Temple Frolics

[PeverilPeril 3,320]

Does anyone remember the gigs held on the Nuthall Temple site late 50's? I always think back to those days when passing J26 on the M1. All I can remember about the place was a huge ruin with big stone columns and a nearby lake.

Inebriated ghosts raving under the North bound carriageway.....

[richonmc1 8]

There used to be a Jazz Festival held at the side of the big lake but not near the temple ruins. It was in the grounds of a bungalow owned by a Mr Ives and was run by the Young Conservatives. We had local live bands.

Is that any help?

[PeverilPeril 3,320]

#2 that's awakened memories, thank you. Yes indeed - local jazz festival by the lake with the young conservatives (not that I was one LOL). Memories of the ruin were from earlier.

[darkazana 1,736]

My memories of Mr Ives garden are the garden parties by the lake. I was a member of the Betty Rose School of Dance then and we used to perform at the garden party (I still have my "Red Red Robin" costume) Helen Ives (daughter of the house) was also a member of the dance school.

Another little anecdote concerning Temple Lake was our tortoise was found there in the woods one spring after going for a walk about just before hibernating time! He was under some leaf mould.He had possibly had to cross the M1 to get to where he was found (We lived in Watnall). Due to his fondness of going AWOL he had our phone number on his back, and was returned on several occasions usually from the grounds of a pub, and once having been run over by a lorry into soft mud at the Moorgreen Show!

[... 1,411]

I thought you put your number on his back as a challenge for him to be picked up ,visions of a tortoise looking in the wrong direction.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

'Temple Frolics' that bought back some memories for me. Solomon's Temple in Buxton was the equivalent of lovers lane. Lots of frolics up that lonely spot.

[katyjay 5,094]

Re #4, I had a tortoise that also wandered, dad wrote 'running in, please pass' on his back.

[firbeck 860]

In the late 50's, my pal, who lived next door but one, had an aunt who lived in Nuthall in a bungalow on Nottingham Road (one of those near the M1 bridge now).

Sometimes during the school holidays, my mother would see us on to the Bartons bus at Balloon Woods crossroads, she'd have a word with the conductor who'd look after us to the bottom of Bells Hill as we were only about 7 or 8 years old. His aunt would meet us at the bus stop and we'd walk all the way up to Nuthall, I don't know how any of this was arranged as nobody we knew had a car or telephone in those days!

Her back garden backed on to the old Temple estate, divided off by a barbed wire fence, I'm sure the fields were full of cattle in those days. The remains of the Temple could be seen in the distance and we'd climb over the fence and go up there. Reading some of the accounts just now, the ruins were said to be substantial and had to be dynamited to clear them prior to constructing the M1. As far as I can remember, all that remained was a great big pile of old brickwork and bits of stone masonry with a few timber joists sticking out, I don't recall any recognisable building shapes at all. I'm sure I've seen a photo of this big heap somewhere in the past, but I can't track it down on Google Images, it may well have been at an exhibition at the V & A that I went to many years ago called 'The Destruction of the English Country House', I have the book somewhere but can't find the bloomin' thing. I recall that the demolition of what was only one of four houses built in Britain in the style of Palladio's Villa Capra in Vicenza was considered a sacrilege even at the time, certainly this exhibition made a thing about it, the other one lost was Foots Cray Place, which also burnt down, but not deliberately. I gather that the stone Sphinxes from the entrance decorate a small country house at Northrepps in Norfolk, I must have passed it many times but never knew until the other day.

Whatever happened to the ornate plasterwork, I don't know, it was supposed to have been put in the basement in sections at either Nottingham Castle or Wollaton Hall, anyone know?

[katyjay 5,094]

Firbeck, was it Bells Lane, instead of Bells Hill? You could walk from there to Nuthall. The corporation bus number 55 would come from Bulwell up Bells Lane to Bilborough.

[firbeck 860]

Sorry, it was Bells Lane, Bells Hill was where I worked for many years in Bishops Stortford!

We used to catch the Barton bus that ran from Beeston to Bulwell, it was always an ancient double decker, sometimes it was a low bridge bus with the side corridor. We also used to catch it to visit an elderly couple who lived in a pre-fab our side of Bulwell, he was a retired engine driver, an old friend of my grandma's.

The green Corporation bus was I believe number 16, that too was always an ancient double decker, it used to terminate at Balloon Woods, turning round in the last crescent before the cross roads where it would wait for business.

We also used to catch the Barton bus to Chilwell where the same friends grandma lived, same procedure, mother would put us on the bus, grannie would meet us the other end.

I'm struggling today, I'm at work and the main network is down, as our hire centre is more or less in the boiler room the tanks, pipework and fact we are in the basement messes up the 4G on my phone.

[NannyO 4]

My memories of Mr Ives garden are the garden parties by the lake. I was a member of the Betty Rose School of Dance then and we used to perform at the garden party (I still have my "Red Red Robin" costume) Helen Ives (daughter of the house) was also a member of the dance school.

I remember being a member of that dance school in the early 1960s. My mum learned to dance with Betty Rose during the war so it was a bit of a legacy. We moved away in 1963 and I missed out on dancing to "Summer Holiday" by Cliff Richard which was supposed to have been performed at one of these garden parties.