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Or Freda Avenue off Westdale lane?

Aah yes I misread '1 topic' for 1 post

I lived on Kelvin Road, Thorneywood as a child and well remember what we called Donkey Hill. It seemed VERY steep then. Used to play around the Holly Gardens area where there was a pickle factory. Als

And then there were the Donkey Steps that went from the end of Standhill Road /Hillview Road passing by Pilkington Road down to Valley Road Carlton.

Probably 50 years since I went down there but it was narrow at the top and widened out further down and even though there were actual steps spaced quite far apart, it was an excellent sledging run in the winter .

Used to use that as a short-cut when I had to get from Westdale Lane to Carlton Hill to work by bike in 1973. (Pushed up, rode down :))

Luckily, that was after the bottom end of Marshall Hill Drive had been surfaced.

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Something I've pondered about since this thread started was whether the donkey steps that went down to what is now Valley Road were actually a continuation of the footpath from the top of Donkey Hill that took you to Gedling . I've read a few references to this pathway either going to Lambley or Gedling .

I'm talking when the whole area was just fields . Maybe the steps were too far to the North ?

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Something I've pondered about since this thread started was whether the donkey steps that went down to what is now Valley Road were actually a continuation of the footpath from the top of Donkey Hill that took you to Gedling . I've read a few references to this pathway either going to Lambley or Gedling .

Having nothing better to do, I've just investigated that a bit. Looking on maps from the 1930s, I can see enough remains of such a path to think you might be correct. Putting it on here may be cumbersome and complicated, but I might try later.

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Having nothing better to do, I've just investigated that a bit. Looking on maps from the 1930s, I can see enough remains of such a path to think you might be correct. Putting it on here may be cumbersome and complicated, but I might try later.

I had a look in my copy of "The Village Atlas"*, which has reproductions of OS maps from between 1834 and 1904, and an original OS map I have from the 1920s, and neither show any footpaths marked.

I suppose the large-scale maps in Angel Row library might throw some light, and had the question been asked a dozen or so years ago, I could have asked my dad, as when he bought his house in the early 1930s, Westdale Lane was still just a track and the Valley Road area was still nowt but fields.

* http://www.lookupbyisbn.com/Lookup/Book/185540026X/1-85540-026-x/1

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My dad built our house just off the the lower end of Marshall Hill Drive in the 30s and we used to play on the Valley Road fields or "The Wreck " or should that be Reck ? before any houses were built .

Facing us on the other side of the valley was also still fields and I remember the estates being built in the early 50s.

However the houses up on Standhill must have been much earlier . In fact one that we lived in was called Victoria Villa when we moved up there . So if there was a footpath it must have been built over late 1800s at a guess.

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I remember the Donkey steps in the early 1950s. My dad's parents had moved from the Meadows to Fernleigh Avenue in the early 1930s (when I presume the roads off Westdale Lane were being gradually developed). They moved again - about 1937/38 I think - to a new house on Pilkington Road. My dad's sister married about 1950, and after living with her parents for a couple of years, she and her husband moved to a then newly built council house on Valley Road. We would often go to see both the grandparents and my aunt and uncle as one visit, and the route from one to the other was, of course, Donkey steps. The bottom end became Simkin Avenue - always known to us as Stinkin Avenue, owing to pigs kept somewhere over the hedge or fence there. As you know, Marshall Hill Drive continues the path line all the way up to Westdale Lane, and although there is no obvious path continuing towards Lambley, the direction certainly fits.

However, going back to #31, if you project the line of Donkey steps back towards town, it seems to link up better with the path that always did, and still does, run down from Porchester Road (opposite the end of Florence Road) through what used to be allotments to Wells Road, rather than with Donkey Hill = St Bartholomews Road. (I have a faint recollection returning from my grandparents of walking down that path to Kildare Road trolleybus terminus, after missing the rather infrequent no.9 on Porchester Road - that would be about 1953).

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Stephen , I had forgotten that footpath by the allotments , you were braver than me ! I don't think I ever went down it as it was a bit scary if you were on your own .

What you say makes sense and as you say does line up with the donkey-steps at the end of Standhill, if you go down Florence Road , that's assuming you wanted to get from the Wells Road .

