Memories

That elephant

By Mohammed Ahmed

Mr P. D. Atkinson, aged 78, who now lives in Clifton, phoned me at the weekend to tell me the story as he remembers it. He lived in the Meadows at the time and remembers reading it in the Evening Post.

The elephant was part of a circus brought to Nottingham by train to the Low Level Station. It was stabled under the arches of the Railway Bridge. It escaped but was soon caught by its keeper who reportedly said ‘Come on Baby’ as it was taken safely back to the Arches. Whether Baby was its official name is not known, but the name was adopted affectionately by local people.

There was only one casualty during this incident. An elderly lady was a little perturbed when Baby pushed its trunk through her letterbox.

That is Mr Atkinson’s recollection of the event. Can anyone else add to the story?

Meadows memories of Brian Cooper

I remember when one of the elephants that used to be housed in the LINER Railway stables that used to be on Blackstone Street opposite the house in which we lived. The elephant was one of 3 from a circus which was held in the Nottingham Empire which is where the concert hall is now situated. They were kept in the stables whilst the circus performed in Nottingham. I, my sisters Barbara and Brenda, and several local kids used to help to take the animals up Arkwright Street past the Midland Station, along Carrington Street, Wheeler Gate, Market Street and eventually the Empire. Sometimes if we were allowed to stop up a bit late we would go and help to bring them back again. The man who was in charge of looking after the elephants was called George and was also one of the clowns in the circus. He used to let us help clean out the stalls in which the animals were housed; the names of the elephants were Mary, Anna and Pamela - Pamela being the youngest from what I can remember. I can vaguely remember seeing one of the elephants running around on the street for a short spell, but I don’t think it led to any panic being caused.

The only other incident I recall was one of the horses belonging to the Railway Company running amok and I think it kicked one of our neighbour’s doors down, but I could not be really sure about that. The horses were used to pull the heavy drays laden with all sorts of goods, they were of the heavy Shire horse type and very hard to control if upset or surprised, but this did not happen very often. I also remember the lions and tigers and I believe bears etc were kept in the Railway property stables that were in Iremonger Road/Sutton Street area, adjacent to the Nottingham Country Football ground off Meadows Lane.

Regarding the moving of cattle, I and some of my friends used to get up very early on Sunday mornings and go down to what was known then as The Prince of Wales farm or another farm which was next to it, and help take cows from there along the embankment and Radcliffe Road, Holme Road, past what is now the National Water Sports Centre and eventually to fields adjacent to the viaduct and river Trent at Radcliffe on Trent. Sometimes the route was varied along  Queens Drive, Kirkwhite Street, Arkwright Street and then on to Trent Bridge, but we always finished up at Radcliffe on Trent and we would be rewarded by the drovers, usually with about five old pence each.

One of the other things that comes to mind were the floods in 1947. I attended Trent Bridge Senior Boys School and remember setting off for school and being met on Wilford Grove by other pupils from the school saying we had to return home because the school boilers were out of action and the floods were expected, and sure enough the floods came and we had to move upstairs as the waters rose – we lived on the first floor area for about five days. Food was delivered by various means and I remember lowering a basket on a rope which just happened to be my mother’s clothes line, whilst milk, break and other items we received were placed in it before it was hoisted back up through the bedroom window. Some of the items we received were tinned fruit etc which had been donated by the very kind people in New Zealand and Australia and some of the tins had the peoples’ names and addresses written on, wishing us well and saying they hoped we could soon get back to normal. We were so grateful for the gifts of food and my mother wrote to some of the addresses on the tins thanking the people for sending them. After the floods had subsided we still continued to receive food parcels from New Zealand and Australia so my mother wrote to say the floods had now gone away and we no longer needed their much appreciated help. Imagine our surprise when we were told that the appeal that had been set up had raised so much money, but because it had been set up to help people affected by flooding in that area, any surplus had to be used for that area until the fund was exhausted! So we continued to receive food parcels for some time after.

Memories of Mr Brian (Curly) Cooper, resident from birth in 1936 until he moved in 1958.