So I'm Tracy Howlett and I'm one of Bill's, William Hunt's daughters. I've got two sisters and there's my mum as well. I'd like to talk about my dad, and my dad was called William Hunt and through talking to my sisters and myself we've come up with a little bit of information of how my dad […] we didn't live in Calverton, we lived in Sneinton but my dad was, we think probably early 1960s, he used to have a big, apparently it was a big blue bus, I can't really remember this part of it, but he had a big blue bus that was like a trailer that people used to go on, and he used to go around the community, and on the trailer was tins of beans, and potatoes, and vegetables, and he used to drive around the bottom estate of Calverton and the top estate of Calverton and he didn't actually retire from doing this till the late 1990s so he spent quite a lot of time in Calverton serving the community.
So there's a post on Calverton past & present that somebody had put on it to say that I moved here in 1962 and Bill's Bus was here then, so that was the year that I was born so whether he was on there before that I don't really know but this is from 1962. So he had a blue bus and he used to go around the top end of Calverton, the bottom end of Calverton, the bottom estate, top estate in like the 60s and then the 70s.
And then in my time, so when I was about 15, I used to help my dad on Saturday's with him, he had a trailer and it was a great big trailer that used to pull with a big old Land Rover, a big green army Land Rover and that was bigger than the bus so he branched out into doing more, so basically everyday shop things, except for fresh food, it was basically everyday shop things, fruit and vegetables, used to have some weighing scales that used to hang around in it, and as a kid I used to love going on it because it was mobile and when he was going - obviously he wouldn't get around the streets now as there are too many cars - but in the day it was like there's not many cars on the street and he'd go around around and the scales would wobble like this and then people would come up, he'd get to the stop and according to some of the comments some of the little kids used to call him, used to get really excited when my dad's "Billy's Bus is here, Billy's Bus is here" and he used to go "Beep beep- Beep beep beep!" with his hooter of his car and everybody knew that he was there and then everybody would come running out and buy the vegetables or whatever.
That's what he did for quite a few years and then in around 1980, late 80s he actually got rid of the trailer and brought the shop in the square that is now Gregg's and had a fruit and veg shop in there until he retired, for quite a few years. He was very well known in the community, everybody that you speak to especially from some of the comments on the Calverton site, he was really well liked which was some of the comments are lovely to read, he used to give people tick, so basically they could get vegetables or food all week but payment at the weekend where they got paid, it was really- I can remember the Miners strike and some of the tensions that he caused and some of the obviously some of the people over here were working but some of them weren't working and those who weren't working, he was quite helpful with, he was really good with people that hadn't got a lot of money, he would let them at the groceries and then they could pay them when they were ready in bits and things like that. He did get ripped off a few times but it's part of what he did but as I say it was really well liked and as a child myself I used to love working for him, I worked for him when I was about 15- 15, 16-ish on the Saturdays, I got an older sister, she worked with him for a bit as well and then 80s, till I had my daughter so when he got the shop I worked for him a few years before that, and I used to deliver orders around people so especially the older people that couldn't get around, I used to go and deliver to the door and drop off the things.
But one of the funny things I remember is when I met my husband we moved into a house in Carlton and we had an old coal fire which some people still have, they had a lot of coal fire in Calverton at the time but where I lived we didn't really have so many. We had a coal fire, but if I gave a bloke that worked at the pit a sack of spuds he would give me a bag of coal so it was great fun. So I got- I'd class that as free coal for me, it was really good, we just put it in the coal shed and what not.
So, I put the post on to say that some people have mentioned about Billy's Bus and that was my dad and he passed away in 2017 and some of the things that people have put, so it's all “Hi Tracy, I helped Lee Asthall to work for your dad on the silver trailer.” That was the second trailer we had. “While we were at school he was such a genuine caring gentleman he made sure we got paid more than the paper round lads got and we never were short of toughies, that's sweets in- Never short of toughies for the week either, your dad provided a community service that I wish was still available today, speaking with my mam about it she told me how much he helped families including ours through tough times by allowing them to pay for their essentials weeks later, and he must have taken losses to his business in doing so, a one kind of a man and I was so sad to hear he passed, Maris Betson thoughts to the family.” “When we were kids there was lots of us on our street and when his bus came around the corner we would all run in and tell our mams that Bill's bus was here, we all used to get so excited when he pulled up, sorry to hear his passing.” “Love Bill's bus, was so excited as a kid, could go and pick some sweets with my mum and we were always talking about it, happy memories, it was so exciting going on Bill's bus as a kid and great service.” “He was a lovely man, I used to love shopping on his bus, he'd go out of his way to get what you asked for.” Yeah, he would do that as well, if somebody said can you get a specific thing or whatever, he would go to the wholesalers and see if you can source it and then put it on, obviously he was limited for space when he had the trailer because there was everything out to have a sort of slot or whatever. “He was a lovely man, I used to love shopping on his bus, he'd go out of his way to get what you asked for- So I'd done that- could always get a bit of tick off Bill, just put it in the book, remember him well.” “Saturday after Tiz was, used to get sweets, me and my sis used to get a Christmas present every year which I treasured, childhood memories.” Yeah, apparently kids that weren't quite as well off, my dad used to get like Christmas presents for them and things like that and buy. I didn't know any of this as children but like I say. “Oh Bill's bus our Calverton saviour, a lovely man and your mum, Kath, I believe, I remember you Tracy so sorry to hear about your dad's passing.” “I love Bill's bus and Bill, good memories of spending my pocket money on the bus on a Friday night, rainbow drops and a pomegranate, picking the seeds out with a pin, you could pretty much get a weekly shop from Bill, sorry to learn of his passing.” “One of the nicest blokes I've ever met. The pit pitman in his Land Rover full of good, goodies.” That's why some of the kids used to call him the pit pitman.
