1814: The Thirteen Week Frost

Looking about for a seasonal piece of A4 history we came across this little gem from A Nottinghamshire Christmas compiled by John Hudson.

On Christmas Eve 1813 a freeze gripped Nottingham. Temperatures were recorded as low as minus 17 degrees centigrade on New Year’s Eve. The River Trent froze solid as did the Nottingham Canal. One wag is reported to have carved a double pigsty in the Market Square   and populated it with two live pigs. The simple pleasures that passed of entertainment in the Jane Austin era!

According to the UK Weatherworld website this 13 week period is the fourth coldest period in British weather ever recorded and we are hopefully not likely to see its like again.

“Winter 1813-14: 4th coldest on record, the CET for 21st December 1813- 20th March 1814 is -0.3C”

On this merciful note we wish you all of the greetings for the season
Alan & the Area 4 History Team

Sources: http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=6127&posts=8&mid=390863
A Nottinghamshire Christmas compiled by John Hudson

Pop Quiz Time

For regular (and not so regular) readers of this blog here is a quiz that has been sent in by Nottingham’s own Skills Exchange. The following questions were taken from a much longer entertainment devised as part of their recent “Pot Luck Supper” event. More details here: http://skills2exchange.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/pot-luck-supper/
Have a go – there are no prizes as this is just for fun.

1. What did the “Frog and Onion “Pub on Berridge Road used to be called?
   a: The Forest Fielder
   b: The Jolly Fireman
   c: The Carlton
2. How many years has ASDA been in Hyson Green?
   a: 10 years
   b: 18 years
   c: 15 years
3. Which famous sauce was invented in Nottingham?
   a: Salad Cream
   b: HP Sauce
   c: Heinz Tomato Ketchup
4. What used to be on the site of the Boulevard Gardens (corner of Gregory Blvd and Radford Road) ?
   a: Nottingham’s first cinema
   b: A Blacksmiths Shop
   c: Nottingham’s first Chip Shop

Hyson Green – what’s in a name?

On October 19th 1330 Edward the 3rd walked down what is now Radford Road with a squad of men-at-arms on his way to arrest Roger Mortimer who was hiding out at Nottingham Castle. At that time Hyson Green was sandy scrubland dotted with gorse bushes. The whole area was part of the then Sherwood Forest waste, an unwooded hinterland before the forest proper began.

Scroll forward 484 years to 1814 and the area has settled down with the name High Sands, as opposed to the low sands of Radford. Around this time the area also paraded under the name Ison. This play on High Sands was enhanced by a Mr. John Pepper built two houses and named them Ison Green. By 1824 Mr. Pepper had established a popular tea garden and bowling green and had opened “The Cricket Players” pub. Mr. Peppers mini empire is reported as being a public resort. Soon after that the area switched from High Sands and Ison to become the slightly more upmarket Hyson Green.

Sources: Old Nottingham Suburbs by R.Mellors pub 1914

The origins of Goose Fair

An old story said the name Goose Fair came about after an angler caught a pike in the River Trent. “Perched high in the air a wild goose aspied the fish, secured it and carried it off with rod, line and angler attached.” After the goose dropped the angler, uninjured, in the Market Place, the old story goes that a holiday and the Fair were set up to celebrate.

From:  www.wilsonsalmanac.com/michaelmas.html

(You will have to scroll down to find the Goose Fair bit)

Many thanks to George of Park Avenue for forwarding this snippet

The Two Silver Bells

 

Goose fair is opened by Nottingham’s Lord Mayor every year at high noon. The opening ceremony features the ringing of two silver bells. This year (2008) the bells were rung by Councillor Mohammed Munir. 2008 is the 714th Goose Fair.

The bells were commissioned by the great showman Tom Norman (1860 – 1930). Norman was a licensed auctioneer who moved into showmanship, managing side shows as diverse as The Elephant Man, Phoebe the Strange Girl and Lord George Sanger’s Zoo. 

