The Long Eaton & Sawley Archive  
Home > Welcome > Your Memories

This area contains memories of Long Eaton and Sawley, submitted by other visitors to our site. If you would like to submit some of your memories, please do the following:

  • Use Notepad or an ASCII text editor (NOT a word processor) to save your text to a file, such as memories.txt, making sure it is no longer than 1,500 words in length
  • Attach all material to a plain text email sent to: archive@long.eaton.com with the subject: memories
If you have material ready for submission using those guidelines, please click the button below and attach your material. If you wish to include an image then please contact us after submitting your material. Please note we reserve the right to edit all submitted material for decency/legal/space reasons.


Apart from a short period, I have lived all my life in either Long Eaton or Sawley. I used to spend many a happy hour collecting steam train numbers at the three railway stations that Long Eaton once had. Where I used to live on Meadow Lane the brook that ran by the side of our house used to flood on a regular basis and our back garden became a lake, this is before it was culverted.

As a child I was a regular visitor to Sawley Wakes on the farmer's field opposite Lock Lane - now a housing estate. My father used to take me to see stock car racing when the Long Eaton Stadium was in its heyday. I can remember the rows of terraced houses that once occupied Midland Street and the subsequent Barton's bus depot that took their place.

The wooden stalls on the old Market Place (now paved over) always attracted a large gathering of shoppers, taking their lives in their hands dodging the traffic that ran either side of the stalls. Because of its size and dominating appearance, walking past the Mount Tabor church at night was quite a frightening experience for me when I was young. Shops and businesses may come and go, but good and bad memories about Long Eaton will remain with me forever.
Chris Thorpe


As a young child, I grew up in a road just off College Street ("The Crescent"), which was situated almost opposite "Dockholm Garage" and a newsagents, then called "Liveseys". On the corner of 'The Crescent' was a grocery store (McGeoch's) where you could buy Pearces Ice-cream and Rowntrees 'Blended' chocolate - if you had the coupons left in your Ration Book to do so!

A little further up, on the same side and going towards Sandiacre, was Wrigleys, a shop where the most wonderful, fizzy kali could be had for about a halfpenny a packet!! Both these sold the ubiquitous Carters Gold Medal minerals; my all-time favourites were dandelion & burdock and cherryade. These were the days when such things were made from natural ingredients, of course. Real syrups and sugar - none of your Aspartame and sacharrin - and they were superb.

Long Eaton still had three cinemas at this time: the Empire, the Palace and the Scala. Stapleford had two: the Palace and the Victory. Curiously, the Palace was right next to a main railway line - so when a train passed you couldn't hear the film! Although the Empire was the grubbiest of the Long Eaton cinemas, it did have one redeeming feature: in the upper circle there were a number of double seats - so you can guess where the couples went for a cuddle.

I certainly remember most, if not all, of the High Street shops. Gilbert's electrical shop was a tiny place then - and there was the Home & Colonial store, Burtons, a small off-licence on the opposite corner to the Empire, Marsdens, Granger's haberdashery, Tom Peel (tobacconist) Josiah Brown etc.

I used to cycle around Sawley quite a bit and enjoyed the walk through the fields and by the river and railway accessed alongside Davidsons' Boat Yard (which I remeber when it was just a wooden shed!) There were two brothers Davidson, I believe; one had a cycle shop in Stapleford, on the outside of which he frequently displayed a 'penny-farthing' which he was quite often seen riding.

They built Long Eaton's first automatic telephone exchange on Midland Street in 1962. Prior to that the exchange was in a converted house at the bottom of Walton Street and was manually-switched (i.e with operators). I have some good stories from those days!! The equipment worked in such a way as to require a good "earth" at the subscribers' premises in order to send a "clearing" signal back to the operator when a call was ended. On hot, Summer days [we seemed to have more of them then, didn't we?] the ground ouside, where the earthing-rods were sunk, dried up - and all the call indicators at the exchange would gradually come on (and stay on!). A cure was effected by sending the "maintenence engineer" around with a watering can! Absolutely true, I promise you.
Peter Preston


After having lived here (Australia) for 32 yrs I can see a very changed Long Eaton, when I Iived there, just across from the Bartons Bus Depot it was nice and quiet, I would get on my small motor bike and ride to Nottingham, just in time to take out the first bus of the day, you see I was a bus driver for Nottingham Corporation, I suppose that has changed now.
Les & Josie

This was the personnel of Royal Observer Corps post 6/T2. The post was located in the allotments which lay (where would be now) behind the houses on the South side of Derby Road near Wilsthorpe Rd. Taken during the 1939-45 war. Post Chief Observer was Granger from Attenborough (who drove around LE in a beautifully preserved and very well maintained Stanley Steamer throughout the war. Tall man 5th from right in centre row is Ted Smith who managed the Burtons(?) Furniture store in Beaconsfield street.

