Nottinghamshire's Best Kept Village

[.... 23]

Is Woodborough.

No surprise to me (even though you needed a pair of waders to be there yesterday!)

Woodborough is county’s best kept village 2012

[katyjay 5,090]

I'm not surprised, it's a lovely village. We have friends who live just up from The Four Bells, their late son was Richard Whitehead's inspiration during the paralympics.

[.... 23]

I think I know your friends, Kath.

If it's who I think it is my sister lives next door to them!

[katyjay 5,090]

Gerrout of here! Last name Mellows.

[3_wheels 0]

It used to be a beautiful village, it has been ruined by new uinsightly estates and new builds. My grandmother lived there so, I've known the village since the fifties. it always flooded, the houses on the south side of main street used to get the water. Somewhere, I have a load of pictures of the village that I took in the 1970's.

[.... 23]

Gerrout of here! Last name Mellows.

That's it Kath! My sister Anita and family and the Mellows have been next door neighbours for thirty-odd years now. In fact bro-in-law and Dave will no doubt be down the Nags together tonight!

I remember Simon very well, lovely lad and a great loss. My nephews were good pals with him.

Small world eh. How did you come to know them?

[katyjay 5,090]

Dave was a member of the Woodborough Young Conservatives, as was my husband before I met him. [in '67] They and a bunch of other lads in the group were all good pals who all lived in Epperstone and Woodborough. I think hubby met Dave at Clarendon College. Dave and Di were already courting when I met my husband and we have all been pals ever since.

[.... 23]

Ah okay, thanks. They're very nice people. I remember Dave's twin brother also used to live in the village, not sure if that's still the case.

Maybe a couple of years ago or so, the Nag's Head dedicated their fund-raising activities for the year to Sarcoma, the illness that took Simon. They raised a lot of money in his memory. Simon was a gentle giant of a lad.

I'll be dropping by Woodborough over the holidays and if I see Diane and Dave will remember you to them!

[katyjay 5,090]

Please do, we won't be getting up there this trip over the holidays, but when we do, we always go out for a meal with them. Not sure where Chris lives now, he was very into brass bands. Dave started life on Shelt Hill.

[.... 23]

Chris lived on Shelt Hill the last I knew, maybe not now as that was a few years ago. Nice area, I was looking at a property there myself recently. Understand the family owns quite a bit of property around Woodborough. The Mellows have been great neighbours to my sister and her family over the years, Kath. Always made a big fuss of Anita's little brother (i.e me) when they have seen him, all those years too.

More generally, and just answering 3_wheels for a moment. Interesting to hear about your Grandmother and you must have some nice tales to tell? I do agree about some of the newer developments but Woodborough still remains a lovely place - for me the nicest of Nottinghamshire villages though I admit to bias. I think that is shown by it continually and consistently winning awards. It's not everybody's cup of tea (where is) but it's still a pretty nice place to call home. I think there are very few places that haven't been spoilt to some degree but that's the way of the world and the march of 'progress' I guess. Probably if there was a criticism it would be in a lack of facilities these days, what with the old Co-op closing and just the post office still standing as a local amenity. It's still a pretty, pretty place though. My sister has lived there for a long time and I know she still loves descending Bank Hill home 'away from the rat race' whilst still being close to a major city. That's worth something these days.

For 3-wheels or anyone with an interest in the old place, this is a lovely resource:

http://myweb.tiscali...oroughheritage/

[3_wheels 0]

I have fond memories of Woodborough and I think it's got charm. I know exactly what your sister means about descending Bank Hill. I remember it as a working village, people that lived there worked there or nearby. From the mid to late '60s it slowly became a dormantory village. The link is very interesting.

[piggy and babs 544]

used to cycle all round that area as teenager . today we went to lincoln via balderton and lessingham near sleaford and back via the ring roads a46 to bingham then up 52 via radcliff and west bridgeford home many of the fields were covered in water we could not go via fiskerton kelam as we would normally do due to floods on the rds

[3_wheels 0]

I managed to find a few pictures worth scanning. 1976 was the last time I took a picture there.

Woodborough 1973

Small's Croft 1976

Woodborough Post Office - 1976

Woodborough - 1970s

[.... 23]

Great pics, thanks very much for sharing 3_wheels, appreciated. I've always been interested in some of the no-longer pubs that were in Woodborough. Wondered if youhave any info as to their whereabouts? Appreciate that some of them were before all of our time. There's a private home on Main St with the plaque 'The Bugle Horn' if I remember correctly. I read that there were around eight pubs in all. One on Shelt Hill?

[3_wheels 0]

Hi, I was told nine pubs by an old boy (he was old, he knew my great grandfather) that used to live on Roe Hill. It was always a bit vague as to where they were, as most of them were just someone's frontroom serving a sort of home (made) brew. The one on Shelt Hill was surposed to be next to the old dairy. As most of the fields around woodborough have now disappeared, you may not have noticed the colour of the soil. If you go over Roe Hill towards the Lido or over the field towards Lambley, the ground is more clay. Back in the days before sewerage and septic tanks, people used outside loos and every time they used it they fushed with ashes from there fireplaces. Every so often the full containers were collected and emptied somewhere near the Pinfold. the farmers would then used this to fertilize the fields, the ash helped break down the clay.

[.... 23]

Interesting info, thank you. Reading that I'm sort of glad the only produce I'm aware of buying grown in the fields around Woodborough are roses!

Talking to my relatives, and apparently they apparently have a new flood defence system in the village nowadays, invented by a chap who actually lives on the Main Street. It's a kind of automatic damming system that works on the Beck. Three lots of floods so far this year but although the main street has run with water nobody I'm aware of has has water in their homes. There was a long period of the village not flooding but it began again around seven years ago.

It's nice to think of Woodborough's roots as a working village and of course there is still evidence of that in the frameworkers cottages etc. I suppose the majority of such villages have changed their character though. It's good to see the place is being looked after and there is care and pride in the place. It's well-known there are plenty of moneyed folk in the village but I always feel a sense of community amongst many in the local pubs and the events they and others hold.

[Scriv 168]

Used to cycle to Woodborough quite regular in the mid-70's, to the model railway place...... was it "Millom Models", and IIRC was in the old school?