Sistino Rao
Member of
St. Ann's Well Road Pre. Demolition ( 1970) Online Community.
since 2 December 2019
Sistino's postings have been delighting us every since.
Member of
St. Ann's Well Road Pre. Demolition ( 1970) Online Community.
since 2 December 2019
Sistino's postings have been delighting us every since.
Posted 23 April 2023 here
I was remembering St Ann’s and the People not hard to do when you think of the happy times with childhood friends and a staying friends till death in some cases I remember playing with ants and worms in the garden silver fish around the fire hearth remember seeing them moving so quickly but I went quicker when my papa chased me out on Northumberland Avenue on to Northumberland Street up on union road then passed Harry browns coal merchant down union cottages onto Northumberland terrace back on to Northumberland Street it came out red faced he would give up he had his suit on winklepickers after my papa swearing words in Italian people looking and wondering what was going off but it happened most evening’s they was used to it some laughing not me I was frightened he gave up and went to foxhounds on Union Road then my mates was watching and waiting Kenny Chester Terry Dale call for Martin Trussler chubby Ali Martin Bamford Jimmy Brooks and up to the forest recreational ground we walked to to play cricket or football till it was so dark you couldn’t see the cricket ball funny those days you didn’t want to go in even if you was hungry I remember often got a drink of water from someone’s house but there was water fountains funny they still have them in Italy to day in Alife the village were I was born but I have often thought I couldn’t have grown up in a better place than St Ann’s I wonder why what did we have yes their was poverty deprivation no denning that and the area was called slums but why did the people seem so happy and content they was not pretending oh no my recollection sorry to say I see so many not so happy today but every one seemed to speak with each other more those days unless you got sent to Coventry funny because some years ago I spoke to a lady who had lived there best part of her life and she said that is true not many people speak to you think this has become general good morning everyone said it in st Ann’s community large it was too thirty thousand people more at one count outside toilets coal houses or cellars tin baths open fire in one room cold water tap not many blankets on the beds old coats was useful like newspapers we always some how had a meal of sorts no matter what clean clothes shoes with holes in the bottom skipping ropes old washing lines five or six and more skipping across the width of Northumberland Street girl at each end or tied at one end to the lamppost roller skating piggy back racing and much more marbles playing with bits of tar rolling it between your fingers but that was enough to make you feel like you all might remember I felt like a king that’s the happiness I remember ...
yes the people my friends and St Ann’s made that possible for me how my people can honestly be able to truthfully say the same today I can truthfully in my heart I was and it happened I lived it with so many till the demolition of not just beautiful buildings houses and most of all the long term community’s
I was remembering St Ann’s and the People not hard to do when you think of the happy times with childhood friends and a staying friends till death in some cases I remember playing with ants and worms in the garden silver fish around the fire hearth remember seeing them moving so quickly but I went quicker when my papa chased me out on Northumberland Avenue on to Northumberland Street up on union road then passed Harry browns coal merchant down union cottages onto Northumberland terrace back on to Northumberland Street it came out red faced he would give up he had his suit on winklepickers after my papa swearing words in Italian people looking and wondering what was going off but it happened most evening’s they was used to it some laughing not me I was frightened he gave up and went to foxhounds on Union Road then my mates was watching and waiting Kenny Chester Terry Dale call for Martin Trussler chubby Ali Martin Bamford Jimmy Brooks and up to the forest recreational ground we walked to to play cricket or football till it was so dark you couldn’t see the cricket ball funny those days you didn’t want to go in even if you was hungry I remember often got a drink of water from someone’s house but there was water fountains funny they still have them in Italy to day in Alife the village were I was born but I have often thought I couldn’t have grown up in a better place than St Ann’s I wonder why what did we have yes their was poverty deprivation no denning that and the area was called slums but why did the people seem so happy and content they was not pretending oh no my recollection sorry to say I see so many not so happy today but every one seemed to speak with each other more those days unless you got sent to Coventry funny because some years ago I spoke to a lady who had lived there best part of her life and she said that is true not many people speak to you think this has become general good morning everyone said it in st Ann’s community large it was too thirty thousand people more at one count outside toilets coal houses or cellars tin baths open fire in one room cold water tap not many blankets on the beds old coats was useful like newspapers we always some how had a meal of sorts no matter what clean clothes shoes with holes in the bottom skipping ropes old washing lines five or six and more skipping across the width of Northumberland Street girl at each end or tied at one end to the lamppost roller skating piggy back racing and much more marbles playing with bits of tar rolling it between your fingers but that was enough to make you feel like you all might remember I felt like a king that’s the happiness I remember ...
yes the people my friends and St Ann’s made that possible for me how my people can honestly be able to truthfully say the same today I can truthfully in my heart I was and it happened I lived it with so many till the demolition of not just beautiful buildings houses and most of all the long term community’s
Below are some of Sis's postings. To view all postings by Sis - view in facebook here
I used to visit Jim Peach every evening after work,
He lived in 1 of 2 jerry built cottages at Burton Joyce,
George the farmer lived next door, with his wife Elsie.
I considered him one of, if not the best wheel maker I've ever encountered in my life.
For example he knew when I tightened a wheel string/spoke just by the sound of the tensions in them,
I could always remember one evening a friend from work and I organised to meet up so that I could buy a lawnmower for my mother.
When I got home from work my mother was in tears,
my mum and dad had not been getting along for a few years, when I asked her why she'd be crying, she told me that she received a telegram letting her know that her Mother/my Grandma was on her death bed.
With the news that I heard, I started to think how could I get my mother over to Italy before she passes away.
I'd been saving some money for a deposit fora BMW motorbike that I'd always wanted for a long time,
So with 500 pound saved, I told my mum to pack her case and I arranged a taxi to Heathrow airport.
Unfortunately my Dad didn't' want to go with my mum.
So me and my mum went together to the airport.
7am and I spoke to the officials, which they let me know unfortunately that they're was slim chances of actually getting a flight at the time in the airport,
So I showed them the telegram and they came back an hour later with great news of securing a flight for my mum.
I reassured my mum to stay for a week and told her not to worry about any bills at home or anything to do with home life and most importantly don't mention anything to do with the money that I gave her for the flight ever again.
She managed to see her before she passed away. My mother told me exactly what my Grandma told her before she passed and they were 'Can I touch the floor' Love you mama 💝💝 always. I can still see you. 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
One day I was in the kitchen with my mam just before my dad got home from
my cooking the centre was open
she was her the sink I climb on it and it tipped
my was seeing if I alright
my 3 sisters were in the back room
Just then my dad came back from work and he was mad and started hitting and my mam always got in between
I have never forgotten that
That is why loved her so much and still do 💝💝 still see you Mama Mia 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
When my mam was making the spaghetti
I was helping her on the unit in the kitchen
When you came of the back room it was on the against the wall in left corner
There was a door to upstairs the unit was red
two glass door at the top with a frosty glass in them
in the centre was a hall that came down
that's where mam and me made pasta
My mum got some flour from the Italian shop along st Ann’s well rd
It was on the left going up right where you went on Robin Hood chase
Just in there up a bit was public toilets
I can remember some one murdered just a round there and they have not found out who it was
bit like the murder sneinton pretty windows pub on Carlton Road
My mam knew the lady in the Italian shop
she came from the same village as my family
my mam made like a well on top of the fall and use one egg water
I help mixing
it was great
then she use to roll it and cut thick strips
then roll them
then cut them about 3/4 inch long
then get a fork
roll it towards you and it made pattern
and thinned it out
I liked doing it
she put them in boiling water
then she made sauce out of a tin
straddo she called it
My mam use to go in to stones for pans to cook the spaghetti in
I can only remember seeing 2 pans in the kitchen
Sometimes my cooked pasta that she made herself
and I used to help after School
When I went to Shelton Street she came to pick me up after school
At Shelton St as you was getting on to Great Freeman St corner was a sweet shop
Sometimes she got sweets for me and sisters
We went left on to gr freeman st and down a bit on the right
Northumberland Street
We walked along there and half way down was shop
both sides on left it mason right hand corner
the one the right there an arched alley way
down there was some houses on the right about 4
on the wall some black railings about 4 ft high because there was a drop.
On to Union Rd facing browns the coal yard and a rubber factory next to it
I think you could see union cottage to
Can you remember Andersons the pawn shop on St Anns Well Rd
I think it was next to Bamfords or Stones
My mam use to go in there for blankets but not many
my dad had some old coats he used to put on the bed in winter
and when he came back from the pub
fox hounds on Union Rd
he came up stairs with a shovel of hot coal bits from the fire down stairs
There was 3 bedrooms top of the stairs
mam and dad bedroom on the right
on the left my 3 sisters bedroom
and through that was mine
I can remember there was no doorframe or door on it
and a little window on the right
I use to have nightmares
I can remember what they was about
Robins Taylor’s mam used to say to me
if you wasn't in bed by 10pm the 10 clock horses would get you
That was a well-known saying
Do you remember it?
At the week end I went lofting with Leonard White
He lived on Huntingdon St top of Gr Freeman Street at the top
and on the left there was about ten steps to climb
and there was a railing along the top looking on to Huntingdon st
when in his house one in winter
his dad was sitting at the side of the fire
on the floor I always remember seeing a big pile of coal just put on the floor
was big man Lenny
was friend to death
if he shouted you could hear it louder than slab square clock on the hour ring
we use go to city temple
it is still there at Sneinton
can't remember just how we got in
but we did
I think that Indian lad was with us that lived Northumberland st
There was a trap door and it was high up to the loft
After school some days we went up to the forest I called for Martin Trussler
He lived Shelton St on the left
Across the road lived Jimmy Brooks
What a bowler speed like fire
Martin Truster will know what I mean
If you missed the ball middle stump
straight out every time
wow what a bowler he was
he pulled a face when he bowled
I can see it now
Walk up there sometimes
Martin Bamford came up
He lived on Gr Freeman St
We used to play
near the path there was a bit of high bank so we could stop the ball going too far
and the high Bulwell stone on the back which was high with green railings on the top of it
Martin Trusller and me spent hours up there
Remember Martin learning to bowl off breaks googlies
I can still see Martin’s hand action
now he was a very good all cricket player he was better than me
We had some right laughs up there
I won't tell them everything Martin promise
Along the path was a water fountain where I went for a drink cause we use to get hot playing
Martin said jimmy brooks could bowl a tennis ball faster than West Indian fast bowler WES HALL
I think we used call Eroll Mc erry that because he was from Jamaican or West Indian
Sometimes my mum sent me to the butchers on st anns well
just around the corner of Northumberland St Napoleon pub on the corner
there was an alley to the back of the pub just before you got to the corner
Sometimes went down and could see some empties through the little slits in the high gate
and climbed over got them and took them back for a penny
Don’t tell anyone
The butchers was called Osbornes
Do you remember it?
Next to that a was a shop
My mam had I tiki's there and she went to pay on Fridays when my dad got payed
he used to get £20 week
I remember years after
I always think that 1000 a year sometimes
I would see Mr Bamford big man with suit on and talked to me in Italian
He could speak it
He always laughed at me
Can remember we made a tandem bike up Rob Chester Tony Howarth Alan Rhodes Eddy Elliott
It was a black Frame with black spots
That’s what Jim used to say to me and then laugh
Well I don't know where we got the wheels from but we did
when two of them went on it the one at the back
did it pedal
And after bit the one at the front would look round see them and shout
We was watching
We was already
But quietly so the one on the front could not hear us the then we could laugh for longer
I can remember running across St Anns Well Rd
I was playing out
My dad gone to the pub fox and hounds
Before he went out he always had a shave in the kitchen
in the Belfast sink
this was on the right when you went in
the back there was a curtain across
I can remember my mam putting it on
Perhaps that's because I loved so much love you mama
I can still see you before my dad had shaved he used to sharpen the razor blade in a glass
Can you remember doing that?
back to when I was not playing on St Anns Well Rd across from Northumberland St in front of Lamartine St I got run over by a motorcycle and can remember ending up at Robin Taylor house having a bandage on my head and the police man came to ask me what had happened
I have got a photo of it
My sister Giuseppina has it she is looking it out can you remember that TONY HOWARTH
When I started at Lawrence’s 23 May 1968 Monday
in the fitters that were they put knobs on furniture
I was to meet a man that was as close as the great Jim peach
Horace Brandeth
He lived in Lambley in his dad’s 200 year old cottage
His dad was a miner
Still belongs to his son Stuart Bratheth Horace’s wife
Lily what a lovely lady
He meet her on the corner of Pym Street
I can remember him telling me Horace’s two twin sisters lived next door
The number plaque on the wall that I made when he retired is still there
It’s made of American oak
O what stories to come just before we knocked of work at night
I can still see him now with a tennon saw turned upside down
front end against the Bench
and then in his stomach cutting little bits of fire wood
He cycled to work from when he started at 14 till 65
and had jam in his sandwich every day till he retired and that day he said to me
Sis this is the first morning in all them years that I forgot to kiss the wife this morning
Can you remember?
I can remember the factory on Sabina St
He was the eldest one round face looked a bit like Dave Clarke
worked there one of the Clark brothers
there was 3 Dave was eldest then John Dave had a smiley face a bit like Andy Cap
He built mostly the motorbike wheels up there and car wheels
Jags 80 spokes or 60 defo one or the other
Can’t remember
But I will if you know
Put me right
The great Jim Peach
I was closer to him than my dad
and I loved my dad
If I start talk about I will never stop
Don’t laugh I mean it from my heart
You will see this a lot
NO one in the work could balance a wheel like him
THE BEST IN WORLD that's MY opinion
I have still got his tools and spoke key
A German soldier made and hard for him in BERLIN after the war he could
Jim could speak German
He could put a stermy archer 3 \4 speed to together with is eyes shut
If I had had video camera you would of seen it LIKE I did
I was in the gelding club one Sunday lunch time on Gedling rd
and over heard someone say
there's no one can balance a wheel. like Jim peach
That person was I was later to meet Dick Gregory
He was the model maker at Wm Lawrence’s furniture wait and see
Some of them places we went lofting were dangerous
mostly up in the lace market
The big high buildings 6 stories high
you got in from the basement
down 5 steps with rails both sides
then walk up steps to the top floor.
then you had find a way in to loft
that was the hard bit
and I was small could not find something to climb onto
we would get on the other one shoulders
so one of us was up
then the other one pull you up
we had some laughs trying to up
going down was easy after we put the pigeons in your top we just dropped down
we didn’t care how high it was
If you think back we must done some damage to our bones because I'm telling you I did some long drops and you could feel your feet tingling for hours 😔
After we go and sit down for a bit and just talk about what we had just done and laugh 🤣🤣🤣cause we couldn't reach getting up
Robin Tayor first showed me how to make a fishing rod with two garden canes
making one thinner end in to the other and then make the rod rings
He got some safety pins and cut the top off leaving hole bit then bending one bit one way and the other one the other way then getting some cotton and whipping them on the canes
I used to go fishing down the embankment
get some maggots from Tommy Watsons on Canal Street on way there
I use always catch guenons
there was loads of them in the Trent
I used ledger fish for them and cast to the middle of the river
I thought it was great and people used to watch
I thought it was great
I used to bring some and my used to eat them
I tried keeping some in an old Belfast sink we in the back garden but they used to die after so long
Can you remember going up St Anns Well Rd after Alfred St North on the right corner I think it was Pym St towards Wells Rd
There was Holmes the cycle shop
dad and son
the dad had glasses and was bald
That lad that I saw walking up Union Rd carrying his bike that day
used to go in there
I can remember seeing him in there one day
Then they moved to Colwick Rd just past meadow lane on the right
I went that way to work past the bus dept on the Carlton Road end corner Manvers St on my bike
and if there was a bus at the stop I use to wait till it started off from the stop then get in wind stream
I could keep up with it on my bike Carlton Franco Italy I had a 60 tooth crank on it which I order from Jack Tayors bike shop on Alfreton Rd
I used to look in there often after I had been on the forest playing football
Can remember leather brooks pro saddle hanging up in the shop through the window
and he had a lot milremo cycle parts
They were Italian
I can remember looking in the window
and on the shelf there was little wire part that you fixed on to the back brake bolt
and it was just about 2mm over the tyre
The idea of it was
if you got something in your tyre it knocked it out before it had chance to puncture your tyre
I don't know if it worked
my main bike shop was Clarks on Alfred St
And my friend Jim peach that have known since I was 5 built me a pair of Wieman wheels for it because they were lightweight
I remember one Saturday morning going to pools tools shop on hockey and then coming back along Broad St and a lady in car opened her car door and I went right in to it
My foot wheel was badly buckled so I had to walk from there Clarks were Jim Peach straight it
because I went every were with that
You ask Martin Trussler
What was the name of that factory on Plantagenet St?