More about the photograph, Ted Smith was, I believe, the owner, not the manager of Burtons. Before the war, back in the early 1930s Granger (Grainger?) used to fly around in a biplane generally known as 'Grangers aeroplane'. He seems to have been somewhat of a local character. I was in the R.O.C. from 1949 until 1963 (at the LE post until 1962 when we moved to Scotland) 6/T2 post was on the original site until about 1958-9, when it was re-sited at the reservoir on Wilne Lane, Sawley. I was the Post Instructor for most of my service. I believe that one additional member in the photograph was Arthur Summers, husband of Mrs Summers who taught at the Tamworth Rd school (Last known to me as 'Brooklands') He was a member throughout my service also.
Mac Stenson


I am told a church on the site of All Saints Parish Church in Sawley was built in early days of rushes. A later wooden building took its place, presumably in Saxon times, with the present day stone building begun by the Normans. A Norman archway still remains, but the tower and spire are 15th century. The gold weathercock on the top of the spire was placed by the local people in the 1940's, collecting money for it by subscription, one collection method being that it was driven around the local streets and any child could pat it and give it a spin on payment of a penny.

The church contains memorials to the Bothe family, including an effigy of John Bothe, who was Treasurer of Lichfield Cathedral.

Regarding the small group immediately below the big lamp in the photograph on the "Sawley" page. They were my Great Grandparents and their children:

  • Thomas Evans
  • Emma Evans (nee Allen)
    Children:
  • Martha b.1863
  • John b.1865
  • Ellen b.1874
  • Clara b.1870
  • Walter b.1877 (my Grandfather)
  • Henry (Harry) b.1878
Although it is not a very clear picture it is possible to see Emma bending down to comfort one of the girls and it is possible to determine which girl is which due to the differences in their ages. Likewise the boys, (who are all dressed in matching suits).

Also did you know that every year when the wakes (or fair) came to Sawley the horse carousel was always built around the big lamp? As far as I can tell the picture was taken the year of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. As you can see Thomas is wearing the bowler that Albert made so famous.

Also the other children in the photo. The boy in the collar was very possibly the younger brother of another two little girls walking towards the big lamp. This would appear to be proven by a further picture that I have seen of two girls in their Sunday best but very obviously home made dresses. One especially appears to have been made by a woman with the same taste in frills and collars as the boys shirt. Another child is obviously of a poorer family and also his little male friend coming towards him on his left side is no doubt also a friend of the Evans's boys, likewise the young boy in the frilly shirt.

The Evans's lived in the small white house on the right of the picture. This backed on to the Nags Head. Emma was very clever with a needle and thread and I am sure that she made not only the girls dresses but also the boys suits, that is why they are all the same.

My Grandfather (Walter) went on to open up the Evans's Newsagents at the corner of Mikado Road and Tamworth Road. My guess is that the photo was taken on a Sunday morning as the roads are so clear and everyone is wearing their best clothes, especially, the girls in white pinafores and Emma wearing a bonnet. Not to mention that the boys were dressed in their best as well.
June Spooner


Many people will remember the Old Time Music Hall shows staged by the Same Lot As Last Time (SLALT) from 1961 to 1989 which raised over £30,000 for charity as well as providing some great entertainment.

You can visit a website devoted to the achievements of those involved at http://www.slalt.freeserve.co.uk The site includes a photo gallery and memories from some of the performers. We would love to hear from anyone associated with the shows in any way. Contact e-mail address is on the site.
John Colton


The above photograph, taken many moons ago ( circa 1930), of the New Sawley No. 6 Co-op branch fish & fruit dept. This shows the fruit side window display. My Father, Clarence Henry Stenson, was the manager at the time- in fact he managed the shop until he left in 1949.
Mac Stenson


The most vivid incident in my memory was also the most moving. It was some time in the summer of 1942, I think, and my brother John, who is two years older than me, decided to walk to Sandiacre as it was a nice sunny morning, to visit some of our cousins.