“I remember the world- I didn't know this one either- I remember the World Cup of 1966- Obviously I was too young anyway- I got some sweets from Bill's bus and the streets were deserted, as all of us were watching the football.” “Yes my mum and dad had an account with him and paid him on Friday or Saturday I think, I remember the scales swinging around, weighing the spuds.” Which we used to weigh everything on before the modern things now. “Bill used to take me to the wholesalers, I was 12 in 1976, he also came and got me the day of my dad's funeral and he took me to the wholesalers as he knew I liked it to try and cheer me up and he was a diamond, get ticked to me man and always helped anyone.” “Early 60s Bill's was there, always a lovely smell of fresh fruit and veggies, I remember this, he had very blue twinkly eyes, think a lot of the ma'am's has fancied him, I'm sure mine did.” When I've read some of these, it was quite emotional because it was so nice to hear some of the comments. I've only been into Calverton for four years but I remember a friend of mine, she passed away and she used to work at the co-op and she knew about my dad and she said to me, oh Tracy she has people still talk about your dad and his- because we used to literally deliver to the door. In days gone by and this is the honest truth here, I'm going back when I was like 15, I used to, my dad used to get to the top of the street and if there was an old lady at the bottom of the street I'd walk down to the bottom of the street, knock on the door and I'd go in and collect her order and then go back and take it to her but a neighbour had wanted something, so the neighbour would leave the door open with £20 in the box, can you get these veggies and then we'd go back and put the change in the box with whatever she'd ordered or whatever, you know you don't do that anymore do you, most people left the doors open.
When I used to go around I used to always used to knock on the door, I spoke to the old lady people, she'd knock on the door, I was under special knock so that it was me and I'd go in and tell them what they want, they'd normally they'd write it down and then I'd go and get it and so take it back to them but yeah lots of people are a lot of time for my dad. I didn't realise quite how much he was liked until we read these, when I read these to my sisters on the post they weren't on the site so I screen shot of some of them and sent them, we were like 'oh this is lovely' you know.
But when he had the shop as well, obviously he could probably get more things in there, I remember this day, there was a, he got- it was a cauliflower and my mum used to do the collies at the back of the shop where Greg's was and- the squashed part of the cauliflower got squashed so my dad took this cauliflower, say it was, I don't know, 50p for this cauliflower, probably not in them days but anyway, 50p for this cauliflower, this cauliflower got squashed. My Dad cut it in half, cut the squashed bits off and then wrapped it in some- like foil or something like that and then put it on the, on to like the rest of the collies and put like 25p on it or something and this little old man came in and he went “oh that's perfect for me, that's just what I want,” and he says "I don't like to buy a big one because I'll waste it," and my dad said to him, he says, I think there's a guy's name was Jack or something, he says “why don't you say Jack.” he says “I can always cut collies up for you” he said “Oh can you?” he says “Yeah.” he says "cause there's a lot of things." Anyway from that moment on we, my dad started to like, I mean, watermelons weren't out but for example anything that he could chop up that was big, like cabbages and things like that, he'd chop up into one person's things and sell them for like, you know, wouldn't rip them off so if it was 50 people, 25p and not 75p and whatever, you'd get charged in half a week but he would do what people wanted to help them, you know, which now this man could have a full dinner because he'd get a couple of carrots and like, a little bit of collie or whatever and after cabbage like that and it was, you know, so he always, he always used to-
But he also used to buy local as well so, if, I remember lady coming in once when we had the shop and she was, she, she got some, I think she lived on one of the big roads. At the back she got a big garden and she used to grow her own flowers and she was selling these flowers and my dad said, she spoke to my dad and my dad said 'well if you bring some in, if I can sell them, we'll come to a deal or whatever' and she used to bring, and then she started to bring flower, flowers in seedlings and things like that as well so he, he was allowed to do so much space out of the shop but it was only up to about probably no more than a meter and you weren't allowed to go any further than that so anything you could put outside this, over shop, you know, in, on stalls or whatever you would so, so it, anybody who was selling anything in, like, locally would try and source things local so that, and people knew that as well and they liked the fact that, that a lot of the things that we were sourcing were from local people and whatever but like, if people were doing strawberries or whatever, you know, you'd be quite happy to sell local produce, anything that could get local, people liked it because it was local and also it was, it was nice to, because it was helping.
