Broadsides – A collection of bits and pieces
"Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a blog”
` This is every word of the evidence given by witnesses to the alleged racist incident at Nottingham Castle. The evidence was given, to the external independent inquiry, commissioned by the Trustees of Nottingham Castle and is extracted directly from their report dated 24th January 2022 It exposes a number of important points about... Continue Reading →
I got myself involved in a small controversy over there on Twitter. I was reading a fairly vigorous thread from a group called “Staff of Colour”, about their many grievances against their employer, who is Nottingham Castle. The specific nature of their grievances is quite difficult to discern, but I’ll come to that later. They... Continue Reading →
I got myself involved in a small controversy over there on Twitter. I was reading a fairly vigorous thread from a group called “Staff of Colour”, about their many grievances against their employer, who is Nottingham Castle. The specific nature of their grievances is quite difficult to discern, but I’ll come to... Continue Reading →
The Boycott is an extremely powerful tool. An extremely powerful word. To call upon the general public to withdraw from commercial cultural and social relationships with the target of the boycott requires exceptional grounds to be justifiable. Originally it was used against Landlords evicting their tenants in Ireland. It was the 19th-century form of... Continue Reading →
There was this huge Woolworths store on Lister gate in Nottingham, two floors, maybe three if I remember right, although the top floor was for staff. I worked there one summer, back in the seventies. I was a student, up a Ruskin college in Oxford. The grants were pretty decent then but I still needed... Continue Reading →
Across from the Union office, on Nottingham’s Sherwood Rise, was this nursing home for the elderly. Privately owned it employed some twenty or so care staff in a very large old Victorian rather splendid house with extensive gardens. The care staff were, as is nearly always the case, underpaid and called upon to work excessive... Continue Reading →
I lived up Sneinton way. The Union office was up in Sherwood Rise . Driving to work took me across the St. Anns estate and up Curzon Street, near the Victoria Shopping Centre,. Curzon Street, at that time was just an open space of derelict buildings, the last remains of the St. Anns slum clearance... Continue Reading →
Traffic wardens can be rather grumpy sods. It’s a job that attracts the grumpy. In the early days, and it probably still is the case, they were employed by Police Authorities. Which is almost certainly why they adopted the blue military style uniform. Being grumpy sods they often had more grievances than the norm. And... Continue Reading →
Further ephemeral treasures from my archive shoebox. Thisi is a check list of the NUPE officers strike levy collected for the Nottinghamshire Miners during the 1984 strike. The levy, £23.00 a week, was mandatory and was in addition to countless irregular payments, contributions and collections that were a constant feature of the period. No doubt... Continue Reading →
A. A. Dickson Captain, 2/7th Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters 'A Duty to Execute', ( This is Captain Arthur Annan Dickson of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment. It is the only known photograph of a British Officer who commanded one of the 1916 execution parties at Kilmainham Gaol. What is not known, with any precision, is which... Continue Reading →
In the bowels of the old Shire hall worked the unseen unsung servants that kept the ancient complex clean and who would break their backs shovelling coke into the great boilers deep in the cellars that warmed the courts and offices and public spaces of the busy crowded and noble building. Low paid and of... Continue Reading →
Broadsides - A collection of bits and pieces 