After seeing them we went on to Stapleford and called on another set of cousins then decided to walk over Toton Hill and across the back fields to home. As we walked down the hill, three German planes came zooming overhead and started dropping bombs. Two or three dropped in the Toton Co-op farm field on our right and when they exploded we were so frightened we just took off running.

I being a sprinter went off like a Greyhound. I looked over my shoulder to see where John was and I was shocked to see him flying through the air into the ditch running alongside the hedge. This galvanised me into taking off again despite the army personnel manning the Ack-Ack guns exhorting me to get inside their bunker.

I didn't stop running until I burst through our kitchen door and collapsed on the settee. My heart was pounding as if it was going to explode and I was crying my eyes out saying that our John had been blown into the hedge bottom by a bomb. 30 minutes later, John walked in. My mam belted me across the ear knocking me across the room and said you stupid silly sod, frightening everyone to death.

John had dived into the hedge for safety and the gun crew had taken him into their billet and given him tea and biscuits. For me that was one moving day In more ways than one.
Patrick May


I lived in Milton Street, Long Eaton for the first 15 years of my life from 1948. Random memories include being taught the joy of playing with words for fun by Mr MacCracken who ran the beer off in the next street (can't remember the name). Sir Bernard Docker for dandelion and burdock was one of my favourites.

One year (probably 1958/59) when the fair made it's annual August visit to West Park, a friend and I won a box of matches by knocking them off a shelf with an air gun firing corks. On the way home we went through Foxy (Fox Covert) and whilst playing with the matches managed to set the place ablaze. We ran like hell and from my bedroom I could see the smoke billowing up from the scene of our crime and as the fire station was just a couple of hundred yards away on Tamworth Road I could also hear the appliances leaving for the blaze.

I never owned up to this (until now) but every knock at the door terrified me for weeks after. I later learned from a retained fireman friend of my uncle's that the lads were glad for a bit of overtime.
Chris Powell
powellcd@ntlworld.com


In the late 1940's I grew up at the pub in Trent Lock, it was called The Erewash. My father and mother Joseph and Christine Winfield owned it. I have many happy memories of playing in the fields and finding secret mushroom patches. When I visit England (I now live in the USA) I love to come back to Trent Lock and Long Eaton. I find it a very clean town with many memories that I wish I could go back to. If any one remembers my family please e-mail me, I would love to hear from you thank you all for a great web site.
Francesca Winfield
winfieldchristopher@charter.net
I was born in Midland Terrace in 1945. Although the houses were terrible, small, and very basic we had a wonderful childhood living there. Crossing the railway bridge, along side the hostel, at the bottom of the street, you had a marvellous choice of places to play. Black Pad, Long Tom, Square Pond, Ozze'y Beds, and the old Air raid shelters along the railway embankment. I spent many happy hours, brown as a berry, running wild and starving hungry, I truly believe the freedom I had to roam and explore, gave me memories that will always be with me. These memories never leave you and help to mould you into the person you are now. Thank you Long Eaton.
Brian Dodd

Hi, I was posted to the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry on the 11th Sept. 1939 and served with them until 1945 when I was demobbed, we were billeted in the local school until we had enough strength in men to be classed as a Regiment and did a lot of drills on the streets, maybe some of the men who served with us are still active. Regards Ted.
Ted Wilshaw

I have just found your site and find it intriguing. Peter Preston's memories could be mine. I lived in Byron Avenue and shopped at Wrigleys, McGeoch's and Liverseys. I bought fishing gear from Liverseys, including fishing licences, and fished (and fell) in the Derby Canal, mainly with Billy Camm, who lived just up the street. We sailed boats made of reeds pinned together with thorns from the Hawthorne hedges that lined the canal and went home at night, wet, dirty and tired, but happy. The garage next door to Liverseys, used to charge large glass batteries that people used to power their radio sets, and it was usually the job of the children of the family to walk to the garage with the batteries which had a carrying handle on top.

We played in and around the River Erewash, and I've waded along it's length from up near the Ballast Hole to Long Eaton, and we used to go"hand over hand' across the Erewash on the steel bar that supported the bridge the railway men used to get from Dockholm to Toton sidings, We played in what we called "The Ozzie Beds", which I now realise were Osiers, not Ozzies, and even, against all warnings from parents, ventured onto Toton sidings, near the Beds, and played in the guards vans that were parked there.

