CHarItY Fashion

This has reached its apotheosis with his ‘Mark Steel In Town..’ series on BBC Radio 4, with the listening figures bearing out its genius (it’s now twelve seasons in, and now available in longer-form podcasts ). Focusing on a different settlement each episode, Mark sniffs out its oddities, snuffling up nuggets of pure singularity from the physical, cultural and social chaos. While usually focusing on towns, Mark decided to turn his attention to our sister City (East Beeston, aka Nottingham), and asked me to be his guide. Which explained while a few days later I found myself wandering the caves deep below the Broadmarsh with one of the funniest men around cracking jokes about the audio commentary, setting the tone for a day where we traipsed the streets as I tried to explain the deep reasons our Council Houses look like St Pauls, and why our most loved musician couldn’t play the Xylophone. We finished up in the Trip (start in a cave, finish in a cave, but with beer), and a couple more meetings and phone calls later and Mark had a show.

And so one balmy Summer night I was sitting terrified in the front row of Metronome in Nottingham as Mark prepared to record his thoughts on our city in front of an audience. Terrified, for two reasons: first, had I done my job properly and given Mark the raw material for him to spin into comedy gold? If not, this audience would swiftly, and vocally, let it be known. Secondly, he had warned me beforehand I’d be handed the mic to give my take on some subjects (the aforementioned Xylophone man/ Lord Byron’s willy).

I had no need for fear: it was startlingly brilliant to see how Mark saw the hilarity in what us locals see as everyday: our penchant for rebellion; our insistence on the left lion being the ONLY meeting place in the Square; our need to smash stuff, mainly peas. If one moment sticks in my mind it was looking to my left and seeing Ron Manager (of this parish and Twitter and Robin Hood doubled over with laughter, then looking to my right and seeing the Lord Mayor and Sherriff of Nottingham both in a similar posture. For the record,they were observed from a similar position, and blurred, due to the coursing tears.

It’s on BBC Sounds now, and you should give it a listen before diving into the rest of the series: the Newport one is especially brilliant. I can’t thank Mark and his team enough for giving me an opportunity to be part of the show, and should he ever wish to narrow his focus to Nottingham’s best satellite town, I know just the guy to help him put it together.

Most small boys found a love of transport. Whether it be cars, planes, or ships. One of the most popular is trains. Going down to the local railway station with notebook and pen, to record the numbers or names of the engines arriving or departing. For some, like Philip Williams, it’s a lifelong passion. From becoming an engineer for a Derby based railway company, to running his own line. Well one in miniature, and in his garden.

The model railway is a well known attraction, and one of my favourites on the Beeston Garden Trail, having been involved in it for some 22 years, and raising a substantial amount of money over the past six or seven for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance.

I first asked Philip how long it had taken him to build. “We moved here in 1996 and it took several months for the track to be laid. We had to put in the railway and plant the garden at the same time. The posts are drainpipes and the trackbase was weatherboard. I replaced it during 2020/21 with decking. So, it should last a lot longer”. The track is at waist high and is built for ‘O’ or 1/43 scale trains. It runs round the garden, with a big central area that’s full of plants. I enquire if there’s ever a problem with leaves on the line. “No”, replies Philip, “But sometimes there’s snails. Especially when it’s been raining”.

Philips garage has been converted into the nerve centre of the action, with scaled buildings of shops, pubs and houses, and the radio control unit that operates the track. There’s also a bowling green, a station, and a Lido, based on the one that used to stand in Highfields, where the Lakeside Arts gallery building now stands, plus various other buildings. “There’s a couple of Beeston buildings, one of the Victorian houses on Park Street, that I thought looked like a doctors, the former Royal Oak pub and the Christ Church in Chilwell. “Most of the buildings are scratchbuilt by me using plasticard and feature buildings from the 1930s to the 1960s”.

I ask if Philip belongs to a club of some kind. “It’s the Gauge O East Midlands group. We meet around eight or nine times a year. But since Covid, it’s been difficult to find anywhere to meet. We have a portable track that we like to use. There has been around 25 to 30 members, but I think we are at about 15 at the moment. Having an outside track, meant that six of us could still meet in the garden during lockdown”.

Being a big fan of the railway, I wonder if Philip has a favourite locomotive. “Not really. I’ve been on so many. I’ve been on the footplate of one as we went through the Channel Tunnel while working on the joint project with the French. I’ve also been on the blue Pullmans, that became the High Speed Trains.”

We head back to the spacious bungalow, where I see Philip’s wife Karin trying to swat a fly. “Have you seen Phil’s collection of model cars”? I’m led through the house to a room with a large display case of model cars. I spot some old black Renaults, a couple of E Type Jags and some other familiar makes. Another cabinet contains some trucks, fire engines and buses. I Karin then shows me a diorama of a narrowboat passing some figures sitting by a picnic table.

We chat further about collecting, the space that they can take up and the Garden Trail. I mention Gerry Anderson and Karin tells me excitedly that she met him at Nottingham University during the late 1960s, where he came to give a talk about his success with Thunderbirds.