It was a knitting factory I think
You could see cotton bobbins spinning all the time you went passed
I used to stand there not for a long time
If one my mates came passed we’d be up the forest playing football or cricket till it was dark
There was one of them water fountains for a drink if we had time to
Busy playing it was great
Does anyone remember the plumber on Union Rd just down from A&A hardware
There was some houses
they were set back
about 3 down he lived
he had tweed hat and jacket
Up on the same row of houses was a lad that was always racing up and down St Anns Well Road on a red Elis Briggs racing bike
He used to come back up Union Rd
Can remember seeing him coming back one day carrying it
Don’t what he done
Can you remember the toy shop in Victoria Market?
Used to go and look at the toys all the time
sometimes buy one of those little basal wood gliders
Can you remember them?
spent hours with it till it broke
I love it
Can remember one Sunday at bottom of the garden we had an alleyway on to Loverseed Vale
If you turned right and a quick left was the back garden of robin Taylor’s house
He had a sister named Val
She was older than him
and on Sundays I was allowed round there
Late tea times his mam always made a jelly on Sundays
Then she used to mix a tin of carnation in to it and pour it to one them silver tin moulds and leave to set it was pink whatever flavour it was it still went pink
It was lovely
He had air guns and rifles in the house and was always mess with them in the house
Never got pellets out in the house but remember him chewing bits of newspaper in his mouth and made pellets to put in the air rifle
If one of them went astray when he fired it and it and hit you it stung
He went camping most weekends with his mates
I always ran errands for his mam and he wasn't there some times
When he came back from camping he'd say to his mam
Just dig this pellet out me head mam
If she was in a bad mood she told him were to get off so then he asked his sister Val to dig it out
DO you remember going lofting?
Up on Northumberland St from St Anns Well Rd going up on the left before you got to the top of Union Rd there was new inn pub left top corner
Then a big house which the Chester family lived
Coming back down there was a big opening
Then a other side to it was another big house same has Chesters
In the arch way was gore and rose upholsters where they made the settees above a joiners shop
Can’t remember the name of it
Back down past the big house set back there was a row of small houses
Going down in the first one lived an Indian boy
Nice lad
He was he obsessed with pigeons and kept one in his back yard
Does someone remember his name?
He used come with me and Terry dale lofting
He loved it
Does some remember David Boff?
Can’t remember the name of street off Union Rd
Turn left on to Hedaley St
The first on the left going up to Northumberland St there was a shop top left corner
He lived on the right
There was big square opening he lived in there
Does anyone remember Robert Whitehead?
He lived on Northumberland St going up towards Gr Freeman St
not far up there was shop on the left.
There was alley down it.
There was some house on the right and on the left some black railings
Looking on Union Rd you could see harry brown the coal merchant rubber next door
My mam used to send up to Wainmans for a bottle of stera and sometimes not too often a buy broken biscuits in a brown paper bag
the one we used pretend to throw up a stone and flick your finger like it drop in to it
Do you remember then when you went in the shop?
I think the tins was on the right hand side
them metal square ones on an angled rack
At the top of the alley was an Indian shop with bags on the floor outside
You could smell the spices in that shop
Was the first time I saw them little bottles of lime juice p j l was the make
One day my mam sent me to the shop and there was a lad grab hold of me and took the shilling that my mam gave me and I was crying
I went home and told my mam
This happened two more times
Then one day she sent the shop
And this lad he was bigger than me
came to take the shilling of me
All of a sudden my mam appeared and got hold of him around his ear that hard he yelling and crying
She told him never to touch me and he didn't
I used to see him but he never came near me ever and when I was out with my mam he had respect for her
I can remember he lived round on Comyn St
There was a big round arch on there
If he reads this he will know it was him but he is forgiven
Can remember one day in the in school holidays was it was red hot I was sitting down on the kerb in Loverseed Vale and looking down in between the cobblestones there was black shiny tar I pick some and was rolling it in my fingers look down again there was a bottle top so I pick it up poked out the inside I put it on the front of my top and put the inside back in then I look at it wow I’ve got badge I felt just like a KING I was in St Anns
When I was working at Lawrence Colwick
I can remember it was my youngest brother’s birthday
and he had always wanted a racing bike but my mam &dad could not afford it
I had an offer of some extra work in the evenings at a place in Bingham one night a week making some pine egg racks with holes in them you screw them on the wall
So through this I will pay for the bike
but he was small and it hard to get a racing bike
So I went to see Jim Peach at Clarkes the bike shop
He said leave with me
And 2 weeks later I went in and he got this beautiful red bike
And the plan was to send my brother in to the shop for him to try it for size
So on his birthday Saturday morning I was at work
he went in to the shop with my youngest Anna
I told him Jim had a bike just for him to try for size and that we could not afford to buy him one yet
So he went and Jim said to get on it
he kept looking at it and after bit Jim said to him it ok yes he Jim well you better have it then
Sorry Anna🥰
Can you remember Clarks the bike shop on the corner Alfred and Cromwell Terrace?
Opposite Cromwell pub bike shop on the right side and another door on the left for the pram shop
a little blonde lady named Anny
She sold the push chairs
The shop on the left the bike was on right side
Sid Clarke big man with glasses on always sitting down on the right hand side of the counter
Jim peach repair the cycles and a Polish man work in there name was Joseph Gascaneni
Jim used to call me Campagnolo after the Italian cycle gears
When I started work with my dad at Trent concrete Colwick there was a works bus from Huntingdon St bus station down to the private Colwick
But I wanted a bike to go to work and not the bus
There was a second hand one in the window at Clarks
I kept looking at it for weeks a Carlton Franco Italy
It was blue chrome white and blue colour
It was£5 pounds
When I asked the price they did not have prices on them then because you would not go in the shop
I went in with my dad on the Friday after I got paid and Sid said he would do it on tik
But he said you need a guarantor and because my dad was illiterate and could not read or write his name Sid as he became known to me and not Mr Clark said I could not have it
So I started crying
Jim heard me and came out from the workshop ask what was happening and said if I did not pay he would and he signed
He gave me a card and I was to pay 5 shillings a week
I used to get £4 week at concrete and I gave it all to my money to on a Friday then smam and she gave £1 back
The friendship that I had with Jim till he died his making me CRY HAS AM writing 🥵 what a lovely man
Can remember me and Tony Howarth got hold of old push chair
We was going to make trolley and we took the wheel of it got some bits of wood and some string but we could not make the hole for the bolt for the steering
At the evening I had to keep going in the house to get the poker hot to make a hole for the steering and it took ages
I had to wait till my dad went to the pub
I used my shoes on top of the front wheels for a brake
Can you remember on Alfred st central there was shop selling chicken?
I think they was hanging up and chicken pieces in white trays along the counter
down the sides and one end with bits of chicken in them and livers and you paid at other end
There was some Jamaican people
I think Errol Mclerrys mam use to go in
I used to go in with my mam and carry a little bag for her
The Larvin family lived on the corner a cross the road.
You could always hear his mum shouting
George was at school with me
Then years later he sold shoes on the Sneiton Market Saturday mornings
can remember going the in front room one day and my mam had a sweeping brush in her hands looking up towards the ceiling and the expression on her face I will never forget
There was a brown bowl on the table
the ones that we used to make dough in for making bread
And we used to put it on the fire hearth covered over waiting for the dough to rise
She had mixed some flour and water in it and she was trying to put a piece of wallpaper up on to the ceiling it was hang down in front of her
She had spots of flour over her hair and face
And the paper came off and went over her face still can see mama love you always Sisto💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Can you remember playing stretch on Victoria Park?
I went to play on the swings and the bigger lads made me play it
I used to do rolly polys
down the bottom end of the park there is a steep long bank .
It runs sort of ran parallel with St Anns Well Rd
I used to play on the Bendigo lion in there for hours
Never knew he was buried under it
Can you remember the fox and hounds pub on Union Rd next to Wayans shop?
My dad came home one night
He was always in that pub but he always came home with a Babycham for my mam and a packet of crisps for me
And said he had paid for me and there was coach trip to Bellevue zoo in Manchester but did not know where that was too young
I can remember going on it my put on the bus it was loverly CAN anyone else remember it
Does anyone remember down on Loverseed Vale there was parked a black mayflower car at night
He had a red light that you fixed on the centre post at the side
And going towards Northumberland St was a truck parked at night with empty long wooden boxes with Fyffe’s on the side
We used to play on it and look in the boxes in some of them there was jet black dead spiders I think they was black widows
I was a bit frightened of them
can you remember there was a man come round along St Anns Well Rd and then around the streets on a bicycle that had a grinding stone on the front of the handle bars with a grind stone on
He put the bike on stand sharped knifes
There was also man used to come down Loverseed Vale with a truck with no sides or back with wooden cages with chickens in them and I think some veg
The cages were tied down
My mam would buy a chicken sometimes
I can remember one day a man came with a brown suitcase
He opened it and there was a set of Pyrex plates saucers and cups 4 of each not glass like a wareite
It was a beautiful turquoise blue on the outside and white inside
He got one of the cups out and threw it on the floor and it bounced without breaking on the red tiles
and told my mam they were unbreakable
She bought them on the tick
They were £5 she was going to pay weekly
When my dad got home from work and saw them he went mad
But my mam kept them that was the first time I was going to drink out cups in my house
We had been drinking out of jam jars
When we was bored just sitting on the wall talking on Northumberland St Tony Howarth and Rob Chester thought of something to do
They went getting bricks making them looking like a parcel with brown paper wrapped with string with a used old stamp put on it and wrote address on it leave on the walls outside houses and we watch from a good way till someone picked it up and walk off with it
If you read this Rob Tony please own up
The other trick was just as it was dark and people left the empty milk bottles on the outside window ledge for the milkman they tied piece of cotton around the top of bottle
Take it across the road tie to a door handle knock on the door and run off quick
They was laughing before you hear the smash🤣🤣
Can you remember coming home from school Hunto and going up to the brick yard Mapperley?
If you had a penny you could go up on the bus from the corner of Alfred St Woodborough Rd
at bottom we made rafts with bits of wood tins string and floated out on them to try to get right across the other side without falling in and it was full of frogs and salamander newts and we collected them in jam jars with string round the top
We had an old Belfast sink in my back yard at 6 Loverseed Vale and I use to keep them in it
Can you remember collecting cigarette packs and leaning 5 or 10 of them towards the wall and then you would try and knock them down by skimming one in between your two first fingers to knock them down whoever knocked the last one down won them all them. From a set distance won them all
Can you remember in the winter after it had snowed it always froze and we used to make them long slides?
We keep going over and over them to make them more slippery
And they was there for weeks
Sometimes after school we could not wait to start sliding and we took it in turns
The one at the front where we lived was a narrow alley up to Union Rd with walls both sides so it helped you balance cause it was steep
The flat ones were good
Some were quite long and we fell over
Can you remember Sunday mornings on the Sneinton market site there was a football match every week?
If you got there on time they took it in turns to pick a player on your side
If you came late you were told to kick one way or the other
There used to be one on the sycamore park the same loved playing
One of my old mates Errol Mc Leary was his name
black lad just lived with his mother
Can’t remember what the name of the place round there was called
just at the back of Union Rd in between the watch repair shop on one corner
Can’t remember what was on the other corner
Errol lived there
Polish man had the watch shop
My dad knew him
There was some houses in there
We played cricket and football together with Martin Trussler and Martin Bamford
Bamford lived at top of Gr Freeman St on the right going up to the top like there was cull de sac both martins were sometimes talking about Len Barrington doing leg sweeps
I think we watched cricket some time in Martin Bamfords house
Errol’s mum was very strict could not skip home work at no cost
Can remember one school hols my mate Kenny Chester lived top on Northumberland St atop Union Rd end next to new inn which was on corner
There were two big houses
He lived in the one next to the pub
There was big archway in between them
At bottom was gore & rose upholster makers
Their shop was on Union Rd at top was joiners with wooden steps up
We decided we was going to put a play on to make a bit of money and sell drinks of smash
I think we asked the shops to help us with bits and they came
I cannot remember what the play was
Tony Howarth and the Chesters were in on it Christine Widderson
Does someone remember it???
Can remember in the school holidays we decided we were going to walk to Southwell
12 of us
Plan was if we walked there we was getting the bus back
Tony Haworth came Rob Chester Alan Rhodes Kenny Chester can’t remember all who came
Christine Widdowson
On the way there was a big pile of nettles on the kerb side and Tony Howarth threw me in them
He was laughing
One of my mates lived on Northumberland St Eddy Elliott and on a Sunday after they had their dinner I was allowed in
He had a train set
The tracks were pinned to a hardboard sheet
They put it on the dinner table and then set the train going
Best bit was his mum would give us a glass of cream soda with ice cream on the top it was lovely
Do you think that someone one day will realise the magnitude of what actually happened in the demolition of St Anns.
Can you remember if you went to Huntingdon St School?
You will if you walked along Woodborough Rd
There was a bakers
They sold small Hovis shape loaf half a penny
If you wanted butter in it it was one penny
The thing I remember most about them was they had just come out of the oven hot and they made my hands warm
Read more here in facebook group
He lived in 1 of 2 jerry built cottages at Burton Joyce,
George the farmer lived next door, with his wife Elsie.
I considered him one of, if not the best wheel maker I've ever encountered in my life.
For example he knew when I tightened a wheel string/spoke just by the sound of the tensions in them,
I could always remember one evening a friend from work and I organised to meet up so that I could buy a lawnmower for my mother.
When I got home from work my mother was in tears,
my mum and dad had not been getting along for a few years, when I asked her why she'd be crying, she told me that she received a telegram letting her know that her Mother/my Grandma was on her death bed.
With the news that I heard, I started to think how could I get my mother over to Italy before she passes away.
I'd been saving some money for a deposit fora BMW motorbike that I'd always wanted for a long time,
So with 500 pound saved, I told my mum to pack her case and I arranged a taxi to Heathrow airport.
Unfortunately my Dad didn't' want to go with my mum.
So me and my mum went together to the airport.
7am and I spoke to the officials, which they let me know unfortunately that they're was slim chances of actually getting a flight at the time in the airport,
So I showed them the telegram and they came back an hour later with great news of securing a flight for my mum.
I reassured my mum to stay for a week and told her not to worry about any bills at home or anything to do with home life and most importantly don't mention anything to do with the money that I gave her for the flight ever again.
She managed to see her before she passed away. My mother told me exactly what my Grandma told her before she passed and they were 'Can I touch the floor' Love you mama 💝💝 always. I can still see you. 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
One day I was in the kitchen with my mam just before my dad got home from
my cooking the centre was open
she was her the sink I climb on it and it tipped
my was seeing if I alright
my 3 sisters were in the back room
Just then my dad came back from work and he was mad and started hitting and my mam always got in between
I have never forgotten that
That is why loved her so much and still do 💝💝 still see you Mama Mia 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
When my mam was making the spaghetti
I was helping her on the unit in the kitchen
When you came of the back room it was on the against the wall in left corner
There was a door to upstairs the unit was red
two glass door at the top with a frosty glass in them
in the centre was a hall that came down
that's where mam and me made pasta
My mum got some flour from the Italian shop along st Ann’s well rd
It was on the left going up right where you went on Robin Hood chase
Just in there up a bit was public toilets
I can remember some one murdered just a round there and they have not found out who it was
bit like the murder sneinton pretty windows pub on Carlton Road
My mam knew the lady in the Italian shop
she came from the same village as my family
my mam made like a well on top of the fall and use one egg water
I help mixing
it was great
then she use to roll it and cut thick strips
then roll them
then cut them about 3/4 inch long
then get a fork
roll it towards you and it made pattern
and thinned it out
I liked doing it
she put them in boiling water
then she made sauce out of a tin
straddo she called it
My mam use to go in to stones for pans to cook the spaghetti in
I can only remember seeing 2 pans in the kitchen
Sometimes my cooked pasta that she made herself
and I used to help after School
When I went to Shelton Street she came to pick me up after school
At Shelton St as you was getting on to Great Freeman St corner was a sweet shop
Sometimes she got sweets for me and sisters
We went left on to gr freeman st and down a bit on the right
Northumberland Street
We walked along there and half way down was shop
both sides on left it mason right hand corner
the one the right there an arched alley way
down there was some houses on the right about 4
on the wall some black railings about 4 ft high because there was a drop.
