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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 12:03:57 GMT
No, that name doesn't ring a bell. I started in 88. I wasn't in the main older building, I was in Matlock Block, was that there in your day?
I got burgled and had my Ford Orion 1.6L (burgundy) stolen from Lenton Boulevard. Car was used as a getaway in an armed robbery. Bloody thing had been failing to start for me. when I picked it up from Nottingham nick the ignition barrel was gone, and it failed to start again - I attempted it with a screwdriver blade. Had to get the AA to tow it out of there.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 12, 2019 12:23:21 GMT
...I think Frank retired mid-80's. I started at Nottingham in 1970, and none of the "newer" Derby Hall blocks was built then. The continued development has rather diminished the parkland setting.
Derby had a bit of a reputation at the time. It wasn't the "party" hall, but it went all-out in crazy ways at any possible event, especially those in "Rag" week. Had some interesting times.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 12:27:27 GMT
Was pretty much the party hall in my day, although it was mainly populated with public school types, all the rahs. One of my hall mates (and subsequent house mate the year after) was one of these, and he went on to be the Tory party's Marketing Director under Michael Howard. Happily he screwed that up royally.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Dec 12, 2019 12:51:13 GMT
I got burgled and had my Ford Orion 1.6L (burgundy) stolen from Lenton Boulevard. Car was used as a getaway in an armed robbery. MrsB1 did her legal training at Nottingham Poly / Nottingham Trent and lived on Lenton Boulevard 1989-91. Perhaps her cultivated ineptitude with a screwdriver today is overcompensating for a life of crime back then. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 13:04:38 GMT
Could be.
If she ever took a drink in The Grove, I expect I served her.
I did date a Poly girl who lived on Lenton Boulevard for a bit in 91-92.
Small world, innit?
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Post by Humph on Dec 12, 2019 13:10:29 GMT
Want to remember that Nottingham had ( allegedly ) an unusually high proportion of female students? By default therefore, if you were a male attendee, there were a lot of extra curricular "options" it was said.
Might be apocryphal of course.
I went to Edinburgh and although it was my home city, I shared a flat on Dalkeith Road with a bunch of other idiots. The women's main halls of residence ( Pollock Halls ) were about three hundred yards up the road. Which saved a bit on bus fares...
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 13:27:08 GMT
Happy to confirm that it was always utter bollocks.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 12, 2019 13:45:02 GMT
Was pretty much the party hall in my day...... ....Derby always participated (over-)actively in any events that were going on. Part of my initiation shortly after arrival was to help build a "Go-Kart" for the traditional inter-hall rag-week race on the Forest Rec. Not for Derby a cobbled-together wood and string contraption - no, fully constructed out of old bicycle frames, welded together behind the Porter's office, fully-geared and pedaled, and pretty solidly built ("you're doing Mech Eng, aren't you - you can help"). It took some building, but was so good it was rapidly many laps in front (in what was a pretty long, timed race). So far, in fact, that it was violently rammed by one of the other Halls. That resulted in quite a bit of damage, both to the Kart, and to the then driver, who I recall being whisked off to A&E with deep gashes. It was manhandled to someone's student hovel flat in Hyson Green, where electrickery was available, and rebuilt/welded and re-wheeled, returning in time easily to win the race with a substitute rider. The same year, Derby built the biggest ever raft for the annual raft race. So big that the only way we could get it from the campus to the Trent was using the Students Union transport, "Rupert". Pre-built from oil drums, scaffolding poles and planking, the raft would easily take up to 40 people, and was virtually unsinkable (which was an important point, since one of the objectives of the race was always to sink as many of the other Halls' rafts as you could). Unfortunately, as well as being unsinkable, it was virtually unmovable/unpaddleable by nature of its bulk, so, though it completed the course, it did so in a record slow time, well after the other survivors. The reminiscences got me thinking about Rupert, and this is he:  ....apparently actively under restoration at the moment. (The raft took up the full length of the roof, and overhung the sides by a good few feet - though my recollection was that the Students Union had fitted a wooden framework roof-rack at the time, since the thing was used for transport to all kinds of activities that required external carrying capacity. (I'm sure I've got some photos somewhere) |
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Post by Humph on Dec 12, 2019 13:48:09 GMT
That looks way more like a bus than a raft...🤓
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 13:51:29 GMT
Blimey TNE. I'm sure stuff like that used to go on in my day too, but I was in the pub.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 12, 2019 14:01:23 GMT
...seems my memory re: the roof rack isn't failing me:  (surprising what you can find on t'web if you look) The pub was for after, Al (though with 9:00 lectures every day, and only Wednesday afternoons free, otherwise wall-to-wall studies in engineering, pub-time was limited - though not too limited). Nottingham was indeed rumoured to have the highest ratio of eligible young females to males of any large UK city. Wasn't a student thing back in the day; the student population was a limited part of the overall, unlike now. Like Al, I can't say I found it presented more than the standard level of opportunity (though, to be fair, engineering students weren't in much demand - especially the women  ) |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 14:27:10 GMT
Ah, Engineering, of course. I was in the Arts Faculty, I don't really recall having any lectures. Sure I must have. Bed, lunch, pub. That was about it.
Choices, dear chap.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 12, 2019 15:15:55 GMT
Ah, Engineering, of course. I was in the Arts Faculty, I don't really recall having any lectures. Sure I must have. Bed, lunch, pub. That was about it. Choices, dear chap. My immediate vicinity in A-block was (with one exception) shared with Arts students. No lectures, little work, music playing loud until 3am, etc. I worked evenings in Derby Hall bar, and was from time-to-time issued with a master key for the whole building to allow me to recover glasses from student's rooms, as the whole bar stock used to migrate over a couple of weeks. It was surprising what you would find in people's rooms whilst doing recovery    . Anyway, whilst in my possession said key found it had been duplicated. All the block electrics were supplied in a cupboard located in each block's entrance, which was, of course, kept locked. The master key also fitted that cupboard, and it was surprising how often the noisy residents found they had "blown the fuse" (no MCBs in those days) for their room, it generally happening just before midnight. Never did catch on. BTW, had the University been rewired by the time you got there? In my day, virtually the whole campus was equipped with non-standard "Wylex" sockets, requiring the plug shown below:  The hall porters used to make a fortune renting them out at more per term than you could buy them for, if you knew where to look. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 15:21:55 GMT
Blimey. So far as I know we had ordinary sockets. We did in Matlock Block, anyway. My record player was pretty useful for annoying the Engineering student next door in the wee small hours when entertaining guests, I seem to remember. Don't remember any power issues. I was a (and remain) a big Metallica fan.
Do remember a fire alarm one night though, woke up and opened my door to find it was a real fire - corridor filled with smoke. My room was halfway along, with exits at both ends, but no idea which end the fire was. Turned right and got lucky - someone had set the kitchen bin on fire at the left hand end. As we gathered on the "Downs" outside, it became apparent that not everyone there was an official inhabitant of the block...there were some surprises for some people and a couple of crying girls fleeing the scene...
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 12, 2019 15:38:39 GMT
As Matlock post-dated me, I suspect even if the rest of the building hadn't been re-socketed, it would have been built with standard BS-1363 sockets (The Wylex ones were obsolescent even back then). And actually, the picture I posted isn't quite correct. The ones at Nottingham had the two side pins in the same (horizontal) orientation, but not horizontally aligned (one was towards the top of the centre pin, and one the bottom, inhibiting "reverse" insertion).
The "blown the fuse" comment was in quotes deliberately. Unlock the electrical cupboard with the master key, remove the fuse, then re-lock. It soon became apparent to us that a removed fuse would be commented on by maintenance staff, so a large supply of (pre-)blown fuses was obtained from our electrical engineering colleagues.
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) 
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