Paying to get into Netherfield


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        My apologies for the ambiguity in my previous post. Could have been worded better, sometimes my brain and typing finger whilst lickety splitting the same slope, don't necessarily do it at the same time.

        I worry that I tend to bang on a bit, leading to my post sometimes not appearing on paper the same as my thought process.

       You are correct, Netherfield as a town didn't exist until after the railways came. The ambiguity arised as I put old maps and street names in the same sentance: up until WW1, a lot of adverts for housing rental gave the street names in Colwick and not Netherfield.

      Prior to enclosure, ownership seemed messy, Gedling seemed to claim the northern part and Colwick the southern part known as the Hesgang Pastures. (Some old maps show this part as belonging to Radcliffe, due to a change in the course of the river no doubt).

     The Earl of Chesterfield and Charles Pierrepont nawing away at each other over ownership until the enclosure act sorted out their disputes, (more or less).

     Allegedly, the first house built in Netherfield was a cottage built by William  Brierley on the corner of Victoria Road and Meadow Road, where the bank buildings now stand. However, there were also two farms: one in the Hesgang Pastures and one in the nether field, both must have been fairly substantial as they both had servants and farm hands living on the premises. One was known as Netherfield Farm. (Probably originally the Nether Field Farm.) There was also a person named Greaves who was extracting gravel.

     These farms disappeared when the railways arrived, with the landscape altering completely, including the old bridle way from Stoke Bardolph to Colwick. The railways to some degree kept a pathway through the sidings: at the end of Netherfield Lane a footpath carried on, over a footbridge whilst the old LNWR sheds were in use, continuing until another path joined from Colwick East signal box where there still is I believe an unmanned crossing to Colwick Estates, the western part of the old bridle way, continuing a bit further and the path zips left and under the sidings, each of the bridges had to be a height so a man on horseback could ride beneath them. (Never tried it myself.) finally emerging east of the sidings to continue to Stoke Bardolph. This part got altered later with gravel extraction.

      There must have been legal implications for this pathway to remain as it must have cost a fair bit to build three/four bridges to allow this to happen, not forgetting the footbridge.

     Once again I have waffled on away from the original question.

     Most people on here won't have a clue about any of this.

    Carlton didn't seem to come into the equation until the expansion of Nottingham moved east. 

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This is the only mention that I can find of the toll in the old newspapers , this from the Nottingham Guardian 19/08/1893 . Seems the gate was put up in 1800 and there is mention of the 11.5 feet clo

My apologies for the ambiguity in my previous post. Could have been worded better, sometimes my brain and typing finger whilst lickety splitting the same slope, don't necessarily do it at the same tim

@Messy Hessey: a quick reply. The row of houses where you lived were originally in Colwick. The old boundary being where Charworth Road was built to take road traffic over the railway. West of that wa

      About 10 minutes ago I picked up a book and the page I opened up had a reference to William Brierley and his family being on the 1841 census. No mention of any farms, but they could have appeared on a different census. ie Colwick maybe. Alternatively they could have appeared after the census of that year.

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I used to walk the footpath you mention D A with my dad as a child.  Down to where the railway went over the Trent.  Those bridges were pretty low and under a couple of them were what appered to be WW 2 bomb parts, fins etc  We never went near'em.  I don't know how they got there.

The bridge over the Trent always scared me for some unknown reason.  Guys had a rope under there and used to swing out and drop in the river.  Not my idea of fun.  If you didn't drown you'd probably die from pollution.  There was also a narrow railway for gravel.  It disappeared into a tunnel under the railway tracks above.  That looked pretty scary too.  I think a stream flowed through it too.

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        Whenever I approached the foot bridge, my mind would switch into adventure mode. The footpaths, bridges, nooks and crannies all fascinated me. Never ventured onto the railway itself. Didn't need to, plenty of other distractions. Wildlife plentiful where ever your gaze fell. To me, crossing that bridge was my own personal wonderland.

       I remember the narrow gauge railway, the little diesel zipping back and forth with its little hoppers. The tunnel it went through was originally built to accommodate water drainage from the Hesgang Pastures. The next tunnel up was built for the same reason.

      The people farming here had built drainage ditches and these tunnels prevented flooding from affecting the railway track. The narrow gauge railway didn't appear until after WW2.

       I have been through this tunnel, the size of the rats fascinated me as they would give you a look of disdain, before scurrying off. I was somewhat older when I did this.

     Cannot remember finding any bomb parts.

    Looking back, I wonder how I managed to stay on this physical plane for so long. Expect there are a few others on here reflecting similar thoughts.

     Despite various hardships along the way, am so glad I lived through the timescale I have. Hope I'm wrong, but I worry about the young people growing up in today's messed up society. My apologies, I digress.

 

    

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I guess the little narrow gauge would have carried gravel from the pits to Trent concrete on the other side of the main line.  As you said, a world full of excitement for us young uns of that day.  If I remember rightly my dad worked as a shunter in the rail yards there after he got out of the navy.  Dangerous job I think.  Probably safer in the navy.   He soon left it for other options.

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        So long as you managed to dodge the torpedoes and didn't hook a mine.

        A shunter was an under rated job, shifts, out in all weathers, on the plus side, they didn't need gyms! 

