Grandad’s Friends
In addition to his family, grandad had a number of close friends with whom he socialised. Mostly, he knew these friends through chapel and their families were also friends. These friends included Albert Robinson, Willie (later Billie) Clover and Len Teece.
Walking Places Together
Grandad recorded walking around various local places including Balls Lane, the forest, the Quarries, Southwell Road, Summit and Wilson’s Fields.
The Forest
Apparently, the forest referred to a circular route along Diamond Avenue, Derby Road, Mutton Hill and Kingsway. I am grateful to Richard Cresswell for noting that, on early maps, the other side of Derby Road was labelled Kirkby Forest.
The Quarries
According to the books Kirkby & District from Old Photographs” (p36) by Frank Ashley, Sylvia Sinfield and Gerald Lee (p36) and “Ferrets, a Tin Whistle and Haircuts at Home” by Mark Ashfield (p28), “The Quarries” is a local term for Portland Park. This is because some areas have been quarried for limestone.
Wilson’s Fields
I presume this is referring to Job Wilson – for an explanation of his fields see the article “Walking to Larch Farm” in Chapter 3.
Photographs of the Quarries
I came across a lot of other photos of Portland Park/the Quarries.
Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Annesley on Old Picture Postcards
For example, there are a number of postcards of Portland Park/the Quarries included in the book by David Ottewell entitled “Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Annesley on Old Picture Postcards” – see numbers 10-13 and 17-19. Numbers 13 and 19 are the two images shown here. In one case, I bought a postcard and, in the other, I licensed the image from Inspire.
Other Postcards
I have acquired a number of other postcards of the Quarries. I included these in a piece I wrote called “Finding the 44 Steps” which is a specific location within the Quarries.
Kirkby & District from Old Photographs
There are also photos of Portland Park in the book “Kirkby & District from Old Photographs” by Frank Ashley, Sylvia Sinfield and Gerald Lee (pp26-27, p29, p36, p39 and p91).
Kirkby & District: A Second Selection
There are also photos of Portland Park n their other book “Kirkby & District: A Second Selection” (p38, p40, pp69-76 and p124).
A Brief History of Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Portland Park
There are photos of Portland Park in the booklet “A Brief History of Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Portland Park” published by Kirkby and District Conservation Society (p1, pp28-30 and pp34-35).
Family Photos
Mum/grandad had some photos from the Quarries, see Chapter 31.
Memories of Portland Park/the Quarries
Edith Searson
According to Edith Searson, in her book(let) “I Remember” (p28), she and her family went for a walk in the Quarries with two other families after evening service on the first Sunday they were in Kirkby.
Mark Ashfield
Mark Ashfield dedicated a chapter of his book “A Carnival Crown and a Roasted Ox” to describing days in the Quarries (pp9-14).
Cycling Together
Grandad and his friends also rode their bikes together. For example, on 5 May 1915, grandad noted “at night I had a ride & Cyril’s chain broke on his bike & Willie had to pull me home from Sutton”.
Places they cycled included Annesley Station, Creswell Crags, Daybrook, Huthwaite, Linby, Mansfield, Mutton Hill, Newstead, Nottingham, Nuncargate, Papplewick and Pinxton.
On at least one occasion, Albert and Grandad took his nephew Leonard with them – “I took Lalla a ride round Cauldwell Dam, see Chapter 52, with A Robinson”. In July 1914, he noted “Albert & I had a ride round Cauldwell Dam had to hurry home because of the rain. Him and W Clover cleaned my bike. We all went to Kings Palace”.
Most of the places they went were within a 6-8 mile radius but some places, e.g. Nottingham and Creswell Crags were 15-20 miles away.
A Summer Cyclist
Grandad only really cycled in the summer months, between March and October. During winter, he stored his bike away in the family coalhouse.
Other Forms of Transport
He was interested in other forms of transport and documented the development of the railway and “motor buses” in Kirkby.
Railways
In 1914, grandad noted several walks up to look at the new railway, including with his brother Cyril.
Motor Buses
In June 1914, he noted that motor buses started running from Mansfield to Bulwell and that, in July 1914, they introduced a new timetable which involved buses running on Sundays.
