Radford Boys

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? What’s your job? How do you like Radford? How is it in Radford? Would you live here? Kids? What’s your job? Is it hard to get work? Local area?

Kids? What’s your job? How do you like Radford? What’s your job? What do you think of Radford? What do you like about coming to the Variety Club?