The Knights in White Denim Tour -AKA The White Trash Tour…
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Ok, so part 2 of me avoiding death by beating for the crime of walking around Mansfield in White Jeans.
This morning Pam took Tom to the cinema, which gave me ideal opportunity to have a walk around my local area, and retrace some steps to my younger days.
Here's me about to set off on the walking tour of yesteryear….
This time I walked the other way, away from the town centre, and back towards the area I grew up in. From where I live now this is approximately a 30 minute walk.
This is a road known as Littleworth, so called because the land here was basically a swamp, or Peat Bog, and was therefor declared of "Little Worth". The piece of waste land/ pile of rubble you can see here used to be a pub called "Ye Olde Ram Inne", and was rubish and rightly demolished.
Opposite is the street which leads to King Edwards Primary School, this is where my Grandfather went to school in the 20's, my father in the 50's, me in the 80's, and now Tommy goes here too. It was built in 1839, and is a fine example of what a typical old English school looks like.
Across the road from Toms school is a fairly unremarkable house, only notable as the place in which I lost my virginity
The girl's name was Kelly, she went on to play rugby for Cambridge University, and is now a Veterinary surgeon in Africa. To complete this extremely personal confession, the deed was done in my friends, mothers wardrobe.
And after those lurid details, more pictures of Tommys school
[img width=640 height=640]http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/emporergav01/IMG_1921-1.jpg
This is the site of the former Mansfield Brewery, this used to be the towns major employer and Mansfield Bitter was an award winning beer sold up and down the county. At its peak of fame in the 80's it was advertised nationally on television by Jeremy Clarkson (of Top Gear fame) using the slogan "Not much matches Mansfield". The brewery was sold to a competitor around 11 years ago, who moved production of Mansfield Bitter out of the town, and then discontinued its production.
This is a section of the river Maun, which flows through the centre of town, and gave Mansfield its former name, and the name by which it is know in the Domesday book census of 1086, Maunsfield. The river used to run strong, and power local mills, now it is nothing more than a stream really.
This is the Army barracks of the local TA (Territorial Army), which is similar to the American National Guard I guess.
Here we come onto a park where I spent a fair portion of my childhood, Titchfield Park. This is one of the nicer parks in Mansfield, and host open air concerts in the summer months. When I was a child it was much scruffier, but we loved it anyway, there used to be an old WWII tank in the middle of the park for kids to climb all over.
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This is St Marks church, it is where my mother and father were married, it is where Pam and I were married, and it is where both my parents funeral services, and Tommys Christening were held. I am far from a religious man, but this building has a long history with my family, both good and bad.
Next we come to the "One Call Stadium", formerly known simply as Field Mill, and home to our local football (soccer) team, Mansfield Town FC, also known as "The Stags". Mansfield Towns sporting history has wavered between awful, and utterly hopeless, currently they occupy the latter as they have fallen out of the professional football league, and into the part time obscurity of the Blue Square Premier League. I have been to watch the Stags on a few occasions, but would not call myself a fan in the least, life has enough hopeless causes without adding to them.
This is the view down the main road to Nottingham, imaginatively called "Nottingham Road". This is the area which I grew up in, and now looks completely different to how it did when I was a child.
The Talbot Inn used to be my local watering hole, and I used to occupy this place most nights of the week in my late teens/ early 20's. My next confession involves my secret escape route out of the back of this pub, and through a hole in the fence in the car park, I used this escape route twice in my younger days when a date I was on was not going well, not something I'm proud of, but cowardice from an angry female is something most guys can relate to at some point in their life.
This is Gedling Street, the street on which I lived my entire childhood. My father and mother had quite a comfortable living in a larger house, but when my grandfather died my father bought the house directly at the side of his mother, though much smaller, to make sure she was looked after for the rest of her days. I have so many good memories of this street.
The grey house was ours (my fathers), and the cream coloured house was my grandmothers. My father had six brothers and sisters, I grew up with no brothers and sisters, but with around 40 cousins (including my mothers side too). Every weekend most of my aunts and uncles and cousins would come to visit my grandmother, which would then spill over into our house. As you can see from the size of the property, it got pretty damn crowded, but it built an extremely strong family bond.
Finally, I arrived at my oldest and best friends house, my cousin Dan. We look very similar, and people seem to think we are brothers, Dan is a very strange man, and reminds me of Seul (in a good way). When I arrived today he had cut his head shaving, and was covered in blood.
Dan doesn't know yet, but as he always asks me about Iron Heart I am going to give him my 634's for Christmas, great way to get him started I think.
I hope you have enjoyed the second look around a provincial English town, and an insight into what makes me as strange as I am
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Exactly
I'll be back later to correct all spelling and grammar errors, already amended 5 mistakes on the first post
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Thanks Twin, looking forward to meeting you buddy
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Oh no, there's plenty more…..none of it pleasant.
Next weekend we're going to try and get into Sherwood Forest for some Robin Hood action, and maybe meet some friends and family. Then off to New York to take the jeans back across the Atlantic.
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the deed was done in my friends, mothers wardrobe.
All class…..
You know it baby
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Top stuff
Mansfield looks like a plesent Midlands town from your photos, is it really as bad as you make out?Well…..lets see....
http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/2011/07/mansfield-shit-hole/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield
To be fair, the last one has some funny moments.
http://www.ukcrimestats.com/Neighbourhood/Nottinghamshire_Police/Mansfield_Town_Centre
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To be fair, the last one has some funny moments.
Some funny moments? I laughed so hard I nearly cried. That was completely awesome. I especially loved the blue oval over the guy's face and, um, other identifying feature…
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I'm hoping to not get in that state whilst in NY
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Great updates Mega. I've only ever passed through Mansfield so it was good to see what's off the main road, heh. Eagerly anticipating your Sherwood Forest updates although please don't kill my childhood memories if it looks really crap these days!