Motorbike and Sidecar
His brother Jim had a motorbike and sidecar and grandad noted going out in the sidecar at different times.
Cinemas
The friends’ main social activity was attending one of the local cinemas, the Star or the Kings Palace. They attended once or twice per week and, during this period, grandad saw more than 160 films. I have compiled fairly detailed accounts of Kirkby’s cinemas under a piece focused initially on a later addition, the Regent.
Films Seen in 1914
While it is possible to identify the films grandad watched, almost all are lost. A few exceptions are available on YouTube including “Curse of Greed” and “Traffic in Souls“. In July 1914, at the Star, grandad saw a film of the King and Queen’s visit to Nottingham the previous week, see Chapter 7. Then in August 1914, he noted seeing “war pictures” at Kings Palace. In addition to films, Kings also featured live acts or “turns“. Some of these included the illusionist Victor the Great, Daisy Graham and her birds and the village nuts. Some were described in general terms, e.g. eight “chinamen” acting, a woman shooter and a man who could lift 12 men. On the day war was declared, 5 August 1914, grandad went to see Buckingham’s Performing Dogs. In October 1914, the wrestling champion George de Relwyskow visited.
Films Seen in 1915
In September 1915, the Kings Palace started a continuous performance, that is, where the film looped continuously and people could enter at any point. This had already been happening at the Star. Again, while it is possible to identify the films grandad watched, almost all are lost. A few exceptions are available on YouTube including “Quo Vadis“. There were a few “turns” at Kings including the Red, White and Blue cyclists and the Five Stars.
Films Seen in 1917
In 1917, grandad went exclusively to the Star and he went most weeks. However, almost all the films mentioned are lost although “Price of Jealousy” is available on YouTube.
Films Seen in 1918
In 1918, grandad went mainly to the Star and he went most weeks. He did note going to Kings once. That was on 20 March 1918 to see “The Birth of a Nation”. This film is one of the few available on YouTube in whole or in part. Others include “Pearl of the Army”.
Grandad usually went to the cinema on his own but sometimes went with others including his sister, Eva, his nephew, Gordon, his brother-in-law, John, and his friend Billie Clover.
Particular Actors and Directors
One thing I noted is that grandad saw some actors in multiple films. One example is Marie Walcamp who grandad saw in “Won in the Clouds” in 1914, in “Coral” and “The Yellow Star” in 1917 and in “Who Pulled the Trigger” and “The Red Ace” in 1918. She was an American actress who appeared in more than 50 films between 1913 and 1929. Sadly, she committed suicide aged only 42.
Grandad also saw multiple films by the same director. For example, he saw a number of Percy Nash films including “Master and the Man” in 1915, “In the Days of Trafalgar” in 1917 and “Temporal Power” in 1918.
Some directors were also actors. For example, grandad saw William Duncan in “Bill Peters’ Kid” in 1917 and in “The Last Man” and “The Fighting Trail” in 1918. William Duncan also directed the latter film.
It seems that grandad specifically made the effort to see “The Birth of a Nation”, directed by D W Griffith, as he went to see this at Kings rather than going to the Star as was his usual practice. This is a hugely controversial film. The Silent Film Group on Facebook only allow comments on this film on one stream which is closely moderated and which is closed, from time to time. While there are those who consider the film to be a “landmark in cinema history” and a “technical masterpiece”, others consider that the only things new in the film were length and scale. Underlying the controversy is the extremely racist nature of the film, particularly its treatment of African Americans, and its role in reinvigorating groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
The Star
The Star Theatre opened in January 1914. It was a lowish building of brick and iron construction. On 20th September 1930, The “Overland Telegraph” became its first ‘talkie’. In 1932, it was taken over by Kirkby Pictures Ltd. who also operated the Regent Cinema 100 yards away along Kingsway. The Star Theatre was closed in the late 1950s and later became a garage.
