Nottingham's "Pea-soupers"

[jackson 301]

Writing's never wasted Compo, besides it gave me the chance to use this: (there you are I've used it again!)

[katyjay 5,090]

The other thread is in '60's Nottingham.

http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=257&hl=%2Bpea+%2Bsoupers&fromsearch=1

[Diana 1]

On 1/3/2005 at 1:41 PM, Ayupmeducks said:

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!

I

 

On 8/24/2008 at 1:02 PM, Beefsteak said:

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!!!!!

I remember trying to drive home from work in Hucknall and getting totally lost by just watching the kerb from the passenger side and of course did not see junctions and ended up totally lost on my home to Redhill.

[MargieH 7,599]

I remember once walking up

Woodthorpe  Drive holding on to the park railings because the fog was so

thick I lost all sense of direction!

There were still a few cars travelling very slowly on the road and I had to

cross over not being able to see anything…. Very scary.  This would have been in the late 1950s or very early 60s

[philmayfield 6,115]

That may have been the same night I walked the 14 miles home from Nottingham. No trains, no buses, not feasible to drive. It was thick fog and freezing cold. I stopped in a few pubs on the way back to have a warming Scotch but there were no pubs between Burton Joyce and Lowdham and not another until Thurgarton. Got home about 10.30 where my mother told me ‘your dinner’s a bit dried up, it’s been in the oven for a long time!’ Never had to do that again thank goodness.

[IAN FINN 807]

Remember driving home in the fog from PCFE in 1964 not long after i took my driving test it took for ever to get Nuthall had to stop every so often as i thought i was seeing things especially at the traffic roundabouts the only buses running was the good old Midland General even the bus conductors were helping to find the way.

[Beekay 5,134]

When I were about 9 or 10, my mum took me to the Windsor cinema.

Can't remember the film, but what I do remember is coming out of the cinema into thick choking fog. You literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face. It took us ages to pluck up courage to cross the road. Mum knew Norton Street was opposite, so we groped across Hartley Road and found the street corner.  By keeping our hand on the wall we were able to reach Denman Street at the Sir Garnett Warren pub. Amazingly, Denman Street was clear as a bell, so mum went in the pub and I walked home to Denton Street.

Edit...Forgot to add, when I was a bus conductor back in 1962, coming from the city on service 16, we ran into thick smog at Bobbers Mill. It was so bad I walked in front of the bus, with driver Joe Handley taking instructions from me. When we turned onto Aspley Lane, Joe suggested I sat on the front n/s wheel arch. This I did, but only as far as Western boulevard as the smog cleared enough to drive at normal speed, once I'd jumped on the rear platform. What passengers were left on gave us applause. We didn't go back to town though.

[Paradiddle 145]

My dear old Mum used to be a 'minder' on the school bus taking youngsters from Mapperley to Bramcote Hills Grammar School.  This was whilst the Arnold Hill Grammar School was being built.

 

On the return journey one day in the 60's, a 'pea souper' meant she had to walk in front of the bus (Roy's) in order to help the driver navigate the ring road roundabouts.  Low and behold she turned around and guess what - no bus!!!!

[MargieH 7,599]

@IAN FINN  your post jogged another memory for me.  In 1964we we’re travelling back to Nottingham from Derby and the fog was so thick at one point that I had to get out of the car and walk in front so Paul didn’t go on to the soft verge.   We had a little Isetta bubble car at that time!

[LizzieM 9,507]

Thank goodness we don’t get the fogs of yesteryear.  I remember we’d gone as a family into town from Arnold on the bus and having to walk home, I would have been about 9 and my brother was 3 or 4.  A long, scary walk for little legs. 
My mum started back to work at an office in town when I was a young teenager, it would have been early ‘60s.  One night it was a pea-souper and she didn’t arrive home at the normal time.  It turned out that the bus she was on had run into a big pile of sand that had been dumped in the road by a builders merchants, the bus tipped over and there were several injured passengers from the top deck.  Fortunately my mum had been sitting downstairs and was unharmed.  It wasn’t long before she got employment down the road from where we lived, she wasn’t prepared to go through that trauma again.  

[denshaw 2,871]

Liz would that of been on Kiddier avenue when the Arnold buses terminated there?

I remember  the driver of that bus telling me about it.

[Alpha 176]

I remember the Pea-Souper’s in the early 60’s. Driving cautiously down Alfreton Road by keeping close to the kerb as my only visual reference point, I managed eventually to reach the Alfreton Road and Radford Boulevard Junction.

At that point, I thought I was still on Alfreton Road by the bus stop and the row of shops, opposite the Le Grand pub. It turned out, however, that I had gone around the roundabout and was now travelling up Gregory Boulevard totally disoriented and had to re-negotiate the roundabout again!

Fortunately, unlike today, kerb-side parking was minimal then and I was fortunate in not hitting any parked vehicles until I eventually reached home on Nuthall Road.

