Mansfield Woodhouse

A selection of photographs taken for a CHAD feature in November 1983.

What has changed in the last 30 years?

No1
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No 2
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No 3
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No 4
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No 5
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No 6
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No 7
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Comments about this page

  • My very early years were lived at what was then 112 High Street, (later renumbered), I believe it is now a Chinese takeaway.
    At that time my father, a master printer, and grandmother, ran a stationery shop there, E.L.Thomas &Son. My grandmother was of the Ashley family known to have built a number of Mansfield Woodhouse buildings.
    Small as I was, I too remember Betts with fondness.

    By Mari-an Watkins nè Thomas (15/05/2020)
  • Betts were a well known family, Barbara Sadler married a Reg Betts, she taught me at King Edwards, I met a Stan Betts later. I recall a shoe shop on the corner, I knew Mary Laughton of Park Hall Rd. who was a florist. Hills were well known builders, father knew Harry at Woodhouse Place. I knew Evelyn Fairbrother, who was well known and kept the Four Ways pub.

    By Mark Wilson (09/11/2019)
  • Re. photo No. 2. During the 2nd World War the premises to the right of the archway were a ‘Britannia Restaurant’ where you could buy a meal without having to use your Ration Book. As a child at that time I was always hungry but my Mother wouldn’t take us because she said they served ‘Rissoles’ and you didn’t know what was in them!

    In Photo 3, again to the right of the archway and referred to by some as ‘Carlyle’s’. I remember at the same time, and for a little while after the war, this Shop was a Cobblers whose Proprietor was one Tid Evans. He used to sit by his old fireplace repairing shoes on his knee and he made a good job, several times, of restitching the leather panels of my old ‘Caseball’ Football.  He must have run his business there for forty years or more for both my Mother and Grandparents had taken Shoes to him for repair during the inter-War years!

    John White

    By John White (03/03/2018)
  • We used to visit friends in Mansfield Woodhouse, Steve and Alice Tryner. They had a cobblers shop on the main road then they got a licence for the Railway Hotel in Mansfield. I liked to serve in the shop and play with the shoes. We went ballroom dancing with them too. There used to be a dancing studio opposite the pub and my dad learned to dance there. As kids my sister and I travelled to Dick Matchets Dancing School in Sutton in Ashfield twice a week, so dad learned to dance with us!

    I went to the Manor School in Mansfield Woodhouse. I was there for about 2 years ( 1957,58-1960) while Sherwood Hall School was being built. Sherwood Hall was next to the riding stables and we could see the horses while playing in the fields at the back.

    Janet Nash ( Hayes)

    By Janet Nash (17/02/2018)
  • Fond memories Glen of Harry Morley all those years ago ,yes as you say sent there as a young kid for the short back and sides.Yet as we grew up went up to the other gents barbers as it was called then on the High Street namely Suttleworths just can’t bring to mind the man who ran the shop .Sat what seemed like hours on the square seats in the shop after school waiting for a haircut ,of course you had to wait for the elderly gentlemen to have their haircut first ,sure some jumped the queue before ours selves as kids.Happy days in “Woodus” and as time when on John Hawley came along and had a shop at the side of the Swan pub,but facing  the High Street ,how times have changed .

    By G.Burton former "Woodus lad" (31/01/2018)
  • Harry Morley lived in Blackgate Yard – see my piece about the yard – for reasons long forgotten we kids called him Shonka Morley, though not to his face of course, he could be quite fierce! We yard kids were sent there for a short back and sides every six weeks, I can stil hear the sound of his bell going when the shop door opened.

    By Glenn Sutcliffe (24/09/2017)
  • Hi Sandy,

    Sorry to hear about your dad, I can remember us playing in the Army Stores shop all those years ago. I 

    also remember your dad telling us it was one of the oldest houses in Woodhouse and scaring me with a few tales of it being haunted.

    All the best 

    Jonathan Martin

    By Jonathan Martin (23/10/2016)
  • Re, The army stores-hello Sandy, thank you for your kind comment.The army stores, like Bett’s, like old Everett the cobbler, Chell’s etc all had a unique character shops that now do not have. Even their own smell, you do find shops similar in nature,but you have to go quite a way to do so, Lincolnshire usually for my part where this trend seems to endure. The little shops with their myriad wooden drawers, shiny with use and age, till’s often a wooden drawer also take you back, even the shop bell when you opened the door, by far a more aesthetic experience, more sensory in so many ways than just endless chrome, strip lighting, piped music and two for one’s people seldom need. Perhaps others think differently, but going into such shops as a child was always a small adventure of a kind for me, gardeners buying onion sets, old folks with Jeyes fluid, ant powder, screws and nails, you seldom came out without what you went in for. Nowadays no one has it ,but they can get it for you-or so they say. Whilst change is inevitable in all things, I do think these were slightly nicer times before the  supermarket and retail park ruled supreme over all. Cheers Sandy, and thanks again to you.