But when he had the shop he, what was good about that as well, he still delivered to people that couldn't get out and about as well, he would, I'd still go, um, obviously 1989 I'm a first-daughter so then I, I finished working for my dad then, but my older sister carried on and, um, so little girl was, um, older than- And we, we used to, like I say, we still used to go and deliver the orders to people that couldn't drive or couldn't pick up heavy things, do you know. He would go in all weathers, I mean, when it's snowing and things like that, in the back of, because I used to drive his, he had a van, and I used to deliver in that and he always used to say to me, make sure you take the shovel and the sack of spuds and it wasn't the sack of spuds, it was the sack and a traditional old sack in sack because if you got stuck you put that under the wheels because it's hessian and it would help you to get out, that's, that's how deep it used to be in the time.
Obviously we used to come from Steinton, he'd come over Mapperly top down, bank hill, Bonner hill and that lot, but when it was really bad he'd have to come Lambley way and through- on the flatter bits to get here but he would try his hardest to get here and whether he didn't miss any days, I don't know because obviously when I remember when I was a kid the weather's work, the snow was much worse than it is now, do you know what I mean? But I don't know that bit but I'm sure he, and he worked, he worked all hours, God send, he was up at four o'clock in the morning to the markets to get the, to get his fresh food and veg and then on Friday nights when I used to, sometimes as I got all day to work in my Friday's as well we didn't get home until about 11 o'clock, that was his late night.
But the social side of it, he was always a bit of a gas bag, he liked to have a natter with everybody. But he was a fisherman as well, he loved fishing and if anybody wanted to go fishing he'd be happy to pick them up, take them and go fishing wherever, you know, sort of thing. So when we had the shop, my mum was a stay at home mum, partly when we were younger, she did have to work a little bit, as we were growing up when was probably at junior schools, so that's 7-8 I remember having to go to a granddad's because for dinner, because my mum was working, but then my mum was more of a stay at home, but then when we all sort of grew up, my mum went to work, my mum helped my dad as well and they're always really hardworking people, you know.
I know there was a few, when the miners strike was on, I know it was very all, I used to feel uncomfortable and I was about, I must be about 15-ish, but I remember there was two neighbours that used to come on, when we had the trailer, they used to come on and they were friendly and one thing and other and then they lived next door to each other and they shared the same pathway and then the miners strike hit and then one of them was working and one of them didn't work and it was the, oh it was the atmosphere, I can't even, the tension was awful, one wouldn't come on unless the other one had got off and it was awful. My dad had to remain really neutral with it all because you know he all just stood both sides of the story and you know he'd got to be very, you know, like at least to come on to have a moan with him about the ones, you know, because we're called scabs, that's what he used to say and stuff and he wouldn't have none of that, it was like you know, it's what it is, you know, he had to remain really neutral, whatever his own thoughts were, I don't know what the word, but whatever the word, he had to remain really neutral with people, but like I say, he did help people join the minor strike as well because there's a lot of people that weren't working they didn't have any money.
He'd let them write some of the comments they'd put up on tick or whatever, some people didn't come back when you know he'd let them out, some tick and then they didn't bother coming back on the door and whatever and he'd just put it down to you know, but there was more, there was more good people out there than bad. It was well, he was well liked, it's yeah. When back I think he was well liked, he was. I remember the co-op being there when he had the trailer but everybody still used to come to my dad anyway, but my dad only, he could, he still, he's on every Tin product going and lots of fruit and veg and then my sister was vegetarian, so when he got the shop she had a lot of vegetarian, she ate a lot, he had brought because a lot of people wanted that but he didn't sell any fresh meats or anything like that, so he got to go elsewhere to get that. The pork, funny enough, the pork butcher that's now retired and left, I remember I used to go and get a leg of lamb when I was married to my husband, my ex-husband was going to, when we lived in Carlton, I remember going to, into the pork butcher, we used to get a leg of lamb every Sunday for Sunday dinner because we liked lamb at the time and it used to cost five pounds for this leg of lamb.