        Pay not very good either, although there were enhancements like free travel, pensions, tended to be looked after if you got sick. ie if someone had to take a lower paid job through health reasons they retained their rate of pay.

         Just realised have gone off topic!

        

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Dark Angel, your mention of rats in the tunnel reminded me of my early childhood living in Norman Villas, at the bottom of Dunstan Street. We had the Ouse Dyke running across the end of our garden and I remember one time it flooded and the water came up the garden towards the house. My Mum was absolutely petrified to see rats in the garden and got hold of me and took me upstairs and we watched them from the bedroom window.  None of us are keen on rats but Mum was terrified of them, embarrassing me at Twycross Zoo one time when she spotted a load of them between cages of animals. She just stood paralysed and screamed!  

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      Have been doing some ferreting around, have now found two pictures of what I believe to be William Brierley's cottage. It is certainly not contemporary with any other buildings in Netherfield. This cottage was unique. A massive shame it got demolished to make way for the bank buildings. Cliff Ton has produced a map on another thread which sadly doesn't show this building, but shows another on what is now Garnett Street. I seem to end up with more questions when ever I think I've answered one. Could these buildings, (which I think still exist) have been used for residential or agricultural use?

     Am quietly confident that William Brierley's cottage is the one that stood on the corner of Meadow/Victoria Road.

 

   

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1 hour ago, Dark Angel said:

        To be paralysed with fear is never a good place to be.

        No wonder you emigrated to Arnold.

My mum was never happy in Netherfield, she thought it dark, too low-lying, miserable and damp and was very happy to move to a house on a hill in Arnold.  We also moved into a brand new house with a bathroom which was a bonus after the outside loo and tin bath in Netherfield.  I occasionally drive through Netherfield, as quickly as I can, and agree with her thoughts of 60+ years ago.  

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I grew up in Netherfield.  Never noticed anything wrong, but as we know, when we're kids home is wherever we happen to grow up.  We moved out when I was seventeen to Willow Rd, near the Ritz.  I've never missed it but have dropped in a couple of times since.  No desire to go back.  Interesting to read of it's history though.

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    Sadly, a lot of the housing in Netherfield left a lot to be desired.

   The housing was built ad hoc by various builders, not really giving any thought to the people having to live in them.

   Being in the Trent Valley and having two engine sheds and a large marshalling yard, the atmosphere wouldn't have been conducive to good health, particularly in later life.

   Your mum saw the writing on the wall, an indoor bathroom, must have been akin to winning the pools.

 

  Returning to Loppy's comment about shunters, they would have worked in thick fog amongst other weathers.

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Yes,  those houses were damp and pretty cramped too.  As Lizzie noted, I think the indoor bathroom and drier surroundings were great incentives to moving.  I know I sure liked it.

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       Considering Nottingham had been hit with cholera, I am amazed people were allowed to build new houses without decent sanitation.

       In some cases, three or four houses would share the same waste soil depositories. ( waste soil was how they spoke of it in those times.)

       Within five years of being built two houses on Curzon Street were found to be a health risk. In those days they must have had serious issues to be highlighted in this way. Yet still they continued building houses in the same manner.

       Sorry, going off topic.

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  • 3 years later...
On 1/5/2014 at 7:42 PM, Cliff Ton said:

Digging around Picture the Past I came across this photo which shows something I'd not heard of before - a toll gate at Meadow Road, Netherfield.

http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae24/kc29_2010/nethertoll2.jpg

Looks like this today.

http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae24/kc29_2010/nethertoll1.jpg

Meadow Road was originally called Toll Bar Lane, and the gate survived until the early 20th century. Was it to keep people out, or to keep Netherfield-ites in?

How much would you pay to get in to Netherfield?

 

Just curious as to if the two photographs are of the same place and exactly where the toll gate was. I lived at bottom end of Meadow Road, nowadays and in the 80s if you came from the shops going to Colwick you would swing left to go over the bridge or turn right to continue on Meadow Road, at the time there was a derelict looking house to the left which has since been renovated and to the right just on the corner of Elm drive was the coachworks now replaced with two houses then two railway houses one of which my family lived in and the other was where our neighbour Winnie lived.

 

In the 80s she still had an outside loo which froze in the winter so would come across to use ours. She also had a cat called tupenny which stuck her house out, I never liked going across to Win, she was great but her house left something to be desired.

 

Anyways, there was a row of houses not to dissimilar to the photo a gap which took you round to factories at the back then a road leading you onto the train station, usually if any heritage steam train came through, enthusiasts would crowd down.

 

I presume before the bridge was there and when the railway line came along it would be a good place for a toll bar for folks coming off the train or up from Colwick (or as non locals would say Coal - wick)

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1 hour ago, Messy Hessey said:

Just curious as to if the two photographs are of the same place and exactly where the toll gate was.

 

From a different angle, this is the same location several years apart, which shows where the toll gate was.

 

WbN2q66.jpg

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Forgive this old miscreant, but can you tell me why Netherfield had a toll gate? I can understand Wilford bridge having a toll has it could have been a private thoroughfare, but why a gate in a town?

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Best wishes for you D.A. Hope you'll soon be on the mend.

Take care mate, thoughts are with you.

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