    By John (15/02/2016)
  • John, your memory regarding the Army Stores is correct. My father ran the shop, Fred Wilson. His wife, Beth Wilson had the wool shop across the road from the shop, which later moved into the Army Stores itself. We relocated to Dunfermline in Scotland in 1989, Mum and Dad ran a cafe called ‘Whistlers’ (it was previously owned by a local football referee) for a few years, then ran a sweet shop in Dunfermline full time until he was 79. My Mum sold the shop after my Dad sadly passed away at the age of 80 in 2009. Mum is still going strong, although arthritis prevents her from knitting any more.

    It’s lovely to hear that you remember the Army Stores, and my Dad. I have fond memories of the shop, and as we lived above it for many years, most of my formative years were spent there. There are still some boxes of unsold shoes from the Army Stores in my Mum’s shed, and I still use the shop’s leather punch for punching new holes in belts. My Dad could never throw anything away

    As for Bett’s, I remember the the owners were Len & Elsie. My first rocking chair was purchased there when I was a baby, made by Tony, who I think was their son. It’s still got pride of place in my Mum’s living room in Dunfermline, however my bum no longer fits in it….

    By Sandy (11/02/2016)
  • If memory serves me also to the immediate left of the first picture, there where a set of public lavatories, demolished in the early eighties when the stonework was done and seating areas/raised beds where created there. Other public toilets were on Slant Lane, just up from the allotment gates, and the bookies shed that used to stand there, and another set opposite “Madam’s” gown shop at the bottom of Castle Street, corner of Vale Rd/Station Street where also demolished around this time.

    By John (25/04/2015)
  • I am very interested with the pictures of High Street M/W. I was born at number 77 High Street but the door was on farm yard, the house was knocked down in about 1967 and all the photos I have come across are taken from the Greyhound pub or the other side of the road, the Royal pub. I was just wondering if you have come across any, it was the end of the row of shops the land now is being built on.

     

    By maureen watson (17/03/2015)
  • The business which now occupies Geoff Carlisle’s former shop “G Carlisle sports” makes me smile each time I pass it.Ie the sale of articles pertaining to “alternative smoking” or as we now informed “Vaping”.As far as I can remember,the late Mr Carlisle who ran his business from here for 30+yrs was a church/chapel man who eschewed both drinking and smoking as pastimes and pursuits.My how times change.

    By John (21/07/2014)
  • Re, the top picture on this page and the state of these raised beds today. Now no one bothers to weed and plant them up any more, I find this very disappointing. This corner of Woodhouse was once a riot of attractive colour, now all that it features is weeds. It is such a shame, a small thing, yet makes a difference to the village’s appearance.

    By John. (18/01/2014)
  • Great comments John, I to remember such memories of Woodhouse. Photo one, remember barber Harry Morley his was to the right of the photo - many a short back n sides in there!!!! Was it ‘Dawes’ paper shop before Churchills ? Remember Chamberlains Bakery further up on the left, yes Carlisle’s repair shoe shop too, and the Co-op self service  – good old days long gone.

    By 'former wodus lad' (22/03/2013)
  • Interesting set of piccies, the old Co-op, Geoff Carlisle’s shop, and the former Army Stores, ran by a bloke called Fred if memory serves me. I liked this shop and often got bits and bobs to venture into the woods and fields from here, pocket knives etc, all the things no longer fashionable because they are deemed either too dangerous or simply unwanted because they don’t run on batteries, bleep, or need effort to use it seems. Our papers were delivered every week from Churchill’s Newsagents across from Crosby’s corner that was. As many other people will verify I’m sure, the loss of Bett’s shop was the bitterest blow Woodhouse High Street ever suffered. If you wanted it, there it was, in one of the many myriad wooden drawers behind that counter, from “doll’s eyes to railway tunnels” Betts had it! I drew my first weeks wages from the Natwest Bank when it was situated across from Ben’s Bakery, next but one to the launderette on the market place-now gone of course!

    By John. (10/03/2013)

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