News

Radford Boys

A Beautiful Humour

By Radford Rob

Photos by Alex Sturrock

I’m a Radford boy. I was born here in Sinnon Street, Radford, at home. There were no hospital births in those days.

My father was a bricklayer. I’m a bricklayer. I’m a Radford boy. We’re all Radford boys here. The Variety Club is our mosque.

Looking back over my time here, I think the community’s definitely changed. In the old days, to coin a phrase, you could leave your front door open. There was nothing to steal but the clothes mangle, and they are very heavy. Each week we’d go down to the dolly tub to do our washing and the community would see each other.

The Player’s cigarette factory was big at that time. They made the film Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, with Albert Finney in it here and I think everybody’s a character in Radford, regardless.

Unfortunately, the community is dwindling now. I can’t say why because I don’t want to be politically incorrect but there are ethnic minorities here from Eastern Europe coming in.

In Radford, over the last few years there’s been people from India, people from Africa and when you walk down the street there’s all kinds of different languages being spoken.

Nowadays with the influx of foreign communities they’re bringing with them their way of lifestyle, which doesn’t complement our lifestyle, the Radford Boys. They seem to have more rights than us.

We’ve always had blacks here, though. And they don’t mind you calling them blacks. They are our friends. We were born and bred in Radford alongside them and they can understand the old humour. It’s a beautiful humour. And nobody is going to get hurt. This is Radford. This is our town, and nobody else’s.

RADFORD ROB


Kids? Yeah I’ve got one. What’s your job? Social worker. How do you like Radford? It’s okay, I mean it’s really run down, but we’ve been to this area a couple of times and we’ve always been okay. We come down for the craic. What’s it like here? Well, there’s crime everywhere. Crime’s rife in Nottingham, it’s rife in Derby. It’s what you make it. What would you recommend to locals? Take it as it is, don’t listen to anyone else, come and have a good day and if you don’t have a good day, don’t come again.	Kids? Yeah, one. What’s your job? I’m a single parent, so I don’t work. How do you like Radford? I like coming down here on a Sunday because I like coming to the Variety Club; it’s really good craic, and anything goes. How is it in Radford? It has got a bad name, but everywhere’s got a bad name. It’s really good on a Sunday. I find it is friendly. Would you live here? No! No way. I wouldn’t live here! I like where I am and there’s no way I’d move here.	Kids? No, never. What’s your job? I’m unemployed, I’m looking for work. Is it hard to get work? Well I think it is. There’s nothing really about. I’ve been to college and everything, but there’s nothing about. Local area? It’s all right man, the variety club is. I’ve never been anywhere else like this. It’s not very often you get a woman stripper dancing next you.


Kids? Yeah, a son, Connor. What’s your job? I’m a post woman. How do you like Radford? God, I hate it around here. I keep expecting someone to pull a gun out. If I lived around here, I wouldn’t go out at night. If someone dropped me off in St Ann’s and said to find my way home, I think I’d die on the spot. I’d rather live on the street than live here in Radford. I’ve only been down twice. It’s shocked me a bit. I heard about it through friends. The thing that really puts me off [at the Variety Club] is the comedian. It’s constantly the f-word the whole time.	What’s your job? I’m a group worker with children. I love children, I’ve got patience. I’d work with any children, even with abnormalities or anything. What do you think of Radford? We’ve been coming down here for years. It’s a very good place to meet people. We’ve never seen any trouble; there’s always friendly people about. My mum, she don’t like me and my sister coming here because it’s advertised bad. We’ve been coming down here for five or six years and we’ve not seen no trouble.	What do you like about coming to the Variety Club? I like it here, I do. It’s a very good place to meet people and I’ve never seen any trouble really. It’s always nice to come here on a Sunday and have a drink before you get your dinner. The place might have a bad reputation with people who aren’t from around here but everybody I know from here likes it a lot.