Dan Cox
Raglan St

Thank you to Trent & Peak Archaeology Dept
for allowing us to use the contents of their
St. Ann's Research Document 080/2014.
An interview that was taken by Laura Binns about 3 years ago at Stonebridge City Farm on personal memories of living in St. Ann's by Dan Cox (83) of Raglan St.

it is fascinating...the interview was conducted by our Grandson Jack Boaden (then 16) now 20 who is at Salford University who wants to be a journalist....Cheers Tony. (Jan 2017)
Interviewee Details       

Name: Dan Cox ID Number: SA_05_Cox

Place of Birth: St Anns, Nottingham        

Date of Birth: 15/10/1934
Interviewer Details             

Interviewer: Jack Boaden            

Date Time: 02/03/14 13:00

Place: Stonebridge City Farm, St Ann's

Transcript:
Jack: Would you like to introduce yourself?
Dan: Yeah, I…erm, well, proper name is Dennis but I'm known as Dan Cox
 
Jack: What’s your date of Birth?
Dan: It's the 15th October 1934

Jack: Where about in St Anns did you live?
Dan: I lived at 65 Raglan Street, St Anns and what's your earliest memory? In fact that’s the actual house [shows a picture of his house to Jack] 

Jack: Oh Wow, which room?
Dan: This first one here, that was the actual house, 65 Raglan Street
 
Jack: That’s great
Dan: Yeah, before it was demolished, maybe two or three days. Lived there approximately 10 years, before I sold it back to the council, I think I paid £200 initially, did you want me to...?

Jack: Oh no, you keep talking!
Dan: yeah paid £200 initially, and that, approximately 10 years later, the council bought it back for £650 

Jack: That’s not too bad
Dan: No, no, very good.
 
Jack: What’s your earliest memory of St Anns?
Dan: the earliest, although I lived at Mapperley, all the family, aunts and uncles, used to live in St Anns, so it was, virtually every weekend, you had me running down to this aunt or that aunt, that was spread all over St Anns, from Dame Agnes Street, Woodborough Road, erm, Bluebell Hill, St Anns Well Road.
The family lived on Caunton Avenue which was off Ransom Road. Me Grandparents, they were the earliest memories- going to my grandparents and playing on the rec, which was attached to their back garden, so it was just a question of jumping over the fence. Until I lived, until I really started to live down there, erm, it was odd things like erm, you could walk to the 47 trolley bus which would take you to Trent Bridge, which was a glorious day out [Laughs], you was going as far as the Trent, in those days it was like going to Skegness I suppose.

Jack: Can you describe some of your house, what it was like?
Dan: Er, yeah err, the St Anns one, err it was quite good actually, it was quite good because, as you see there [pointing to the picture] they were terrace except for the six where we lived. There were six of them that had bay fronts, so the wife was highly delighted, because we had a bay front. 
We had a wall with a railing on it, and the fact that we had a bay, ah, I think that most wives in them days relished the fact. The thing was, it was two rooms downstairs and then a lean to scullery which was only approximately 6 foot by 3 foot, erm, couldn't do anything with it, except, erm, I was then in the building trade, so I extended it to make it bigger because there was no way, with only a sink and a cooker, room was full.
Erm so there was two rooms down stairs, two bedrooms upstairs and then a room up in the attic, the roof, to bring a family up. The biggest problem was under the stairs between the two rooms downstairs, was the coal place, to put the coal in, and the first time the coal man come, the wife says 'we're not having that coal man traipsing through, tipping the coal down and the dust'. So the first thing really we bought was a coal bunker, concrete, to go outside, a sectional concrete coalvaluker and again on the HP, as it was known in those days 
 
Jack: So what was your childhood like?
Dan: My childhood? Really not affected to St Ann's, childhood was quite good, school was average, failed the 11 plus, but passed the 13 plus and went to grammar school, had to go out to Southwell Minster Grammar School

Jack: I'm there now
Dan: Are you?