However if you were coming from town its further to walk and Donkey Hill would save some shoe leather . Maybe a path linked up along the top of the hill on what is now Porchester Road ?

This is the best I could do with a screen grab but the boy in blue is just about to go down that footpath facing Florence Road . The Punch Bowl is further along in the distance .

9100080225_fa2f24ec48_b.jpg

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David - definitely not on my own! You are right - it was scary - a desolate, wilderness sort of area. As I remember, it was a starry frosty evening, and of course there were no houses around there. I was only 4 at the time, and holding dad's hand on one side and mum's on the other! If there was another path from the top of St Bartholomews Road, as you suggest, I guess it could have followed the line that is now Thorneywood Mount. It seems to me that many of the roads developed in the early to mid 20th century probably just expanded existing minor rights of way.

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I remember the Donkey steps in the early 1950s. My dad's parents had moved from the Meadows to Fernleigh Avenue in the early 1930s (when I presume the roads off Westdale Lane were being gradually developed). They moved again - about 1937/38 I think - to a new house on Pilkington Road. My dad's sister married about 1950, and after living with her parents for a couple of years, she and her husband moved to a then newly built council house on Valley Road. We would often go to see both the grandparents and my aunt and uncle as one visit, and the route from one to the other was, of course, Donkey steps. The bottom end became Simkin Avenue - always known to us as Stinkin Avenue, owing to pigs kept somewhere over the hedge or fence there. As you know, Marshall Hill Drive continues the path line all the way up to Westdale Lane, and although there is no obvious path continuing towards Lambley, the direction certainly fits.

However, going back to #31, if you project the line of Donkey steps back towards town, it seems to link up better with the path that always did, and still does, run down from Porchester Road (opposite the end of Florence Road) through what used to be allotments to Wells Road, rather than with Donkey Hill = St Bartholomews Road. (I have a faint recollection returning from my grandparents of walking down that path to Kildare Road trolleybus terminus, after missing the rather infrequent no.9 on Porchester Road - that would be about 1953).

Stephen,

If they lived on Fernleigh in the early 1930s, they would have been neighbours of my dad, as he moved into the first house built on Fernleigh in, I think, about 1933, and stayed there for the next 70 years.

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If we're talking about a footpath going from St Bartholomew's Road (Donkey Hill) to somewhere up near the eventual Porchester Road and on towards Gedling........check this from the 1880s and note the FP - Footpath - going from Thorneywood Mount, across Thorneywood Lane (Porchester Road), Standhill Road and on to Foxhill Road.

path1.jpg

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If we're talking about a footpath going from St Bartholomew's Road (Donkey Hill) to somewhere up near the eventual Porchester Road and on towards Gedling........check this from the 1880s and note the FP - Footpath - going from Thorneywood Mount, across Thorneywood Lane (Porchester Road), Standhill Road and on to Foxhill Road.

That seems to follow the same route down from Standhill Road into the valley as Ernest Road does now.

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Once again Cliff Ton you've done it !

Really interesting to me as I lived in that area . Took me a while to spot the F.P. (footpath) even though its right across the centre of your map .

Wonder why Thorneywood Lane name was changed to Porchester Road ?

So Thorneywood Mount was a later addition as a main road and followed the footpath route and where the pathway crosses Porchester it would appear that Cherrywood Gdns (another of my old roads) has been built roughly over it , following a line above the brickworks quarry .

Looking at a modern map maybe Ernest Road now , is built over the footpath down to Foxhill ? (OOPS Edit : Rob L beat me to it !) ..... There is still a footpath from Cherrywood to Standhill , though it doesn't come out facing Ernest Road .

Probably moved position ,when they built the bungalows . You can see the footpath, between the two hedges , between the bungalows

9101154413_1ac38a5463_z.jpg

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At one time as a lad, I used to walk our dog all over that area. Surprising how many little alleys and footpaths there were, and probably still are, hidden away between houses.

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What I find fascinating now , is that when I was staring out the window at our maisonette at the end of Cherrywood , all those years ago , if only I had had a time machine and could go back further a few hundred years , what sights would I have seen of no doubt countless people tramping across the footpath to Gedling and beyond ?