He's been saying you know, since your dad's moved in because it was literally in the next door, he says more or less next door, he says, since your dad's moved into the square, he says my business is picked up massively because obviously once again it was local people coming in, they were getting the fruit and veg, he was trying to buy local, sell local kind of thing and it helped the butcher as well, you know, and sadly the butcher apparently retired because people just weren't coming in his shop anymore. There's no fruit and veg shop in the square, there's no butchers in the square now, there's no things are different now aren't they?
Hello, hello, Vicki I've got two ladies here, we're talking about dad at Calverton. So I've told them the memories we've got and I've put some of the, you know that thing that Calverton past and present, I've read some of them off to them as well, but can you remember anything else, any funny stories that dad might have said about what people asked for him to get, you know or anything, is there anything else you could think of?
I can remember once that we obviously we come from Nottingham, so we call people 'Duck' right and he served this woman and he says 'Right me duck' and her husband come out to beat him up. When was that? It was at, it was bottom estate, definitely bottom estate, oh my god that's it, that's so funny, but that is dad to a T, that is dad to a T. Yeah, he said what's up me duck, you know, and like he'd served the woman and she'd gone in and told her husband obviously he'd come out and threatened to beat dad off because he'd called her duck. But that's a proper Nottingham thing, but there's a lot of um, from it, Geordie's, a lot of Geordie's came to Nottingham because of the pits didn't they, so maybe they wouldn't understand that that term. Yeah, we call a 'suede', they call it 'neeps' don't they? Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah, stuff like that.
My dad used to buy things as local as possible from the nearby farms even on the way into Calverton from Nottingham, he bought, I could remember him buying stuff from Woodborough even, you know, I would come in to go to Calverton and you go down past um, Podders, and then you go all the way down to the bottom instead of turning left to go to Calverton we'd turn right and go to the farm down there and buy stuff. He's buy fresh eggs if you could from locals, anything that people come in and local gardeners even, you know, people that had their own allotments and things like that they'd come in and ask him and he'd let them put the products there to sell, yeah, yeah, well even before the shop when he went, when he had the bus and the trailer we'd buy the stuff locally everything was as much locally sourced, yeah, other than like, Sneinton Market because like, Sneinton Market obviously is moved now, isn't it, it's the cattle market. Oh was it? Oh yeah, I thought it was in the other bit, that in the shops, the Sneinton Market now. No, no, it's a cattle market. Oh, it's cattle market now, meadow lane. Yeah, um, and obviously their stuff, a lot of their stuff is local. I know, one thing, he'd got a box of bananas once and there was an exotic spider in it because in them days years ago, a monkey came once as well in a box of bananas, and it was really. Yeah, a monkey, a little monkey. Really? It wasn't, dad didn't get it, yeah, but he got one that had a big, you know, we think, I know that we used to go and knock on people's doors, yeah, we'll see, like, especially older people that couldn't get out and they're going to knock on the door, get what they wanted, get it, take it, deliver it to them, if they didn't have the money, we'd wait until they did. And it'd be like the tick ones that you put, write in the book, you'd have a little red book to, we used to write it all in, and then I remember Mrs Thompson, she was disabled, bless her, I used to go in and if it was about four o'clock and it was winter, I'd say, "Do you want me to close your curtains?" and she said, "Oh, yes, please, I'll be kind of, can you put the mushrooms in the fridge for me?" and I'd be like, “Yes, okay” bless her. Yeah, yeah, we were, a lot of people's houses, we'd go and knock on the door and take the shop into them. Can you remember how they used to leave the, and also the ones that were at work, and they used to leave the money in the, like, in the porch or whatever, and used to undo the door, nobody locked the door. Yeah. And they leave the £20 notes or £10 notes in there and then go and give the change back. Can you imagine leaving your doors open now? No. I know, we'd take the shop in, put it in the house, everything, whatever they wanted order, so, like, we didn't have much choice.
I know that I was told I'm working for Dad on Saturday. I know. You're working for Dad on Saturday. I used to leave school on a Friday and run to catch the bus into town, to catch the bus from Vic Centre to Calverton and then work till 10 o'clock at night, then come home. We used to get, we sometimes didn't get back to like 11 o'clock, I can remember that, I don't think I'd be. Yeah. Imagine you always did used to pay us and we did pay us decent, didn't we? Yeah. Yeah. And then we worked all day Saturday. Yeah. This is like, because it was always reasonably priced as well, once in Vic compared to all the places. It was cheap, yeah. Yeah. And then obviously as he got older, he had the shop, he was slowing down with the mobile and got the shop because places like Morrison's opened and people have all got cars these days or then, so people were going to Morrison's and then instead of waiting for Dad with the green grocers, there was just buying everything from the big supermarket.