Jack: if it's the same school, yeah
Dan: Well not the same building. No, I was in the original, in the bank, as it is now, where the tea rooms are, that was our yard, and we were in that building on the other side of the yard, next to the, on the main street there, yeah, went to 'Southwell' Minster, not 'suvell' [laughs] yeah, it was ok, not too bad, weren't too bad. Problem was going late, never caught up, in subjects, you know, never really caught up, biggest drawback, but from leaving there, couldn't fault me education, classed as a train boy because we used to go by train in them days, from Mapperley, well bus and train, other than that, yeah it was ok.
 
Jack: So what did you do for entertainment in St Anns?
Dan: In St Anns, not a great lot, the problem was in a way with arriving like in my twenties, I didn’t really move in until I'd completed my national service, and then I finished my national service and got married and that was the first house we bought, so the earlier days were mainly weekends, and so not a great lot. I knew where everything was, but delving into it, finding out why, I knew where every shop was, every shop name, things like that. Me mother worked on Alfred Street Central, me granddad was billeted from London during the War, he worked at Daykene's chemist Alfred St Central, which was, you know, a very well-known chemist, everybody knew Daykenes chemist, because it was the only place that sold carminative, and carminative was a baby soother. I think it had some opiate in it, [laughs] I think it was a baby soother, everybody knew Daykenes. Me mother worked at erm, the Montego's shop which was just below Daykenes.
 
Facing was Richardson's the butchers, big butchers, so I was forever down there, you know doing the shopping or going, cause me mother worked down there, go down there and hang about the shop and so forth. Across the road on Alison street, lived an uncle, who had a joinery, I'll say a joinery outfit, there was more than one or two coffins in the front room, I can always remember that, she'd say oh go down and see your uncle Fred, and I'd go down there and as you walk through the front door kinds of thing they'd always be one or two coffins [laughs] never knew, I've never really knew whether he had his own undertaking business, or whether he was just a joiner who made coffins, never did find out the answer to that question. But the others, another aunt had a sweet shop on St Anns Well Road, at the bottom of, what we call Donkey Hill, St Bartholomew's, family lived on Caunton Avenue.

The only entertainment mainly was either the cinema on the St Anns Well, or the other one erm, Cavendish I think it was called, the Cavendish was the cinema but the family was starting then, and I had two, three fairly quick stepping stones, so money wasn't a great lot. We did visit the Broad Oak Pub, which was a pub at the bottom of the Robin Hood chase, called the Broad Oak pub, we was in the darts team, the wife was in the ladies darts team, I was in the men's darts team, and we'd have perhaps one night a week in turns and go down and play the darts matches, sometimes I had to take the women to the away matches as I was the only one who had a car, but entertainment erm, well didn't really, well we couldn't afford it lets put it that way, the biggest problem, we just couldn't afford it, cause most of the, the younger generation living at home and so had a job, but of course once you were married and family started and that was it. And as I was buying the house and not renting it that was a err, bigger drain, rather than living at home with your parents. The mortgage, I paid £800 for it and the mortgage was £5 a week, so it was £20 a month you had to find, which isn't great, I think I made £15 a week, so a quarter of it went, err, in the mortgage, and err, the only advantage was it like a private mortgage, I never signed anything, I just, somebody said I'll sub for, I thought I was paying rent, and I used to go to a solicitor and take £20 every month, and err we'd sign a notebook and he would deduct it off the previous amount and when I got to the end, he said the 'house is yours'. And I thought I was renting it. So, but that's how it went, that's how it went.
 
Jack: So speaking of wages, did you have a job in St Anns?
Dan: Just outside of it yeah, originally when I left school I worked at the coal board, Gedling Colliery, I left there cause nobody else had been through there kind of thing, I was achieving what I wanted to achieve but there was a bit of impatience, because with the coal board you were age, you couldn't move up, to a deputy or a shop firer until you were 26 and a deputy until you were I think 30, and when you're 20 you think, oh hang on a minute, you've got 6 years, qualified. Then of course leaving there, to do my national service, so that took two years out, and when I came out I had to change course, yeah, I worked for an electrical firm in the Lace market. I did that for a bit, and then I thought no I'm more interest in the general building, so from the electrical firm I went into general building, and then ironically, even though as I left there, I was working for Wimpey's and worked on the first houses that Wimpey's built to replace them down at the bottom end, the first phase, the first houses I worked on and I thought you know, here l am they're demolishing the top end and now I'm building at the bottom end with Wimpey's on the new thing, but erm, basically the thing is I didn’t actually work for any firm, but the wife she worked for a cleaning firm, and she worked for one or two office cleaning in and around the area, one of the persons she worked for owned the Cavendish cinema, or the St Ann's cinema, chap called Shapiro, she worked for them for some time.

