BulwellBrian
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Posts posted by BulwellBrian
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The line to Babbington/Cinderhill collieries was built in 1852, perhaps the map is older than 1880.
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I was also taught by Stanley Middleton in the 1950's, it caused a great stir at school when his first book was published. He used to live on Broomhill Road in Bulwell and Mr Slater lived almost opposite, they often walked to and from school togeather, I don't know what they talked about as one was science and the other english.
Stan also played the organ at Bulwell Wesley Church near the market place, he was a good musician. He also taught RK as it was then known, Religious Knowledge.
A good man.
Brian.
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I don't know the answer to you questions, Ashley, I don't know if trams ever used Nottingham Road, The Notts & Derby trams went via Radford Road into town. I am not familiar with the Lincoln Street, David Lane junction but I would have thought that originally it would have been a Y junction converted to a T junction when traffic got heavier. I always knew the crossing as Lincoln Street crossing, that was what the signal box was called, has the railway changed its name?
I didn't know Basford very well only the Main Road and Vernon Park, I left Bulwell in about 1972 and then lived in Newthorpe Common for a couple of years before moving south to Hertfordshire. I always worked for the NCB/British Coal first at the Cinderhill Laboratory then at Eastwood Hall and finally at the national HQ at Hobart House, London.
Incidently I remember a pea souper in Nottingham when the trolleys stopped running, I caught a train from the Midland when it got to Basford crossings the fireman got down and walked forward to make sure the gates were open for the train. We got some good fog's in those days.
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The memory of walking through the gate at the station would be late 1940's or very early 1950's. I don't recall a footbridge at the station I think passengers had to cross by the foot crossing which would have been the old road.
I also remember the closed off crossing at Basford and trolley buses from Nottingham Road turning round in Vernon Road. Not much traffic in those days.
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You keep bringing back memories Clif Ton. There used to be a gate where the old level crossing used to be that was open when passenger trains were stopping at the station, I walked across with my mother a number of times, if it was locked we had to climb up the stairs to Highbury Road.
The post war map has a number of errors it only shows one side of the Bestwood to Bulwell connection near the Forest.
The foot path opposite Cantrell Road, first of all there was a kiss gate then it crossed the "dive" line on the flat, there were wooden rails so that you had to zig zag through them, then it went under the main line and then crossed the southbound line from Bestwood on the flat again with zig zag gates.
I think Carey Road was originally called Forest Road. I think that the signal box that controlled the crossing was called Forest Road Crossing.
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I don't think Bartons went to Kimberley, proberbly Midland General, they used letter & numbers for routes.
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Not quite exclusively knocker, there was Iron ore trains going north presumably from the Leicestershire opencast mines to iron works in the north east, and of course the empties comming back. The wagons had "Iron Ore Tippler" on the sides.
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Thats right it was called Corby & Weldon in those days, after that the line joined the Leicester line just north of Kettering, then it was 4 tracks all the way to London. You could see the steel works on the left going to London and iron ore mines both sides of the line.
There was also Iron works at Holwell north of Melton Mowbray, the site later of Asfordby coal mine, at Kettering and at Wellingborough.
It always seemed silly to me that the line was closed as the only bit that has closed is the bit near Nottingham.
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Cotton wool in the top of asprin bottles
You don't see asprin bottles either!
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In my trainspotting days of the 1950's I think all trains from Nottingham to London went via the Melton route, those from the north arriving via Trowell and Radford, at the Midland station they used platform 3 and were pulled by Jubilee 4-6-0's. There was always a crowd of people gathered on the platform before the train arrived and a wheel tapper went along on the non platform side. There was also a local service i think to Kettering by this route and also a lot of freight mainly 8F's but I did see the occasional Garratt go that way.
I used to catch the 9:15pm St Pancras to Edinburgh train on a Sunday evening in 1965/6 having been to see my girlfriend, (now my wife). This train also had sleeping cars and was halled by a class 45 diesel.
I think that route was a mile or two shorter than via Leicester.
Brian
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Could the first new picture be back to front, then it matches the second one?
Brian.
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There is another photo in the same series on pictures the past Ref NTGM015117 which shows something in the background that could be Newcastle colliery. I don't know how to get it onto here.
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The book makes no mention of any passenger ideas, The line would not have been a very fast route due to mining subsidence just like that on the GCR north of Nottingham. Some interesting possibilities would have been created as it would have linked to three lines to the south MR GNR & GCR.
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The talk about the Calverton branch caused me to remember a book I liberated from the NCB library at Hobart House London when that was being disbanded in about 1993, I never really looked at it properly as it was not very interesting looking being just type written and then printed. The title is "An Account of Railway Development in the Nottinghamshire Coalfield" by John A Banks & Peter Coxon and dated 1949.
I quote "in addition to the newly opened Bilsthorpe colliery, new pits were contemplated at Calverton, south of Blidworth, and Bothamsall, north of Ollerton; and it became evident to the railway companies that lines must be built to serve them.