On to Union Rd facing browns the coal yard and a rubber factory next to it
I think you could see union cottage to
Can you remember Andersons the pawn shop on St Anns Well Rd
I think it was next to Bamfords or Stones
My mam use to go in there for blankets but not many
my dad had some old coats he used to put on the bed in winter
and when he came back from the pub
fox hounds on Union Rd
he came up stairs with a shovel of hot coal bits from the fire down stairs
There was 3 bedrooms top of the stairs
mam and dad bedroom on the right
on the left my 3 sisters bedroom
and through that was mine
I can remember there was no doorframe or door on it
and a little window on the right
I use to have nightmares
I can remember what they was about
Robins Taylor’s mam used to say to me
if you wasn't in bed by 10pm the 10 clock horses would get you
That was a well-known saying
Do you remember it?
At the week end I went lofting with Leonard White
He lived on Huntingdon St top of Gr Freeman Street at the top
and on the left there was about ten steps to climb
and there was a railing along the top looking on to Huntingdon st
when in his house one in winter
his dad was sitting at the side of the fire
on the floor I always remember seeing a big pile of coal just put on the floor
was big man Lenny
was friend to death
if he shouted you could hear it louder than slab square clock on the hour ring
we use go to city temple
it is still there at Sneinton
can't remember just how we got in
but we did
I think that Indian lad was with us that lived Northumberland st
There was a trap door and it was high up to the loft
After school some days we went up to the forest I called for Martin Trussler
He lived Shelton St on the left
Across the road lived Jimmy Brooks
What a bowler speed like fire
Martin Truster will know what I mean
If you missed the ball middle stump
straight out every time
wow what a bowler he was
he pulled a face when he bowled
I can see it now
Walk up there sometimes
Martin Bamford came up
He lived on Gr Freeman St
We used to play
near the path there was a bit of high bank so we could stop the ball going too far
and the high Bulwell stone on the back which was high with green railings on the top of it
Martin Trusller and me spent hours up there
Remember Martin learning to bowl off breaks googlies
I can still see Martin’s hand action
now he was a very good all cricket player he was better than me
We had some right laughs up there
I won't tell them everything Martin promise
Along the path was a water fountain where I went for a drink cause we use to get hot playing
Martin said jimmy brooks could bowl a tennis ball faster than West Indian fast bowler WES HALL
I think we used call Eroll Mc erry that because he was from Jamaican or West Indian
Sometimes my mum sent me to the butchers on st anns well
just around the corner of Northumberland St Napoleon pub on the corner
there was an alley to the back of the pub just before you got to the corner
Sometimes went down and could see some empties through the little slits in the high gate
and climbed over got them and took them back for a penny
Don’t tell anyone
The butchers was called Osbornes
Do you remember it?
Next to that a was a shop
My mam had I tiki's there and she went to pay on Fridays when my dad got payed
he used to get £20 week
I remember years after
I always think that 1000 a year sometimes
I would see Mr Bamford big man with suit on and talked to me in Italian
He could speak it
He always laughed at me
Can remember we made a tandem bike up Rob Chester Tony Howarth Alan Rhodes Eddy Elliott
It was a black Frame with black spots
That’s what Jim used to say to me and then laugh
Well I don't know where we got the wheels from but we did
when two of them went on it the one at the back
did it pedal
And after bit the one at the front would look round see them and shout
We was watching
We was already
But quietly so the one on the front could not hear us the then we could laugh for longer
I can remember running across St Anns Well Rd
I was playing out
My dad gone to the pub fox and hounds
Before he went out he always had a shave in the kitchen
in the Belfast sink
this was on the right when you went in
the back there was a curtain across
I can remember my mam putting it on
Perhaps that's because I loved so much love you mama
I can still see you before my dad had shaved he used to sharpen the razor blade in a glass
Can you remember doing that?
back to when I was not playing on St Anns Well Rd across from Northumberland St in front of Lamartine St I got run over by a motorcycle and can remember ending up at Robin Taylor house having a bandage on my head and the police man came to ask me what had happened
I have got a photo of it
My sister Giuseppina has it she is looking it out can you remember that TONY HOWARTH
When I started at Lawrence’s 23 May 1968 Monday
in the fitters that were they put knobs on furniture
I was to meet a man that was as close as the great Jim peach
Horace Brandeth
He lived in Lambley in his dad’s 200 year old cottage
His dad was a miner
Still belongs to his son Stuart Bratheth Horace’s wife
Lily what a lovely lady
He meet her on the corner of Pym Street
I can remember him telling me Horace’s two twin sisters lived next door
The number plaque on the wall that I made when he retired is still there
It’s made of American oak
O what stories to come just before we knocked of work at night
I can still see him now with a tennon saw turned upside down
front end against the Bench
and then in his stomach cutting little bits of fire wood
He cycled to work from when he started at 14 till 65
and had jam in his sandwich every day till he retired and that day he said to me
Sis this is the first morning in all them years that I forgot to kiss the wife this morning
Can you remember?
I can remember the factory on Sabina St
He was the eldest one round face looked a bit like Dave Clarke
worked there one of the Clark brothers
there was 3 Dave was eldest then John Dave had a smiley face a bit like Andy Cap
He built mostly the motorbike wheels up there and car wheels
Jags 80 spokes or 60 defo one or the other
Can’t remember
But I will if you know
Put me right
The great Jim Peach
I was closer to him than my dad
and I loved my dad
If I start talk about I will never stop
Don’t laugh I mean it from my heart
You will see this a lot
NO one in the work could balance a wheel like him
THE BEST IN WORLD that's MY opinion
I have still got his tools and spoke key
A German soldier made and hard for him in BERLIN after the war he could
Jim could speak German
He could put a stermy archer 3 \4 speed to together with is eyes shut
If I had had video camera you would of seen it LIKE I did
I was in the gelding club one Sunday lunch time on Gedling rd
and over heard someone say
there's no one can balance a wheel. like Jim peach
That person was I was later to meet Dick Gregory
He was the model maker at Wm Lawrence’s furniture wait and see
Some of them places we went lofting were dangerous
mostly up in the lace market
The big high buildings 6 stories high
you got in from the basement
down 5 steps with rails both sides
then walk up steps to the top floor.
then you had find a way in to loft
that was the hard bit
and I was small could not find something to climb onto
we would get on the other one shoulders
so one of us was up
then the other one pull you up
we had some laughs trying to up
going down was easy after we put the pigeons in your top we just dropped down
we didn’t care how high it was
If you think back we must done some damage to our bones because I'm telling you I did some long drops and you could feel your feet tingling for hours 😔
After we go and sit down for a bit and just talk about what we had just done and laugh 🤣🤣🤣cause we couldn't reach getting up
Robin Tayor first showed me how to make a fishing rod with two garden canes
making one thinner end in to the other and then make the rod rings
He got some safety pins and cut the top off leaving hole bit then bending one bit one way and the other one the other way then getting some cotton and whipping them on the canes
I used to go fishing down the embankment
get some maggots from Tommy Watsons on Canal Street on way there
I use always catch guenons
there was loads of them in the Trent
I used ledger fish for them and cast to the middle of the river
I thought it was great and people used to watch
I thought it was great
I used to bring some and my used to eat them
I tried keeping some in an old Belfast sink we in the back garden but they used to die after so long
Can you remember going up St Anns Well Rd after Alfred St North on the right corner I think it was Pym St towards Wells Rd
There was Holmes the cycle shop
dad and son
the dad had glasses and was bald
That lad that I saw walking up Union Rd carrying his bike that day
used to go in there
I can remember seeing him in there one day
Then they moved to Colwick Rd just past meadow lane on the right
I went that way to work past the bus dept on the Carlton Road end corner Manvers St on my bike
and if there was a bus at the stop I use to wait till it started off from the stop then get in wind stream
I could keep up with it on my bike Carlton Franco Italy I had a 60 tooth crank on it which I order from Jack Tayors bike shop on Alfreton Rd
I used to look in there often after I had been on the forest playing football
Can remember leather brooks pro saddle hanging up in the shop through the window
and he had a lot milremo cycle parts
They were Italian
I can remember looking in the window
and on the shelf there was little wire part that you fixed on to the back brake bolt
and it was just about 2mm over the tyre
The idea of it was
if you got something in your tyre it knocked it out before it had chance to puncture your tyre
I don't know if it worked
my main bike shop was Clarks on Alfred St
And my friend Jim peach that have known since I was 5 built me a pair of Wieman wheels for it because they were lightweight
I remember one Saturday morning going to pools tools shop on hockey and then coming back along Broad St and a lady in car opened her car door and I went right in to it
My foot wheel was badly buckled so I had to walk from there Clarks were Jim Peach straight it
because I went every were with that
You ask Martin Trussler
What was the name of that factory on Plantagenet St?
It was a knitting factory I think
You could see cotton bobbins spinning all the time you went passed
I used to stand there not for a long time
If one my mates came passed we’d be up the forest playing football or cricket till it was dark
There was one of them water fountains for a drink if we had time to
Busy playing it was great
Does anyone remember the plumber on Union Rd just down from A&A hardware
There was some houses
they were set back
about 3 down he lived
he had tweed hat and jacket
Up on the same row of houses was a lad that was always racing up and down St Anns Well Road on a red Elis Briggs racing bike
He used to come back up Union Rd
Can remember seeing him coming back one day carrying it
Don’t what he done
Can you remember the toy shop in Victoria Market?
Used to go and look at the toys all the time
sometimes buy one of those little basal wood gliders
Can you remember them?
spent hours with it till it broke
I love it
Can remember one Sunday at bottom of the garden we had an alleyway on to Loverseed Vale
If you turned right and a quick left was the back garden of robin Taylor’s house
He had a sister named Val
She was older than him
and on Sundays I was allowed round there
Late tea times his mam always made a jelly on Sundays
Then she used to mix a tin of carnation in to it and pour it to one them silver tin moulds and leave to set it was pink whatever flavour it was it still went pink
It was lovely
He had air guns and rifles in the house and was always mess with them in the house
Never got pellets out in the house but remember him chewing bits of newspaper in his mouth and made pellets to put in the air rifle
If one of them went astray when he fired it and it and hit you it stung
He went camping most weekends with his mates
I always ran errands for his mam and he wasn't there some times
When he came back from camping he'd say to his mam
Just dig this pellet out me head mam
If she was in a bad mood she told him were to get off so then he asked his sister Val to dig it out
DO you remember going lofting?
Up on Northumberland St from St Anns Well Rd going up on the left before you got to the top of Union Rd there was new inn pub left top corner
Then a big house which the Chester family lived
Coming back down there was a big opening
Then a other side to it was another big house same has Chesters
In the arch way was gore and rose upholsters where they made the settees above a joiners shop
Can’t remember the name of it
Back down past the big house set back there was a row of small houses
Going down in the first one lived an Indian boy
Nice lad
He was he obsessed with pigeons and kept one in his back yard
Does someone remember his name?
He used come with me and Terry dale lofting
He loved it
Does some remember David Boff?
Can’t remember the name of street off Union Rd
Turn left on to Hedaley St
The first on the left going up to Northumberland St there was a shop top left corner
He lived on the right
There was big square opening he lived in there
Does anyone remember Robert Whitehead?
He lived on Northumberland St going up towards Gr Freeman St
not far up there was shop on the left.
There was alley down it.
There was some house on the right and on the left some black railings
Looking on Union Rd you could see harry brown the coal merchant rubber next door
My mam used to send up to Wainmans for a bottle of stera and sometimes not too often a buy broken biscuits in a brown paper bag
the one we used pretend to throw up a stone and flick your finger like it drop in to it
Do you remember then when you went in the shop?
I think the tins was on the right hand side
them metal square ones on an angled rack
At the top of the alley was an Indian shop with bags on the floor outside
You could smell the spices in that shop
Was the first time I saw them little bottles of lime juice p j l was the make
One day my mam sent me to the shop and there was a lad grab hold of me and took the shilling that my mam gave me and I was crying
I went home and told my mam
This happened two more times
Then one day she sent the shop
And this lad he was bigger than me
came to take the shilling of me
All of a sudden my mam appeared and got hold of him around his ear that hard he yelling and crying
She told him never to touch me and he didn't
I used to see him but he never came near me ever and when I was out with my mam he had respect for her
I can remember he lived round on Comyn St
There was a big round arch on there
If he reads this he will know it was him but he is forgiven
Can remember one day in the in school holidays was it was red hot I was sitting down on the kerb in Loverseed Vale and looking down in between the cobblestones there was black shiny tar I pick some and was rolling it in my fingers look down again there was a bottle top so I pick it up poked out the inside I put it on the front of my top and put the inside back in then I look at it wow I’ve got badge I felt just like a KING I was in St Anns
When I was working at Lawrence Colwick
I can remember it was my youngest brother’s birthday
and he had always wanted a racing bike but my mam &dad could not afford it
I had an offer of some extra work in the evenings at a place in Bingham one night a week making some pine egg racks with holes in them you screw them on the wall
So through this I will pay for the bike
but he was small and it hard to get a racing bike
So I went to see Jim Peach at Clarkes the bike shop
He said leave with me
And 2 weeks later I went in and he got this beautiful red bike
And the plan was to send my brother in to the shop for him to try it for size
So on his birthday Saturday morning I was at work
he went in to the shop with my youngest Anna
I told him Jim had a bike just for him to try for size and that we could not afford to buy him one yet
So he went and Jim said to get on it
he kept looking at it and after bit Jim said to him it ok yes he Jim well you better have it then
Sorry Anna🥰
Can you remember Clarks the bike shop on the corner Alfred and Cromwell Terrace?
Opposite Cromwell pub bike shop on the right side and another door on the left for the pram shop
a little blonde lady named Anny
She sold the push chairs
The shop on the left the bike was on right side
Sid Clarke big man with glasses on always sitting down on the right hand side of the counter
Jim peach repair the cycles and a Polish man work in there name was Joseph Gascaneni
Jim used to call me Campagnolo after the Italian cycle gears
When I started work with my dad at Trent concrete Colwick there was a works bus from Huntingdon St bus station down to the private Colwick
But I wanted a bike to go to work and not the bus
There was a second hand one in the window at Clarks
I kept looking at it for weeks a Carlton Franco Italy
It was blue chrome white and blue colour
It was£5 pounds
When I asked the price they did not have prices on them then because you would not go in the shop
I went in with my dad on the Friday after I got paid and Sid said he would do it on tik
But he said you need a guarantor and because my dad was illiterate and could not read or write his name Sid as he became known to me and not Mr Clark said I could not have it
So I started crying
Jim heard me and came out from the workshop ask what was happening and said if I did not pay he would and he signed
He gave me a card and I was to pay 5 shillings a week
I used to get £4 week at concrete and I gave it all to my money to on a Friday then smam and she gave £1 back
The friendship that I had with Jim till he died his making me CRY HAS AM writing 🥵 what a lovely man
Can remember me and Tony Howarth got hold of old push chair
We was going to make trolley and we took the wheel of it got some bits of wood and some string but we could not make the hole for the bolt for the steering
At the evening I had to keep going in the house to get the poker hot to make a hole for the steering and it took ages
I had to wait till my dad went to the pub
I used my shoes on top of the front wheels for a brake
Can you remember on Alfred st central there was shop selling chicken?
I think they was hanging up and chicken pieces in white trays along the counter
down the sides and one end with bits of chicken in them and livers and you paid at other end
There was some Jamaican people
I think Errol Mclerrys mam use to go in
I used to go in with my mam and carry a little bag for her
The Larvin family lived on the corner a cross the road.
You could always hear his mum shouting
George was at school with me
Then years later he sold shoes on the Sneiton Market Saturday mornings
can remember going the in front room one day and my mam had a sweeping brush in her hands looking up towards the ceiling and the expression on her face I will never forget
There was a brown bowl on the table
the ones that we used to make dough in for making bread
And we used to put it on the fire hearth covered over waiting for the dough to rise
She had mixed some flour and water in it and she was trying to put a piece of wallpaper up on to the ceiling it was hang down in front of her
She had spots of flour over her hair and face
And the paper came off and went over her face still can see mama love you always Sisto💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Can you remember playing stretch on Victoria Park?
I went to play on the swings and the bigger lads made me play it
I used to do rolly polys
down the bottom end of the park there is a steep long bank .
It runs sort of ran parallel with St Anns Well Rd
I used to play on the Bendigo lion in there for hours
Never knew he was buried under it
Can you remember the fox and hounds pub on Union Rd next to Wayans shop?
