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Hello everyone,

I am new here, my name is Simon Gledhill and I am very involved at St.Martin's church in Bilborough - but the most relevant here is that I am a member of the Hidden Treasures Project Team. Thanks to the generous support of the Heritage Lottery Fund the medieval part of the church has undergone a fantastic restoration during the past year. Many of you clearly know about that given the comments in this thread.

We are now embarking on a 2 year activity plan to put the church back into the heart of the local community to involve people to discover the hidden treasures within themselves and to make their mark - just as many generations before them have done.

Two things that we are doing that may be of interest to people here are:

1. We are setting up a local history group and we would love to have new members for that; and

2. We are hoping to establish a 'Friends of St. Martin's' group to bring together people who can support and sustain the links into the community for years to come.

We are also recruiting volunteers to help with the many and varied activities that will be happening. Hilary Wheat is the Project Manager and Natasha Scullion is our Volunteer & Activities Co-ordinator and you can contact them on our website www.stmartinsbilborough.org.uk. We also have a Facebook page, just search for St Martins Bilborough. Or you can contact me by email at simon@stmartinsbilborough.org.uk.

We would love to hear from you!

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Good morning, Simon. I just want to wish you, and all the other people involved with the church, all the best for the future. We are members of a Baptist church in a village in Cambridgeshire and, like you, would love to see this as the heart of the community (along with the other denominations of course). I'm all for finding the hidden talents and treasures within people and introducing them to the greatest treasure of all!

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  • 1 year later...

For anyone with roots in Bilborough, or indeed anyone who may be interested, There is a very lively local history society which meets in St. Martin of Tours church every 2nd Wednesday evening of the month and every 4th Wednesday afternoon of the month. The Afternoon meetings are mostly open discussions and at present we are taking one road per meeting and evoking memories. We have already done Strelley Road, Wigman Road, Bracebridge Drive and last month did the industrial units on Glaisdale Drive. The next afternoon meeting is on 26th April from 2:30pm until 4:30pm. We will be remembering the Denewood Crescent area from the fifties and sixties. The evening meetings are usually talks which incur a small charge - 2 pounds or a pound for concessions. We have one on 12th April which is Coal Mining in the Leen Valley, by Dave Amos. It is from 7:30pm until 9:30pm.

      We have acquired a huge archive which is at present being sorted by members. We also have the chance of acquiring the nearby farmhouse from the local authority which can be used for events etc.

      We also have various activities like the Saturday local history day which we displayed various archive to the local public, visits to the central library and many other events.

       Much of this is centered around the St. Martin's hidden treasures project which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage funds. From this we were able to restore the church, install heating and bring back to life the Evelyn Gibbs murals.  We are open each Friday and Saturday to visitors who wish to see the Evelyn Gibbs Murals and hear the history of the church. There is also opportunity to become one of the Friends of St. Martin's Church.  There is so much happening and members can be involved in as much or as little as they want.

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  • 3 months later...

There is an amazing Flower Show next weekend (14th, 15th and 16th July) at St. Martin's. Unfortunately the Lottery Heritage funding comes to an end at the end of this month. However, we have formed a Friends group and hope to continue with many of the events surrounding Bilborough Village.

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Hi Bilbraborn,

A relative new member who has just read some old posts regarding Bilborough

which brought back many wonderful memories of my 30 years living there.

I understand from some of those posts that you live & were born in the prefabs on Wigman.

Which end of Wigman were/are you. They start at Glaisdale Drive & finish at Bracebridge although many are located in the alley ways off Wigman but still addressed as Wigman Rd.

Presumably you went to Glenbrook & Glaisdale schools.

The story the St Martins church restoration is interesting reading.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi jopip.      I was actually born at 135 Wigman Road but we moved to one of the BISF houses between Graylands Rd and Glaisdale Drive. I left there in 1969 to get married. Meanwhile, my parents bought the house. When my dad died in 2013, I inherited the house so I am back here.  I went to Glenbrook Infant and Junior Schools but at the age of 11 I attended Bilborough Grammar School.

St. Martin of Tours Church in Bilborough Village was restored by a grant from the Lottery Heritage fund. A lot of work has been done including the beautiful murals which were painted on the chancel wall just after the war. We have had a lot of activities lately. The funding ends in August and we have formed a group called 'The Friends of St. Martin's' to keep things moving and to raise funds for the maintenance of the church. We will be doing outings, evening talks, local history displays etc so we will be kept quite busy.

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  • 3 years later...

I used to go the St Martins every Sunday. I was also an alter boy! The main reason for attending church was so that I could go to the youth club held in the church hall on a Saturday night. This was in the early to mid 60's. Names I remember? Here goes, Lesley Taylor, Brenda Thompson, Mick Chambers (my best mate), Mick Wright, John Hooper, Keith Jewsbury, Lollipop(!), Heather? , Diane?, Robert?, Jane Marson, Mick Wilkinson, Toni Bakewell. I also remember Farther Lavender, Brother Michael, Farther Shewring and Farther Wilkinson.

I would be interested in the local history group too if it continues after this pandemic.

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I can vaguely remember a Brenda Thompson from Glenbrook Girls Junior. Also knew a Chambers family with a lad called Mick but they lived on Huxley Close  for a while before they moved to Bulwell I think. There was also a Tommy, Beryl, Hilda and Margaret in the family. There was an older brother but can’t remember his name and a younger brother who was called Terrence I think. 
 

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  • 1 year later...

Does anyone, by any chance, have any pictures of the Church Hall of St Martin's next to Forge Cottage before it was demolished and incorporated in to the housing estate built there? I used to go to the Brownies there and the Guides for a short time, Dad used to be in the Drama Group and build the sets and ran the annual Christmas Bazaar a couple of times.

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On 4/1/2017 at 3:44 PM, Bilbraborn said:

For anyone with roots in Bilborough, or indeed anyone who may be interested, There is a very lively local history society which meets in St. Martin of Tours church every 2nd Wednesday evening of the month and every 4th Wednesday afternoon of the month. The Afternoon meetings are mostly open discussions and at present we are taking one road per meeting and evoking memories. We have already done Strelley Road, Wigman Road, Bracebridge Drive and last month did the industrial units on Glaisdale Drive. The next afternoon meeting is on 26th April from 2:30pm until 4:30pm. We will be remembering the Denewood Crescent area from the fifties and sixties. The evening meetings are usually talks which incur a small charge - 2 pounds or a pound for concessions. We have one on 12th April which is Coal Mining in the Leen Valley, by Dave Amos. It is from 7:30pm until 9:30pm.

      We have acquired a huge archive which is at present being sorted by members. We also have the chance of acquiring the nearby farmhouse from the local authority which can be used for events etc.

      We also have various activities like the Saturday local history day which we displayed various archive to the local public, visits to the central library and many other events.

       Much of this is centered around the St. Martin's hidden treasures project which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage funds. From this we were able to restore the church, install heating and bring back to life the Evelyn Gibbs murals.  We are open each Friday and Saturday to visitors who wish to see the Evelyn Gibbs Murals and hear the history of the church. There is also opportunity to become one of the Friends of St. Martin's Church.  There is so much happening and members can be involved in as much or as little as they want.

You mention Denewood crescent , i lived there in the 70,s , the top end near strelley rd ? I attend a school on the same crescent , but vague to what it was called ,

I had a good mate called Peter foster in broxtowe , he had a sister jackie or jaqui Foster i fancied her like mad,

At school there was a big fat lad who want to fight little scrawny me ( brave kid ! ) i alway remember his name Timothy  large hence the name fat lad , i attended there when Chelsea and Leeds united were in the cup final .

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