Ztan Zmith is the pen name of Stan Smith of Brinsley, near Eastwood in Nottinghamshire –Chairman of the Nottingham Writers Club for many years.

Writer profile
Ztan Zmith is the pen name of Stan Smith of Brinsley, Chairman of Basford and District Local History Society and for many years he was also Chairman of the Nottingham Writers Club.

Ztan has written many articles, short stories and poems, which have featured on Radio in the e-magazine The Nottinghamshire Times and in a wide variety of other publications.

He writes about fascinating local characters from the past who lived in extraordinary times and this has led to the publication of five books for the Merrill Foundation’s Nottinghamshire Heritage Series, a further eight books based on his home village of Brinsley, three books about nearby Underwood and Bagthorpe and one book on Basford and Cinderhill.

Ztan is also editor of The Basford Bystander a bi-monthly Community Newspaper devoted to nostalgia and local history in and around Basford, Nottingham

Stan’s virtual clean sweep of trophies at NWC Awards Presentation Night

BOOKS BY ZTAN ZMITH

All Stan’s books have been reviewed on Local Radio in the Nottingham Evening Post, the Hucknall and Bulwell Dispatch or the Eastwood Advertiser

NAN SCOTT by STAN SMITH ISBN O 946404 33X Price £5.95 In 1666 when the Plague came to Holme by Newark in Nottinghamshire, Nan Scott knew exactly what to do, but her safety cost her a terrible price! This reconstruction of the life of Nan Scott sets out to tell the story of how a courageous widow, having lived through the turbulent times of the English Civil War, copes with disaster head on by pitting her wits against the Plague – a disease which at its height, carried off thousands of victims at a time.

BELL TALES BY ZTAN ZMITH ISBN O 946404 43 7 price £6.95     Second edition This is a collection of 36 fascinating East Midlands stories from Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire linked together by a bell theme from a quaint Bulwell Wedding to a weird Nottingham funeral from Radford’s own “Simple Simon” to Hucknall’s Bare Knuckle fighter Ben Caunt. from Basford’s Pancake bell to the Washerwoman’s Legacy from  the Bolsover  bell mould to Little Hugh of Lincoln from the Ghost bell of Girton to Crowland Abbey Bells from the Stilton bell to the Appleby Clock from Stamford’s Toby Norris tothe Swans of Chelmorton      They’re all there and many more!

SOME NOTTINGHAMSHIRE INN AND PUB STORIES  by ZTAN ZMITH ISBN I 874754 99 3             price £6.95 A collection of ten true Nottinghamshire stories centred around the traditional English Pub including the stories of- Joe Haywood’s journey from Hucknall through Hell to Watnall Blue skies at Selston and grim days at the coal face Storm clouds over Papplewick and a miracle Black Thursday and a Bulwell hero The Beeston Mormon and a fatal promise The Woman upstairs - the tragedy of a Lenton Landlady which inspired  Charlotte Bronte to write Jane Eyre The Pear Tree Ghost at Basford Venison Pasty - a retelling of a much loved Mansfield story They’re all there and more!

RHYME & REASON by ZTAN ZMITH ISBN I 841730 03 3 price £5.95 A collection of 15 fascinating Nottinghamshire folk tales told in Rhyme and Reason from Windy Miller Moss of Mansfield to cave Sandmen of Nottingham from Newstead’s White Lady to Arbella of Rufford Abbey from a frozen ship’s Captain of Broxtowe to a Civil War Baker at Newark from  a cobbler at Southwell to Gallows Hill from Robin Hood the Butcher to Gotham’s Wise Men from Rolling Cheeses to two kinds of Christmas from Dead of Night  to Goosey Gander They’re all there and more!

WHAT A LIFE & OTHER NOTTINGHAMSHIRE TALES ISBN   978 0 9553691 9 3 Price £6.95 This Collection contains the true stories of – · Joseph Hooley from Wollaton press ganged three times and marooned on St Helena. · Thomas Smith a Nottingham draper who founded a banking empire. · Thomas Berdmore – who made an ample fortune as dentist to George III. · Charlie Gear famous through a change in the Law. · Francis Purdy –“The Beggarlee Bulldog” – a bare knuckle fighter who pre-empted Bendigo · William Purdy – son of Francis whose safety lamp should have been more famous than Davy’s. · Gilbert Millington – the Regicide from Felley Priory who signed the death warrant of Charles I.

VILLAGE BOOKS WRITTEN BY  ZTAN

Proceeds from the sale of Brinsley books written by Ztan Zmith are donated to the Brinsley Community Hall Fund for replacing the dilapidated church hall in the village and Bagthorpe and Underwood book proceeds will benefit the Underwood Church Tower Appeal

BRINSLEY AND ST JAMES THE GREAT price £1.99 The story of a church and also the village of Brinsley near Eastwood in Nottinghamshire – an area where writer D H LAWRENCE’s grandparents lived and where his father, uncles and aunts were brought up.   His father Arthur and his Uncles worked in Brinsley Pit whilst his grandfather made moleskin clothing for the miners.  It was the everyday life in and around the mining community of Brinsley and Eastwood that inspired the writer DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE and colours his early works.  LAWRENCE was very fond of Brinsley and Eastwood - an area he called “The Country of My Heart”.

BRINSLEY SCHOOLDAYS price £1.99 This book, in light hearted manner, traces schools in Brinsley from earliest times, through the Dame School, Mission School, Church and Board Schools to the modern village school of today. Very little trace is left of the earlier schools, but we do have pictures and the fascinating memories of elderly residents of the village to tell us what life was like as a scholar in Victorian and Edwardian times and also between the two Great Wars. At the end of the book there are extracts from the amazing War Time Log Books of the Moor C of E School, which makes for compulsive reading. It’s hard to imagine what life must have been like when it was necessary to hide from air raids beneath school desks on a daily basis.