There is a photo of this cinema in the book “Kirkby & District from Old Photographs” by Frank Ashley, Sylvia Sinfield and Gerald Lee, p108 – and this photo also appears in Gerald Lee’s book “Kirkby-in-Ashfield: Yesterday Remembered” (p74) and Mark Ashfield’s “Horses, Herbs and a Cockatoo” (p17). There is also an excellent description – with personal recollections – of the three cinemas in Kirkby by Gerald Lee in his book entitled “Kirkby-in-Ashfield Yesterday Remembered” in Chapter 15, p70. The third cinema, the Regent, opened in 1930 so was not open at this point.
Kings
The Kings Palace opened in 1912 and was built for and operated by Sutton & Kirkby Picture Palaces Ltd. It was equipped with a Picturetone sound system in 1930. The Kings Palace closed in 1961. It was used as a bingo club and then a garage which operated into the early 1990s. The building was demolished by 2016 and the land now forms part of a car park for an Aldi supermarket.
There is a photo of this cinema in the book “Kirkby & District from Old Photographs”, by Frank Ashley, Sylvia Sinfield and Gerald Lee, p103. There is another photo in their second book “Kirkby & District: A Second Selection” (p94) and this photo also appears in Gerald Lee’s book “Kirkby-in-Ashfield: Yesterday Remembered” (p73). On the same page is a photo of the garage which replaced it and which operated into the early nineties. A similar photo appears in Mark Ashfield’s book “Christmas Pigs and a Summer Donkey” (p10).
Reading
From 1917, it appears that grandad spent more time reading. He started recording the books he was reading, usually on a Sunday. Over the two years of 1917 and 1918 he recorded reading almost one hundred different books.
Authors Read
In the list of authors that follows, numbers denote how many books by that author grandad read in this period, where this was more than one. Names are in italics where I am not completely sure of who the author was of a specific book title. More details of particular books are available in the index of books read.
- William Harrison Ainsworth (9)
- Robert Michael Ballantyne (3)
- Currer Bell (Charlotte Bronte)
- Richard Doddridge Blackmore
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Alice J Briggs
- Charlotte Bronte – see Currer Bell
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton (4)
- Thomas Carlyle
- Alexandre Chatrian
- James Fenimore Cooper
- Francis Marion Crawford
- Charles Darwin
- Richard Davey
- E C Dawson – see also Alfred E Lomax
- Charles Dickens
- George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
- Émile Erckmann
- Mary Ann Evans – see George Eliot
- Morice Gerard (John Jessop Teague)
- Elinor Glyn
- James Grant
- H Rider Haggard
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Elizabeth Helme
- Joseph Hocking
- Silas Kitto Hocking
- Thomas Hughes
- Victor Hugo (3)
- Joseph Holt Ingraham
- Frances Parkinson Keyes
- William Henry Giles Kingston
- Alfred E Lomax – see also E C Dawson
- Samuel Lover
- M S Madden
- Frederick Marryat (5)
- Henry Seton Merriman (Hugh Stowell Scott)
- Charles Nordhoff
- Ellen Price – see Mrs Henry Wood
- S K Reeves
- Thomas Mayne Reid (2)
- Edward Payson Roe
- Hugh Stowell Scott – see Henry Seton Merriman
- Walter Scott (6)
- Henryk Sienkiewicz
- William Gordon Stables
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Halliwell Sutcliffe
- John Jessop Teague – see Morice Gerard
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
- Jules Verne (2)
- Alice Jane Chandler Webster – see Jean Webster
- Jean Webster (Alice Jane Chandler Webster)
- Stanley John Weyman
- George John Whyte-Melville
- Theodore Percival Wilson
- Ellen Wood – see Mrs Henry Wood
- Mrs Henry Wood (3) (Ellen Wood née Price)
Examples of Titles
Books grandad read in 1918 included “Old Saint Pauls” by William Harrison Ainsworth and “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo. Perhaps one of the surprising books he read was “Three Weeks” by Elinor Glyn given its erotic nature and his Methodist background. He had seen a film based on the book in 1914.
