o/t I remember the days when Swindon...

[Benzel]

Jungle Bungle.

[The Grim Reaper]

11 pages and no-one recalls the famous 'Swindon Air Hooter' for the GWR workshop workers? I'm sure as a small boy in the late 70's when living in Newhall Street it was a daily occurrence.

[leefer]

11 pages and no-one recalls the famous 'Swindon Air Hooter' for the GWR workshop workers? I'm sure as a small boy in the late 70's when living in Newhall Street it was a daily occurrence.

Funny i remember the early morning blasts well....it was just the norm.

[ronnie21]

Does anyone remember Sid the Kid?  Never paid to look at him, he would down you for sneering or so he thought!  Did a bit of door work at the Moonrakers, last I heard of him he was in an old people's home in Wroughton.  Re Froud and Hext, was run by two brothers on Vic Hill.  One of them still lives there, but they have got Spot On Models on Fleet st. now, where Great Western Cycles used to be.

[leefer]

Does anyone remember Sid the Kid?  Never paid to look at him, he would down you for sneering or so he thought!  Did a bit of door work at the Moonrakers, last I heard of him he was in an old people's home in Wroughton.  Re Froud and Hext, was run by two brothers on Vic Hill.  One of them still lives there, but they have got Spot On Models on Fleet st. now, where Great Western Cycles used to be.

Sid is still around......walks around with a hat complete with feather.....muttering cuckoo.
Not seen him for about a year though.

[ronnie21]

Normans furniture shop - and they also had the secondhand furniture shop where Walkabout used to be.  RE Football Pink, we used to travel into Swindon for footy on the train and the Football Pink man used to come down the platform as the train was about to leave, this was after we had had our fish and chips from the shop in Wellington Street.  Didn't Nottons also have a cafe situated about where Focal Point is now?

[ronnie21]

Sid is still around......walks around with a hat complete with feather.....muttering cuckoo.
Not seen him for about a year though.

That's the guy, lives in Markham Place at Wroughton I believe now.

[Reg Smeeton]

11 pages and no-one recalls the famous 'Swindon Air Hooter' for the GWR workshop workers? I'm sure as a small boy in the late 70's when living in Newhall Street it was a daily occurrence.

We've had hooter threads before...those as well..

One of Gazza's finest

http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,37342.0.html

[leefer]

Normans furniture shop - and they also had the secondhand furniture shop where Walkabout used to be.  RE Football Pink, we used to travel into Swindon for footy on the train and the Football Pink man used to come down the platform as the train was about to leave, this was after we had had our fish and chips from the shop in Wellington Street.  Didn't Nottons also have a cafe situated about where Focal Point is now?

That wasn't Nottons....Nottons were ware Rudi's is now.....a rather posher establishment than the famous cafe in Manny Road.

[Batch]

I think somebody mentioned it in jest before, but that hooter would be great to run out to at the CG instead of some crappy song.

[Costanza]

As a non-Swindon native, my main memory of Swindon is the old guy selling the Advertiser in the town centre using that odd noise (for my young ears anyway) as his selling technique.

[Reg Smeeton]

Normans furniture shop - and they also had the secondhand furniture shop where Walkabout used to be.  RE Football Pink, we used to travel into Swindon for footy on the train and the Football Pink man used to come down the platform as the train was about to leave, this was after we had had our fish and chips from the shop in Wellington Street.  Didn't Nottons also have a cafe situated about where Focal Point is now?

You may be thinking of Beale's Ronnie....an ace establishment, beloved of mods, rather than the grot of say The Titanic in Gorse Hill, it was tastefully turned out, with proper Italian expresso machines. Pin tables weren't the best.....but you could buy purple hearts (not over the counter)

Beale's is somewhat curiously remember by a street name amongst the plastic and glass shite that got dumped down there.

[ronnie21]

That wasn't Nottons....Nottons were ware Rudi's is now.....a rather posher establishment than the famous cafe in Manny Road.

Yeah, and still run by the Notton family!  What was the one I referred to called then?

[ronnie21]

You may be thinking of Beale's Ronnie....an ace establishment, beloved of mods, rather than the grot of say The Titanic in Gorse Hill, it was tastefully turned out, with proper Italian expresso machines. Pin tables weren't the best.....but you could buy purple hearts (not over the counter)

Beale's is somewhat curiously remember by a street name amongst the plastic and glass shite that got dumped down there.

Thanks Reg.

[leefer]

Reg or Ronnie.......can you remember the Tartan cafe in Commercial Road?
Vaguly remember was run for years by an excentric Scotsman............can remember pinball machines and a strong smell of coffee............but not a lot else.