My dad came home one night
He was always in that pub but he always came home with a Babycham for my mam and a packet of crisps for me
And said he had paid for me and there was coach trip to Bellevue zoo in Manchester but did not know where that was too young
I can remember going on it my put on the bus it was loverly CAN anyone else remember it
Does anyone remember down on Loverseed Vale there was parked a black mayflower car at night
He had a red light that you fixed on the centre post at the side
And going towards Northumberland St was a truck parked at night with empty long wooden boxes with Fyffe’s on the side
We used to play on it and look in the boxes in some of them there was jet black dead spiders I think they was black widows
I was a bit frightened of them
can you remember there was a man come round along St Anns Well Rd and then around the streets on a bicycle that had a grinding stone on the front of the handle bars with a grind stone on
He put the bike on stand sharped knifes
There was also man used to come down Loverseed Vale with a truck with no sides or back with wooden cages with chickens in them and I think some veg
The cages were tied down
My mam would buy a chicken sometimes
I can remember one day a man came with a brown suitcase
He opened it and there was a set of Pyrex plates saucers and cups 4 of each not glass like a wareite
It was a beautiful turquoise blue on the outside and white inside
He got one of the cups out and threw it on the floor and it bounced without breaking on the red tiles
and told my mam they were unbreakable
She bought them on the tick
They were £5 she was going to pay weekly
When my dad got home from work and saw them he went mad
But my mam kept them that was the first time I was going to drink out cups in my house
We had been drinking out of jam jars
When we was bored just sitting on the wall talking on Northumberland St Tony Howarth and Rob Chester thought of something to do
They went getting bricks making them looking like a parcel with brown paper wrapped with string with a used old stamp put on it and wrote address on it leave on the walls outside houses and we watch from a good way till someone picked it up and walk off with it
If you read this Rob Tony please own up
The other trick was just as it was dark and people left the empty milk bottles on the outside window ledge for the milkman they tied piece of cotton around the top of bottle
Take it across the road tie to a door handle knock on the door and run off quick
They was laughing before you hear the smash🤣🤣
Can you remember coming home from school Hunto and going up to the brick yard Mapperley?
If you had a penny you could go up on the bus from the corner of Alfred St Woodborough Rd
at bottom we made rafts with bits of wood tins string and floated out on them to try to get right across the other side without falling in and it was full of frogs and salamander newts and we collected them in jam jars with string round the top
We had an old Belfast sink in my back yard at 6 Loverseed Vale and I use to keep them in it
Can you remember collecting cigarette packs and leaning 5 or 10 of them towards the wall and then you would try and knock them down by skimming one in between your two first fingers to knock them down whoever knocked the last one down won them all them. From a set distance won them all
Can you remember in the winter after it had snowed it always froze and we used to make them long slides?
We keep going over and over them to make them more slippery
And they was there for weeks
Sometimes after school we could not wait to start sliding and we took it in turns
The one at the front where we lived was a narrow alley up to Union Rd with walls both sides so it helped you balance cause it was steep
The flat ones were good
Some were quite long and we fell over
Can you remember Sunday mornings on the Sneinton market site there was a football match every week?
If you got there on time they took it in turns to pick a player on your side
If you came late you were told to kick one way or the other
There used to be one on the sycamore park the same loved playing
One of my old mates Errol Mc Leary was his name
black lad just lived with his mother
Can’t remember what the name of the place round there was called
just at the back of Union Rd in between the watch repair shop on one corner
Can’t remember what was on the other corner
Errol lived there
Polish man had the watch shop
My dad knew him
There was some houses in there
We played cricket and football together with Martin Trussler and Martin Bamford
Bamford lived at top of Gr Freeman St on the right going up to the top like there was cull de sac both martins were sometimes talking about Len Barrington doing leg sweeps
I think we watched cricket some time in Martin Bamfords house
Errol’s mum was very strict could not skip home work at no cost
Can remember one school hols my mate Kenny Chester lived top on Northumberland St atop Union Rd end next to new inn which was on corner
There were two big houses
He lived in the one next to the pub
There was big archway in between them
At bottom was gore & rose upholster makers
Their shop was on Union Rd at top was joiners with wooden steps up
We decided we was going to put a play on to make a bit of money and sell drinks of smash
I think we asked the shops to help us with bits and they came
I cannot remember what the play was
Tony Howarth and the Chesters were in on it Christine Widderson
Does someone remember it???
Can remember in the school holidays we decided we were going to walk to Southwell
12 of us
Plan was if we walked there we was getting the bus back
Tony Haworth came Rob Chester Alan Rhodes Kenny Chester can’t remember all who came
Christine Widdowson
On the way there was a big pile of nettles on the kerb side and Tony Howarth threw me in them
He was laughing
One of my mates lived on Northumberland St Eddy Elliott and on a Sunday after they had their dinner I was allowed in
He had a train set
The tracks were pinned to a hardboard sheet
They put it on the dinner table and then set the train going
Best bit was his mum would give us a glass of cream soda with ice cream on the top it was lovely
Do you think that someone one day will realise the magnitude of what actually happened in the demolition of St Anns.
Can you remember if you went to Huntingdon St School?
You will if you walked along Woodborough Rd
There was a bakers
They sold small Hovis shape loaf half a penny
If you wanted butter in it it was one penny
The thing I remember most about them was they had just come out of the oven hot and they made my hands warm
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To follow or view any of Sistino Rao's postings in the facebook group St Anns Well Rd Pre Demolition (1970)
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click on any of the dates (in red) below
or sample some edited pieces here
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16 Dec 2019.........can remember one time my mate Terry dale Kenny Chester and me. went baby sitting down union cottages to Janice swinsco house with her mate Susan tegg and we in there house we up stairs and about 30 minutes had gone and Janice's mam came running up stairs shouting come out sisti Rao I know your up there how I don't now she know we was up there but I always seem to get blamed when there was girls round I can remember I think we when up glass house street we try some car doors to see if they were open on this little car park I don't know why we went doing this we never when in them and I remember has I was trying one one shouted oi oi oi dead loud so we legged it there was chain across the end. which none of use sore and we went flying I often think to my self if I could of videoed it how funny it would of looked from there I remember we went down Columba street remember does cigarette machines that were lite up can you remember them and I had little pen life in my pocket I think terry said if we cut the wire we might get some fags out I went to cut it I remember falling down and getting up quick Kenny and Terry was laughing so we went back Kenny's house on northumberland st down his caller he had a cage with chinchilla rabbit it was grey colour we. use get it out and play with it then go stairs and play with his meccano set he had massive one as playing remembertairs his oldist brother come running down stairs shouting which daft basted has left a razor blade on the soap he had white towel a round his left hand went to the general hospital at the ropewalk his name Terry Chester he was in the army
16 Dec 2019
I can remember one night my dad came home from the fox and hounds on union rd with a puppy dog he bought some one a drink for it and start play with it.then my dad told this story about what it was like in is village in Italy a life strange is an it the name a life. because it. was no life there my dad did not have shoes to wear he had rags every time he came back from pub he told the same story they went up in to the mountains looking for wood he called it UFASHU to sale and to get best bits he went at 2 in the mornings the next day when he came back from work he told I have got give the dog away so I went ask robin taylor he take to the pet shop Trinity square there 3 side roads the middle had the pet I crying I remember going to the counter telling the lady and I looked in the front window saw it there with some more dogs up to the glass I watch it for a long because I wanted it I can remember going to that same pet shop I was look towards the counter some thing pulled my head back with right thud my eyes watery I look round it a monkey put its hand through the bars in the cage and pulled my head back that the nearest I got having a pet but when I think I did not need a pet I was in ST ANNS were that then its paradise that's were
16 Dec 2019
do you remember. I remember paper shop on corner of union hedderley st it sold them mad magazines robin Taylor send me one some timer I think Tony howarth read them to I never seen any reading out we was to busy playing what often think about is I came over here with mam and to sisters ange lina maueala in sept 1956 and went to Shelton st infants how did I talk English I could only speak Italian think Terry dale was there we was good mates I don't know what happened to him Martin trussler played together Terry mostly liked going lofting around the lace market I can remember one time going to this high building there was small distance to the one were the pigeons so we went looking back down in all the floors for some. thing to put a a cross we find a piece of wood and laid it cross I can remember waited for ages because we was frightened to cross because it was so high I went first then they came after when we was all over there we kept say what if we had fell. some times use go the park on windmill lane that was the back front was Carlton rd it had steep backs and we kept slipping try together to top some times you get pushed and go backdown and. start laughing Sunday nights we on the veg mountains at Sneinton market playing carrots but never can remember any one eating one rob Chester Tony howarth Alan Rhodes and my self gang
15 Dec 2019
just got to make cup tea and cut a piece of chocolate Swiss roll what memories I had e that sitting with my mama Sunday night a much as like I always sat with mama she sent to the beer off the one round on st Anna well rd next to bamfords funeral dir sit with her on one those long settees with a round end that came up with no back on it my mam love it not that she got to sit much that's why I a writing this that is the only time I can remember her sitting down are wait a minute she use to do lace work she did the cutting I the pulling bit I can't remember the name of shop but I see it it sold radios and tv I remember the make pye she was the first person I recall to a tv paid for with lace work the first program I remember watching was cori and the hole streetcar and watch it is there some one out there that can remember it fag ash lii Hera sharpuls can remember Tony howarth calling the lady at the end house on Loverseed cottages that and laughing I can remember when he took me up to canning circus there a big arch way on the right coming up derby rd there cemetery there and he walk up to this grave stone and said to me sis that's were my dad is buried can you remember that Tony how a can a piece of Swiss roll make so happy that's because the people and the place you can never for get but I wont want but if I eat a piece of Swiss to day what will I remember about it 62 years time I wont be her but the ground were st anns was demolition will💝
15 Dec 2019
I will never forget as long as live but how could I he was my dad in 6 schools my I went with dad on the works bus to concrete and he would put at side of the pond to fish and pay my ticket to George peacock the bailiff George. would say don't move from here they dad would go to work at 12am it was dinner time for 1 hour and my came and sat with me he would bring a of orange corner pop. and sit at the side me and I little cob I can remember him doing this every day in the 6 weeks he never missed one day not just for 1 year but for as many as I can remember when I started work at Trent concrete had to walk from Edgar rise to Huntingdon st bus station and on Fridays when we was walking along he told me jumping skip and he did the same he said its Friday and we are getting paid I can remember the exact spot were we both did this and I will never forget it because he was
MY DAD LOVE you and I was in st anns the spot were jump was on commerce square union rd just were the red telephone box was can you remember it I can remember my dad buying me a red bus that you wound up with ait went along then it stopped and went doing ding and that when again we was living at robing hood chase the with the toast family we just one room I can before my mam me and two came over from Italy my dad came over bought me cowboy suit with a gun and hat it was brown I can still see it and I can still see you he was hold me at the of stairs a had a picture of it I wish I could find to show all of you how pride my was but I can still see it I ca remember one I a had worms coming of my bum and my mam cleaning me then one I lock ed my self in the bath room I could not open the door my mam was screaming they did not know what to do I remember the fire man push the door in and and mam crying she grabbed hard I can still feel it I had helicopter that was on piece of string above my bed my dad bought it me those are the only toys I remember having I love papa💝💝I can still see you 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
16 Dec 2019
can remember when we had to move from loverseed vale they gave my mam house opositions can remember going to a house on Hucknall rd opposite turners bakery can remember Horace brandeth at Lawrence satin to me that when is son was getting married he said they was work I think at night for some extra money now that has just bought back a new memory of robin Taylor taking me with in a van and delivering so papers from t Formans when it was on Forman st but may mam did not take the house she said to because they had taken hers she wanted a new one and that when we moved up ever rise with a push chair that I use fetch the coal in I can remember my dad getting me up one morning and it was still dark and that is the only time I can remember it being dark in st anns a I think my got in bed with my 3 sisters Angilian mamuila josipha and we walking along round union st Alfred st corner were the bank was and the police sarge stopped us he thought we had stolen it I told him we was being mover from loverseed vale which I know was paradise now and across up Cooper st can remember up my dad bought heater that you put the wall like along eye shape the next door mr loony did it when he switched it I went bag so he got a piece of paper and put a round the fuse and came remember up my payed a squeeze box it was red with white keys and we all use to sing papa piccolo and all laughing it made me think of my Grandad in Italy he playing with me in Italy near the fire and I can remember. falling on it with on my bum and then going up to this place in the mornings to have injections and crying my mam use go wash cloths in them water troughs I would at the side of watch and she would turn to and smile I can still see you befall mama I can remember one walking off and being water I had gone to were my mam wash the clothes and fell in and a man pull out and took me home my mam was crying she said the the nan new who I belong to
15 Dec 2019
where in the world can you wake up in the morning and think to yourself how many times can I remember it raining how many times can you remember raining does such a place exist can such a place existed in the world to day I know were it did remember that place do need it write it down or can you see it like me st anns is that place I can only ever remember seeing one sad thing there a dog got run over by car and it was squealing on st anns well rd opposite laminte st and the PDSA man came and shot it put in sack that was the same spot were I was ran of it happen to me again this time on union rd near to wanmans shop and I remember waking up on the counter of the paper shop but was not sad fort me I a live yes but there his some thing better than that is ant there we all know what that is st anns how long would it take to think of a. sad happening to day do you what me answer that for you and long did last not not long because I lived in st anns
15 Dec 2019
how can I follow that I can't but I will try can remember one in the garden watching a pigeon on the tree how can I catch one me and Lenny white use to go down slab square with a bit of corn feed them and when they got close we caught one with your hand can you remember what fun a simple thing like that was like and what did cost we use to go and Get a wooden box in Victoria market to make trap to catch a pigeon prop stick under it can go under with string a bit of bread wait to catch and when you did what feeling what did it cost what I do to get those same feelings there was only one place we know were that was don't we st anns will we get them again yes because when you lived st anns they can never go can they the people of st anns what beauafie I mean how do I know they that because I never for get them and I don't what forget because were can I people like were can I look I don't know do you know it will be paradise that were they and should be forever in how hearts just st anns what place it was and what did they do they demolition it but not people. because they can not be demolitioned
15 Dec 2019
woke up this morning with most beautiful feeling in the I remember the feeling than the name Christine came in my head omg were do start and were did finish she is the most beautiful person I have ever met my mam love as much as me no one can every place mam and I would not want then to but has as would hear she and as been no matter what little money we get sardeas an rice and peas to buy nice clothes for of beautiful dauervt rochea la rosa my son Rossini and one that was after mam mam died Ricco wait minute what did say she can never died just like the love have for Christine the those feeling I felt with my mam I though can she is no hear she is always hear never a gain that is not possible omg get what happen this morning the very same feeling ant first thouht that came in to head was Christine thought I had a rough upbringing compared to her I had paradise the feel when I woke this was like angel floating away that not a feel I have since my mam was alive but wait a minute she not dead like the love I have for Christine that can never happen because mimics do don't they Christine just look at our children there's no big can happen that and is you but you know look how you have made just like a king then the word angel came to my mind I love for ever just like and like she did how do I know that because she told me before she died but wait a minute she is not I see her al the time like I see with my eyes shut 💝💝
14 December at 23:13
I use to visit Jim Peach every evening after work, he lived in 1 0f 2 Jerry built cottages at Burton Joyce, George the farmer lived next door, with his wife Elsie. I considered him one of, if not the best wheel maker I've ever encountered in my life. For example he knew when I tightened a wheel string/spoke just by the sound of the tensions in them, I could always remember one evening a friend from work and I organised to meet up so that I could buy a lawnmower for my mother. When I got home from work. my mother was in tears, my mum and dad had not been getting along for a few years, when I asked her why she'd be crying, she told me that she received a telegram letting her know that her Mother/my Grandma was on her death bed. With the news that I heard, I started to think how I could I get my mother over to Italy before she passes away. I'd been saving some money for a deposit fora BMW motorbike that I'd always wanted for a long time, so with 500 pound saved, I told my mum to pack her case and I arranged a taxi to Heathrow airport. Unfortunately my Dad didn't' want to go with my mum. So me and my mum went together to the airport. 7am and I spoke to the officials, which they let me know unfortunately that they're was slim chances of actually getting a flight at the time in the airport, so I showed them the telegram and they came back an hour later with great news of securing a flight for my mum. I reassured my mum to stay for a week and told her not to worry about any bills at home or anything to do with home life and most importantly don't mention anything to do with the money that I gave her for the flight ever again. She managed to see her before she passed away. My mother told me exactly what my Grandma told her before she passed and they were 'Can I touch the floor' Love you mama 💝💝 always. I can still see you. 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
