Workday Wednesday - Ted Richardson & The price of petrol....

A search through the card index at Nottingham's Angel Row library a while ago led me to a newspaper article about my 2x Great Uncle Edward (or Ted as he was known) and his garage in Radcliffe Road, West Bridgeford.

The article, which appeared on the 21st July 1983 was to mark his retirement, after 27 years of running this particular garage and a total of 60 years in the motor industry.

It's interesting to note Ted's comments on the price of petrol, the equivalent of 5p a gallon in 1923, and the fact that it had risen to 37 times that by 1983, to £1.34 a gallon.

I wonder what he would say about today's prices - currently around £6.31 per gallon!

If you have any memories of Ted and/or his garage, I'd love to hear from you.

Ted & his wife Margaret

On This Day......

On this day  - 10th February - in 1857, my 3xgreat grandmother, Hannah Richardson died aged just 33.

She was born in Liverton, North Yorkshire in early 1824, the daughter of John Richardson and  Hannah Shaw.

Hannah worked as an agricultural labourer at Sandpit House in Milton during the 1840s and in 1846 she gave birth to her first child, a son, James, who was baptised at St. Michael's church in Liverton. James is recorded in the Parish records as illegitimate - a family story suggests that his father was the son of a local landowner and if he had been legitimate would have inherited the land.

In 1848, Hannah gave birth to a daughter, Mary Jane.  By this time she is living in Staithes, North Yorkshire and working as a housekeeper for John Harrison, an ostler. In 1851 her third child is born, John Thomas. Her fourth child, my 2xgreat grandfather, Robert is born in 1855.

It can't be proven that John Harrison was the father of Mary, John and Robert, but she was living in his house throughout this time.  In the records for St. Hilda's in Hindewell, there are baptisms recorded for Mary and John; their parents are John and Hannah Harrison and the dates of baptism tie up nicely with their dates of birth.

Hannah died in Staithes - from consumption, her father, John, was present at her death.

Of Hannah's children, James found work as a servant to the Hudson family in Loftus.  The three youngest children were in Guisborough workhouse for a time.  John and Robert became joinery apprentices which worked out well for both of them in their adult lives.  Mary married her first cousin once removed, William Garbutt Shaw and eventually settled in Derbyshire.

Nottingham Caves

I just wanted to share details of a project to map Nottingham's caves - producing 3D images of the sandstone caves beneath the streets.

There is a much more detailed blog post about it here, which includes a tour of the caves and lots of photos.


More pictures and information are available on the Nottingham Cave Survey website, along with YouTube videos.

Even more exciting is a soon-to-be-released app with augmented reality capability.  So you will be able to stand in front of a building in Nottingham & see an image of the caves underneath on your phone!  Brilliant!