No there were mainly names like the doctors Elmainey on St Ann's well road itself kind of thing, and the family was under Dr Want, Ernest Want, who was Lord Mayor and we were under Ernest Want when we were kiddies, when I was a child, and we lived up Mapperley, yeah Ernest Want, he was the Doctor when we moved to St Anns, it was Elmainey, couldn't fault him, couldn't fault him, he was very good, but he was good in the fact that you'd go visit him and he would say erm, save your prescription charge take one of these four times a day. And then there were samples that the reps had gave him to prescribe, so you know it was off loaded. And facing him was Laurence the dentist, he was well known as a bit of a butcher [laughs], he lived opposite, but it was all little things like that, because Laurence you could phone up and say you'd got toothache, 'won't you see me and well ahh … it’s such a torment' and he'd say, 'right come after 6 tonight' and you'd go after 6 and he'd have a look and whoosh it was out [laughs], it won't ache now.

So it was all little things, that people pass on kind of thing, 'ahh don't go to Laurence's' kind of thing, he'll tell you to come after 6 and then he'll take it out regardless of whether it wanted filling, well you know today’s root canal or so forth, and it was in a way, little things like that, and then things like the, even on the big stores, the HP, you know, it was like, one week down, but everything was paid over 20 weeks, and 3 years,4 years and so forth, it was like 20 weeks, but there was nothing added on, and they were the little things that made St Ann's, help, and everything that people gave you, you were strangers, regardless of what shops you went in, kind of thing. It was 'oh we'll help you out with this and help you out with that, and that was one of the things that I did notice. And again kind of thing.

I’d worked for Wimpey's, and I started on the first block on St Anns, well it was ideal, I could fall out of bed, and I was at work, but no, no no, Wimpey's had other ideas, no there was a Wimpey's van that went to Leicester, so, it was easier for me to go to the Market square, catch the Wimpey transport to Leicester, and bring the Mansfield lads to Nottingham, so things didn't quite work out, so although I saw St Ann's from a Wimpey point of view at the beginning and now and again kind of thing I missed out on several years of redeveloping. But no I think it was mainly, it was the little things, and people that you knew and the diverse thing, like uncle Fred was a joiner, with coffins in the front room, I'd go to the Brady side of the family on Dame Agnes Street, and I can still see the sign 'Webster - bespoke tailor' on the wall inside of the front door. Erm I'm assuming that, although I never really enquired when I went down, but I got the impression that nearly everybody had a trade that went from the house, it did actually just go from the house, whether it was just outside the family I don’t know, I don’t know - they didn't leave me any money in their wills [laughs] 
 
Jack: Do you have any other memories you'd like to talk about? Of the area in general?
Dan: Of the area, erm, although my area was, it’s funny really cause although my area was that top quarter, to come into town we'd catch the 31 bus, which is still running now but it don't go to the terminus, we'd use the 31 bus down Woodborough Road and into town, now a lot of St Anns it was the 40 and 47 trolley bus you know down the main road, erm, and things always seemed that bit different, never actually knew what kind of thing, and again it was, every street had an off licence on the bottom corner, top corner and if it was long enough, one in the middle, and that to me was always rather peculiar because even though I lived there, there was one at the end of our street on the corner and there was one down where the excavator is on this side, Pyketts was there and Woods was there, and your loyalty was, well which one do I use if you wanted to buy anything. Little things like that used to niggle me a bit. 'Hum now then, if I go over there ..Mr Wood might see me going over to Pyketts, there was never any of that but it was obvious, and there was other things that we didn't do, where they, you know like I said before, where I played darts at the Broad Oak Pub, now right next to the end of that building there, there was a back gate, big gates you know, and it was a back entrance to the pub, and it was back to back, the entrance to the pub was on the road next to it, Eastville street and that was the back entrance and all the barrels were delivered into there, now in ten years I never ever went in that pub never, I don't know why, I never walked down Eastville street, the road at the back.