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14 December at 17:28
can remember going fishing down the Trent embankment that only place I know when I was 5 I use now did remember doing much speaking to people ingroused in fishing can remember one I time I went to try a different spot just under the Trent bridge don't now how it happened but I was in the water and managed to climb not and I was crying there was no one there so I walk up to the I was all wet dripping went to go on the along London rd the bus conductor said I could not get on the bus so walk along London but I did not home because I use think my dad will hit me and stop going fishing but he was at work but would I can remember going watching Jim peach siting on my box but in school hols my use to take me with to work on the works bus then there 3 ponds there he put me in a spot and told me not to move George peacock was the bailiff. at dinner time my came with a bottle of corona pop and I sandwich I never went to barbers my cut my hair with one of those hand clippers but I think now must have gifted he could not read or write because he did not go to school in Italy he told me he walk in to school they told he because had no shoes on his feet he was not aloud he had rags around his foot when he told me this more than once he was crying it was when he had come back from the pub when he told this and stories about poverty in the village were he was born it was called life and were I was born I can remember my grandad papa Sisto that is after the patron saint of the village my told me story about him they went in the church to steal it when they got it out it all when black him there is a because i remember when started he was cutting hair for people in the dinner times for 2 shillings that work at concrete I have seen that same poverty in st Anns when I think back but look how people were were nothing but they have something st anns and the people that we all met
14 December at 15:21
the only times I remember it raining in st anns was once do on corner of bath st coming back up st anns Weldon the was right shed like hut made out of wood and went in it I think Tony howarth was with me because thinking of asking the church if we could pay so many play football in when it was raining the other time was when I come back from fishing and but I did go home so I went down cromwell terrace and watch Jim peach clarks the bike shop a shutter on the left hand side it was maroon colour Jim had stand with a wheel in it head glasses on he was spinning it with is left hand looking over at over the glasses and turning the with is right hand he had oil can on the bench with the spout sticking up on the edge of the wheel he kept stop it tightening one spoke. and loosing another till the wheel was straight the he pointed at me and pulled a funny face
14 December at 15:02
work up this morning trembling with excitement trying to remember when it ever rained in the in st anns answer never why that then because st anns was paradise. in all the years I lived in st anns see I keep writing st anns why's that than I mite forget st anns what a place. growing up there were can you sit down now at the side of the pavement hand pick some bits of tar up in your fingers and roll them for hours not get bored then see a bottle top and put it on your t shirt look at it and say wow I have got a badge then say but wait a minute feel like a KING. WAKING up trembling with excitement if you don't believe me me come all of you on this web site to my house and watch trying to type this its like GOD has got hold of you or you have just got a electric shock so were can I go to day get that feeling .do you now no I don't but I do know were I did do you remember it that place is ST ANNS o m g were is know its now it been demolition yes but wait a minute were are the people well they don't matter do they that why we are here today writing THIS . because they demolition . ST .ANNS. why no. in door toilet. no bathroom great but wait a minute were is that electric shock gone .its not gone its IN MY HEART why's that then because I lived in ST ANNS like you but the difference is we were there happy were can we go now and be that happy how much will cost can afford it .how much did it cost to live in ST ANNS to be that happy do you know I do, we had very little . but the people made you happy . people like met Jim peach martini trusslur Tony howarth flori wiles Jesse wiles robin Taylor .living in st anns made me happy were can go now for the same happiness how much will cost can I afford it is. it was ST ANNS . what will make me wake trebling I don't know do you know but I know did it was ST ANNS. were can wake to day trembling . with happiness . I don't now but I did now we can site on the kerb on my own for hours playing with a bit of tar in my fingers and then see a bottle top pick it up put on my t shirt and think wow I have got a badge and feel like KING . I don't know but I did know waking up trembling with excitement trying to hold my fingers steady trying to type were is that place know I don't know but I did know that place was st anns . my right ste know can you remember I remember how can you ever can you for get even when you are dead what's that word I am king of kings See living st anns O MY GOD WHAT A PLACE YES WAIT WHAT about the people some thing higher than that o m g it must have been paradise were is that place now what would I pay for tsuch a place what did we pay nothing what do they go and do O M GOD they go demolition it what they could ever not do is demolition the people that why we are still here and always will be because st anns is in how hearts sorry about this post can't seem to sort it
13 December at 19:11
I use to run in to andersons pa wn shop got my first coat from there when I started work at trent concrete Colwick privete rd no 7 it was £1 second hand Harris tweed it was warm my dad took in when was about 5 I ran in and out wicked had lodes of coats hanging up and they was close together can you remember you couldnt stay in there long because old man and chase you out and shouting years after they move Denman st Radford because when I went for fishing maggots it on the corner and use to look in the windows they tools but they had an other shop on the other part of Denman st it crossed Radford rd I bought a pair of verniers caliper from them pav was the make for a £5 still got there made in Switzerland land Bamfords was on the left I think out set back was the stone carving stones. you could see him carving at the back there was wall and railing above that lead on to it was called place can you remember them it was over on to union road then opposite a cross union road was a opening with walls ever side think they were blue bricks there was a step down paddy freeman he was at same school hunto remember having a fight with him I can remember it he through a piece of slate at me remember bits fell off the roof and we picked them up marked on the pavement and the girls us it for hop scotch it stud and it stuck in head if you see ask him last I sore was in Beeston on Queen'srd Alan Rhodes lives at beaten down the relays I was crying with this slate in head and we both at each other my shoe came he had hold of round the neck I pick up the shoe and hit him with it and he let go I ran home cross union rd down the ally were the Indian shop was at the top you smell the spices when down ally cobbled on left lived Denis allsworth she use to bully me still see her brother John fishing he's retire and live on along boat at castle marina I was crying when I got home my went made she wipe the blood off I think she told my dad I fell off the laburnum tree in how garden I ran up and it all the time don't think there was no bark left on it
13 December at 17:41
one day I was in the kitchen with my mam just before my dad got home from my cooking the centre was open she was her the sink I climb on it and it tipped my was seeing if I alright my 3 sisters were in the back room just then my dad came back from work and he mad and started hitting and my mam always got in between I have never forgotten that that is why loved her so much and still do 💝💝 still see you mama Mia 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
13 December at 17:29
when my was making the spaghetti I was helping her on the unit in the kitchen when you came of the back room it was on the against the wall in left corner the was door to up stairs the unit was red two glass door at the top with a frosty glass glass in them in the centre was a fall that came down that's were mam and me made pasta my got some flour and from the Italian shop a long st anns well rd it on the left going up right were you went on robin hood chase just in there up a bit was mr public toilets I can remember some one murdered just a round there and they have not found out who it was bit like the murder sneinton pretty windows pub on Carlton Road my mam new the lady in the Italian shop she came from the same village army family my mam made like a well on top of the fall and use one egg water I help mixing it was great then she use to roll it and cut thick strips then roll them then cut them about 3/4 inch long then get a fork roll it wards you and It made pattern and thinned it out li like doing it she put them in boiling water then she made sauce out of a tin straddo she called it
13 December at 16:55
my mam use to go in to stones for pans to cook the spaghetti in I can only remember seeing 2 pans in the kitchen some times my cooked pasta thatch made herself and I use to help after School when I went to Shelton street she came to pick me up after school at the of Shelton st as you was getting on to gr freeman st corner was a sweet shop some times she got sweets for me and sisters we went left on to gr freeman st and down a bit on the right northumberland street we walk along there and half way down was shop both sides on left it mason right hand corner the one the right there an arched ally way down there was some houses on the right about 4 on the was some black railings about 4 ft high because there was a drop. on to union rd facing h browns the coal yard and a rubber factory next to it I think you could see union cottage too
13 December at 16:36
can you remember Andersons the pawn shop on st anns well rd I think it was next to bamfords or stones my mam use to go in there for blankets but not many my dad had so old coats he use to put on the bed it winter and when he came back from the pub fox hounds on union rd he came up stairs with with a shovel of hot coal bits from the fire down stairs fire there was 3 bedrooms top of the stairs mam ands bedroom on the right on the left my 3 sisters bedroom and through that was mine I can remember there was no door frame or door on it and a little window on the right I use to have nightmares I can remember what they was about robins taylors mam use to say to me if you wasn't in bed by 10pm the 10 clock horses would get you that was a well known saying do you remember it
13 December at 14:29
At the week end I went lofting with leonard white he lived on Huntingdon st top of gr freeman street at the top and on the left there was about ten steps to climb and there was a railing along the top looking on to Huntingdon st when in is house one in winter his dad was sitting at side of the fire on the floor I always remember seeing a bi pile of coal just put on the floor was was big man Lenny was frightened to death of he shouted you could ear it louder than slab square clock on the hour ring we use go to city temple it still there at Sneinton can't remember just how we got in but we did I think that Indian lad. was with us that lived northumberland st there was a trap door and lt was high up to the loft
13 December at 14:11
after school some days we went up to the forest I called for Martin trussler he lived Shelton st on the left across the road lived jimmy brooks what a bowler speed like fire Martin truster will know what I mean if you missed the ball middle stump straight out every time wow what a bowler he was he pulled a face when he bowled I can see it now walk up there some times Martin Bamford came up he lived on gr freeman st we use play near the path there was a bit of high bank so we could stop the ball going to far and the high Bulwell stone on the back which was high with green railings on the top of it Martin trusller me spent hours up there remember Martin learning to bowl off breaks googalies I can still see Martins hand action now he was a very good all cricket player he was better than me we had some right laughs up there I won't tell them anything Martin promise along the path was water fountain were when for I drink cause we use to get hot playing Martin said jimmy brooks could bowl a tennis ball faster the West Indian fast bowler WES HALL I think we used call eroll mc erry that because he was from Jamaican or West Indian
13 December at 13:54
sometimes my sent me to the butchers on st anns well just around the corner of Northumberland st Napoleon pub on the corner there was an ally to the back of the pub just before you got to the corner some times went down and could see some emptys through the little slits in the high gate and climb over got them and took them back for a penny don't tell any one the butches was called Osbornes do you remember it next to that a was a shop my. mam had I tiki's there and she went to pay on Fridays when my dad got payed he use to £20 week I remember years after I always think that 1000 a year some times I would see mr Bamford big man with suit on and talked to me in Italian he could speak it he always laugh at me
13 December at 13:35
can remember we made a tandem bike up rob Chester Tony howarth Alan Rhodes eddy Elliott it was a black frame with black spots that what Jim use to say to me and then laugh I don't know were we got the wheels for but we did when to of them went on it the one at the back didn't pedal and after bit the one at the front would look round see them and shout we was watching we was already but quietly so the one on the front could not hear us the then we could laugh for longer
13 December at 13:23
I can remember running across st Anns well rd I was playing out my dad gone to the pub fox and hounds before he went out he always had shave in the kitchen in the Belfast sink this was on the right when you went in the back there saw a curtain across I can remember my mam putting it on perhaps that's because I loved so much love you mama I can still see you before my dad had shave he use to sharped the razor blade in a glass can you remember doing that back to when I was not playing on st anns well red a cross from northumberland st in front of lamenting st I got run over by a motorcycle and can remember ending up robin Taylor house having a bandage on my head and the police man came to ask me what had happened I have got a photo of it my sister Giuseppina has it she is looking it out can you remember that TONY HOWARTH
13 December at 12:54
when I started Lawrences 23 may 1968 Monday in the fitters that were they put knobs on furniture I was to meet a man that was as close as the great Jim peach Horace brandeth he lived in lambely in his dads 200 year old cottage his dad was a miner still belong to his son Stuart bratheth Horaces wife lily what a lovely lady he meet her on the corner of pym street I can remember him telling me Horace's two twin sisters lived next door the number plaque on the wall that I made when he retired is still there its mad of American oak o what stories to come just be we knocked of work at night I can still see him now with a tenon saw turn up side down front end against the Bench and the in his stomach cutting little bits of fire wood he cycle to work from when he started at 14 till 65 and had jam in is sandwich every day tile he retired and that day he said to me sis this is the first morning in all them years that I forgot to kiss the wife this morning
13 December at 12:38
Can you remember I can remember the factory on Sabina st he was the eldest one round face looked a bit like Dave Clarke worked there one one the Clark brothers there was 3 Dave was eldest then John Dave had a smiley face a bit like any cap he built mostly the motorbike wheels up there and car wheels jags 80 spokes or 60 defo one or the other can't remember but I will if you know put me right the great Jim peach I was closer to him than my dad and I loved my dad if I start talk about I will never stop don't laugh I mean it from my heart you will see this a lot NO one in the work could balance a wheel like him THE BEST IN WORLD that's MY opinion I have still got his tools and spoke key a German soldier made and hard for him in BERLIN after the war he could Jim could speak German he could put a stermy archer 3 \4 speed to together with his eyes shut if of had a had video camera you would of Sean it LIKE I did I was in the gelding club one Sunday lunch time on Gedling rd and over heard someone say there's no one can balance a wheel. like Jim peach that person was I was later to meets dick Gregory he was the model maker at Wm Lawrences furniture wait and see
12 December at 20:57
Some of them places we went lofting were dangerous mostly up in the lace market the big high buildings 6 stories high you got in from the basement down 5 steps with rails both sides then walk up steps to the top floor . floor then you had find a way in to loft that was the hard bit and I was small could not find some thing to climb on two we would get on the other one shoulders so one of us was up then the other one pull you up we had some laughs trying to up going down was easy after we put the pigeons in your top we just dropped down we didn't care how high it was if you think back we must done so damage to our bones because I'm telling you I did some long drops and you could feel your feet tingling for hours 😔after we go and sit down for a bit and just talk about what we had just done and laugh cause we couldn't reach getting up
12 December at 17:35
robin taylor first showed me how to make a fishing rod with. Two garden Caines making one thinner end in to the other and then make the rod rings he got some safety pins and cut the top off leaving hole bit then bending one bit one way and the other one the other way then getting some cotton and whipping them on the canes I use to go fishing down the embankment get some maggots from Tommy Watsons on canal street on way there I use always catch guenons there was loads of them in the Trent I use ledger fish for them and cast to the middle of the river I thought it was great and people used to watch I thought it was great I use to bring some and my use to eat them I tried keeping some in a old Belfast sink we in the back garden but they use to die after so long
12 December at 15:57
can you remember going up st anns well rd after Alfred st north on the right corner I think it was was pym st towards wells rd there was Homles the cycle shop dad and son the dad had glasses and was bald that lad that I sore walking up union rd carrying his bike that day it use to go in there I can remember seeing him in there one day then they moved to colwick rd just past meadow lane on the right I went that way to work past the bus dept on the Carlton Road end corner manvers st on my bike and if there was a bus at the stop I use to wait till it started of from the stop then get in wind stream I could keep up with it on my bike Carlton franco Italy I had a 60 tooth crank on it which I order from jack taylors bike shop on alfreten rd I use to look in there often after I had been on the forest playing football can remember leather brooks pro saddle hanging up in the shop through the window and he had a lot milremo cycle parts they were Italian I can remember looking in the window and on the shelf there was little wire part that you fixed on to the back brake bolt and it was just about 2mm over the tyre the idea of it was if you got some thing in your tyre it knocked it out before it had chance to puncture your tyre i don't know if it worked my Maine bike shop was clarks on Alfred st and my friend Jim peach thati have know since I was 5 built me a pair of Wieman wheels for it because they were lightweight I remember one Saturday morning going to pools tools shop on hockey and then coming back along broad st and a lady in car opened her car door and I went right in to it my foot wheel was badly buckled so I had to walk from there clarks were Jim peach straight it because I went every were with that you ask Martin trussler
12 December at 14:20
what was the name of that factory on Plantagenet st it was a knitting I think you could see cotton bobbins spinning all the time you went passed I use stand there not for a long time if one my mates came passed we been up the forest playing foot ball or cricket till I was dark there was one of them water fountain for a drink if we had time to busy playing it was great
12 December at 14:11
does any one remember the plumber on union rd just down from A&A hardware there was some houses they were set back about 3 down he lived he had tweed hat and jacket up on the same row of houses was a lad that was always racing up and down st anns well road on a red Elis briggs racing bike he use to come back up union rd can remember seeing him coming back one day carry it don't what he done
12 December at 13:58
can you remember the toy shop in Victoria market use to go and look at the toy all the time some time buy one of those little basal wood glides can you remember them spent hours with it till it broke I love it
12 December at 12:04