I attended Wellington Street School as an infant, with Miss Herod as the head mistress. I then went on to the Derby Road Boys School, with Mr Rogers as head master, We had some excellent teachers, like Miss Alllen and Mr Bell, amongst other whose names I can't remember, the most memorable being Mr Jim? Hardy in class 8, who had his own methods of teaching which appeared to work, and he was very well thought of by his pupils.

I noticed elsewhere that the "Carnival" was being revived, and I remember the Week(?) long carnival Long Eaton used to have, with candle lit processions, and carnival bands such as the Umtagas (if that's spelt correctly), the Backbone of England, and lots more. The festivities were held on the Tournament field at "Four Lane ends" and everyone dressed up in fancy dress for the occasion, each day having a different theme. Bartons provided a bus chassis which was decorated like a huge swan, with the carnival queen sitting on a throne at the top of a flight of steps, and her attendants arranged on the stairs below her. I believe that these carnivals raised money for the local hospitals, and I can never understand why they weren't revived after the war, but it appears that this is now happening.

I've been back to L E twice since then and hope to do the trip again., I would be interested to hear from any of my friends of that period, and later periods who are still around. I moved to Newcastle, Australia in 1967.
Ray Clowes
raclo@kooee.com.au


I was born in Long Eaton at my mum's aunt's home in Prince Street, so I have always related to Long Eaton as my place of birth and childhood memories. We moved around a lot and emigrated to Australia in Dec 1962. I came back for a visit when I was aged 21, but only stayed for a short while, but I do miss my childhood memories and often think about them all.
Valerie (nee Gordon)

I was born in Prince St, No. 21, and went to Derby Rd boys school. Worked at Wallis and Longdons, also Wagstaff and Appletons. Went to Canada in 1966. Was back in the town Christmas 2003 where I met up with a number of my old school friends one Sunday evening, we talked for a long time about the times we had in the town like going to the Empire on Sunday nights it didn't matter what film was showing it was always full.
Brian Webb

My own memories of Long Eaton are linked to my father's birthplace  - Queen Street and the memories that evoked in a book which we published posthumously called A Widow with Five Children to Support by Alfred Gilder. It's a good read and has been a best seller for the past ten years.
Terry Gilder
pipgilder@placido1.freeserve.co.uk
How wonderful it was to visit this site it bought back many happy and not so happy memories of places long forgotten. One of my memories is of the outdoor swimming baths. I so well remember when as a child and pupil of Grange School we had to take our swimming lessons there even when it was cold. Also the cinemas, my father was a doorman at the Empire and later the Scala before his death in 1965, I look forward to the re-opening of the Scala. Once again thank you for all the hard work that went into the website and I will return to read more.
Carol Pendleton (nee Hughes)

Reading and scrutinizing the photographs in the Long Eaton/Sawley website evoked many memories. Yes, Mannion Crescent was named after a hard working builder; the son of a hard drinking Irishman of the same name. James Mannion jr. was born in New York and was my uncle. My grandparents settled in a house on the corner of Roosevelt and Austin Avenues., where my mother was born. James Mannion sr. built two houses in Lake St.; he lived in one and my parents bought the other. I was born in 1946 and lived there till 1959, when I left the Long Eaton area and have seldom returned. I have lived in Australia since 1967.

Lake Street is now the more longwinded Lakeside Crescent – an early warning of today’s political correctness. My father’s parents lived at Gladstone Street and both my father and grandfather each had an allotment down a graveled avenue that ran west off Tamworth Road, just south of the Erewash Canal. We grew fruit trees, the usual vegetables and heavy bearing raspberry canes – mainly to make jam. Other people kept pigs and chickens, on larger allotments farther down the avenue. About 1956, facilities for Sea Scouts were built on the canal – near the bridge.

One dug up all sorts of things, such as, clay pipe and pottery fragments in the rich flinty loam. We sunk an iron pipe fourteen feet, which was deep enough to draw water into an old beer barrel with an old fashioned hand pump to water in dry spells. In the 1950’s, local kids spent a lot of time on the “log field” at the bottom of Austin Ave., which was surfaced with compressed cinders then. Here, Austin Jervis had his stockpile of huge logs sawn into appropriate lengths before processing them in his factory along Wilsthorpe Road. All the waste, such as sawdust, off - cuts, etc, was taken to the log field for burning every afternoon. The sawmill workers were great guys and sometimes we kids used to clamber aboard the battered old army lorry as it slowed entering Roosevelt Ave. We would be careful not to fall through the gaping holes in the back of the lorry as it bounced along. We pushed everything off, once the lorry was backed into the usual fireplace. The driver then bled some petrol on to the heap; made sure it was safe and then, woof! Up she went!

