Longford (inc. The Red Hills)

You appear to be correct LL. After looking at Hurst Rd on Google Earth I recognised the building as where I tried to get to grips with first aid. Across the road is the church that I remembered. It's all so long ago, it was during the war years that I attended lessons there, or perhaps very shortly after. Our instructor lived in Windmill Rd in the first block of cottages near the Green Man. Long since gone. My employment with NCB was mainly underground and at the Newdigate unit although I did attend lessons at a teaching establishment at the corner of Coleshill Rd and Pipers Lane at, I think, Ansley Common near Nuneaton. The NCB was a huge employer in the 50s with over one million employed so it isn't likely that I knew your uncle. In fact except for half a dozen that I worked and socialised with I can remember but a few names. Did your uncle have a white collar job within the Warwickshire coal fields? A cousin Billy Trott worked in the wages offices of Griff 4 and Griff Clara. I think the stress associated with that work killed him off quicker than if he had worked underground.

I think we are a cross-purposes, NormanC. I did not enquire into your having ever encountered my uncle in his NCB capacity but in his St John Ambulance Brigade persona, given that he and you were NCB employees active in St John Ambulance. I was still in school for the majority of the 1950s, but I certainly would have been aware then (as I am now) of the immensity of the NCB work force of those years. As to your asking in your most recent post if my uncle had a white collar job at the NCB, I really couldn't say. Each time I met him he was dressed in a formal manner, but in those years folks were more formal than they are today. My father was a foundry worker, and - outside of work/home - always wore a suit or blazer/slacks in social situations. I do not recall his having casual clothes in today's understanding of the term. How is your memory of motor bike scrambles doing? My comments on Bayton Road trigger anything?

Sorry for any confusion but I am an expert in that field. Yes I am sure you are correct in the location of those motorcycle events as I now cannot think of a suitable location in Black Horse lane.. But Hey! across the field I would only have been a couple of hundred yard away as the crow flies.. After seeing Geoff Duke ride at Ansty I had/have a passion for motor cycle sport and that and boating have kept me poor. As for you uncle and his fist aid work, I have no recollection of him but who knows I may have bumped into him occasionally.

Norman C The entrance to the scrambles was in Blackhorse Road at the bottom of the road to the left, I cannot remember Bayton Road being there when I used to go.

Well thank you for that GC. I did have memories of entering the meets in Blackhorse near the bend in the road. Bayton Rd didn't exist as such. It was a cinder track about the width of a car.

Hello Norman C. Just remembered the name of the venue for the scrambles, it was Hawkesbury Farm. Wish I could remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

Norman Conquest - you may not have seen this post in another thread, it may interest you!

That wasn't my experience of canal swimming. May be true in more recent years but certainly not true during the war years. I find it rather bizarre, even laughable, that anyone would go swimming in any water where there were dead dogs (plural) floating on the surface. Also must be a tall boy to put his feet on the bottom by the gasworks.

Hi Norman, of course the canal was clean, and a great place to learn how to swim down at the pipes, and it was free, better than the Livingstone baths. I remember once on a warm Saturday afternoon a young ginger headed girl came in and no one took any notice at all, yes she had a swim suit on. It was all just great fun, remember in those days we were young, fit, and sun-tanned. Now look at us.

Thank you for your input Wizard, I was hoping that erwegoagen would come back and explain why he had a penchant for swimming in noisome waters amongst deceased canines (dead dogs ). If he had learnt the breast stroke instead of the side stroke he could have thrust two dead dogs aside with just one stroke. Also as it is not an offence to swim in a canal so why did the bobby take such an interest in the swimmers. Unless of course they didn't have swimming trunks. With hindsight perhaps it's not the thing to romp on canal towpaths in one's birthday suit. If the Lord had intended us to frolic about in the nude we would have been born naked.

Wentworth Fuels off Blackhorse Rd are still owned by the same family. The Brays had a smallholding at the back of my grandparents' house in Hurst Rd, and a Bray bought my grandparents' house when they passed away.

I once did some work for Bristol University (yes a numpty like me). Two years in all, some of the work at Draftex and some at Courtaulds. This would have been early 60s. It was at Courtaulds that I met Tommy Bray. The coal business had fallen on hard times as coal was being less used for domestic heating. Tommy had taken a job in the Viscose Research department and it was there that I met him. A likeable chap who felt humiliated having to go and work for someone else. As I had worked in coal mines our conversation was usually about coal. Bet there are few forumites that could talk about coal for hours on end.

Noisome, you say - well, what the Dickens! Noisome is a word that I use frequently, and it's frequently misunderstood. But it's not my job to be going around various places - many as noisome as all get out - to explain the meanings/origins of words. Incidentally, I was right about Bayton Road and motor cycle scrambles, right about the place - possibly wrong about the time. I thought it clear to all that I was a war-time baby, not free from the fetters of secondary education until the end of the 1950s (at which time I was wandering around Bayton Road in search of scramblers), but your own observations, and the observations of those dismissive of my claims, suggest you are of an earlier generation (though not by much) and that your own recollections may be entirely accurate in your time, so to hell with the begrudgers! Much affection to you and yours, NormanC, as you make your way through this noisome world.

Good morning LL. I may be older than you, I don't know. It's doubtful if you are older than me, few people are. Except Kaga. I was born December 2nd 1932 in a very old cottage in Old Church Rd, the posh end near Bell Green. As for the scrambles, I have clear memories of visiting those events entering close to the sharp corner in Black Horse Rd. As the circuit extended to where Bayton Rd now is it is highly probable that you are also correct. When I was a boy the site of Bayton Rd was just a cinder track. A few hundred yards from the main road and to the left of the track was a square brick wall enclosure, about 8 ft high. By leaning our bikes against the wall and standing on the cross bar we would scramble over the wall. Inside the square enclosure there was the mine shaft of.old Exhall coal mine. Plenty of junk around that we threw down the shaft but keeping back a large angle iron structure that we retained so we could climb back over the wall. On our last visit to the shaft there was a cat inside the enclosure that appeared unable to get out. So we chased it round the gaping shaft trying too catch it to put it back over the wall. All cats are not sure footed and on the far side it slipped on loose soil and fell down the shaft. We were horrified and never went back that shaft.

Hi Norman, My uncle lived in the cottages at the top of Old Church Road is name was Jim Jacques, He taught boxing at the Edgwick club, he tried to teach me but failed, he called me "Rembrandt" I was on the canvas more than on my feet. I all so remember there was an outcrop of sandstone on the other side of the road great for climbing up when we were kids. Probably not there now, the only other place like that was at Corley Rocks. Just fond memories of 70 odd years ago.