Non-Fiction
Although grandad mainly read fiction, he was also interested in non-fiction books, particularly dictionaries and encyclopaedias. Other non-fiction books he read during this period included:
- books of military history including a biography of Lord Kitchener and periodicals about the first world war. In December 1918, grandad read a book called “Glorious Deeds of Heroism“. I have not been able to identify this definitively but I presume it is about the first world war
- other biographies including of American Presidents Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield; English explorer Sir Samuel Baker; Anglican missionary Henry Aaron Stern; English philanthropist and promoter of Sunday Schools Robert Raikes; and social reformer Lord Shaftesbury, and, I think, diaries of Charles Darwin under the name “The Voyage of the Beagle“
- historical books including about the French Revolution
- books about places including the Tower of London
The Wakes
One activity that grandad and his family engaged in puzzled me for a while. For example, in October 1914, he records “Mama Olive & Lalla went to Pinxton wakes”. I was baffled as I only knew the term “wake” in relation to funerals! However, Google once again came to my rescue, telling me that the term can be used as a noun relating to an annual festival and holiday in some parts of northern England. Grandad and his friends visited various towns and villages for their wakes. In July 1914, they went to Sutton Wakes and he touched a snake! They also went to the wakes in Kirkby which seemed to be held every October.
There is a description of wakes, fairgrounds and circuses on the Huthwaite online website.
Kirkby wakes on Pond Street are described in some detail in “Kirkby-in-Ashfield: Yesterday Remembered” by Gerald Lee (pp49-54), in “Horses, Herbs and a Cockatoo” by Mark Ashfield (pp47-52) and in “I Remember” by Edith Searson (pp40-41 and p61).
In his book “Mining in the East Midlands 1550-1947”, A R Griffin associates the holding of wakes weeks with mining villages from at least the 18th century. He quotes magistrates in 1778 saying “wakes or feasts which are annually holden in the several Parishes, Towns, Villages and Hamlets within the County of Nottinghamshire Diverse Riots and Disorderly doings frequently arise by Persons Assembling and Meeting together to be guilty of Excessive Drinking Tippling Gaming or other unlawful exercises”.
A Fatality at the Wakes
On 26 October 1918, grandad recorded a serious accident at the wakes in which a six year old boy had “his head cut off”.
I researched this story and came across an article dated 1 November 1918 in the Mansfield Reporter and Sutton Times.
George Alcock
The article reported on an inquest, carried out by Deputy District Coroner, Mr E Williams, on Monday 28 October, into the death of six-year old George Alcock of 12 Tennyson Street. A lawyer, Mr F Jackson, represented the owner of the roundabouts, Mr J Proctor.
George’s grandfather, Thomas Alcock, said he had been last seen about a week ago. P C Robinson had been on duty about 7pm on Saturday 26 October. He received a complaint from Mr Proctor that boys were jumping on the gondolas while moving to avoid paying. He was concerned that they were risking injury.
P C Robinson walked up the gangway of the gondolas and found a child’s head beneath the cars. He found his body about 20 feet away wedged underneath one of the gondolas near the rear wheel. The car was lifted and the body taken to the mortuary. The inquest called Archibald Smith (aged 12), William Tomlinson (aged 10) and another boy called Hensby. Although they had seen George on the ride, they were not able to describe the accident in detail. A verdict of accidental death was recorded. Sadly, George’s father, George Henry had been killed in action in France the previous year.
Music
Throughout his life, grandad was interested in music and musical instruments.
Piano
The family had a piano and, in 1917, grandad started learning to play.
Zonophone
In 1915, grandad spent time visiting the Waites family who had acquired a “Zonophone” . Zonophone was a company, later owned by HMV, which produced a type of what became known as gramophones.
Concertina
Towards the end of 1915, grandad bought a concertina. In 1918, he bought a new Edeophone concertina and traded in the old one. Edeophone concertinas were manufactured by Lachenal and distinctive because of having 12 sides.
He bought music and a tutor to go with it and started practising with Minnie, an accomplished singer. In March 1918, Joe gave him “a music book with empty lines in it” and grandad started copying music out.
Making Things
One of the things that I remember about grandad was that he was always making things, particularly out of wood, including things for us, his grandchildren. It is clear, from his diaries, that he started this from an early age. During this period he made a gate, windmills, a bench and a pulley (to lift his bike to store it in the coalhouse). He modified his bookcase by adding additional shelves. For his nephews, he made a rabbit hutch, a “waggon” and a crane from Meccano.