Only a small portion of Jervis’s land – which went up to the railway and the canal – was used for logs. Jervis ran about ten bullocks and a chestnut gelding was kept there. There was a cow shed with bales of hay and an ancient car in it. Within reason, we did what we liked and were lucky that Jervis and his employees were so benevolent.

We learnt to swim in the Erewash Canal – at Sandy Bottoms – which was under the railway bridge – the one about a hundred yards downstream from the bridge at the Sheet Stores called Pissermire. It was about four foot deep at Sandy Bottoms, but we soon graduated to the much deeper water at the adjacent wooden flood-gates. Apart from the occasional pollutant and seasonal duck weed, the water was fairly clean and clear, but cold. Normally, one could only stand about half an hour in the water and then stand around a huge fire fueled with anything that would burn and was scavenged from the adjacent Lock Lane Ash Tip.

To us, this was Big Ballast and was a raw wilderness of railway lines buckled by the subsiding and often smoking industrial waste being slowly colonized by impenetrable tangles of brambles, elder bushes, rose bay willow herb and stately stands of teasels. In one part of the tip there was a deep pit that contained lime and we tobogganed down the steep sides on curled sheets of corrugated iron. We beat around the brambles with dogs and an ancient shotgun, tentatively held together by wire and jubilee clips and loaded with homemade cartridges. Usually a rabbit or the occasional stray pheasant was cornered and killed.

Italian prisoners of war worked on filling Big Ballast during The Second World War. They wove willow baskets and sold them house to house. They used their feet to vote against Mussolini, had every reason to stay out of trouble and were not closely guarded.

There was a row of about four old houses off Lock Lane - near the humpback bridge. On demolition –about 1957- “the gang” salvaged the timber and other materials to build rafts, which lasted for about a week before disintegrating or were seen as navigation hazards and removed.

Lake Street ran along the Triangular Pond know locally as Ballast. All these ponds were dug for ballast to build the railway embankments and all were clean, icy cold and “bottomless”. Over a period of time, we caught a lot of fish using primitive, but effective tackle. None of us had much money and we usually had to scrounge, beg or borrow to get by.

A flock of train spotters perched on the stile at the corner of Roosevelt Ave and the footpath that led to the Sheet Stores. There was always a buzz of expectation prior to the arrival of the London – Manchester Express, which roared through Sawley Junction Station about 4-30pm.The Engine was usually of the elite “Britannia” class, painted a beautiful bluebottle green with red trimmings and with bright, shining brass. Kids climbed the bank to be the first to see the engine on streaking out of the Red Hill Tunnel and there was a groan of dismay if it was not the “Mallard” but engines they had seen a hundred times such as “Jellicoe” or “Sir Nigel Gresley”. However, it was always exciting as the gleaming, fire breathing, juggernaut shook heaven and the earth as it flashed past, leaving only the smell of acrid smoke and grease in its aftermath.

I salvaged my first bicycle, which had been dumped in the sludge filled drain that ran along the back of the Station. The land perhaps belonged to Concordia. It was a rusty old Hercules with rod brakes and seemed the same age as its namesake. It only had a back wheel, but a front wheel – complete with a tyre and inner tube - was given to me by a very kind lady from Austin Ave., whose two boys were part of our group. It took me most of the school holidays to render it rideable and nurtured my life long love of bikes.

Once I had wheels, short trips to Hemington became longer and to places like Dovedale, and Sherwood Forest. My elder brother climbed up the crumbling walls and charred stumps of beams of Hemington Church; into the Barn Owl’s home high in the belfry. it was said that Oliver Cromwell used the Church for canon practice, but the ruined church is the hallmark of Henry the Eighth.

Shardlow and the Old Trent – which we called Ully Gully – once as remote as a billabong beyond The Black Stump - became suddenly accessible. The Trent was only a short ride away. We swam just upstream from the Sawley (Harrington) Bridge, in between the island and the north bank. In high summer the water was warm enough to stay in indefinitely, but perhaps the large rafts of foam and our stinging eyes were an indication of something more sinister than just warm water from the Power station at Spondon, on the Derwent. However, that could have come from anywhere upstream – Stoke and Burton are just two places. The Trent gave me the feeling of continuity with other parts and in terms of pollution, Sawley was near the end of the small intestine.