can remember one Sunday at bottom of the garden we had alleyway on to loverseed vale if you turned right and a quick left. was the back garden of robin Taylors house he had a sister named val she was older than him and on Sundays I was a loud round there late tea times his mam always made a jelly on Sundays then she use mix a tin of carnation in to it and pour it to one them silver tin moulds and leave to set it was pink what ever flavour it was it still went pink it was loverly he had air guns and rifles in the house and was always mess with them in the house never got pellets out in the house but remember him chewing bits of news paper in is mouth and made pellets to put in the air rifle if one of them went a stray when he fire it and it and hit you it stung he went camping most weekends with is mates I always ran errands for his mam and he wasn't there some times when he came back from camping he'd say to his mam just dig this pellet out me head mam if she was in a bad mood she told him were to get of so then he asked his sister val to dig it out
12 December at 01:45
DO you remember going lofting
12 December at 01:44
up on northumbland st from st.anns well rd going up on the left before you got to the top of union rd there was new inn pub left top corner then a big house which the Chester family lived coming back down there was a big opening then a other side to it was an other big house same has Chesters in the arch way was gore and rose upholsters were they made the settees above a joiners shop can't remember the name of it back down past the big house set back there was a row of small houses going down the in the first one lived a India boy nice lad he was he obsessed we pigeons and kept one or in his back yard does some one remember his name he use come with me and Terry dale lofting he loved it
12 December at 01:27
does some remember David boff can't remember the name of st of union rd turn left on to hedaley st the first on the left going up to Northumberland st there was a shop top left corner he lived on the right there was big square opening he lived in there
12 December at 01:18
Does any one remember Robert whitehead he lived on northumberland st going up towards gr freeman st not far up the was shop on the left. there was ally down it there was some house on the right and on the left some black railings looking on union rd you could see harry brown the coal merchant rubber next door
11 December at 21:21
my mam use send up to wainmans for a bottle of stera and some times not two often a buy broken biscuits In a brown paper bag the one we use pretend to through up a stone and flick your finger like it drop in to it do you remember then when you went in the shop i think the tins was on the the right hand side them metal square ones on a angled rack at the top of the ally was a Indian shop with bags on the floor out side you could smell the spices in that shop was the first time I saw them little bottles of lime juice p j l was the make one day my mam sent me to the shop and there was a lad grab old of me and took the shilling that my mam gave me and I was crying I went home and told my mam this happened two more times then one day she sent the shop and this lad he was bigger than me came to take the shilling of me all of a sudden my mam ad appeared and got hold of him a round his ear that hard he yelling and crying she told never to touch me and he didn't I us to see him but he never came near me ever and when I was out with my mam he had respect for her I can remember he lived Round on Comyn st there was a big round arch on there if he reads this he will know it was him but he his forgiven
11 December at 16:26
can remember one day in the in school holidays was it was red hot I was sitting down on the kerb in loverseed vale and looking down in between the cobblestones there was black shiny tar I pick some and was rolling it in my fingers look down again there was a bottle top so I pick it up poked out the in side I put it on the front of my top and put the inside back in then I look at it wow I've got badge I felt just like a KING I was in st anns
11 December at 03:07
when I was working at mw Lawrence Colwick a can remember it was my youngest brothers birthday and he had always wanted a racing bike but my mam &dad could not a ford it I had a offer of some extra work in the evenings at a place in Bingham one night a week making some pine egg racks with holes in them you screw them on the wall so through this will pay for the bike but he was small and it hard to get a racing bike so I went to see Jim peach at Clarkes the bike shop he said leave with me a 2 weeks later I went in and he got this beautiful red bike and the plan was to send my brother in to the shop for him to try it for size so on his birthday Saturday morning I was at work he went in to the shop with my youngest Anna I told him Jim had a bike just for him to try for size and that we could not afford to buy him one yet so he went and Jim said to get on it he kept looking at it and after bit Jim said to him it ok yes he Jim well you better have it then sorry ANNA
11 December at 01:54
Can you remember clarks the bike shop on the corner Alfred and Cromwell terrace opposite Cromwell pub bike shop on the right side and another door on the left for the pram shop a little blonde lady named anny she sold the push chairs the shop on the left the bike was on right side Sid Clarke big man with glasses on always sitting down on the right hand side of the counter Jim peach repair the cycles and a polish man work in there name was josph gascaneni Jim use to call me campagnolo after the Italian cycle gears when I started work with my dad at Trent concrete Colwick there was a works bus from huntindon st bus station down to the private Colwick but I wanted a bike to go to work and not the bus there was a second hand one in the window at clarks I kept look at it for weeks at carlton Franco Italy it was blue Crome white and blue colour it was£5 pounds when I ask the price they did not have prices on them then because you would not go in the shop I went in with my dad on the Friday after I got paid and Sid said he would do it on tik but he said you need a guarantor and because my dad was illiterate and could not read or write his name Sid as he became know to me and not mr Clark said I could not have it so I started crying Jim heard me and came out from the workshop ask what was happening and said if I did not pay he would and he sign he gave me card and I was to pay 5 shillings a week I use to get £4 week at concrete and I gave it all to my money to on a Friday then s mam an she gave £1 back the friendship that i had with Jim till he died his making me CRY HAS AM writing ..what a lovely man
11 December at 01:03
can remember me and Tony Howarth got hold of old push chair we was going to make trolley and we took the wheel of it got some bits of wood and some string but we come not make the hole for the bolt for the steering at the evening I had to keep going in the house to get the poke hot to make a hole for the steering and it took ages I had to wait till my dad went to the pub I use use my shoes on top of the front wheels for a brake
10 December at 22:55
can you remember on Alford st central there was shop selling chicken I think they was hanging up and chicken pieces in white trays along the counter down to sides and one end with bits of chicken in them and livers and you paid at other end there was some Jamaican people I think Errol mclerrys mam use to go in I use to go in with my mam and carry a little bag for her the larvin family lived on the corner a cross the road. you could always hear his mum shouting George was at school with me then years later he sold shoes on the sneinton market Saturday mornings
10 December at 17:11
can remember going the in front room one day and my mam had a sweeping brush in her hands looking up towards the ceiling and the expression on her face I will never forget there was a brown bowl on the table the ones that we use to make dough in for making bread and we use to put it on fire health covered over waiting for the dough to rise she had mixed some flour and water in it and she was trying to put a piece of wallpaper up on to the ceiling it was hang down in front of her she had spots of flour over her hair and face and the paper came off and went over her face still can see mama love you always Sisto💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
10 December at 01:36
can you remember playing stretch on Victoria park I went play on the swings and the bigger lads made me play it I use to do rolly pollys down the bottom end of the park there is a steep long bank it runs sort of parallel with st anns well rd I use to play on the bend go lion in there for hours never new he was buried under it
10 December at 01:10
can you remember the fox and hounds pub on union. rd next to waymans shop my dad came home one night he was always in that pub but he always came home with a babycham for my mam and a packet of crisps for me and said he had paid for me and there was coach trip to Bellevue zoo in Manchester but did not know were that was was to young I can remember going on it my put on the bus it was loverly CAN any one else remember it
10 December at 00:12
does any one remember down on loverseed vale there was park a black mayflower car at night he had a red light that you fixed on the centre post at the side and going to wards Northumberland st was a truck parked at night with empty long wooden boxes with Ffyfes on the side they we use to play on it and look in the boxes in some of them there was jet black dead spiders I think they was black widows I was a bit frightened of them
9 December at 23:39
can you remember there was a man come round on along st anns well rd and then around the streets on a bicycle that had a grinding stone on the front of the handle bars with a grind stone on he put the bike on stand sharped knifes there was also man use to come down loverseed vale with a truck with no sides or back with wooded cages with chickens in them and I think some veg the cages were tied down my mam would buy a chicken some times I can remember one day a man came with a brown suitcase he opened it and there was a set of Pyrex plates saucers and cups 4 of each not glass like a wareite it was a beautiful turquoise blue on the outside and white inside he got one of the cups out and through it on the floor and it bounce without braking on the red tiles and told my mam they were unbreakable she bought them on the tick they were £5 she was going to pay weekly when my dad got home from work and saw them he went mad but my mam kept them that was the first time I was going to drink out cups in my house we had been drinking out jam jars
9 December at 22:40
when we was bored just sitting on the wall talking on Northumberland st Tony howarth Rob Chester thought of some thing to do they went getting bricks making them looking like a parcel with brown paper rapped with string with a used old stamp put on it and wrote address on it leave on the walls outside houses and we watch from a good way till some one picked it up and walk off with it if you read this rob Tony please own up the other trick was just as it was dark and people left the empty milk bottles on the outside window ledge for the milkman they tied piece of cotton around the top of bottle take it across the road tie to a door handle knock on the door and run off quick they was laughing before you hear the smash
9 December at 17:31
Can you remember coming home from school hunto and going up to the brick yard Mapperley if you had a penny you could go up on the bus from the corner of Alfred st woodborough rd at bottom we made rafts with bits of wood tins string and floated out on them to try to get right a cross the other side without falling in and it was full of frogs and salamander newts and we collected them in jam gars with string round the top we had a old Belfast sink in my back yard at 6 loverseed vale and I use to keep them in it
9 December at 09:55
Can you remember collecting cigarette packs and leaning 5 or 10 of them towards the wall and then you would try and nock them down by sciming one in between your two first fingers to knock them down whoever knocked the last one down won them all them.From a set distance won them all
8 December at 20:24
can you remember in the winter after it had snowed it always frozen and we use to make them long slide we keep going over and over them to make them more slippery and they was there for weeks some times after school we could not wait to start sliding and we took it in turns the one at the front were we lived was a narrow ally up to union rd with walls both sides so it help you balance cause it was steep the flat ones were good some were quite long and we fell over
8 December at 02:45
can you remember Sunday mornings on the Sneinton market site there was a football match every week if you got dear on time they tuck it in turns to pick a player on your side if you came late you were told to kick one way or the other they use to one on the sycamore park the same loved playing
8 December at 01:56
one of my old mates Errol mc Leary was his name black lad just lived with is mother can't remember what the name of the place round there was called just at the back of union rd in between the watch repair shop on one corner can't remember what was on the other corner or Errol lived there polish man had the watch shop my dad knew him there was some houses in there we played cricket and football together with Martin trussler and Martin Bamford Bamford lived at top of gr freeman st on the right going up to the top like there was culled sac both martins were some times talking about Len Barrington doing leg sweeps I think we watched cricket some time in Martin bamfords house errols mum was very strict he could not skip home work at no cost
7 December at 17:39
can remember one school hols my mate Kenny Chester lived top on Northumberland St atop Union rd end next to new inn which was on corner there were two big house he lived in the one next to pub there was big archway in between them at bottom was gore &rose upholster makers there shop was on union rd at top was joiners with wooden steps up we decided we was going to put a play on to make a bit of money and sell drinks of smash I think we ask the shops to help us with bits and they came I cannot remember what the play was Tony howarth and the Chesters were in on it Christine widderson does some one remember it???
7 December at 09:32
Can remember in school holidays we decided we going to walk to Southwell 12 of us plan was if we walk there we was getting the bus back tony howerth came rob Chester Alan Rhodes Kenny Chester can’t remember all who came Christhine widdowson on the way there there was a big pile of nettles on the kerb side and tony howerth through me in them he was laughing
7 December at 04:04
one of my mates lived on Northumberland st eddy Elliott and on a Sunday after they had there dinner I was aloud in he had a train set the tracks were pind a hardboard sheet they put on the dinner table and then set the train going best bit was his mum would give us a glass of cream soda with ice cream on the top it was lovely
6 December at 17:52
Do you think that some one one day will realise the magnitude of what actually happened in the demolition of st anns .
6 December at 06:48
can you remember if you went to Huntingdon St school you will if you walked along Wood borough rd there was a bakers they sold small hovis shape loaf half a penny if you wanted butter in it it was one penny the thing I remember most about them was they had just come out of the oven hot and they made my hands warm
16 Dec 2019
I can remember one night my dad came home from the fox and hounds on union rd with a puppy dog he bought some one a drink for it and start play with it.then my dad told this story about what it was like in is village in Italy a life strange is an it the name a life. because it. was no life there my dad did not have shoes to wear he had rags every time he came back from pub he told the same story they went up in to the mountains looking for wood he called it UFASHU to sale and to get best bits he went at 2 in the mornings the next day when he came back from work he told I have got give the dog away so I went ask robin taylor he take to the pet shop Trinity square there 3 side roads the middle had the pet I crying I remember going to the counter telling the lady and I looked in the front window saw it there with some more dogs up to the glass I watch it for a long because I wanted it I can remember going to that same pet shop I was look towards the counter some thing pulled my head back with right thud my eyes watery I look round it a monkey put its hand through the bars in the cage and pulled my head back that the nearest I got having a pet but when I think I did not need a pet I was in ST ANNS were that then its paradise that's were
16 Dec 2019
do you remember. I remember paper shop on corner of union hedderley st it sold them mad magazines robin Taylor send me one some timer I think Tony howarth read them to I never seen any reading out we was to busy playing what often think about is I came over here with mam and to sisters ange lina maueala in sept 1956 and went to Shelton st infants how did I talk English I could only speak Italian think Terry dale was there we was good mates I don't know what happened to him Martin trussler played together Terry mostly liked going lofting around the lace market I can remember one time going to this high building there was small distance to the one were the pigeons so we went looking back down in all the floors for some. thing to put a a cross we find a piece of wood and laid it cross I can remember waited for ages because we was frightened to cross because it was so high I went first then they came after when we was all over there we kept say what if we had fell. some times use go the park on windmill lane that was the back front was Carlton rd it had steep backs and we kept slipping try together to top some times you get pushed and go backdown and. start laughing Sunday nights we on the veg mountains at Sneinton market playing carrots but never can remember any one eating one rob Chester Tony howarth Alan Rhodes and my self gang
15 Dec 2019
just got to make cup tea and cut a piece of chocolate Swiss roll what memories I had e that sitting with my mama Sunday night a much as like I always sat with mama she sent to the beer off the one round on st Anna well rd next to bamfords funeral dir sit with her on one those long settees with a round end that came up with no back on it my mam love it not that she got to sit much that's why I a writing this that is the only time I can remember her sitting down are wait a minute she use to do lace work she did the cutting I the pulling bit I can't remember the name of shop but I see it it sold radios and tv I remember the make pye she was the first person I recall to a tv paid for with lace work the first program I remember watching was cori and the hole streetcar and watch it is there some one out there that can remember it fag ash lii Hera sharpuls can remember Tony howarth calling the lady at the end house on Loverseed cottages that and laughing I can remember when he took me up to canning circus there a big arch way on the right coming up derby rd there cemetery there and he walk up to this grave stone and said to me sis that's were my dad is buried can you remember that Tony how a can a piece of Swiss roll make so happy that's because the people and the place you can never for get but I wont want but if I eat a piece of Swiss to day what will I remember about it 62 years time I wont be her but the ground were st anns was demolition will💝
15 Dec 2019
I will never forget as long as live but how could I he was my dad in 6 schools my I went with dad on the works bus to concrete and he would put at side of the pond to fish and pay my ticket to George peacock the bailiff George. would say don't move from here they dad would go to work at 12am it was dinner time for 1 hour and my came and sat with me he would bring a of orange corner pop. and sit at the side me and I little cob I can remember him doing this every day in the 6 weeks he never missed one day not just for 1 year but for as many as I can remember when I started work at Trent concrete had to walk from Edgar rise to Huntingdon st bus station and on Fridays when we was walking along he told me jumping skip and he did the same he said its Friday and we are getting paid I can remember the exact spot were we both did this and I will never forget it because he was
MY DAD LOVE you and I was in st anns the spot were jump was on commerce square union rd just were the red telephone box was can you remember it I can remember my dad buying me a red bus that you wound up with ait went along then it stopped and went doing ding and that when again we was living at robing hood chase the with the toast family we just one room I can before my mam me and two came over from Italy my dad came over bought me cowboy suit with a gun and hat it was brown I can still see it and I can still see you he was hold me at the of stairs a had a picture of it I wish I could find to show all of you how pride my was but I can still see it I ca remember one I a had worms coming of my bum and my mam cleaning me then one I lock ed my self in the bath room I could not open the door my mam was screaming they did not know what to do I remember the fire man push the door in and and mam crying she grabbed hard I can still feel it I had helicopter that was on piece of string above my bed my dad bought it me those are the only toys I remember having I love papa💝💝I can still see you 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
16 Dec 2019
