Memories

[RadFordee 66]

@The Engineerwell you are all great detectives having solved my query & especially as quickly as you did, thanks again to yourself & to stuartc for the map which is the only map i've ever seen that shows all of the small yards etc that were in the area.

[Stuart.C 428]

Radfordee,

The map was published 1901.

On the link below if you are on a P.C or tablet, (don't think you'll see it on a phone) if you use the slider bottom left you can overlay the modern layout of the area.

If the Help box comes up, click the X top right to get rid of it.

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=52.95910&lon=-1.16532&layers=168&b=7

[RadFordee 66]

@Stuart.Cthanks very much stuart for the link i will have a look at that later on the laptop, & thanks for dating the map too, i guessed it must have been an early 1 with the infant school not being situated on the corner.

[Stavertongirl 1,681]

After living just outside Doncaster for 40 years before coming back home to Nottingham I remembered the city centre as it was then. Loads of shops and department stores, C&A, Chelsea Girl, Birdcage, Debenhams, the market etc. All the shoe shops on Clumber Street, Cavendish Woodhouse for furniture (I worked in their offices for a long time on Talbot Street in Talbot House and then in an annex across the road which backed onto the graveyard). It was a vibrant busy city centre.
Doncaster town centre is not good, seems to be mostly clubs, pubs and fast food places. If you go in on Monday morning it smells like a public toilet not nice at all. So when I came back I expected Nottingham to be a lot better. 
It is a bit better than Doncaster (not saying much really) but, as with most places I suppose, it seems most of the shops I remember are gone and what has happened to the Market Square? Must admit don’t go in very often, just a couple of times this year to see what Primark have in and have a wander round Vic Centre and always go to look at the clock. We tend to go to Bulwell and Ilkeston more now and get stuff off the internet. 
We did go in last week and went on what was once a flourishing market, sad to see it how it is now with most of the stalls empty. It will be a big loss when it closes which seems inevitable. 

[benjamin1945 15,477]

Shame SG but i think all city centre's are going the same way........not been in Nottingham city centre for nearly 5 years....was going to go in the other day but wife told me not to bother it would make me sad...and i wouldnt find the shoes i wanted........

           So ill stick to the outskirts Bulwell...Kirkby and Hucknall.......might not get all i want but at least i go in some nice Coffee shops and get loads of Banter with the ''Ey-Ups''

           Worked a fair bit in Donny many years ago....actually slept on a conveyor belt in a shop window.....in the high street........Honest  

[Cliff Ton 9,939]

I agree that Nottm city centre has turned into a massive ghost town. There's no point going there during the day because there are so few shops and places to visit; The closure of Debenhams was the final straw finishing off any semblance of a shopping centre.

 

Walking south of the Square down Wheeler Gate/Albert St/etc towards the former Broad Marsh is almost creepy, it's so quiet and deserted.

 

Vic Centre is the closest to what things used to be like but even that has its fair share of closures, and the market can't survive much longer (what there is left of it). 

[Oztalgian 2,852]

Don't know about Donny and 15 years since I was in Nottingham or Mansfield.

Took a Google drive around Mansfield yesterday, so depressing, most of the pubs of my youth are gone or boarded up. saying nothing about the once vibrant Market and the shops, even the once beautiful art deco Co-op building looks sad and derelict.

 

[benjamin1945 15,477]

I mentioned Mansfield the other day @oz.........and YES very sad......Market consisted of at the most 6 stalls........dont know what 6 or 7 Coppers were doing on the Market either.....míserable lot anyway all got sour faces and ....certainly were not up for any banter..........felt guilty saying good'' morning'' thought they were going to ;Nick me''..........

[Oztalgian 2,852]

17 minutes ago, benjamin1945 said:

I mentioned Mansfield the other day @oz.........and YES very sad......Market consisted of at the most 6 stalls

Yes Ben, when I left the UK in the mid 70s it was a thriving market town. People were employed in the mines, engineering companies, hoisery and knitting factories and the shoe trade. You could get anything on the market or in the major chain shops, now a sad mess. Largely brought about by the demise of these industries, out of town shopping centres and that abomination of a ring road that ripped the heart out of the town. Sound like anywhere else you know?

