12 Jan 2026 18:06:40
Mvred, I remember staying in Mansfield for the sheep game (controversial on here ??) jolly the punks idea. Bridleways guest house. I do away trips a lot me and my mate or the yank. And I loved that place. Area nice as well. Breakfast 2nd to none, salmon and poached eggs. Very nice ? and amazing weekend ? jolly still doing well btw bless him.

1.) 12 Jan 2026
12 Jan 2026 19:07:00
Think I've said before on here, on my drive back I passed a colliery. Just an amazing hit in the face for me, like a piece of art. Yet haunted. You know when ya can see the hard working lives and controversial history.

Was like BANG straight in the face. Quite emotional actually. I dunno, I know I know lot of ya think I'm losing it. Just weird though.

2.) 12 Jan 2026
12 Jan 2026 20:01:07
You're not loosing it Bowie I know just how you feel, I was over in Scunthorpe a while ago and passed the steel works. My wife wondered why I pulled up outside so I told her that back in the early seventies I was working as a plater welder at a big engineering workshop in lowdham, we built most of that steel works.

quite strange looking at something that I had a hand in still standing. mind you probably be the death of me after all that asbestos we inhaled, but still good to see it.

3.) 12 Jan 2026
12 Jan 2026 21:11:46
Thanks vale bud. Great reply ?.

4.) 13 Jan 2026
13 Jan 2026 00:09:15
Bowie, it was probably Clipstone Colliery headstocks you saw. The pit shut years ago but they're still there, standing proud. There must of been easily ten coal mines in the mansfield area, a thriving town, money in your pocket good times.

Replaced by minimum wage warehouses. Anyway, heading towards politics, so I'll leave that.
Good to hear Jolly is ok, i don't think there has ever been a bloke banned and reinstated more times than him on this site.

5.) 13 Jan 2026
13 Jan 2026 01:06:44
Thank you for that mvred bud, and yeah he was a legend jolly ?.

6.) 13 Jan 2026
13 Jan 2026 10:27:33
Coincidence MV? I was born in Mansfield and I spent a grumpy adolescence looking out of my bedroom window at Forest Town or Crown Farm slag heap, as I called it. Looked like Everest when the snow fell! Golf Course nearby as well I think.

7.) 13 Jan 2026
13 Jan 2026 16:06:05
Pit tip not there anymore Norfolk, it got took away years ago. It did look like a ski slope, very strange shape. You never know we both might of been in Clippo welfare on a Sunday night, back in the day.

8.) 13 Jan 2026
13 Jan 2026 19:12:15
Went to the welfare at Forest Town on a Thursday to watch bands. Could have been '75/ 6 MV!

9.) 13 Jan 2026
13 Jan 2026 19:44:43
Life evolves
For all the good things back in the day a lot of workers are now suffering ill health because of it
Pits, power stations?
Remember the smog and the deep fogs because of it
I remember boots factory by the canalside pumping shite out where nothing could survive
The best thing about it was the community spirit and the working men's clubs to keep us happy
There wasn't job satisfaction, just a wage and danger
You look at all the buitiful buildings and railways built before and during the victorian age that still stand?
Many more have been bulldozed in the name of modernisation, broadmarsh has been rebuilt and then knocked down in my lifetime, which is an appalling assessment of 70s architecture, along with balloon woods
End of the day we've learned and fog only comes naturally now off the rivers when the temperature dictates
I always look forward as the past has gone, but you have to hang onto the memories as they are priceless.

10.) 14 Jan 2026
14 Jan 2026 09:45:13
Nice post DTP.