[Beekay 5,134]

When would that be Alpha? The only reason I ask is, that I don't recall any traffic island at the bottom of Alfreton road / Radford boulevard junction. Gregory boulevard seemed to veer off to the left, when heading towards town. Of course, I could be wrong, ( I usually am !). As an ex bus driver in 1964, I could use that route as many as 10 times a day.

[radfordred 6,284]

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

[LizzieM 9,507]

1 hour ago, denshaw said:

Liz would that of been on Kiddier avenue when the Arnold buses terminated there?

I remember  the driver of that bus telling me about it.

It was that 69 route Den but think it occurred at the Gedling Road end of Rolleston Drive because traffic was diverted up to Clarborough Drive and down Winthorpe Road, (where we lived) and back onto Rolleston Drive.  

[oldphil 331]

1 hour ago, Alpha said:

I remember the Pea-Souper’s in the early 60’s

So do I. Alpha. Dad driving us back from Christmas Eve "do" at relatives. Coming along Stockhill lane, Ilooked out the offside back window, and saw the kerb! Told dad he was on the wrong side, but by then he'd mounted the kerb and hit a lamppost, just as a double decker loomed by inches from our left side.

Being an old morris oxford JT, all dad had to do was wipe the bumper with a wet cloth.

[Mess 616]

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 fog had descended and the buses had stopped running so we walked up Derby Rd and down Ilkeston Rd but not before we lost our 4d in a phone box by pressing button B too soon! It was quite an adventure for us youngsters which only got better when we bought some chips to share from a chippy on Ilkeston Rd with the last of our money. Shortly afterwards the visibility improved and my pal's dad came along in his car and picked us up much to our parents relief and our dismay. Those chips were bleddy luvely.

[nonnaB 4,894]

Not a pea souper but one really foggy night my husband was driving home when he came across a car in front of him going very slow. He felt fairly safe at least he had a sense of direction. Ok once in ROT he felt at least he was home. He continued to follow at a distance until the car stopped and the driver came round to talk to my him. He said" Well I'm home I dont know about you" Fortunately it was someone he knew and they had a good laugh. 

We have a lot of morning fogs here that hangs around until the sun shines. There are some spectacular views when the misty fog is lifting.

[Alpha 176]

Beekay,

You are correct, no roundabout existed, just the triple junction, but my recollection at that time was that I appeared to go around 'something' which I could not see. So I must have turned right from Alfreton Road and driven across the flow of town bound traffic along Gregory Boulevard.

 

It must have been somewhere around 1962-3, incidently, like oldphil, I owned a Morris Oxford at the time.

 

When visiting Bulwell in about 1973 I experienced a similar experience. The friend I was due to visit saved the day when he came out to search for us and surprisingly recognised the sound of my Mini engine. This time even trying to follow the kerb line was of no navigable use.

 

[Beekay 5,134]

Another foggy anecdote...Way back in annuls of time, 1963) while heading over Bobbers Mill Bridge, on route to Aspley Lane, we ran into fog. Just over the brow of the bridge the traffic was stationary. Of course we stopped behind a car, we were on a Daimler Fleetline and my driver, (name withheld) had the bus in 1st gear. We slowly crept forward and tapped the back of the car in front of us. The driver jumped out of his car and came round to our door. Quick as a flash, my driver said to him, " What the hell did you roll back into me for"? The driver, bless him, sincerely apologised and got back in his car. All this time we were facing downhill, prior to turning left on Aspley Lane! !

[letsavagoo 961]

5 hours ago, Beekay said:

When would that be Alpha? The only reason I ask is, that I don't recall any traffic island at the bottom of Alfreton road / Radford boulevard junction. Gregory boulevard seemed to veer off to the left, when heading towards town. Of course, I could be wrong, ( I usually am !). As an ex bus driver in 1964, I could use that route as many as 10 times a day.

Despite replies to the contrary I am certain there was a roundabout here. In fact I have it in mind there were two. I do not recall exactly how the layout was but I walked past here everyday in the late 50’s to 70’s. I don’t know when it changed. I’m sure Jill will recall one way or the other.

[Stuart.C 491]

Map from 1956 shows something there

 

[Cliff Ton 10,457]

I remember that roundabout because my grandparents lived on Grimston Road (which is marked). We used to arrive on a bus which came down Alfreton Road and which then continued towards Bobbers Mill.

 

I remember it because we had to do a balancing act moving down the bus to get off at the stop outside the shops opposite The Grand.

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

I seem to remember there were two islands...not sure they were roundabouts...in the road. I've sent Letsavagoo a photo which I think dates from earlier than the 60s but it looked fairly similar in my childhood.

[Beekay 5,134]

If anything they must have been the sort of island that had the old  bollards on, you know the sort, that had like a white square on top which said " Keep Left". I always thought of them as little refuge islands, when crossing at a road junction. These little islands were at, if not all major junctions. There were no roundabouts in that area.