can remember when we had to move from loverseed vale they gave my mam house opositions can remember going to a house on Hucknall rd opposite turners bakery can remember Horace brandeth at Lawrence satin to me that when is son was getting married he said they was work I think at night for some extra money now that has just bought back a new memory of robin Taylor taking me with in a van and delivering so papers from t Formans when it was on Forman st but may mam did not take the house she said to because they had taken hers she wanted a new one and that when we moved up ever rise with a push chair that I use fetch the coal in I can remember my dad getting me up one morning and it was still dark and that is the only time I can remember it being dark in st anns a I think my got in bed with my 3 sisters Angilian mamuila josipha and we walking along round union st Alfred st corner were the bank was and the police sarge stopped us he thought we had stolen it I told him we was being mover from loverseed vale which I know was paradise now and across up Cooper st can remember up my dad bought heater that you put the wall like along eye shape the next door mr loony did it when he switched it I went bag so he got a piece of paper and put a round the fuse and came remember up my payed a squeeze box it was red with white keys and we all use to sing papa piccolo and all laughing it made me think of my Grandad in Italy he playing with me in Italy near the fire and I can remember. falling on it with on my bum and then going up to this place in the mornings to have injections and crying my mam use go wash cloths in them water troughs I would at the side of watch and she would turn to and smile I can still see you befall mama I can remember one walking off and being water I had gone to were my mam wash the clothes and fell in and a man pull out and took me home my mam was crying she said the the nan new who I belong to
15 Dec 2019
where in the world can you wake up in the morning and think to yourself how many times can I remember it raining how many times can you remember raining does such a place exist can such a place existed in the world to day I know were it did remember that place do need it write it down or can you see it like me st anns is that place I can only ever remember seeing one sad thing there a dog got run over by car and it was squealing on st anns well rd opposite laminte st and the PDSA man came and shot it put in sack that was the same spot were I was ran of it happen to me again this time on union rd near to wanmans shop and I remember waking up on the counter of the paper shop but was not sad fort me I a live yes but there his some thing better than that is ant there we all know what that is st anns how long would it take to think of a. sad happening to day do you what me answer that for you and long did last not not long because I lived in st anns
15 Dec 2019
how can I follow that I can't but I will try can remember one in the garden watching a pigeon on the tree how can I catch one me and Lenny white use to go down slab square with a bit of corn feed them and when they got close we caught one with your hand can you remember what fun a simple thing like that was like and what did cost we use to go and Get a wooden box in Victoria market to make trap to catch a pigeon prop stick under it can go under with string a bit of bread wait to catch and when you did what feeling what did it cost what I do to get those same feelings there was only one place we know were that was don't we st anns will we get them again yes because when you lived st anns they can never go can they the people of st anns what beauafie I mean how do I know they that because I never for get them and I don't what forget because were can I people like were can I look I don't know do you know it will be paradise that were they and should be forever in how hearts just st anns what place it was and what did they do they demolition it but not people. because they can not be demolitioned
15 Dec 2019
woke up this morning with most beautiful feeling in the I remember the feeling than the name Christine came in my head omg were do start and were did finish she is the most beautiful person I have ever met my mam love as much as me no one can every place mam and I would not want then to but has as would hear she and as been no matter what little money we get sardeas an rice and peas to buy nice clothes for of beautiful dauervt rochea la rosa my son Rossini and one that was after mam mam died Ricco wait minute what did say she can never died just like the love have for Christine the those feeling I felt with my mam I though can she is no hear she is always hear never a gain that is not possible omg get what happen this morning the very same feeling ant first thouht that came in to head was Christine thought I had a rough upbringing compared to her I had paradise the feel when I woke this was like angel floating away that not a feel I have since my mam was alive but wait a minute she not dead like the love I have for Christine that can never happen because mimics do don't they Christine just look at our children there's no big can happen that and is you but you know look how you have made just like a king then the word angel came to my mind I love for ever just like and like she did how do I know that because she told me before she died but wait a minute she is not I see her al the time like I see with my eyes shut 💝💝
14 December at 23:13
I use to visit Jim Peach every evening after work, he lived in 1 0f 2 Jerry built cottages at Burton Joyce, George the farmer lived next door, with his wife Elsie. I considered him one of, if not the best wheel maker I've ever encountered in my life. For example he knew when I tightened a wheel string/spoke just by the sound of the tensions in them, I could always remember one evening a friend from work and I organised to meet up so that I could buy a lawnmower for my mother. When I got home from work. my mother was in tears, my mum and dad had not been getting along for a few years, when I asked her why she'd be crying, she told me that she received a telegram letting her know that her Mother/my Grandma was on her death bed. With the news that I heard, I started to think how I could I get my mother over to Italy before she passes away. I'd been saving some money for a deposit fora BMW motorbike that I'd always wanted for a long time, so with 500 pound saved, I told my mum to pack her case and I arranged a taxi to Heathrow airport. Unfortunately my Dad didn't' want to go with my mum. So me and my mum went together to the airport. 7am and I spoke to the officials, which they let me know unfortunately that they're was slim chances of actually getting a flight at the time in the airport, so I showed them the telegram and they came back an hour later with great news of securing a flight for my mum. I reassured my mum to stay for a week and told her not to worry about any bills at home or anything to do with home life and most importantly don't mention anything to do with the money that I gave her for the flight ever again. She managed to see her before she passed away. My mother told me exactly what my Grandma told her before she passed and they were 'Can I touch the floor' Love you mama 💝💝 always. I can still see you. 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
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14 December at 17:28
can remember going fishing down the Trent embankment that only place I know when I was 5 I use now did remember doing much speaking to people ingroused in fishing can remember one I time I went to try a different spot just under the Trent bridge don't now how it happened but I was in the water and managed to climb not and I was crying there was no one there so I walk up to the I was all wet dripping went to go on the along London rd the bus conductor said I could not get on the bus so walk along London but I did not home because I use think my dad will hit me and stop going fishing but he was at work but would I can remember going watching Jim peach siting on my box but in school hols my use to take me with to work on the works bus then there 3 ponds there he put me in a spot and told me not to move George peacock was the bailiff. at dinner time my came with a bottle of corona pop and I sandwich I never went to barbers my cut my hair with one of those hand clippers but I think now must have gifted he could not read or write because he did not go to school in Italy he told me he walk in to school they told he because had no shoes on his feet he was not aloud he had rags around his foot when he told me this more than once he was crying it was when he had come back from the pub when he told this and stories about poverty in the village were he was born it was called life and were I was born I can remember my grandad papa Sisto that is after the patron saint of the village my told me story about him they went in the church to steal it when they got it out it all when black him there is a because i remember when started he was cutting hair for people in the dinner times for 2 shillings that work at concrete I have seen that same poverty in st Anns when I think back but look how people were were nothing but they have something st anns and the people that we all met
14 December at 15:21
the only times I remember it raining in st anns was once do on corner of bath st coming back up st anns Weldon the was right shed like hut made out of wood and went in it I think Tony howarth was with me because thinking of asking the church if we could pay so many play football in when it was raining the other time was when I come back from fishing and but I did go home so I went down cromwell terrace and watch Jim peach clarks the bike shop a shutter on the left hand side it was maroon colour Jim had stand with a wheel in it head glasses on he was spinning it with is left hand looking over at over the glasses and turning the with is right hand he had oil can on the bench with the spout sticking up on the edge of the wheel he kept stop it tightening one spoke. and loosing another till the wheel was straight the he pointed at me and pulled a funny face
14 December at 15:02
work up this morning trembling with excitement trying to remember when it ever rained in the in st anns answer never why that then because st anns was paradise. in all the years I lived in st anns see I keep writing st anns why's that than I mite forget st anns what a place. growing up there were can you sit down now at the side of the pavement hand pick some bits of tar up in your fingers and roll them for hours not get bored then see a bottle top and put it on your t shirt look at it and say wow I have got a badge then say but wait a minute feel like a KING. WAKING up trembling with excitement if you don't believe me me come all of you on this web site to my house and watch trying to type this its like GOD has got hold of you or you have just got a electric shock so were can I go to day get that feeling .do you now no I don't but I do know were I did do you remember it that place is ST ANNS o m g were is know its now it been demolition yes but wait a minute were are the people well they don't matter do they that why we are here today writing THIS . because they demolition . ST .ANNS. why no. in door toilet. no bathroom great but wait a minute were is that electric shock gone .its not gone its IN MY HEART why's that then because I lived in ST ANNS like you but the difference is we were there happy were can we go now and be that happy how much will cost can afford it .how much did it cost to live in ST ANNS to be that happy do you know I do, we had very little . but the people made you happy . people like met Jim peach martini trusslur Tony howarth flori wiles Jesse wiles robin Taylor .living in st anns made me happy were can go now for the same happiness how much will cost can I afford it is. it was ST ANNS . what will make me wake trebling I don't know do you know but I know did it was ST ANNS. were can wake to day trembling . with happiness . I don't now but I did now we can site on the kerb on my own for hours playing with a bit of tar in my fingers and then see a bottle top pick it up put on my t shirt and think wow I have got a badge and feel like KING . I don't know but I did know waking up trembling with excitement trying to hold my fingers steady trying to type were is that place know I don't know but I did know that place was st anns . my right ste know can you remember I remember how can you ever can you for get even when you are dead what's that word I am king of kings See living st anns O MY GOD WHAT A PLACE YES WAIT WHAT about the people some thing higher than that o m g it must have been paradise were is that place now what would I pay for tsuch a place what did we pay nothing what do they go and do O M GOD they go demolition it what they could ever not do is demolition the people that why we are still here and always will be because st anns is in how hearts sorry about this post can't seem to sort it
13 December at 19:11
I use to run in to andersons pa wn shop got my first coat from there when I started work at trent concrete Colwick privete rd no 7 it was £1 second hand Harris tweed it was warm my dad took in when was about 5 I ran in and out wicked had lodes of coats hanging up and they was close together can you remember you couldnt stay in there long because old man and chase you out and shouting years after they move Denman st Radford because when I went for fishing maggots it on the corner and use to look in the windows they tools but they had an other shop on the other part of Denman st it crossed Radford rd I bought a pair of verniers caliper from them pav was the make for a £5 still got there made in Switzerland land Bamfords was on the left I think out set back was the stone carving stones. you could see him carving at the back there was wall and railing above that lead on to it was called place can you remember them it was over on to union road then opposite a cross union road was a opening with walls ever side think they were blue bricks there was a step down paddy freeman he was at same school hunto remember having a fight with him I can remember it he through a piece of slate at me remember bits fell off the roof and we picked them up marked on the pavement and the girls us it for hop scotch it stud and it stuck in head if you see ask him last I sore was in Beeston on Queen'srd Alan Rhodes lives at beaten down the relays I was crying with this slate in head and we both at each other my shoe came he had hold of round the neck I pick up the shoe and hit him with it and he let go I ran home cross union rd down the ally were the Indian shop was at the top you smell the spices when down ally cobbled on left lived Denis allsworth she use to bully me still see her brother John fishing he's retire and live on along boat at castle marina I was crying when I got home my went made she wipe the blood off I think she told my dad I fell off the laburnum tree in how garden I ran up and it all the time don't think there was no bark left on it
13 December at 17:41
one day I was in the kitchen with my mam just before my dad got home from my cooking the centre was open she was her the sink I climb on it and it tipped my was seeing if I alright my 3 sisters were in the back room just then my dad came back from work and he mad and started hitting and my mam always got in between I have never forgotten that that is why loved her so much and still do 💝💝 still see you mama Mia 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
13 December at 17:29
when my was making the spaghetti I was helping her on the unit in the kitchen when you came of the back room it was on the against the wall in left corner the was door to up stairs the unit was red two glass door at the top with a frosty glass glass in them in the centre was a fall that came down that's were mam and me made pasta my got some flour and from the Italian shop a long st anns well rd it on the left going up right were you went on robin hood chase just in there up a bit was mr public toilets I can remember some one murdered just a round there and they have not found out who it was bit like the murder sneinton pretty windows pub on Carlton Road my mam new the lady in the Italian shop she came from the same village army family my mam made like a well on top of the fall and use one egg water I help mixing it was great then she use to roll it and cut thick strips then roll them then cut them about 3/4 inch long then get a fork roll it wards you and It made pattern and thinned it out li like doing it she put them in boiling water then she made sauce out of a tin straddo she called it
13 December at 16:55
my mam use to go in to stones for pans to cook the spaghetti in I can only remember seeing 2 pans in the kitchen some times my cooked pasta thatch made herself and I use to help after School when I went to Shelton street she came to pick me up after school at the of Shelton st as you was getting on to gr freeman st corner was a sweet shop some times she got sweets for me and sisters we went left on to gr freeman st and down a bit on the right northumberland street we walk along there and half way down was shop both sides on left it mason right hand corner the one the right there an arched ally way down there was some houses on the right about 4 on the was some black railings about 4 ft high because there was a drop. on to union rd facing h browns the coal yard and a rubber factory next to it I think you could see union cottage too
13 December at 16:36
can you remember Andersons the pawn shop on st anns well rd I think it was next to bamfords or stones my mam use to go in there for blankets but not many my dad had so old coats he use to put on the bed it winter and when he came back from the pub fox hounds on union rd he came up stairs with with a shovel of hot coal bits from the fire down stairs fire there was 3 bedrooms top of the stairs mam ands bedroom on the right on the left my 3 sisters bedroom and through that was mine I can remember there was no door frame or door on it and a little window on the right I use to have nightmares I can remember what they was about robins taylors mam use to say to me if you wasn't in bed by 10pm the 10 clock horses would get you that was a well known saying do you remember it
13 December at 14:29
At the week end I went lofting with leonard white he lived on Huntingdon st top of gr freeman street at the top and on the left there was about ten steps to climb and there was a railing along the top looking on to Huntingdon st when in is house one in winter his dad was sitting at side of the fire on the floor I always remember seeing a bi pile of coal just put on the floor was was big man Lenny was frightened to death of he shouted you could ear it louder than slab square clock on the hour ring we use go to city temple it still there at Sneinton can't remember just how we got in but we did I think that Indian lad. was with us that lived northumberland st there was a trap door and lt was high up to the loft
13 December at 14:11
after school some days we went up to the forest I called for Martin trussler he lived Shelton st on the left across the road lived jimmy brooks what a bowler speed like fire Martin truster will know what I mean if you missed the ball middle stump straight out every time wow what a bowler he was he pulled a face when he bowled I can see it now walk up there some times Martin Bamford came up he lived on gr freeman st we use play near the path there was a bit of high bank so we could stop the ball going to far and the high Bulwell stone on the back which was high with green railings on the top of it Martin trusller me spent hours up there remember Martin learning to bowl off breaks googalies I can still see Martins hand action now he was a very good all cricket player he was better than me we had some right laughs up there I won't tell them anything Martin promise along the path was water fountain were when for I drink cause we use to get hot playing Martin said jimmy brooks could bowl a tennis ball faster the West Indian fast bowler WES HALL I think we used call eroll mc erry that because he was from Jamaican or West Indian
13 December at 13:54
sometimes my sent me to the butchers on st anns well just around the corner of Northumberland st Napoleon pub on the corner there was an ally to the back of the pub just before you got to the corner some times went down and could see some emptys through the little slits in the high gate and climb over got them and took them back for a penny don't tell any one the butches was called Osbornes do you remember it next to that a was a shop my. mam had I tiki's there and she went to pay on Fridays when my dad got payed he use to £20 week I remember years after I always think that 1000 a year some times I would see mr Bamford big man with suit on and talked to me in Italian he could speak it he always laugh at me
13 December at 13:35
can remember we made a tandem bike up rob Chester Tony howarth Alan Rhodes eddy Elliott it was a black frame with black spots that what Jim use to say to me and then laugh I don't know were we got the wheels for but we did when to of them went on it the one at the back didn't pedal and after bit the one at the front would look round see them and shout we was watching we was already but quietly so the one on the front could not hear us the then we could laugh for longer
13 December at 13:23
I can remember running across st Anns well rd I was playing out my dad gone to the pub fox and hounds before he went out he always had shave in the kitchen in the Belfast sink this was on the right when you went in the back there saw a curtain across I can remember my mam putting it on perhaps that's because I loved so much love you mama I can still see you before my dad had shave he use to sharped the razor blade in a glass can you remember doing that back to when I was not playing on st anns well red a cross from northumberland st in front of lamenting st I got run over by a motorcycle and can remember ending up robin Taylor house having a bandage on my head and the police man came to ask me what had happened I have got a photo of it my sister Giuseppina has it she is looking it out can you remember that TONY HOWARTH
13 December at 12:54