The outcome was a railway line some 24 miles long to be constructed jointly by the LMS & LNER. Authorised in 1926, it was to extend from junctions with the LMS & LNER at Hucknall, through Farnsfield & Ollerton to Checker House on the LNER between Worksop & Retford." It was known as the Mid Notts Joint Line. The only part of the line to be built was between Ollerton & Farnsfield in 1929/30.
It appears to me that the aim was coal not passengers.
The book then mentioned Calverton "A railway is to be built but it will not be the southern part of the Mid-Notts Joint Line as the site of the present colliery does not coincide with the position of the proposed Calverton colliery of the 1920's." An act was passed in 1947 for the branch.
Then again "Many years ago, a similar project for a colliery here, was mooted, and some land actually aquired for the construction of a railway line from Hucknall to Burnstump Hill. Plans were prepared for a shaft to be sunk here, but the 1914 wae steadied the scheme, which was later dropped, and the acquired land sold."
I will now read the book properly and see if there are any more gems.
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Great pictures of Bulwell, just about the time I left, skirts were going up. The traction poles for the trolleys still there but stinking diesels in use. I used to climb up into the curves of the walls of Henry Mellish (Who was he?). Some of the pupils came by train to Basford North, from Kimberley etc. It was a good looking school then. I had to go past it to High Pavement on Stanley Road, and later to Bestwood Estate.
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Ellis's thats right Danny. You are 10 years older with a good memory.
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The Line to the left in the 1st photo was to Clifton Colliery. The Middle Photo is BR time with an LMS Compound, the other two look like Midland Railway signals hence much older.
There was a daily passenger train from Mansfield to Chilwell Depot that ran for many years, it was not in the public timetable, Mansfield shed had a class 2 2-6-0 specially for this working, I am not sure if it came this way or ran via Pinxton. There was a platform at the depot specially for this train.
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The Park Lane bridge looks as if it had been rebuilt at some time, It might have been widened when the lines to Bagthorpe Junction were built. It was originally much older than that. The Brooklyn Road bridge would be around 1897 when the GCR was built. But why was it broken? It wasn't really very old.
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Life was harder in those days but fun none the less.
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and did my U/G training at Hucknall number one.
So did I in about 1961.
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Yes Danny I remember Mr & Mrs Lymn at the shop on the corner and Taylors the Newsagent just on Henrietta Street, there was the greengrocers next to Lymn's whose name I cannot recollect, then on Highbury Road the other way was May Clark's sweet shop, when I was a young child we called her "Goody Shop May". Further along was Turners chemists. You must be older than me I cannot remember 1936 and the only gas mantles I remember were in caravans at Skegness.
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I went down Gedling Colliery a number of times in the 1960's when I worked at the area laboratory, I remember riding the cable belt there. There was a face called APD's that ran for years must have reached Skegness! It was a difficult pit to get out of mid shift as it wound coal on both shafts in minecars.
I remember being in the managers office with my boss when suddenly his attention was lost, he picked up the phone "why the f****** h** has the b****** wheels stopped", there was a hitch in the coal winding.
The winders were steam in those days with a huge bank of Lancashire boilers to supply the steam. The pit was working the Top Hard and High Hazles seams winding them and preparing them separately, then the Top Hard finished and they concentrated on the High Hazles. It was a good pit.
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Another oldie just read through the thread. I remember everything in the list in the first post!
I believe it was only the Meadows that suffered DC electricity, certainly in my part of Bulwell it was AC we had two meters one taking shillings for the "power" the other taking pennies for the lights. The meter reader came and emptied them on the kitchen table he made piles and rolled them up in strong paper tucking in the ends so he ended up with a cylinder of shillings and another of pennies.
When I was very young the milk delivered daily was not in bottles it was ladled out of small churns and tipped into jugs. The first milk bottles I remember were at school they had wide necks with a circular cardbord cap which snapped into grooves inside the neck with a perforated bit to push a straw through.
As well as the milk man and the bread man there was the greengrocer with his horse and cart. I also remember being sent over to the corner shop for whatever Mum had run out of, sometimes two, three or even four times in a day! Oh and there was the coalman as well.
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I've just noticed another thing about the "mineral line" in the photo. It doesn't seem to go over Nuthall Road or get into the area in the bottom right corner of the photo. It comes into the road, then just disappears,
Looking at the picture, yet again, I think the rail line curves after crossing the road and goes along the side of the road. I think the suggestion that it is narrow gauge so I dont think it went to the MR near the gas works, it was possibly used for foundation material for the road construction, possibly horse worked at least it had a passing loop! A very interesting thread I hope you can find more.
The whole of North's colliery and railway systems is very interesting. The route to the canal predates any of the main line railways. House coal to Nottingham would have been horse & cart. The output of the collieries would be small compared with more modern times. Thanks for giving me great fun in looking into the past.
Brian.
Bulwell Map
in 'Mucky Ukna' Bull'el Baasford & Hyson Green
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Apparently there is work going on on the Robin Hood line today & tomorrow and both Bulwell Forest Crossing on Carey Road and Lincoln Street Crossing on David Lane will be closed. So the railway still calls it Lincoln Street crossing. The work is for new signalling to be controlled from Derby.