Recommended Posts

  • Replies 629
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Dear Fiends - sorry, Friends   Well another bright, shiny day in paradise!   And Happy Valentines Day! Thank you for all the cards, many of which would make a Bishop blush.

Dear Hearts, How very kind some of you are.   At least three kind postings have flooded in and I’m overwhelmed (do we know of anyone, anywhere that has ever been underwhelmed – and what

Hi Margie,   Thank you for your kind comments.  Where our ages are concerned, and judging from your photo, that makes me 27!   I must confess I'm very new to this "posting" but it'

Can't help then...Photobucket has all altered now...it used to be simple.It loses me and I've used it for years.May I suggest you go to Imageshack it's a damn sight easier to use.It's free too.You can be on there in ten minutes...let me know if you have any probs.

Link to post
Share on other sites

My brain tape just rewound It was Ambergate rd shops opposite tha waste ground that lead to the school.

I remember the Grundy family he was a mate of mine but I don't think his name was George did he have a older brother

I remember feeling sorry for his dad as he was walking up to the tin bridge to work every morning he looked totally worn out.

I had a mate on Plungar close that got leukemia & passed away Then my other friend Rodger Stanley got it also, He lived near the Beechdale pub

He also passed away . It scared me as I thought it was something you could catch.

Another mate was Paul Wyatt

Link to post
Share on other sites

Anyone with a answer . Wigman Rd had some cut through to Saltburn Rd did they have names ?

I new people that lived down them but never knew the name or even bothered to look for a sign.

Same with the Rd up to the tin bridge lived at the bottom of it for years but never knew its name.

Link to post
Share on other sites

That cut through is called Greetwell Close. It is across the road from the road that leads to the army houses and the electricity place.

Greetwell Close had wide grass verges but I think the council used some of it to make the gardens of some of the houses bigger. When I was a kid there was a bus shelter at the stop next to Greetwell close so if it was raining we would wait at that one (along with 6 million other people) (slight exaggeration).

Link to post
Share on other sites

Anyone with a answer . Wigman Rd had some cut through to Saltburn Rd did they have names ?

I new people that lived down them but never knew the name or even bothered to look for a sign.

Same with the Rd up to the tin bridge lived at the bottom of it for years but never knew its name.

The road or lane (as we called it) that went from Wigman Road island up to the tin bridge and down past the canal and Raleigh sports ground is called Woodyard Lane. Browns woodyard was close to the canal but it closed in the mid 60's I think.

Link to post
Share on other sites

He was referring to the cut throughs from Wigman Road to Saltburn Road. Apart from Greetwell Close, the rest were alleys with the houses numbered as either Wigman Road or Saltburn Road.

Mess, Woodyard Lane started from the traffic island on the opposite side of Wigman Road. I remember every inch of that lane from the late 50s to the early 60s. The old tin bridge was made of girders with thick wooden planks at a skew with corrugated iron sides (hence the name 'tin bridge'). The roadway had a sort of ashphalt surface. The planks used to stick out at the sides under the corrugated iron leaving little triangles on the wrong side. Some of us (not me! honest!) used to walk along these triangles on the wrong side and clinging to the corrugated iron. And if that wasn't enough, it had to be done when a steam train was going under.

Link to post
Share on other sites

There were some metal plates to deflect the steam directly over the tracks on the sides of the bridge that you could stand on when the train came through . Bin there done that.

The rope swings off the side of the bank leading to the bridge were pretty good also.

When they filled in the Canal on the left side as you went over the bridge the ground turned to a black bog. We called it Rubberland , I remember Ian Darch getting stuck up to his knees when he broke through the crust we got him out minus his wellies.

As for falling in the canal did that many times even rode my bike into the deep bit of the lock + learned about leeches how you get them off with a Ciggy the fishing warden got them off me he was laughing I was screaming.

