a bunch of hypocrites!

ilko..

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Hey BIP .. that seems a very fair price for your picasso!

are you sure that's all you want? .. I'll give you the full asking price on that!

whats the mileage?

are the tyres ok?

are there any rips on the seats?

is there a long mot?

what does it do to the gallon?

does it start easy?

do the light work?

will you take a part ex?

ilko..

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:D Thanks ilko and the same to you,

hope you had a good xmas!..

:( Well not to bad concidering, i lost my brother to Cancer on Boxing Day, but apart from that all was great. Did the usual rounds, went to my Daughters on Crimbo day, my sons on New Years day, have them both up for dinner on separate occasions, went to our friends party which they have every year and watched Panthers loose against Sheffield. Greaaaaaaaat !!!!!

Does the price include that house and second car? 

B) Nowp. What year do you think it is 1920. LOL :o

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BiP

Very sorry to hear that :(

It never ceases to amaze me how around every Christmas time, really bad things

seem to happen. :o

Everthing seems to be going wrong in our household at the moment (nothing

on the scale of your occurance) We ran short of heating fuel over the Christmas

period. The electric shower packed in on New Year Bank Holiday Monday. Had to

buy and fit a new one, to find that Modern showers are so Cr4p that the cover

will not fit on with cable of sufficient size to feed it in place.

Its currently a temporay lash up. Not good in a bathroom.

In my job I have to work the dated and official Bank holidays. My boss has

decided that my(and my colleagues) particular speciality should not attract any extra payment for the latter.

Despite the fact he is paying others for it.

My job entails with dealing with others dissasters of varying scales.

Whilst working on one of the particular incident on the official (unpaid) BH Yesterday.

I injured my back, either muscle strain, or trapped nerve? whilst attending such an incident.

I was in severe pain all night. Our Jack Russel was also quite ill the same night, and we don't know what's wrong with her.

I got up with the intention of taking her to the vets first thing, to find that I am

unable to stand upright, and an only sit with difficulty. She wont get to the Vets

till My partner returns from work at 3pm. :o

I am currently off sick from work, with the back problem.

I could receive possible future penalties (effects on future promotion etc) from my employer under their absence management policy. :angry:

I am stuck here, unable to get out to take the dog to the vets, or complete the job

on the New Shower.

Me, I will be glad when Christmas is over.

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:) Thanks everyone for your Condolences. It was a bit of a shock at the time and my mum has taken it badly specially when she lost her husband 4 years ago on New Years eve, crimbo and the New year period will never be the same.

He had been ill for some time, and was having treatment for the cancer, but unfortunattly he got an infection which put him back in Hospital on crimbo eve, he suffered a heart attack on boxing day and never recovered from that, again thanks everyone. The Cremation is on the 12/01/05 at 3-o/clock Bramcote Crematorium..

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no no BIP ..its not the Picasso thats the problem.. I run a diesel too!

its those adverts on the back of buses that proclaim "don't let your dog foul the pavement - think of your children" .. which can hardly be read through the belching out of black diesel fumes, which obscure the ad, making it barely unreadable!

dual standards.. thats the problem.. a bunch of hypocrites!

ilko..

That made me think of the workshops down Brit Gypsums Marblaegis Mine.

I was an electrician there and we used to have an old Ford Dexta tractor to run around on underground. One day the injector pump went out on it and the fitters were too bust to repair it for us. One of them told me to get a new pump out of the stores, take the old one off and fit the new one myself. He told me what to do, so I carried on.

About an hour later, I was ready to bleed the system of air and proceeded, having bled all the air out, I tightened everything up, sat in the seat and tried to start it......................................... Yeh it fired all right!!! Thick belching black smoke came out the exaust, thicker than any Nottm smog!! Within a couple of minutes all the workshops were lterally blacked out, I shut the spluttering Dexta off, with shouts from the fitting shop 'What the F are you doing over there, we can't see a friggin thing"!!!

