Memories of Sutton Road & Garnon Street in the 1950's

I recall as a child some sort of barbed wire compound in the general area of the Vauxhall garage before Kings Mill res. I also recall the Tech about where Morisson’s stands now .

Having lived on Garnon street as a child myself I also remember Mr Bill Purdy as a photographer and his son Alan.

However after 63 years the whole area has changed and some of the mental pictures have I am afraid gone for ever.

Can anyone add more information about this area in the 1950’s

John

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  • My mother came from Mansfield, though I was born and brought up in Hertfordshire. My Uncle Arthur and Auntie Hilda (Key) lived in the right-hand of the pair of semis on the lower corner of Garnon St and Brick Kiln Lane. I often stayed there in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Over one summer (1958/59?) I was there for several weeks as my mother was in hospital – it must have felt like years to them because I was a tiresome small boy. I got to know a nice bunch of lads who played football and generally knocked about in the patch of waste land that was (and judging by Google Maps, still is) above Garnon St. They weren’t put off by me being a stranger or having a funny accent…regrettably I can’t remember their names. One name I do recall is Geoff Smith, who worked in the butcher’s shop on Sutton Road opposite the John Cockle. My sister had the hots for him, to our parents’ disgust.

    I think that Quartex was still going then, and certainly the building was still there. A thing I loved about Brick Kiln Lane was that you could hear the deep ‘hooter’ whistles from the railway – I’ve always been keen on railways and spent hours trainspotting by the bridge in Sheepbridge Lane, opposite Mansfield South signal box/junction and the loco shed. Very happy days. When Arthur and Hilda got sick of me I was farmed out to other relations – Albert and Marjorie Key – who for many years kept the newsagent/confectioner/post office(?) on Nottingham Road close to the Forest Hill junction.

    Takes you back…

    By David C. (29/09/2015)
  • Once again the brain is stimulated with memories brought forward after reading these stories. Having lived on Brick Lane, the new houses built just after the war, I used to do some adventuring around the area, Skegby Sands, Res, and along Sutton Rd. However most of the “fun” was after coming back from Canada in 1959. After leaving Moor Lane school I attended High Oakham, there I made some friends who came off Sutton Rd. One chum in particular was Peter Curtis, have since lost track . He lived just a few houses up from the chip shop and a newspaper shop… that was on the corner of Sheepbridge Lane. When I was younger, about 6-8 I used to wait at the corner on Saturdays for my Dad coming back from Hucknall Areodrome, at the Quortex, which was stocking factory I think, to get a ride in the RAF lorry back to the house. The other part I recall was the Michelin man in front of the garage as you go to the reservoir. I went back in 2008 and walked the area once more, some things had remained but the reservoir was totally different, especially as I got closer to Sutton. Anyway love these annecdotal stories. Mike Frost

    By Mike Frost (25/04/2012)
  • Re: John Bowskill , not too many memories of Sutton Road, Garnon Street in the 50s. but I have lots of happy memories of our teenage years in the 60s.,,in and around Mansfield.,,, long time no see John How are you keeping . Best regards John Grummett (aka GYPO)

    By John Grummett (23/12/2011)
  • In the 30’s, Mansfield & District Light Railways used the land (that became the barbed wire compound) to dismantle the trams after they were decommissioned. That particular stretch of track (from shortly after the road junction with Hermitage Lane to Kings Mill Road) was quite unique to the system as it was separate from the road (reserved track I think is the correct terminology) which could go some way to explaining why the houses along the Kings Mill side are set back from the road and feature their own service road. In October 1932 after the last Mansfield tram ran they were all lined up together on that section of reserved track and either sold off (only 2, to Sunderland) or broken up.

    By Berisford Jones (23/12/2011)
  • Apologies to the Sir John Cockle for the spelling mistake. A.C.

    By alan curtis (21/05/2011)
  • I seem to pop up everywhere !!! As a schoolboy, I was a paper-boy, for George Benton’s paper shop at the corner of Sheepbridge Lane and Sutton Road. Opposite the Quartex factory. I used to deliver papers on Sutton Road from the Quartex up to Kings Mill Cottages. I remember the compound, I used to pass it every day…. At one time there were heaps of stone chippings tipped all over the compound. Can anyone remember Chantrey’s Fish and Chip shop across from the Sir John Cockell… My uncle Fred and aunt Ethel Jones lived at 42 Silvester St.

    By alan curtis (19/05/2011)
  • re the barbed wire compound on Sutton Road, Mansfield District Traction stored their old buses there. A lot of Bill Purdys photos are on the http://www.picturethepast.org.uk site for Mansfield area, there is also a book published in 2009, Mansfield-Picture the past on sale. Bill was a leading member of the Mansfield Photographic Society

    By Tom Shead (17/01/2011)

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