when I started Lawrences 23 may 1968 Monday in the fitters that were they put knobs on furniture I was to meet a man that was as close as the great Jim peach Horace brandeth he lived in lambely in his dads 200 year old cottage his dad was a miner still belong to his son Stuart bratheth Horaces wife lily what a lovely lady he meet her on the corner of pym street I can remember him telling me Horace's two twin sisters lived next door the number plaque on the wall that I made when he retired is still there its mad of American oak o what stories to come just be we knocked of work at night I can still see him now with a tenon saw turn up side down front end against the Bench and the in his stomach cutting little bits of fire wood he cycle to work from when he started at 14 till 65 and had jam in is sandwich every day tile he retired and that day he said to me sis this is the first morning in all them years that I forgot to kiss the wife this morning
13 December at 12:38
Can you remember I can remember the factory on Sabina st he was the eldest one round face looked a bit like Dave Clarke worked there one one the Clark brothers there was 3 Dave was eldest then John Dave had a smiley face a bit like any cap he built mostly the motorbike wheels up there and car wheels jags 80 spokes or 60 defo one or the other can't remember but I will if you know put me right the great Jim peach I was closer to him than my dad and I loved my dad if I start talk about I will never stop don't laugh I mean it from my heart you will see this a lot NO one in the work could balance a wheel like him THE BEST IN WORLD that's MY opinion I have still got his tools and spoke key a German soldier made and hard for him in BERLIN after the war he could Jim could speak German he could put a stermy archer 3 \4 speed to together with his eyes shut if of had a had video camera you would of Sean it LIKE I did I was in the gelding club one Sunday lunch time on Gedling rd and over heard someone say there's no one can balance a wheel. like Jim peach that person was I was later to meets dick Gregory he was the model maker at Wm Lawrences furniture wait and see
12 December at 20:57
Some of them places we went lofting were dangerous mostly up in the lace market the big high buildings 6 stories high you got in from the basement down 5 steps with rails both sides then walk up steps to the top floor . floor then you had find a way in to loft that was the hard bit and I was small could not find some thing to climb on two we would get on the other one shoulders so one of us was up then the other one pull you up we had some laughs trying to up going down was easy after we put the pigeons in your top we just dropped down we didn't care how high it was if you think back we must done so damage to our bones because I'm telling you I did some long drops and you could feel your feet tingling for hours 😔after we go and sit down for a bit and just talk about what we had just done and laugh cause we couldn't reach getting up
12 December at 17:35
robin taylor first showed me how to make a fishing rod with. Two garden Caines making one thinner end in to the other and then make the rod rings he got some safety pins and cut the top off leaving hole bit then bending one bit one way and the other one the other way then getting some cotton and whipping them on the canes I use to go fishing down the embankment get some maggots from Tommy Watsons on canal street on way there I use always catch guenons there was loads of them in the Trent I use ledger fish for them and cast to the middle of the river I thought it was great and people used to watch I thought it was great I use to bring some and my use to eat them I tried keeping some in a old Belfast sink we in the back garden but they use to die after so long
12 December at 15:57
can you remember going up st anns well rd after Alfred st north on the right corner I think it was was pym st towards wells rd there was Homles the cycle shop dad and son the dad had glasses and was bald that lad that I sore walking up union rd carrying his bike that day it use to go in there I can remember seeing him in there one day then they moved to colwick rd just past meadow lane on the right I went that way to work past the bus dept on the Carlton Road end corner manvers st on my bike and if there was a bus at the stop I use to wait till it started of from the stop then get in wind stream I could keep up with it on my bike Carlton franco Italy I had a 60 tooth crank on it which I order from jack taylors bike shop on alfreten rd I use to look in there often after I had been on the forest playing football can remember leather brooks pro saddle hanging up in the shop through the window and he had a lot milremo cycle parts they were Italian I can remember looking in the window and on the shelf there was little wire part that you fixed on to the back brake bolt and it was just about 2mm over the tyre the idea of it was if you got some thing in your tyre it knocked it out before it had chance to puncture your tyre i don't know if it worked my Maine bike shop was clarks on Alfred st and my friend Jim peach thati have know since I was 5 built me a pair of Wieman wheels for it because they were lightweight I remember one Saturday morning going to pools tools shop on hockey and then coming back along broad st and a lady in car opened her car door and I went right in to it my foot wheel was badly buckled so I had to walk from there clarks were Jim peach straight it because I went every were with that you ask Martin trussler
12 December at 14:20
what was the name of that factory on Plantagenet st it was a knitting I think you could see cotton bobbins spinning all the time you went passed I use stand there not for a long time if one my mates came passed we been up the forest playing foot ball or cricket till I was dark there was one of them water fountain for a drink if we had time to busy playing it was great
12 December at 14:11
does any one remember the plumber on union rd just down from A&A hardware there was some houses they were set back about 3 down he lived he had tweed hat and jacket up on the same row of houses was a lad that was always racing up and down st anns well road on a red Elis briggs racing bike he use to come back up union rd can remember seeing him coming back one day carry it don't what he done
12 December at 13:58
can you remember the toy shop in Victoria market use to go and look at the toy all the time some time buy one of those little basal wood glides can you remember them spent hours with it till it broke I love it
12 December at 12:04
can remember one Sunday at bottom of the garden we had alleyway on to loverseed vale if you turned right and a quick left. was the back garden of robin Taylors house he had a sister named val she was older than him and on Sundays I was a loud round there late tea times his mam always made a jelly on Sundays then she use mix a tin of carnation in to it and pour it to one them silver tin moulds and leave to set it was pink what ever flavour it was it still went pink it was loverly he had air guns and rifles in the house and was always mess with them in the house never got pellets out in the house but remember him chewing bits of news paper in is mouth and made pellets to put in the air rifle if one of them went a stray when he fire it and it and hit you it stung he went camping most weekends with is mates I always ran errands for his mam and he wasn't there some times when he came back from camping he'd say to his mam just dig this pellet out me head mam if she was in a bad mood she told him were to get of so then he asked his sister val to dig it out
12 December at 01:45
DO you remember going lofting
12 December at 01:44
up on northumbland st from st.anns well rd going up on the left before you got to the top of union rd there was new inn pub left top corner then a big house which the Chester family lived coming back down there was a big opening then a other side to it was an other big house same has Chesters in the arch way was gore and rose upholsters were they made the settees above a joiners shop can't remember the name of it back down past the big house set back there was a row of small houses going down the in the first one lived a India boy nice lad he was he obsessed we pigeons and kept one or in his back yard does some one remember his name he use come with me and Terry dale lofting he loved it
12 December at 01:27
does some remember David boff can't remember the name of st of union rd turn left on to hedaley st the first on the left going up to Northumberland st there was a shop top left corner he lived on the right there was big square opening he lived in there
12 December at 01:18
Does any one remember Robert whitehead he lived on northumberland st going up towards gr freeman st not far up the was shop on the left. there was ally down it there was some house on the right and on the left some black railings looking on union rd you could see harry brown the coal merchant rubber next door
11 December at 21:21
my mam use send up to wainmans for a bottle of stera and some times not two often a buy broken biscuits In a brown paper bag the one we use pretend to through up a stone and flick your finger like it drop in to it do you remember then when you went in the shop i think the tins was on the the right hand side them metal square ones on a angled rack at the top of the ally was a Indian shop with bags on the floor out side you could smell the spices in that shop was the first time I saw them little bottles of lime juice p j l was the make one day my mam sent me to the shop and there was a lad grab old of me and took the shilling that my mam gave me and I was crying I went home and told my mam this happened two more times then one day she sent the shop and this lad he was bigger than me came to take the shilling of me all of a sudden my mam ad appeared and got hold of him a round his ear that hard he yelling and crying she told never to touch me and he didn't I us to see him but he never came near me ever and when I was out with my mam he had respect for her I can remember he lived Round on Comyn st there was a big round arch on there if he reads this he will know it was him but he his forgiven
11 December at 16:26
can remember one day in the in school holidays was it was red hot I was sitting down on the kerb in loverseed vale and looking down in between the cobblestones there was black shiny tar I pick some and was rolling it in my fingers look down again there was a bottle top so I pick it up poked out the in side I put it on the front of my top and put the inside back in then I look at it wow I've got badge I felt just like a KING I was in st anns
11 December at 03:07
when I was working at mw Lawrence Colwick a can remember it was my youngest brothers birthday and he had always wanted a racing bike but my mam &dad could not a ford it I had a offer of some extra work in the evenings at a place in Bingham one night a week making some pine egg racks with holes in them you screw them on the wall so through this will pay for the bike but he was small and it hard to get a racing bike so I went to see Jim peach at Clarkes the bike shop he said leave with me a 2 weeks later I went in and he got this beautiful red bike and the plan was to send my brother in to the shop for him to try it for size so on his birthday Saturday morning I was at work he went in to the shop with my youngest Anna I told him Jim had a bike just for him to try for size and that we could not afford to buy him one yet so he went and Jim said to get on it he kept looking at it and after bit Jim said to him it ok yes he Jim well you better have it then sorry ANNA
11 December at 01:54
Can you remember clarks the bike shop on the corner Alfred and Cromwell terrace opposite Cromwell pub bike shop on the right side and another door on the left for the pram shop a little blonde lady named anny she sold the push chairs the shop on the left the bike was on right side Sid Clarke big man with glasses on always sitting down on the right hand side of the counter Jim peach repair the cycles and a polish man work in there name was josph gascaneni Jim use to call me campagnolo after the Italian cycle gears when I started work with my dad at Trent concrete Colwick there was a works bus from huntindon st bus station down to the private Colwick but I wanted a bike to go to work and not the bus there was a second hand one in the window at clarks I kept look at it for weeks at carlton Franco Italy it was blue Crome white and blue colour it was£5 pounds when I ask the price they did not have prices on them then because you would not go in the shop I went in with my dad on the Friday after I got paid and Sid said he would do it on tik but he said you need a guarantor and because my dad was illiterate and could not read or write his name Sid as he became know to me and not mr Clark said I could not have it so I started crying Jim heard me and came out from the workshop ask what was happening and said if I did not pay he would and he sign he gave me card and I was to pay 5 shillings a week I use to get £4 week at concrete and I gave it all to my money to on a Friday then s mam an she gave £1 back the friendship that i had with Jim till he died his making me CRY HAS AM writing ..what a lovely man
11 December at 01:03
can remember me and Tony Howarth got hold of old push chair we was going to make trolley and we took the wheel of it got some bits of wood and some string but we come not make the hole for the bolt for the steering at the evening I had to keep going in the house to get the poke hot to make a hole for the steering and it took ages I had to wait till my dad went to the pub I use use my shoes on top of the front wheels for a brake
10 December at 22:55
can you remember on Alford st central there was shop selling chicken I think they was hanging up and chicken pieces in white trays along the counter down to sides and one end with bits of chicken in them and livers and you paid at other end there was some Jamaican people I think Errol mclerrys mam use to go in I use to go in with my mam and carry a little bag for her the larvin family lived on the corner a cross the road. you could always hear his mum shouting George was at school with me then years later he sold shoes on the sneinton market Saturday mornings
10 December at 17:11
can remember going the in front room one day and my mam had a sweeping brush in her hands looking up towards the ceiling and the expression on her face I will never forget there was a brown bowl on the table the ones that we use to make dough in for making bread and we use to put it on fire health covered over waiting for the dough to rise she had mixed some flour and water in it and she was trying to put a piece of wallpaper up on to the ceiling it was hang down in front of her she had spots of flour over her hair and face and the paper came off and went over her face still can see mama love you always Sisto💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
10 December at 01:36
can you remember playing stretch on Victoria park I went play on the swings and the bigger lads made me play it I use to do rolly pollys down the bottom end of the park there is a steep long bank it runs sort of parallel with st anns well rd I use to play on the bend go lion in there for hours never new he was buried under it
10 December at 01:10
can you remember the fox and hounds pub on union. rd next to waymans shop my dad came home one night he was always in that pub but he always came home with a babycham for my mam and a packet of crisps for me and said he had paid for me and there was coach trip to Bellevue zoo in Manchester but did not know were that was was to young I can remember going on it my put on the bus it was loverly CAN any one else remember it
10 December at 00:12
does any one remember down on loverseed vale there was park a black mayflower car at night he had a red light that you fixed on the centre post at the side and going to wards Northumberland st was a truck parked at night with empty long wooden boxes with Ffyfes on the side they we use to play on it and look in the boxes in some of them there was jet black dead spiders I think they was black widows I was a bit frightened of them
9 December at 23:39
can you remember there was a man come round on along st anns well rd and then around the streets on a bicycle that had a grinding stone on the front of the handle bars with a grind stone on he put the bike on stand sharped knifes there was also man use to come down loverseed vale with a truck with no sides or back with wooded cages with chickens in them and I think some veg the cages were tied down my mam would buy a chicken some times I can remember one day a man came with a brown suitcase he opened it and there was a set of Pyrex plates saucers and cups 4 of each not glass like a wareite it was a beautiful turquoise blue on the outside and white inside he got one of the cups out and through it on the floor and it bounce without braking on the red tiles and told my mam they were unbreakable she bought them on the tick they were £5 she was going to pay weekly when my dad got home from work and saw them he went mad but my mam kept them that was the first time I was going to drink out cups in my house we had been drinking out jam jars
9 December at 22:40
when we was bored just sitting on the wall talking on Northumberland st Tony howarth Rob Chester thought of some thing to do they went getting bricks making them looking like a parcel with brown paper rapped with string with a used old stamp put on it and wrote address on it leave on the walls outside houses and we watch from a good way till some one picked it up and walk off with it if you read this rob Tony please own up the other trick was just as it was dark and people left the empty milk bottles on the outside window ledge for the milkman they tied piece of cotton around the top of bottle take it across the road tie to a door handle knock on the door and run off quick they was laughing before you hear the smash
9 December at 17:31
Can you remember coming home from school hunto and going up to the brick yard Mapperley if you had a penny you could go up on the bus from the corner of Alfred st woodborough rd at bottom we made rafts with bits of wood tins string and floated out on them to try to get right a cross the other side without falling in and it was full of frogs and salamander newts and we collected them in jam gars with string round the top we had a old Belfast sink in my back yard at 6 loverseed vale and I use to keep them in it
9 December at 09:55
Can you remember collecting cigarette packs and leaning 5 or 10 of them towards the wall and then you would try and nock them down by sciming one in between your two first fingers to knock them down whoever knocked the last one down won them all them.From a set distance won them all
8 December at 20:24
can you remember in the winter after it had snowed it always frozen and we use to make them long slide we keep going over and over them to make them more slippery and they was there for weeks some times after school we could not wait to start sliding and we took it in turns the one at the front were we lived was a narrow ally up to union rd with walls both sides so it help you balance cause it was steep the flat ones were good some were quite long and we fell over
8 December at 02:45
can you remember Sunday mornings on the Sneinton market site there was a football match every week if you got dear on time they tuck it in turns to pick a player on your side if you came late you were told to kick one way or the other they use to one on the sycamore park the same loved playing
8 December at 01:56
one of my old mates Errol mc Leary was his name black lad just lived with is mother can't remember what the name of the place round there was called just at the back of union rd in between the watch repair shop on one corner can't remember what was on the other corner or Errol lived there polish man had the watch shop my dad knew him there was some houses in there we played cricket and football together with Martin trussler and Martin Bamford Bamford lived at top of gr freeman st on the right going up to the top like there was culled sac both martins were some times talking about Len Barrington doing leg sweeps I think we watched cricket some time in Martin bamfords house errols mum was very strict he could not skip home work at no cost
7 December at 17:39
can remember one school hols my mate Kenny Chester lived top on Northumberland St atop Union rd end next to new inn which was on corner there were two big house he lived in the one next to pub there was big archway in between them at bottom was gore &rose upholster makers there shop was on union rd at top was joiners with wooden steps up we decided we was going to put a play on to make a bit of money and sell drinks of smash I think we ask the shops to help us with bits and they came I cannot remember what the play was Tony howarth and the Chesters were in on it Christine widderson does some one remember it???
7 December at 09:32
Can remember in school holidays we decided we going to walk to Southwell 12 of us plan was if we walk there we was getting the bus back tony howerth came rob Chester Alan Rhodes Kenny Chester can’t remember all who came Christhine widdowson on the way there there was a big pile of nettles on the kerb side and tony howerth through me in them he was laughing
7 December at 04:04
one of my mates lived on Northumberland st eddy Elliott and on a Sunday after they had there dinner I was aloud in he had a train set the tracks were pind a hardboard sheet they put on the dinner table and then set the train going best bit was his mum would give us a glass of cream soda with ice cream on the top it was lovely
6 December at 17:52
Do you think that some one one day will realise the magnitude of what actually happened in the demolition of st anns .
6 December at 06:48
can you remember if you went to Huntingdon St school you will if you walked along Wood borough rd there was a bakers they sold small hovis shape loaf half a penny if you wanted butter in it it was one penny the thing I remember most about them was they had just come out of the oven hot and they made my hands warm