I was peeing myself laughing, when one of the diesel fitters came into the shop to see what I was up to! Turned out, he'd told me how to time it 180 degrees out of "spill" After a couple of minutes undoing bolts, rotating the pump, tightening the bolts up again, it worked a dream with no smoke whatsoever...

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To get back on topic, I recall quite a few Saturdays when, after working at Beecrofts, all the busses were stopped and I had to walk home to Bakersfield in fog so thick that I had to follow the curb. The street lights only gave an eerie glow to the surrounding blanket. Crossing the roads was an experience because even the street signs were too high to be seen. Navigation was by trying to recognise something close up such as a house number on a gate or even the look of the gate itself. Funnily enough, I rarely got lost and only on a couple of occasions found myself trying to zig zag to find the centre of the road dashes so that I knew which direction I was going.

Regards Andrew Cole.

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Those were the days Andrew I too remember them well.

One time in particular while travelling back from work on me motor bike it got that bad on Wigman road I nearly traversed a traffic island mainly because the road lighting was so poor in those days.

Bip. alcoholic.

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I too remember several pea-soupers...

Usually coinciding with the journey home school.

On reflection, we weren't especially frightened because - as young children - we regarded them as the 'norm', and that we would all get home eventually!

Despite those conditions, can't ever recall NCT taking their vehicles off the road.

Am I right in thinking that they became much rarer from the mid 60's, as the smoke regulations kicked in?

Just imagine the chaos and panic that would prevail today should there ever be a 'one off' return!

Folks still overtaking at 80mph on the M1, however..

Cheers

Robt P.

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I am fortunate as where I was brought up (Carlton) there was a smokeless zone even in the late 50's early 60's so we never had the smogs (or pea soupers) of the above thread but I do remember the Power cuts of 73? and trying to find your way around ,We had one a lot later (about 76) and that coincided with a heavy fog ,I was on my way to the Air Training Corps and had to hold the walls down Station Road towards Netherfield to catch my bus to Trent Lane. I would love for it to have been filmed as all these cocky people who normaly wouldn't give you the time of day squinted at the uniform and thought we were some sort of patrol sent out to guide them home and the look on their faces as we just went on our merry way struggling as best we could ourselves LOL

;)

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I remember catching a #22 at Gregory Blvd to Amesbury Circus and it was so thick, the bus conductor walked in front of the bus. I also remember all the soot in your hanky after blowing your nose.

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...and it was so thick, the bus conductor walked in front of the bus....

Hazel's red hair would have been more effective than today's 'high viz' vest :Fool:

Cheers

Robt P.

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I remember being let out of school early when there were pea-soupers - so that we could walk home before it got dark!

Once I had motorised transportation (when I was 16), I do not remember any more of the really bad ones - where the only guide to motorists was the white line!

In the spring we can get some pretty good ones here, but they burn off when the sun comes up - it just isn't the same! LOL

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I think the mid 60's was when the last of them was around. We still had them when I was at Clifton Colliery, as they made a fair few of the nightshift late arriving.

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NCT did stop buses in fog, I recall having to walk home from town after announcement by loud speaker that 44's were stopped due to fog in bulwell. Also recall a Notts County match being stopped (sat afternoon) after fog or rather smog came down, Mam said far worse in the war with blackout, one night she went to phone box or so she thought, turned out she had mistook petrol pump at roper's garage for such!

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Also recall a Notts County match being stopped (sat afternoon) after fog or rather smog came down,

I remember a Nott's County mid week cup game being stopped because of fog / mist only a few years ago .

We had just scored and it was as if the Gods didn't like it, because before they kicked off again the pitch was covered by a mist rolling in from the Trent !!

It was used as a "What happened next" question on the popular BBC1 programme 'A Question of Sport'

(I can remember it vividly as Notts don't score that often)

Sorry to all fellow Notts fans but I thought I'd get that in and spoil the 'F' words fun!!!!!

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