Why was only Gedling mentioned for the direction of this footpath in early stories , did Carlton develop much later than Gedling ?

Doesn't really help much but below a pic from our wedding day ,( I had hair then and shiny shoes !)...... after our reception at parents-in-laws on Cherrywood (we moved there later) , early 70s , note our wedding car.. a Wolsely Hornet !

Just a few yards beyond the fence shown was a sheer drop to the brickyard quarry .

9101421237_694c5db1fc_c.jpg

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"Wonder why Thorneywood Lane name was changed to Porchester Road ?"

A Google search reveals that the area (previously farmland) was sold to the Earl of Carnarvon in 1912. His son held the courtesy title of Lord Porchester. I presume the name change came about that time. By the way, I believe the southern end remained Thorneywood Lane for quite a lot longer - a 1937 bus map still shows it under that name up to Thorneywood Mount. You will also know that Gordon Road (i.e. Gordon of Khartoum) was "formerly Edginton Street" (as the sign at the top end still shows).

Here's another thought, relating to the other path - I wonder if it originated from folk heading for the holy well at St Anns (very near the Wells Road end of that path) for religious purposes?

By the way, going back a few posts (Pinder's fee), a pinder in the middle ages was keeper of the pound where stray animals would be detained. Not sure whether this sheds any light or not.

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Thanks Stephen , all interesting stuff and things I didn't know . I assumed Gordon Road was named after General Gordon but never noticed that Edginton sign !

Quite plausible that the more northerly footpath was a "pilgrims" route to the Holy Well , makes sense .

So one of the fields by Bartholomews Stile was for the keeping of stray animals . Pinder is also a surname (Mike Pinder of the Searchers ) , so we know what their ancestors did for a living....rounded up stray animals !

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Rob L . Does your surname end with a Y ?

If so , its a name I remember from Fernleigh , though thats all I remember . Some other surnames I remember from there were Scott and Knight , ring any bells ?

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Rob L . Does your surname end with a Y ?

If so , its a name I remember from Fernleigh , though thats all I remember . Some other surnames I remember from there were Scott and Knight , ring any bells ?

David,

Yes indeed it does. Don't recall those other names, though.

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Rob L , Another one from there , was the late, Dave Rowberry , keyboard player that replaced Alan Price in The Animals ? I'm sure he lived on Fernleigh ( unless it was Roseleigh Ave ) ?

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Rob L , Another one from there , was the late, Dave Rowberry , keyboard player that replaced Alan Price in The Animals ? I'm sure he lived on Fernleigh ( unless it was Roseleigh Ave ) ?

Checking his Wiki entry, he was a bit before my time, I'm afraid. I can ask my big brother though, as he was only a couple of years younger than Dave R.

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Lots of memories for me in this thread. My gran used to live just off St Annes well road, so I used to cycle down from Mapperley tops down donkey hill to get there, then on my way back would walk up donkey hill and call in an aunts in Thorneywood.

My wife came from the miners estate on valley road so spent lots of time around the area there, the Rec come back vividly, as we did a fair bit of "courting" on there. :-)

DavidW , your photo of the wedding day, I know your face very well so we must have crossed paths at some time. I went to Gedling school like you and lived on Mapperley tops so often would be around the area on first my pushbike and then my scooter or motorbike.Maybe pm me with your surname ?

Love your wife's outfit, could easily have been my wife's too at the time !

Amazing to see the old photo's and how the brickworks were an integral part of the general area, I grew up playing around the Mapperley brickworks, top of Woodthorpe drive and Woodborough road.

Learnt to fish there, in the ponds, frogs, newts and collect pussy willow in season ! Got chased by the watchman many times as I short cutted through the tunnels under woodthorpe drive and Breckhill road to the Breckhill fields which backed onto our garden !

Never realised there was the Standhill brickworks too.

As a final one, when I worked at Gedling colliery for a short time I remember the end of the "pit pony's" as mechanisation had well and truly taken over by then. But there were still a few there underground, this would be in the late 60's.

And as Babs said the pony's did have a break over the major holidays in the field on Arnold lane.

Love this forum.

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