Even with the low, slow and sluggish summer level, it was deep in mid–channel. I dived down into the murky brown water and instantly entered an alien world. Suddenly, the sunlight and carefree noises of the bathers became a pitch black void and the only sound was the ominous murmur of the cold, inexorable, undercurrent. I touched the bottom and hastily struck upwards, there was no light. I could have been buried alive. Then - disoriented and in a state of controlled panic –a dirty bottle bottom of brown light appeared and I broke the surface gulping air. One never really knew what was down there.

I loved the low lying area of willow swamps, ditches and flood - meadows south of the Trent and near the Soar. The old haunt of otters. It was said, that around 1920, a man who lived in Charles St. used to weave his wares from the osiers there and loaded his bicycle with a huge pyramid of finished baskets.

So, I want to add to what has already been written and hope it will somehow further an already rich and interesting website. I still have much more to read.
Alan (Bram) Bramley, Brisbane, Australia


My Great Grandfather was a teacher at Long Eaton School (Tamworth Road ) when it was a grammar school. His name was Mr William Culver. I was a pupil at Long Eaton School myself up until 2001 and it had only been by chance that I ended up there as I was born in Poole Dorset and had lived there until I was seven. My family had known my great grandfather had been a teacher in Derbyshire, but had not known where he had taught until I stumbled across a picture of him when doing some research in The Long Eaton Library, when I was in my final year at Long Eaton School. I'd love to know more about him and what he was like as a teacher. If you knew of him and can tell me anything please email me.
Rachael Baker
IsisUK@btinternet.com
I remember the schools I went to in Long Eaton. The first one being Tamworth Road School (Later Brooklands). Then onto Wilsthorpe Secondary Modern School where the then Headmaster Mr Maxwell wrote the school song called Red and Grey .We pupils were the 1st to sing this school song. It was a very proud moment for us all. I left in1959. I do wish there was a school reunion for pupils of that time. I know there was one a couple of years ago,because my eldest daughter went, but I could not come due to illness. I do hope they have another one because I will certainly come. I have returned a few times to Long Eaton,and I am not sure that I like some of the changes,but these are modern times,and we all have to move on. As a child I can remember walking down the High Street with my Grandmother,looking in the shops. Especially Graingers. I thought it was a posh shop,and only the rich went in there. Martins the bakers, Home and Colonial, Boots, the Old post office and many more.
Barbara Hind
jackandbarbara@aol.com
I lived in Sawley from 1967 until 1979 on Mikado Road I was always led to believe that Sugars wood yard used to be my grandparents house, I lived opposite the school and on voting day our living room was used to count votes in? My mum was born on Hey Street in 1926 and all of my family are buried in Sawley Church Yard. carole Timmis nee ( Elliott)
Carole Timmis
carole.timmis@blueyonder.co.uk
My name is Chris Fulke-Greville and I lived in Tamworth Road,Sawley,Long Eaton from the 1950s to 1967 opposite the old Scout Hut. My Father always had a collection of Vintage,Veteran and Sports Cars in the front of the property and was a regular Racing Driver for the Nottingham Sports Car Club. I attended Wilsthorpe School then Long Eaton Grammar until 1967,leaving Long Eaton and going to the wild county of Somerset.

Living in Long Eaton had certain good memories, I use to sing in the choir at Sawley Parish Church, was a member of the Cubs and Scouts then moved onto the ATC, Air Training Corps in Beeston 1359 squadron. My best pals where Ian Duncan, Robert ( Flea ) Dillea, Zedge Budzik, Richard Tivey, Harry Harrison, Brian Boswell, Steven Wrigley and many others. I used to get into loads of trouble with the local farmers,pinching their fruit, driving the tractors, mucking about in the hay Sheds at Sawley next to the Church. There used to be a corner shop where we used to procure the bottles at the back of the shop and return them for Threepence each.

I had Brothers and Sisters Debrah, Peter, Caroline and Stuart. We used to have loads of fun at Monkey Park then if there was a lot of us we used to go to West Park where there was a small area of swamp land in which we built a Tree house and defended it against all the estate ruffians like the Smedleys, who I hated. I had more fights with them than I care to admit, some I lost others were glorious battles that I won. I held the rollerskate record in the area which consisted of a mile square round Netherfield Road and Reedman Road.