[benjamin1945 15,477]

Used to love Mansfield.....worked there alot.....and believe it or not did some courting there.....Christine was lovely....thought i might 'Bump' into her the other day...but no such luck...

           Mind you twas nearly 60 years since......

[loppylugs 8,336]

Where did 60 years go eh? Ben.

 

60 years ago next year since I met the first Mrs. L in beautiful downtown Nottingham as it was then.  Took our photos in one of those auto photo booths in the entrance to Vic station.   Aaaaah! memories.  I'd do it all over again if I could.

[MargieH 7,393]

@benjamin1945 so you were working in Mansfield just after I left that area I think.    I was at Harlow Wood hospital  from 1960 until September 1962  and my friends and I often went into Mansfield when we weren't on duty....

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

60 years ago I'd just started working for GT Ranby, was August, but don't recall the date.

[trogg 1,737]

60 years ago in August 1962 as a 15 year old I started working at Bestwood pit as a 15 year old, as an apprentice electrician. One week at Hucknall training centre the next at Arnold and Carlton College , where have the years gone.

[Beekay 4,263]

Trogg, I started at Bestwood 4 years afore you, in 1958. Started on the screening plant, when I were a little innocent lad.

[Cliff Ton 9,939]

In a few days it will be the anniversary of my first visit to school 63 years ago.

[Beekay 4,263]

And next Sunday will be the 57th Anniversary of my wedding !

(Must go and throw a brick through the vicar's window).

[The Pianoman 1,480]

9 minutes ago, Cliff Ton said:

In a few days it will be the anniversary of my first visit to school 63 years ago.

Think I can make that 61 years

[trogg 1,737]

Beekay I was sent on screens to work for a few weeks when I was a bad lad.

[benjamin1945 15,477]

54 years if i'd have still been with my first.......but i was lucky....

[Beekay 4,263]

Trogg, from there I was 'promoted' to the baths, until I were old enough to work underground, at the tender age of 16. Worked in Main bright, the seam below my older brother, (he were in High Main).

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

16???? M&Q Act if I remember rightly didn't allow you underground until 17, Other than under Close Personal supervision, ie training that's also the age when you went on shifts.

That's under the 1954 Act which came into being in 1956.

I did my U/G training at the tender age of 17, that was around 1964.

You weren't allowed to go on faces until you'd reached the age of 18, except for training and visits, again close personal supervision.

We were coddled...LOL

 

I did the same training as you then Trog, started with the NCB at 16 1/2, late start I know, usually apprenticeships at 16, but passed the tests, I presume because I'd already completed almost two year as an apprentice at GT Ranby.

Week about at No1 pit and the tech at the Hucknall Annex buildings. I had to catch up on six months tech, plus keep up to date each day. Passed with flying colours.

 

 

Remember that Ass*&^%  Mr Moxon at tech?? I got hi ass kicked by the Training Centre Manager.

[Beekay 4,263]

@Ayupmeducks, I can assure you I  did work down the mine at 16.

By the time of 1964, I was a bus driver at Bilborough Depot, (NCT).

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

Maybe my memories getting cloudy with age, But I could have swore the M&Q Act only allowed us U/G at 17 after the twenty days training.

A long time back and a lot of training.

I know, once I'd done the first year and was back at Clifton full time, baring days release and training centre  every few weeks, I hardly ever saw surface work.

Then after my face training, was always assigned with a face elec, very rare for me to be outbye.

[Beekay 4,263]

By the time I were 17, I had left the pit and was working at Raleigh Industries. Stayed there till I was 19 and then went on the buses, 

(Got fed up of stinking of cooling suds all the time).

Thing is, I can remember being down the pit, like it were only yesterday. Cheers Ayup.