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Another thread which has been wrecked by Photobucket, so I'll add a replacement.  To get your bearings, the arrow is the cross-roads of Hucknall Road / Arnold Road. Bestwood is the empty fields in the background. Follow the line of trees westwards and you'll see Marble Arch.

xLyNUkb.jpg

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Hello,   Thank you for your reply Benjamin, and thank you for the welcome DJ. Both are really appreciated.   I spoke to my Aunt, Mum’s sister, this morning and she maintains that t

I'm back Mandie,,,so much to tell you don't know where to start  lol,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yes indeed Leybourne drive i'm sure was finished just before the war,,,i recall the remnants of an ''Air raid shelte

I moved onto Southglade Rd. (No. 40) around 1951/2, when I was barely 3. Prevously we lived at 76 Glaisdale Drive, Bilboro. Back then, there was no Beckhampton, no Rise Park, or Top Valley, or Bestw

Nice one CT. I see that my house has recently been built, so I presume it's early to mid 30's.

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Kev, that pic is from an unusual angle and had me foxed for a bit.  Have now worked it out though.  Thanks for posting.

 

Col

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Looking at it again now, I hadn't realised there are two bridges through the embankment, i.e. two Marble Arches, roughly either side of where Kersal Drive comes out. They stand out on the photo even though they only led to fields.

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Thats right cliff-ton................the second one we used to call 'Tit Hill'.......as the track was in a small valley with a distinctive hill on either side,that led to '7 fields'.........which we called the gap between old Bestwood estate and Bestwood Village..........

 

As you went under the Arch.........to the right was part of 'Rigleys Wagon Works'.........and to the left was Rigleys very basic social club,....which consisted of a football and cricket pitch.........and a rough wooden hut which i remember served Beer straight from a Barrel ,a few of my old school mates and Uncles worked for Rigleys...............

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Re CT's last post. Wasn't there some sort of archway further along Hucknall Rd past the golf course, near the railway overbridge,on the right just prior to Bestwood Rd ? I may be wrong, but no doubt someone will correct me.

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Can someone confirm whether the Wagon Works was Wigleys, or Rigleys. I've seen both spellings mentioned, but I thought it was Wigleys. There used to be a picture of an advertisement somewhere, but since the demise of P B , I can't trace it .

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That's it MI. Got the book, but just couldn't remember which one. 

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  • With regards to Marble arch there was three bridges along this stretch of Hucknall road , if I recall correctly they were all built similarly to Marble Arch . There was Marble Arch and then further along the next one was where Gala way now is and finally the last one was where Bestwood Park drive now is.
  • If you go on old-maps.co.uk  and look on the 1985/86 maps it shows clearly that they were built for access to farms when the leen valley railway was built.
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Sorry I made an error in my previous comment the second bridge is not Gala way but Top Valley way. The web site I referred to is a great site to  find out how different areas have changed over the last 150 years.

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Spot on Trogg..........then as the line turns up Bestwood road,just before the Village there was/is another one...............

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As I've stated in other topics, myself and a couple of friends used to cycle from FFGS at 4.15 to either Carrington Stn, or if the weather was good, we'd ride to Bulwell Common and the surrounding areas until the southbound Fast Fish had been. Various times have been mentioned, but I reckon on some days, there were two trains. The last being about 6.30. We'd then grudgingly cycle home and try and concentrate on some homework !

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 Cliff. Ton, The bridge on the last photo is on the GCR/GNR connecton which was built at the same time as the GCR main line on the viaduct. The bridges were iron on blue brick abutments not red brick arches.

 

I am a bit puzzled as I recall such a bridge on this line but I remember it as further towards Moor Bridge. Perhaps I mis remember.

 

Fly2, there were two fish trains about 20 minutes apart in the 1950's. My mates and I called them big fish and little fish, I am not sure where they came from (Grimsby or Hull) or where they went, they always had some fish vans behind the guardsvan. In those days big fish was usually hauled by a K3 2-6-0 and little fish by a B1 4-6-0, in latter years Britannia 4-6-2 appeared.

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Quite right MI. I assumed that the empties were returned in similar fashion, then making one complete train to Grimsby, 

However, I gather they were returned from various locations to Woodford. Then added to the next available fully fitted train heading northwards. 

 

BB, I believe one departed Grimsby, and the other from New Clee. I'll investigate when I've time to dig my relevant books out. 

Ive also seen BR Standard  Class 5's on them too. 

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I remember 2 fish trains in the early 1960s.  We used to run home from school to see the first, which as I recall ran south through Bulwell Common at  either 4:15 or 4:30. The later one was at about 6 or 6:30.. or 'after tea'...  Normally pulled by 'Brits' at that time, though other types appeared occasionally.