BRINSLEY PUBS price £1.99 The tiny village of Brinsley had eleven pubs over the years, as coal dust was notorious for developing prodigious thirsts.  “Brinsley Pubs” tells the entertaining and sometimes strange stories of former landlords, landladies and customers of the village pubs over the last 200 years Stories include:  gory goings on in a pub that used to have a doctor’s operating theatre in the basement; pub ghosts; Auntie Polly and her soup kitchen; the miracle doctor; The Company Store; Egg Week; bizarre accidents; Coroner’s Inquests and much  more

BRINSLEY WAY BACK price £1.99 This is a fascinating book about bygone Brinsley Characters. These include: Granny Smith, midwife and layer out extraordinaire The Old Folk’s Committee and their doings. Sid and his paper collection Tamar and Matthew Wilson - the child miner Hospital Parades and Float Judges Golden Slipper men and a tragedy Ida Andrews and the Blacksmith Mrs Dovey and her powders The man who signed a King’s Death Warrant and much more besides

BRINSLEY - MEN AND MAYHEM price £1.99 Such goings on in and around Brinsley!  No wonder D H LAWRENCE had so much to write about! There was the time when there were high jinks on the lake at Lamb Close House and the terrible day that Lawrence’s uncle had his accident at the pit. Then there was William Purdy who wrote to the King about unsafe mines and had so much trouble patenting his safety lamp. And how about the tragic Gilbourne family – and the sorrows of poor Kate?

BRINSLEY – SAINTS & SINNERS price £1.99 Another book about bygone Brinsley and its fascinating Characters. These include : Brinsley Hero – Vincent Gilbourne Early Parish Council days Horace Pryor – A Soldier’s Fate Ganger Edward Flint’s Sad End 1926 Strike – the Lighter Side Francis Purdy the Beggarlee Bulldog prize fighter

BRINSLEY – FAITH & FATE price £1.99 More about bygone Brinsley and its fascinating Characters.   These include: Revd Starmer in War and Peace - the humour and the sadness. The WW1 casualty without a memorial Stoney Lane brickyard Night soil men and a battling woman Grandy Cosford—a life Paradise refound Brinsley’s old time lamplighters

BRINSLEY THROUGH THICK & THIN price £1.99 This book features Valentine Yates and the lighter side of being a sanitary inspector. John Ball’s War. Train Journey from Nottingham to Eastwood and Brinsley pre 1914. Brinsley’s Ancient Coffin Walk over the fields. Revd Percival Page and the Pages of History (the Vicar who, thinly disguised, appears in D H Lawrence’s stories) Brinsley Mill and the death of a wind miller

UNDERWOOD OVERTURE PRICE £1.99 This is a fascinating book about bygone Underwood village in Nottinghamshire and as the title suggests is the first of a series which will benefit the Tower of St Michael’s church, Underwood. Contents include: Phyllis Carver- Smith – organiser extraordinaire Easter Day tragedy of Audouin Oakes, former owner  of Felley Priory                                                                   The Organ and the Blower The colourful life of Tom Higton from charabanc to RAF gunner Sam Chambers and a military funeral After WW2 with the Parochial Church Council Rev John Bernardi and a Vision realised        Teddy Rayner and his travelling theatre.

UNDERWOOD & BAGTHORPE REVISITED Price £1.99 Another Underwood and Bagthorpe book.   Contents include: Bagthorpe Schooldays were magic Showtime in Underwood Underwood Village Clock & War Memorial Underwood Pit Children Pit Children at Bagthorpe Colliery Old time joiner learns his lessons Blue Skies up Above Joyce and the Flintoffs

A SPOT OF BOTHER AT BAGTHORPE & UNDERWOOD Price £1.99 True stories include – Trouble Looming and Aaron Smithurst The Man from Dry Docking – Revd Richard Woods and the building of St Michael’s Church, Underwood. Keeping it Green – old Mr Green a former caretaker at Bagthorpe School Winnie Remembers  old time Bagthorpe and Underwood A Spot of Bother and Elias Bramley Bullocks at Work on the rails down to the wharf at Langley Mill - in the bad old days of pit children

GEORGE PALLANT’S BASFORD & CINDERHILL Price £1.99 Fascinating account of life in and around Basford & Cinderhill, Nottingham, from late Victorian times until 1988. Sadly George died 3 years later at the age of 91. Chapters include – Early life from 1899. First World War around Cinderhill. Second World War when the bombs fell. Dedication at Cinderhill Church by Flying Bishop. Origins of Cinderhill Lecture Hall and School. The building of Cinderhill Vicarage. The origins of Cinderhill Co-op.

THE BASFORD BYSTANDER

Ztan is also Editor of the Basford Bystander, a Community Newspaper devoted to Nostalgia, Local History and Community News for the area of Basford, Nottingham and surrounding districts.   The Basford Bystander is published every other month at 30p per copy.

An Annual Subscription of £3.80 (6 x 30p plus p&p) sent to Ztan at the address below will ensure that Basford Bystanders for the year (six issues) will be posted direct to your home address.  

Stan Smith, 44 Cherry Tree Close, Brinsley, Nottinghamshire  NG16 5BA  

Phone 01773 783009       e-mail  stan@basfordbystander.org.uk

For more information please go to the Basford Bystander Web Site at http://www.basfordbystander.org.uk

If difficulty experienced in obtaining any of the books mentioned in these pages please contact the author by e-mail

stan@powercomp.co.uk    or telephone 01773 783009.

Books and Bystanders can be posted to your home address if required