Norman commissioned the two silver bells sometime 1880 and 1915, as yet we have not managed to source the exact date. The bells were cast in Oldham at Mellor’s Owl Lamp Works. They were especially silver plated for Norman as he was known as ‘The Silver King’. Also unknown is the year in which the bells were first used as a focal point for the Goose Fair opening ceremony, however there is photographic evidence of the bells being rung as part of the 1920 opening ceremony in Nottingham’s market square.

 

References:
The Great Nottingham Goose Fair by Peter Wilkes pub 1989
http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/history/shows/norman.html

Who is the sailor who appears on Player’s Navy Cut cigarette packets?

Armed with fifteen minutes, Google and a good question Area 4 History invstigates.

This week we investigate the question, “Who is the sailor who appears on Player’s Navy Cut cigarette packets?”

 

 

 

Well, Player’s Cigarettes were one of two main employers in the area. Their ‘Navy Cut’ cigarettes were very popular choice, becoming the number one UK brand for a number of years. The term ‘Navy Cut’ refers to how RN sailors (19th and 20th centuary to 1953)  would wind twine around rolls of tobacco leaves allowing them to mature under compression, and then slice off the end shredding the tobacco.

The ‘Hero’ sailor used as a trade mark for the brand was modeled on Thomas Huntley Wood, a crewmember of HMS Edinburgh. The logos were developed for an advertising campaign in 1891 and trademarked in 1893.

References:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,,-185496,00.html
http://www.aandc.org/research/navy_cut_hero.html
http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_edinburgh.htm

Torpedo Tom Blower

In a continuing thread on Area 4 connections with fame and the famous Rachel from Radford Road sent in a great potted history of Torpedo Tom Blower, the Hyson Green lad who broke the world record in 1937 for the fastest time in which the English Channel was swum. His record breaking time was 13 hours and 29 minutes.

Tom was born in 1914 in Hyson Green. Aster attending Berridge Road School he worked as a factory hand for Players. Whilst at school he earned the nickname “Carthorse” for being such a slow swim sprinter. Tom’s training for his long distance swimming was the stretch of the Trent River by the Meadows area of the city.

Ten years after his Channel record Tom becomes the first man to swim the northern Irish Sea in a time of 15 hours, 26 minutes.  1948 and a year later, Tom becomes a member of that select club of swimmers who have sum the English Cannel in both directions.

As part of his preparation for this endurance swims Tom undertook a marathon 30 hour session at Victoria Baths in Sneinton where he swam 2,664 lengths.

In the 1930’s and 1940’s Torpedo Tom Blower was a well recognised sportsperson, as famous as Torvill and Dean. There are even articles about him in the American Time magazine. Today however he seems to be a forgotten Nottingham figure, there is a plaque at the John Carroll Leisure Centre in Radford but it’s in need of some renovation.

All of this exercise can’t have been good for Tom, he died as a result of a heart attack in 1955 aged just 41.

References:
Time Magazine Article
BBC Online Article
Spectator Article

Action of the Police and Special Courts with regard to the street disturbances in Nottingham during July 10th – 17th 1981

Below is an excerpt from a contemprary report on the 1981 Riots.

The National Council for Civil Liberties
Nottingham Branch

REPORT

Action of the Police and Special Courts with regard to the street disturbances in Nottingham during July 10th – 17th 1981

A CAUSE FOR CONCERN

The Context of the ‘Riots’

The Nottingham “Riots” as they were constantly referred to by the local Nottingham Evening Post, took place over the weekend of Friday 10th July to Sunday 12th July 1981.

The major battle between the Police and the ‘rioters’ took place in and around the Hyson Green Flats complex between 11-30pm on the Friday and 3-30pm on the Saturday. However, preliminary gathering of youths in the Clifton area occurred, apparently reacting to the rumour that youths from the Meadows area were coming into the Clifton area that evening. When they did not arrive the Clifton youths moved into the Hyson Green area together with youths from many areas of the city which resulted in them all joining together against the Police. Petrol-bombs and bricks were thrown and a large number of arrests were made. The following night (Saturday) there were further outbreaks along Alfreton Road and in the city centre and a gang of 20-30 youths ran through the Beeston Town Centre Shopping Precinct.

