Nottingham, Market Street 1890

Holidays from the Past

I have so many happy memories Of Nottingham. My parents would take me to visit an aunt & uncle there in the early 50s.  My aunt lived in Ratcliffe, my uncle had the Ratcliffe Golf Club and they lived on the premises. I was very friendly with their neighbours, and the one thing that really stuck in my mind was how beautiful Mr & Mrs Kettlebank's garden was, the array of flowers and the perfume from them was so beautiful. When my aunt & uncle left Ratcliffe they went to live in Hucknall and I remember staying with them on vacation and my Aunt Paddy taught me to do embrodery. Many happy memories too of visiting Sherwood Forest and Nottingham Castle.

Happy Days

Although I was only a boy. Me and my two brothers went Percy Street School. Mrs Evans was the teacher I remember very well. We lived on Davids Square. We had many happy hours at the Vernon picture house, the old flea pit. Also on Billy Bacon's Field, Vernon Park and watching old Basford United, and making a lot of a nuisance to older people. I remember some families, the Walkers, Coopers, Browns, Bolshaws, Jordons. I will always cherish childhood. I am 65 now, I pass Basford quite regularly, Old Lincoln Street is that's left, sadly.   

Memories of Sneinton

Betty and I were brought up in Davidson Street, Sneinton just before the Second World War. It was a small back-to-back terraced house with an outside toilet. One of my first recollections was being bathed in the small kitchen sink and the woman who lived next door talking to Mum. It was snowing. Later they made a snowman and put a pipe in his mouth. It was great fun. When war broke out we moved to 3 Hoten Road (Grandma and Grandad's house). We moved because they lived in a three-bedroomed house and if we moved in with them, then they wouldn't have to take in any refugees who might come from London. Mum and Dad had the back bedroom, and Betty and I had the attic. There were lots of arguments because Dad didn't get on with Grandad Brailsford. I recall the night of the blitz on Nottingham. It was pretty horrific. We were brought down from the attic and slept on the floor with Mum and Dad. Then the bombs started falling. The windows blew in and we had to go to the air raid shelter. The front door was already open. Dad and Grandad were made to go on fire watch. The next morning they told Mum and Grandma that St Christopher's Church had taken a direct hit. Two days later Mum took us out to see the damage. During the war it was pretty hectic, fetching coke from the gas works on London Road. Mum was working at the Birmingham Waste Paper Company, also on London Road. It was a horrible place. Just after the war the City Council had a waste paper drive and tons of paper was collected. Most of it stored in a field on Second Avenue in Carlton. We used to go there, it was good fun. We used to collect comics, Mum brought them home, bundled them into twelve, and we sold them to second-hand bookshops on Sneinton Road. Also in the field was a crab apple tree and I sat on the steps at Hoten Road, selling the crab apples. Grandma and Mum got involved in black market activity in women's wear and hair nets. They were convicted and their names were in the local paper. They did it so the family could have a better standard of living. Thanks Mum!

Travelling by Hillmans

When we moved to Snapewood, neither of us could drive, our father started to take us out in a yellow and black Hillman Imp. For people who don't know, an Imp has the engine at the back. It was the first car to have an overhead cam. The day trips we took were good, with us three kids in the back. We would go to Derbyshire, we would park at Black Rock and walk up the very steep crumbling hill to see the views from the top. We walked along the paths and were able to run around, we would go to Matlock and Matlock Bath, if we stayed in Derbyshire all day we returned to Matlock for our chip supper on the way home. We didn't have any money but we enjoyed it. We took sandwiches for a picnic, sometimes sitting in the car when it rained. On many ocassions we would go to Monsal Dale. The walk from the road was good, we started to take our dog. My brother would climb up the steep sides of the hills and Mum would be scared, but it gave him courage. We would go to the tunnel which was blocked up, and walk for a long way. I am glad they are going to open it up, I want to be there when they do. Both our parents are dead now and to be there when it does open. One time our dad came on a Saturday afternoon and asked us if we wanted to go for a drive, we ended up at Skegness. We had chips and a walk on the beach, then traveled back in the dark, it was exciting to go along the country roads, looking for rabbits and foxes that may appear in the head lights. When we got home it was after midnight but it was such fun. When we started to drive, our dad got me a Hillman Imp in metallic gold, he got me to help him, I learnt to take the engine out and do it up. I ended up painting it black and it was sold after I got made redundant in the early 1980s, I wish I still had RJL644J. My brother ended up with a beautiful metallic blue Sunbeam Stilletto, my dad having a navy one. My sister and her partner at the time had a Hilman Husky and then my uncle and aunt also had Hillmans. Because we had a dad who could put his hands to most things we had hardly any garage bills.