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I Remember Sutton in Ashfield |
| ADDITION BY PAT MORGAN |
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Thanks for Grandad Marshes memories, they were a delight to read. This prompted me to produce the following, I hope it may be of interest to you for adding to the site. I was born in Mansfield in 1942 but my grandparents Louisa and Fred Walker lived in Walton Street Sutton in Ashfield. I attended the Hillocks infant school in Sutton and can still remember the distinct smell of school dinners. I remember my first day when the headmistress gave me a chocolate. My first teacher was Miss Fitzpatrick. I remained in Sutton until the age of seven when my family moved to Carlton a suburb of Nottingham. I still spent much of the school holidays with my grandparents and would go shopping early on a Saturday morning with my Gran, our first stop being the Co-op in Outram St. My abiding memory of this is the fact that each counter, left, right and centre supplied a different type of goods. I particularly remember the loose sugar being bagged up into bright blue bags. On payment the money was put into a small container and whizzed along wires to a central cashpoint, and any change whizzed back by the same method. Our next stop on our shopping spree was the bread shop further along Outram St, the name of which escapes me. The final call that morning was Peacocks department store where if I was lucky my treat would be a toy or pencils and paper etc. In the afternoon it would be either a trip to Sutton market or perhaps a ride on the bus to Mansfield market. I remember walks down Garden Lane with my grandfather and his dog Judy to The Lawn where I would ride on the swings and have a go on the slide and see-saw as well. My grandad Walker was a miner all his life and worked at Teversal and Bilsthorpe Pits on permanent nights. He would get up every night at 10pm, have his "breakfast" before leaving to catch the bus to go on shift. My Auntie Louie Owen, nee Walker had a hairdressing salon on Portland Square from about 1938 to the late 1950s. I can remember Jean and Sybil working there for a good many years. I can also remember the masses of wires clipped to the rollers in the women's hair when they were having their hair permed. I can remember too, the smell of singeing sometimes when they got too hot!!! I have swept up many times after haircuts. My aunt lived in Cavendish Avenue until she retired to live near Newstead Abbey. My stepfather Kenneth Brailsfords family lived in Park Street. He attended Priestsic Rd Infants and Junior Boys School between about 1923-29, after which he transferred to Brunts Grammar-School in Mansfield. From here in about 1934 he joined the Midland Railway finally becoming chief booking clerk at Birmingham New Street station from where he retired. My cousin Maureen also attended Priestsic Infants School and remembers one of the teachers, a Miss Lineker. At this time also, the headmaster was another Brailsford in the form of Joseph Henry( Uncle Joe). He died in 1953. The Brailsford family were staunch Methodists and my father's father Albert was a founder member of the Brook Street Methodist chapel. He married Mary Martha Dixon, she died in 1958, Albert having predeceased her in 1946. His day-job was a foreman plumber with Sutton Town Council, but when at home should someone call with an emergency he would shout out in a loud voice that he was not at home. My mother Nora Walker was born in Dalestorth St. in 1920 and went to Mansfield Road infants and then the juniors. She can remember the rag and bone man coming round the houses with his barrow exchanging a balloon on a stick or windmill on a stick for rags or glass jam jars. She remembers New Cross where there was Willeys butchers shop and opposite was Cottams fish and chip shop. Also,Fludes Draper's in Outram St. and Rowells in a Low St., with the 50 shilling tailors too.Oh well, fond memories, but that is enough for now. |