There used to be some old water reservoirs on the way to Sawley Locks and many a time we used to climb into them and play. At the bottom of Netherfield Road was the rail crossing and at the side of it was the Corn Fields which we all believed to be haunted. Crossing the road there was a public right of way with a small lake or large pond in it, in that pond was the biggest Pike you have ever seen and was known to bite the odd finger off the locals, hearsay of course.

Just along from the Scout hut there was an old Bungalow that was being demolished ,within that Bungalow while a load of us was playing we found a body, that caused a stir with many parents I can tell you. In 1964 I was awarded the Crossed Ropes Bravery Award by the Mayor for pulling one of my Sisters friends out of the Canal towards Long Eaton ,Christine was coming back from school when my sister Debbie ran up the Toll path screaming Christine had fallen through the Ice. So in I went and pulled her from under the Ice where she was being dragged under. What frightened me after was that I realised I could not swim.

On Saturdays I managed to get a well paid job working on the Long Eaton Market, I used to work for the Jewish Brothers who owned a shoe store, they where great people and taught me a lot. Oh well I managed to grow up to be a successful motor racing driver and am Chairman of an International Motor Club, I also own several garages in the South of England so if any of you want a cheap car,you know where to come. Regards to you all, Chris Fulke-Greville.
Chris Fulke-Greville
lordgreville@ntlworld.com


These are not really my memories but those of my great grandfather George Henry (Harry) Butler who was born in 1889 at 31 Hey Street, Sawley. His parents were Joseph and Annie Maria Butler (nee Burrows). In c1894 the family moved to Retford and by 1899 they had a large family and were living in Carlton, Nottingham where Annie Maria died after childbirth. This is where the mystery starts. My mother started to trace her family tree some years back and I have recently taken it up. My mother was always told by her grandfather, Harry Butler, that Annie Maria was buried in Sawley churchyard but she was unable to find any record of this. Since I have been doing the family tree, and with the help of the internet, I have found a death certificate which gives us Carlton as a place of death. This threw us because we thought she had died in Retford and been transported to Sawley to be buried. I have been to the archives at Matlock and can find no record of her being buried at Sawley or Long Eaton in 1899. I have also been to the archives at Nottingham with no luck there. I had a thought though. Could she have been buried with a relative in Sawley. They officially ceased burials at Sawley in the mid 1890s but if she was buried with someone else perhaps it was not documented or she may be squeezed into the other persons slot in the records. Anyway, I have noticed that there seems to be a lot of Burrows living in the Long Eaton area. I wondered if any of you had done your family tree and were related and had come across this line or had heard stories passed on about Annie Maria. Her father was John Burrows and her mother was Eliza Winfield who died in 1862. They married in Loughborough. Many Thanks, Alice Butler.
Alice Butler
butlerpiglet@btinternet.com
I was born at no 7 Waverley St. near the town centre in 1945, and reading some of these memories has bought some of mine back.The street is not there now, it is a Tesco supermarket, behind us was the gas works where I used to fetch coke for the fire in my brothers pram (not with him in it). I was 8 at the time and he was one year old. There used to be a horse drawn vegetable cart come down the street and I must admit I had a few free apples off it (naughty boy), then they used to drive sheep and cattle down the street to the Co-op slaughter house and one ran in our house and up the stairs, what a job that was getting it down. 

The tanks used to come down the street from Chilwell depot on their tracks and that rattled our windows. I also have memories of Midland St. and the old air raid shelters and Toton railway yard, and I ended up as a BR fireman at Toton. I went to Derby Rd School and we used to go to Kennys café on Derby Rd and it was like a junior pub - with pop.

The local bikers used it as well and they would put a record on and speed up to Wilsthorpe island and back before it finished. There was a shop on our street called Jowetts, after the owner Nurse Jowett, and a big house next to it with an old lady who used to live on her own. She was a portrait artist and used to paint the kids who lived in the street. My parents spent most of their time in the Locomotive Inn on the corner of Cross Street so I learned a lot the hard way, fetching and carrying neighbours accumulator to be charged for their old radios.

