You don't see many pictures like this these days. This photograph was taken on the Tippin at the rear of Bradder Street. It was on the slope where the filling in of the old sand Quarry ended.  In 1939 just about all these ladies were living on the bread line, and all knew what poverty was. And still, the camaraderie among them all was second to none.

I can see :- Mrs Harper, Mrs Scattergood, (Two ladies I know but forgotten their names ).Mrs Bowers, Mrs Mason , Mrs Cooper, Mrs Wilson, Mrs King, Mrs Dibble, Mrs Parks, Mrs Skinner, Mrs McGee, Mrs Vera Parks, Mrs Bryan, Dolly Mason, Mrs Alice Bagley. There are many that I recognise but cannot put a name to. One young lady could well be my elder sister Ina ?.....Don't know what the occasion was? Certainly not for the outbreak of war. Alan curtis

I believe there are three of my family on the photo. My mother Olive Bull and her sister Jessie are on the third row. They lived at number 7. Their grandmother Lizzie Shelton formerly Udall lived at number 11. Her daughter Lizzie Udall is also further right on the photo. I think that the date is 1940 because I have my parents wedding photo and they look very much the same age.

Jennifer, it is great to hear about former Bradder St. residents. I remember Mrs Udall, she had an old black Spaniel dog with red eyes...Although I can only remember one daughter...she had short dark hair, very pretty, and I believe she attended Moor Lane school...Would she be your mother?

At one time most of my fathers family lived on Bradder street and I used to visit them regularly. They were my fathers mother and father, Norman Mason and Lucy Chapman who had Harold, my father and aunts Dolly, Lucy, Ruby Nelly, Francise and another girl that died as a result of a fire and a son Roland. My Aunty Nelly married and went to live on Ladybrook Lane, and when they moved I used to walk through the train sheds and past some ponds and onto Sheepbridge Lane to Ladybrook Lane. Aunty Ruby married and went to live at Pleasley. My grandfather Norman married Hannah King and lived at 71 Bradder Street until she died, Norman also live there till he died. It would be interesting to find out more of my family on Bradder street as Norman and Hannah had a further 8 children some of whom lived on Bradder Street.

Hello Ged, It was nice to read your comment, and I will be pleased to fill in a little more about your family..... The older Mr. and Mrs Mason used to live next door but one to us on Bradder Street......You are right, they did have a large family.....We used to call her Grandma Mason, and as a small boy , she used to frighten me to death...If I would not go to sleep at night, my Mum would threaten me she would fetch Grandma Mason to me, that usually did the trick....Occasionally Grandma Mason would stand at the bottom of the stairs and shout up that she was coming,that also did the trick... I knew all the family of the Masons, there was one that you missed, that was Stanley Mason, he died at the age of 37. I went to see him when he was lay in the front room , I was only about 8 at the time....You can gather that my Mum was quite good friends with your Gran.. Your Grandma and Grand dad were quite entrepreneurs in their time, They used to make Ice-cream and 1d Ducks and sell them from their front door bay....The ice-cream was made in an old wooden churn with a handle on the top to turn the cream.....If I turned it for them, I got a free Ice-cream. I didn't do it so often, It made your arms ache... Dolly married a nice man and they moved further down the street, somewhere in the middle...I remember Lucy, Ruby and Nelly....I bumped into Nelly in Sainsbury's cafe a few years ago.....how nice it was to see her again after all the years......I cannot remember Roland or Francis..... Going up to Ladybrook Lane, it must have been the old Cocoa Pond that you passed on your way.... Regards Alan Curtis....

Hi Alan thanks for that. Unfortunately all the Masons of that time are now dead with the exception of my Aunty Francis who lives in Newstead. Aunty Nelly died last year. Are there any old photos of the Masons that you know of in addition to the ones on this site?? Your right grand ma was a hard working woman and had allotments on quarry lane and kept pigs chickens and ducks in the old gregory quarries between nottingham road and quarry lane. I only found this out as owner of that quarry until it closed.

Norman and Leslie Mason ( brothers ) lived somewhere near the middle of the street...New them both very well... Alan