 

Cliff.  As far as I know the 'cut through' you have 'red arrowed' above is still there, though it no longer has the 'Bestwood Park Branch' over it running off the GC mainline.  I last used it a few years ago to walk through to the Railway Club ( which appears to be not yet built) and would be between the cut through and St Albans Rd, which is just about visible top right.

 

Marble Arch and the other arches mentioned above were on the other side of Bulwell Common.  That is, over to the left from your pic, and on the far side of Hucknall Rd.  The first was close to where I think Fly now lives..a couple of hundred yards nearer to Bulwell Common.  It cut under the Leen Valley line onto Andover Road Bestwood Estate. The next was just beyond Rigley's wagon works and when I was a kid just ran onto a track which we called 'Lover's Lane' and which accessed Top Valley.. or Topvalley Farm. It now provides access through the banking to  Top Valley Way.  I think it also provided access on the left up to Forest Farm.  The third cut under the Leen Valley line and was an access for, I think, Rise Farm.  It is now the main access to Rise Park.  Finally, As Benjamin points out, there was/is another arch.. 'round the corner on the right' on Bestwood Road.  That is.. on the right as you head to Bestwood Colliery.  As far as I can make out.. it provided access to Forge Farm.

 

Here's a current 'Google' version of each:

 

Marble Arch:  https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.994361,-1.177091,148m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Top Valley Way:  https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.003702,-1.18047,147m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Bestwood Park Drive West.: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0102077,-1.1845876,153m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Forge Farm: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0186939,-1.1820505,146m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

And the whole area: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0086485,-1.1806649,5175m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Thinking back to what a lovely area it was before the march of 'suburbia' conquered it, always makes me rather wistful.

 

Col

 

 

 

 

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Brilliantly put Col. Yes, the Brits were early 60's. Most I believe came from Stratford or Stewart's Lane.I attended FFGS from 56 - 62, so I was scurrying off to Carrington or Bulwell Common from say 58 onwards. I did see most of the Immingham allocation, but in my earliest visits, it was predominantly the superb K3's, B1's, and occasionally Standard 5's. Sometimes, there was a double header of two K3's, or a B1 coupled with a K3. 

God, I wish I still had all my notebooks, but other than one solitary 57 ABC, my mother binned them when I had the temerity to leave home! I've never forgiven her, and never will. 

Yes.... A lovely area in those days. 

I returned in a totally different capacity years later, as in March - September 68, I embarked on a fruitless career as a self employed ice cream salesman. I often parked outside the Deerstalker in order to cash up after a trying day. Crikey, how different things are now. 

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9 hours ago, DJ360 said:

Cliff.  As far as I know the 'cut through' you have 'red arrowed' above is still there, though it no longer has the 'Bestwood Park Branch' over it running off the GC mainline.  I last used it a few years ago to walk through to the Railway Club ( which appears to be not yet built) and would be between the cut through and St Albans Rd, which is just about visible top right.

 

It seems to still be there on Streetview, although these days that embankment is totally hidden by the growth of trees and bushes.

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Thanks Fly.

I was never very 'up' on the workings of the system.  I could distinguish such things as 8F 9F, 'Austerity', V2, Brit, A4 and the other 'glamorous' types, but the assorted other 'B/J/K/O etc., types were beyond my comprehension.

I was a pretty regular visitor to the Deerstalker in 1968 so will probably have seen your Ice Cream van.. :)  But even by '68 the best was over.  By then the two fields opposite Southglade Road had been 'converted' from a meadow in a hollow, surrounded by hawthorn hedges and oak trees, into a rubble covered mound over which we could no longer see easily across to Bulwell or catch the amazing sunsets I recall from my childhood.

Progress eh?  :(

 

Col

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Cliff, I think that the growth of trees etc., is the major change affecting the apearance of the whole area around Bulwell Common and especially its perimiters.  I've mentioned before I think that when I was small it was classic 'heathland', featuring coarse grass and Gorse, with very few trees and also exposed sandstone and so on.  I Imagine it was like that due to earlier grazing by sheep or somesuch and that this is why it was distinguished from farmland by the title 'common'.   The natural progression AIUI would be for Birch Scrub to invade and if this wasn't kept down by grazing it would over time lead to the replacement of Birch by Beech, Oak etc.  Since the Golf course existed from around 1900 or a little before, I assume that originally young trees were kept down by the course managers, but at some point in the last 30-50 years, a conscious decision to let trees grow (or maybe even plant trees) has been taken.

 

This is interesting:  http://www.nottsgolfunion.com/history_and_mission

 

Col

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I sold Mr Softee ice cream Col, and there was never a dull moment on Bestwood Estate even then.

See my posts in the Ice Cream Sellers topic.

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