I can also remember the old Co-op with their cash pots that used to run on wires and shoot through a hole in the wall, then come back with your change in it.  I used to go to a place called the Rialto for ballroom dancing when I was seven, it was so embarrassing. Then my luck changed and they changed it to roller skating and that was behind the big factory  behind the dole office on Derby Rd . My younger brother Roy still lives there so I still visit regularly and the changes are vast from when I was a child. BRIAN MCCREADY
Brian McCready


Jones Stroud was owned and managed by William and Horace Jones and A E Stroud, it was a five story mill bounded by Union and Cross Streets with the entrance on New Street. The factory manager was Bill Goodson and nightshift foreman Ted Goadby. The second floor was the winding room with Aggie Paling as forewoman, the top three floors were full of elastic braiding machines, Barney Marshall was the third floor foreman and Joe Cockbill on the fourth.

When I started, the hours were 7-30am until 6-30pm Monday-Friday and 7-30am until 12-30pm on Saturday, all for fourteen shillings a week, seventy pence today. I lived in Waverley Street so was only five minutes away. This was handy when I later went on the 6 till 2 shift, we had double summer time so it was light until 11pm.

Dorothy Upton (Len Uptons wife) was working on circular braiding machines making parachute cord. Two types were made, one from flax for the chutes for dropping supplies and another from silk for the chutes for air crew. We also made an elastic for gas mask goggles.

Ken Godfrey (singer, actor and Town Crier) also worked there. He lived across the road in New Street. Just down the street was Freers general shop which did good trade with the workers. The shop is now the Shop Mobility centre.

I am very gratefull to Ken for introducing me to the Youth Hostels Association, we had some great weekends visiting the hostels in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, and later on to North Wales. It was all self cooking with rationing and a great way to become self reliant. Ken later joined the Army Cadet Force and attained some dizzy heights. It is a pity the mill was demolished as the planned development never took place.
Reg Woodward, Long Eaton.
Reg Woodward


I came across your site while searching for any records of my father's cousin, Austin Jervis, who was a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII. Family stories say that he actually saw the flash of the explosion of one of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan, but survived without ill effects from that blast, but of course, he had  ill effects from years of being held prisoner.

I've lost touch with my Long Eaton relations, but my grandfather (Edgar Austin) and his wife (Lucy) lived for many years at 8 Warwick Road, Long Eaton... in fact my grandfather built that house.

My grandmother (Lucy) was a Bagshaw before her marriage, and my father said that, when he was a small boy, he was taken by her to have tea and play with his cousins in a large house which I understand is now The Town Hall of Long Eaton.

My father (who was born in 1909) told me that he remembered being taken by his mother (Lucy) to the railway station to see the local troops (The Derbyshire Regiment?) leave for the front in the First World War. It is saddening to wonder how many of those men that my father waved off, came home.
Angela Waller (nee Austin).
Angela Waller
ukwaller@aol.com


I remember many childhood memories, living in Long Eaton in Oakland Terrace. We use to fish in the canal with my friends who lived next door. Their names were Terry, Doreen and Malcolm Paling. I often wonder where they are now. I learned to swim in the canal, and we use to play in the Royal Oak Pub grounds and climb the Oak trees. We also use to paddle in a canoe past the barges, up to a place called Sandy bottoms, where kids used to swim and swing on a rope over the canal. Our favourite walk was to Trent Lock and across to Red Hill for the day..Our childhood was freedom to go off and explore for the day, and come home for dinner. My parents always worked , and on Saturdays I remember being given 3 pence to buy chips for my lunch at Lees fish and chip shop. .We always walked to Tamworth Rd school and later I went to the new Wilsthorpe Secondary school. I was one of the first to go there when it was opened . I remember the Red and Grey uniform and the headmistress called Mrs Jobie . We also spent a lot of our time at West Park. When I was 21 years I emigrated to South Australia, I have never been back to England, but I am making my first journey back after 46 years to see my brother ,who never followed the rest of my family over here. . I have 4 daughters and 5 grandchildren.
Barbara Lawson - nee Simpson - nee Butler.
Barbara Lawson
lawsonbarb@adam.com.au
I was born and grew up on Bennett street Long Eaton, our garden backed onto the Erewash canal. I have great memories of riding up and down the street with friends, and exploring the fields behind. I attended Wellington Street school from about 1965-68 when we moved north to Darlington. There was a shop on Bennett street, called Lillickas?. Would love to hear from anyone around at that time. Yvonne Preston (nee Cross).
Yvonne Preston
yvonneangelapreston@hotmail.com
Home > Welcome > Your Memories
Search our site: