The Travels & Adventures of Flog-It Removals.

Around 1905 my great grandparents moved into Old Church Street in Nottingham where the family then continued to live until almost the turn of the millennium. In the early years they ran a fish and chip shop but by 1921 that had gone as after renting land next to the houses a coal yard had been created and local coal deliveries started with a horse and cart. Of course as we later found out for ourselves, having a vehicle capable of doing other work means you get asked to do that other work as well and so the first seeds of a removals business were sown as local people were helped to move house. By 1930 the horse and cart had given way to a lorry and my great grandfather was "The Man" if anything needed moving from A to B and the lorry was also used in the May Day parades when the Castle Ward Labour Party used to decorate it and use it as one of the floats. Alsatians were kept as guard dogs at the coal yard and my great grandfather even had a monkey and it was usual for his favourite Alsatian or the monkey to accompany him in the cab whilst out working. The first picture shows my great grandfather and his favourite Alsatian looking out of the cab of the lorry, sorry but I do not know the date of the photo. With a vehicle of his own to maintain he became quite an adept mechanic also and began to take on work for other people and the coal yard at the side of the house was used as parking for various vehicles, some awaiting repair, some used as spare parts, and a small van which was home to the monkey. In fact the repair side of the business was doing so well that by the end of the 1930's an old barn had been rented on the corner of Abbey Bridge & Gregory Street which became Priory Garage and remained a family business until the late 1960's which I can just rememeber, the coal business gradually falling by the wayside. The second photo is of the Priory Garage which was eventually demolished to make way for Red Cross offices which still stands on the site today.

Now almost a century later, based on the Costa Brava near the French border we are almost halfway between the UK and the Costa del Sol, perfect for the AP-7 and collections and deliveries all along the Mediterranean coast, much better than Skegness which was holiday destination of choice back then. In fact as another story goes, one day my great grandfather arrived home with an old bus strapped to the back of his lorry. It was a small bus without any wheels and fitted perfectly on the flatbed of the lorry and that summer it was used like a caravan for the family holiday. Later holidays were more conventional after he purchased a static caravan at Ingoldmells.

We were asked to clear up a garden after the storms by owners that had seen the news about the area and were due to arrive this weekend for a short stay and did not really want to spend their time clearing up the mess. The two photos here show part of what we found on arrival.

As you can see a massive branch had ripped from a tree just outside the garden fence and had fallen inside almost bringing down the telephone cables and telegraph pole with it. The pole was in fact leaning quite badly toward the house and there was a crack in the concrete where it was standing as the wires seemed to be stretched almost to breaking point. Now I am no expert lumberjack but to me the best idea seemed to be to at least relieve the pressure from the cables and then get the local council in to finish the job because the ground is very steep and I didn't want to risk cutting too much and having the branch then twist downhill and take the whole local telephone sytem with it. Out came the chainsaw and I cut away all that I could find that was adding weight to the matter but not providing support, then I cut away as much as I dared from just behind the wires, back up towards the trunk and then gently slid the wires upwards until they were no longer under such high tension so hopefully relieving the risk of them pulling down poles. That done, all the rest of the mess was cleared, the owners arrived and were well chuffed and the council have now been called. Wonder how long it will take them to come and finish the job?