Retford, East Retford Parish Church c.1955
Photo ref: R261021
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Photo ref: R261021
Photo of Retford, East Retford Parish Church c.1955

A Selection of Memories from Retford

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our website to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was, prompted by the photographs in our archive. Here are some from Retford

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If this has sparked a memory, why not share it here?

I was at Sir Freds until about 1953,'Rocky' Lane was the art teacher,later renamed Frankie I think,he was an ex circus strongman even though he wasn't very tall,at the school concert he would bend an iron railing into a U shape and drive a 6' nail through a block of wood.He told us in the circus he'd lift circus ponies on a steel girder using shoulder strength only.Needless to say we didn't play up in his class
During my time at the National school , a couple of children in my class said they had stomach ache , so the teacher told thenm to sit outside on a chair till home time, my friends and I thought that sounds good as it was a lovely summer day. So we put our hands up and complained that we too had stomach ache . So we joined several others sitting outside in the sun till Home time. That ...see more
My memory of Sir Freds, was in the 50s with Boss Green as head master, Gunner Meadows, Messers, Rodgerson, Birket, Conniff, Dier, Firth, and Franky Lane among others. I remember that playground fights, where taken to the Crush Hall and sorted out properly, with boxing gloves on and a ref, with prefects as seconds.
Hello Old Fogies! [you must be an old fogie like me if you remember Retford at that time..Hehe.] I first came to Retford at the age of about 7 months. My mom and dad got a letter from Birmingham saying not to come back as the bombing had started. We eventually ended up living at 57 Stawberry Road until Mar 31 1954, ending up back in B/Ham on April Fool's Day 1954. Our granddad lived at 55 ...see more