As a result of these outbreaks the Police arrested just over 100 people – youths, mainly between 16 to 25 years of age – 90 of whom came before the “Special Courts” between Monday 13th to Friday 17th July.

It is difficult to assess the degree to which these outbreaks were ‘organised’. A Chief Superintendent from Nottingham speaking at his Association Annual Meeting was said by the Nottingham Evening Post of the 25th September, to have spelt out in general terms the tactics of the Police employed. The Post also claimed that the cost of policing the riots came to £379,000. Apparently police kept an eye on troublemakers by deploying men equipped with powerful night binoculars on the roof of high-rise flats and monitored Citizens Band Radio wavelengths – “thought by the police to be the main medium of communication between some of those involved in the disorder”. (Evening Post 25.9.81). What is clear is that there was a good deal of tension evident during the weekend and the initial public reaction according to the Evening Post was one of outrage and disgust against the activities of the ‘rioters’ with a good deal of sympathy for the Police.

In this unusual and tense situation the Chief Clerk to the Magistrates responded to Police information that “a large number of extra cases would be presented” (Letter from the Clerk to the NCCL( National Council for Civil Liberties), 25th September 1981) by arranging for “additional courts”. A request from NCCL to the Clerk to the Justices asking for information about the way in which the ‘Special Courts’ were set up and dealt with defendants produced a statement from him claiming that they were only ‘Special’ in the sense that they were additional courts arranged by his staff because of the large number of extra cases. In view of the fact that all normal procedures were altered in these courts during the week, they were, by definition “Special” and not simply additional.

We feel that the matter of concern dealt with this report (both affecting Police behaviour and the workings of the court) can be particularly explained in terms of the strong sense that both the Police and Courts seemed to have had about the importance of, being seen to be ‘tough’ on rioters in order to give an example to others. This is illustrated in the comments made by an Inspector of Police at the beginning of proceedings in the first of the riot courts where he stated that”no one would control the streets of Nottingham except the Police” and that “the weekend was one of the blackest in the history of the City”. (Law Society report, page 2, para 8).

Given that only one person was charged with “incitement to riot” the reaction of the Authorities would seem to have been exaggerated. The consequences, – severe doubts about the fairness of the Magistrates Courts, and the concerns about both Police and the Courts expressed by the parents of those accused who were interviewed – must be seen as grave and damaging for the relationships between the community and the Police and the Courts.

A place to call our own

Many thanks to Antony T and Richard Shenton from The Media Archive for Central England for this link.

Link to short ATV News Clip about the demolition of Hyson Green flats

For a few weeks now I have been trying to work out what was on the ASDA site before the supermarket weaved their bulldozer magic. Part of me was running a romantic internal dialogue along the lines of multinational destroys community. The 1987 film that this link leads to blows away any such romantic notions.

How can anyone have thought that housing like this could have been in any way a good thing?

I am now on a mission to hear what it was like to live in the Hyson Green flats. I have heard rumbles about some pretty solid Blues Parties but as yet no one has popped pen to paper….

Enjoy the clip –

Link to short ATV News Clip about the demolition of Hyson Green flats

Alan

Stop the Press!

This just in from Ralph of Sandon Street.
“HP sauce was invented at 49 Sandon Street, just over the border in New Basford (off Nottingham Road by the Royal Oak pub). My Sandon Street neighbour knew Mr Garton’s son, so  the location is identifiable in living memory. The house (and workshop) is for sale (April 2008 ) if anyone fancies a historic place in which to live – it definitely deserves a blue plaque!”

This is a personal connection to the birth of Wilson’s gravy. Many thanks Ralph for helping us out. – The other information below about the amounts paid and to whom are all correct as far as I know, it was sourced (pun intended) from HP’s website and Wikipedia with supporting evidence from the FT. – Alan