Link to post
Share on other sites

My first memories of the canal were when me dad used to take me to my Grandma's house at Wollaton which backed onto the allotments. It was just a complete derelict canal full of water complete with fishing contests. Then the vandals moved in as the water was drained and the huge stones of the locks were pushed in. One day, around 1962 or 1963 I fell into the lock just near Raleigh football ground (Lock 15 I think) and bruised myself all over. The next day I was due to have Typhoid injections because I was going with my mum and dad on one of the (then) new package holidays to Italy that summer.

That canal was one long smelly adventure playground for us kids. Happy days.

Link to post
Share on other sites

There are both single (`prefabs' ) and double houses,Stephen. The prefabs were supposed to be `temporary' and were built for houses for slum clearance and returning servicemen.

I noticed on a visit in August quite a large proportion of the prefabs had been `clad' in brick or other materials. The 2 story metal houses were largely untouched.

"They are quite nice actually. A lot better than the freezing cold ones like the one I was born in."

Know what you mean , B.Born. I lived in one of the concrete boxes built by Wimpey for 10 years.

The Wimpey No-fines House was a construction method and series of house designs produced by the George Wimpey company and intended for mass-production of social housing for families, developed under the Ministry of Works post-World War II Emergency Factory Made programme. "No-fines" refers to the type of concrete used - concrete with no fine aggregates.

In the late 50`s a move was made to the high-rise blocks.

The things I also noticed whilst sitting in the sun outside the Pelican were the hundreds,? thousands of people wandering aimlessly around the Bracebridge shops. Also the constant stream of multicoloured buses with grey nomads and others with `passes ' of all types.

I did notice the `very flash' medical and dental clinics, all with full waitng rooms.

In my day the clinics were 1 house on Burnside Rd where an Irish lady with a very beautiful daughter rented out her front room to a black African doctor as his office.for a few hours a day.

The one compensation was a fresh crab roll from the shops and a beer outside the Pelican (which was full).

The 56,60 and 13 buses had gone and new routes seemed to have emerged.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

It's not the Bilborough that I grew up in. But we must move with the times. As I have said, I was born in a freezing single story two bedroomed prefab with a redundant air raid shelter as a garden shed. When I was two we moved to the steel-topped house further down Wigman Road where my Dad still lives. These houses were quite cool in winter despite the back boiler and three radiators, but were very hot upstairs on a hot summers day.

My dad worked for Wimpey's when they were building the no-fines houses. I understand there is a lot of fun to be had drilling a hole in the wall.

One day, Mr Vic Hallam at Langley Mill got a highly lucrative contract. He build the pre-fabricated replacements for the war-time bungalows and what a sight it was seeing halves of bungalows on the backs of lorries coming along Broxtowe Lane. I think that this was before they built Woodhouse Way. But you must admit, they are much better buildings than the ones they replaced.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Chilwell Dam Farm was just off Woodhouse Way (which incidently was named after the farming family of Woodhouse who farmed at Manor Farm and also Chilwell Dam Farm). It was demolished just before they started building the business park.

Before Woodhouse Way was built it was accessed by going up Moor Road at Strelley.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Moores used to farm at Chilwell Dam Farm but the last farmer was John Woodhouse who vacated it about a year or so before it was demolished. I think the farm was once part of the Strelley Hall's estate. I have photographs of Chilwell Dam Farm when it was derelict. One day I WILL learn how to post photos.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thought so. I used to walk up to Strelley village when I was a kid. Dame Edge used to own the lot. She was the last Lady Of the Manor. When she died in the late 70s it was all sold off, mostly to sitting tenants...Tony Horton wrote a book sort of thing with a lot of info about the area, and I once went on a tour of the hall. But that is another story.

Anyway. Back to Bilborough. Can anyone remember the pond on the corner of Wigman Rd and Strelley Rd before they built the houses?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi folks, I'm a newbie here, but I was born in Bilborough in 1953 and lived there until 1966 when we moved to Colwick. I remember the area and the times really well and am just starting to write it all down for a book I'm writing. I was born on Staverton rd just at the crest of the hill near Bramerton Rd. and the green on the right. It was a fantastic place to grow up as I had the freedom to wander far and wide with my mates. It was only a five minute walk to Old Coach Road so the train bridge and canal were our favourite playground.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...