It was a question of, you went down Raglan street, through Lewis Street onto Alfred Street, through Union Road to get to town and that’s the route you took, unless you went down the Chase to St Anns Well Road, where all the shops were and you know, I don't know why, it seemed as though if you were walking you went that determined, and most people walked anyway, because cars were few and far between, people used to walk exactly down the same round in the same manner time in time out and it was mainly little things like that, and I think that’s really what made St Anns. And you'd go down the road. Now the wife would know quite a few people on the road, and once I got past three doors down, I couldn’t tell you what their names was, couldn't tell you what the name was, …the biggest problem was you went out at half past 6 in the morning and you didn't get back till 6 at night so you didn't really know basically who was who, but those who you did know were very friendly, the woman next door was the Sunday School teacher, and though she wasn't married, the woman that shared the house with her, she was a school teacher and a Sunday school teacher, you couldn't have found better neighbours, no doubt about it. 

The biggest problem was when we sold. I was fortunate there that I did get out at the right time, because that when, erm they paid me £600 but again it was who you knew and I knew this chap was a councillor, and he knocked, this is when I sold it, he knocked on the door and he said 'oh I'm here to tell you that St Anns has now gone onto the, from the council meeting last week, it’s gone onto the 10 Year Plan'. And I said '10 year plan?' he said 'well it'll be gone in 10 years,' I says 'oh what you mean gone?' 'Demolished, gone' 'well.. erm what’s happening then?' and he said 'well its gone on the 10 year plan, but first of all it'll go on the 5 year, and in the 5 year we'll take the first section of it and then go onto the 10' he said ·and then the lot will go' he said 'I'm telling you now because once this news gets out property prices will drop, because it will be compulsory purchase' so I says 'oh Right thank you very much' [laughs]. So I approached the council and they sent a youth round and the youth, I says to the youth, 'what’s happening here now' kind of thing, and he said 'well you either sell up to us· and I said ' what are you going to do with it' 'we'll put misfit families in' and I thought oh. And I thought perhaps it’s time to move on unfortunately. And he said ·we'll put misfit families in and we'll give you £600 for it. And I said 'well what happens if I stop' and he said 'well if you stop and it comes under the compulsory purchase, we don't give you anything for the house, you'll get £ 150 for the land value, but we'll give you a council house'.

Question was, do I move, put away my doubts and buy another one or do I stop and get allocated a council house in 5 or 6 years’ time, and £150 for the ground value? I decided to move, to Carlton – well, still in the same area 40 odd years later, 50 years. But no I’ve really had no complaints, but I've always had that interest afterwards, if it’s still there and if it’s still thriving and so forth, and I must admit over the years I've worked with numerous people in the building trade and then dealing with Wimpey's there’s a lot came from St Ann's a lot of labourers and all sorts, joiners and so forth all lived in St Ann's. We all knew the chap across the road, he did one round the back, another chap who I knew later on and whose house I worked in, still you know, see him today, he lived on the next road, Caroline Street, so erm, true association. I just erm, still carrying on with the interest of St Anns and the amount of people, but no getting a bit less and less kind of thing but then again we're getting older and disappearing. But I’ve got fond memories of it.

The same you know after I'd bought the house on the mortgage and I didn’t even know who the owner was, hadn't got a clue, until a letter arrives from this chap kind of thing, think I’ve still got it in a file and I got this letter and it said thank you for buying a house, I hope this will be the first of many things that you do, and I thought, what a sentiment you know I didn’t even know his name never mind anything else till I went to the solicitor or the wife did, went to reception gave the £20 down in the notebook and out we came, and only afterwards this letter came and I thought that was very nice and I never even met him or nothing and yet he wrote afterwards, appreciated and so forth, everything else, you wouldn't have got that from the Anglia Building Society or Halifax [laughs] nah just interest rates.

Jack: We'll just end it there if that’s alright?
Dan: Yeah