Noggin Lane (Bramcote Lane) and The Tottle Brook


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I understand the now Bramcote Lane was originally called Noggin Lane and went from the now Admiral Rodney towards the old burial ground where it stopped (about the entry to Parkside)

Three questions

1. Why was it called Noggin Lane?

2 Was Tottle Brook (now seen besides the Hemlock Stone Pub) the only small stream between Noggin Lane and the Bramcote Hills? Old maps only appear to show Tottle Brook but I have heard it said there were others

3. Is the Riding School now seen at Toton on the road to Long Eaton the same Riding School that was once seen near the Tottle Brook on route to Sandy Lane?

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Tottle Brook ran through the gardens of some of the houses on the south side of Wollaton Vale. I knew this as I once delivered milk up there. Except number 3. In the dark I took a short cut across the front lawn and promptly fell in the Brook. For some reason it went through the front garden. Serves me right for being lazy.

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Tottle brook runs at the bottom of our garden, it then goes underground and comes out on Bramcote lane, just past the Hemlock stone pub. They did a lot of work making the underground culvert on Bramcote lane bigger, a few years ago as it was prone to flooding.

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Comes out from under the footpath at the end of Yalding Drive Wollaton. When we were kids it actually emerged from under the canal which was once there. I believe it goes behind the houses on the north side of Fernwood Crescent then goes underground to get under Wollaton Vale. Then as Taxi Ray says then down the backs of the big houses on the south side of Wollaton Vale.

Why the pub on Glaisdale Drive was once called the Tottle Brook I have no idea. The stream which flows near it (I think the building is now called the Ghurka Kitchen) could not possibly be the Tottle Brook as this disappears under the railway and comes out into Martin's Pond at Wollaton, but further down from Fernwood estate.

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I thought that the stream at the rear of The Gurka Kitchen is Bilborough Brook which I thought found its way into Martin's Pond.

Apparantly Tottle Brook was quite steep sided in places and I understand that up near Balloon Woods you could actually see the coal seam in its banks .

As you will know it could flood after heavy rain which confirms that it could have flown through steep sided banks, especially near The Hemlockstone Public House.

Does anyone know where the actual source of the Brook is?

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Just a thought perhaps answering my own question could Noggin Lane derive its name from delivery of Ale (a Noggin is a 17th century word for a quarter of a pint of ale )?

Delivery to the now Admiral Rodney Pub !

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Also 'To use your noggin' meant using your head and thinking how to do something.

To 'Watch your noggin' usually meant to watch your head and be careful not to bump into low doorways etc.

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It ran adjacent to my house when I lived in the last house on Woodbank Dr.

I built the bank up and made a nice path alongside thereby utilising my land and made it look really nice.

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Tottle Brook is one of the streams which disappears under Bilborough Road from near Strelley. One of them is also the one near Ghurka Kitchen which I mentioned. Obviously they must have culverted the lot when they built the houses just after the war.

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I remember when my father bought the land and planned to build the petrol station next to the Hemlockstone Pub back in 62. The planned rear wall along the back of the garage, belonging to a row of lock up garages extending the length of the block, was across the course of the Tottle Brook. Despite numerous objections, the Council approved the plans and a little bit more of the Brook disappeared underground.

Of course, back then there was no buildings, houses or similar to the west of our garage; just open fields right up to the old Nottingham Canal. In fact, the main Wollaton Vale stopped at Arleston Drive and the end served as bus terminus. The lesser Wollaton Vale serviced the estate incorporating Fernwood Crescent etc to the west of Arleston Drive.

Tottle Brook was still open and visible in the field to the west of our garage - a bit different to what I can see on Google these days! It would appear that a lot more of the Brook has disappeared under the ground in the following years.

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Tottle Brook starts as two tributaries at Springwood Farm then runs in a slight depression down to Bilborough Road where it is joined by Cockington Road. The plot of land at this point was originally occupied by one of the Barton family who lived in a now demolished brick cottage on the site, there were also two ancient Barton buses at the back of the land which were used as storage sheds. When the property became vacant, the vandals moved in, the cottage was trashed and the buses were flattened to the ground by constant jumping on their roofs causing them to collapse, there doesn't appear to be any trace of anything on the site now, I'd be interested to know who owns it and why it hasn't been built on. There was/is a brick header wall on Bilborough Road where the stream vanished underground in the direction of Cockington Road, the boundary is too overgrown for me to make it out on Google Street View. The brook runs down the length of Cockington road to Trowell Road, presumably taking all the surface water, and worse, from the estates either side. I recall a small area of free land at the Trowell Road junction which was kept tidy for many years and I'm sure the brook ran through it. Running under Trowell Road the stream then flows under the twitchell connecting to Hillbeck Crescent, originally it flowed openly along the backs of the houses on the east side of Park Crescent, my old neighbours along there remembered it well, their gardens were always liable to flood even after it had been put into a culvert. It's easy to follow to the railway line after that, no houses are built directly over it, it goes between them, a garage/parking area is conveniently positioned over the top in the centre of Hillbeck Crescent then it exits under a drive to the railway embankment. Over the other side of the railway, now Yardings Drive, was a wood and a secluded boarding kennels for dogs between the railway and the canal reached by a track off the 'Black Path' from Balloon Wood. This place was completely demolished in the early 60's, the kennels themselves were, surprisingly, built of reinforced concrete reminiscent of air raid shelters, they took some knocking down. The rubble was bulldozed into the canal at this point so we could access the other side where the brook emerged in a huge retaining wall which had an access tunnel over the top of it leading a fair way underground, probably right under the canal. If you look at a view of Yardings Drive, the route of the brook goes between the houses and passes under a large turning head before eventually emerging at the back of Fernwood Crescent. That's my bit of Tottle Brook recalled, it never went anywhere near Balloon Wood and I don't recall any exposed coal seams with a stream running through it, the only thing I can think of is the exposed coal working at the old Jacksons Farm running from the railway near the distant signal, down to a small wharf on the canal which was always flooded, roughly between what is now Wharfedale and Nidderdale, I hope they piled the foundations deeply on those houses.

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would I be correct in believing Roger Moore lived in Cow Lane Bramcote? i seemed to have heard it from someone.

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Thanks Giga Nottsalgia, for your very detailed Tottle Brook explanation. I will take a walk along Cockington Road to see what I can find (if anything!). I once worked (in 1968/69) for the Nottm Council as a gardener for 6 weeks each year (mainly cutting privit hedges).

The depot hut was on the right hand side near to the junction with Trowell Road

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I actually lived in one of those flats on Nidderdale when they were first built and our bit was right over the site of the canal. And Pete, my dad was Clerk of Works on the site and the whole estate was well supported because apart from the canal, there were pit shafts.

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I actually lived in one of those flats on Nidderdale when they were first built and our bit was right over the site of the canal. And Pete, my dad was Clerk of Works on the site and the whole estate was well supported because apart from the canal, there were pit shafts.

Yes, apart from the Jackson's open drift mine there was a huge bell pit mound with a crater in the centre just to the west of it. It must have been ancient as there was a huge tree growing on top of the bank, I remember it well as I attempted to climb it once, rather foolishly wearing short trousers. I slithered all the way down the main trunk while trying to cling on to it, taking the skin off my legs and shredding my trousers, as you well know, the worst part was trying to come up with a good story before you had to go home and face your mother.

Incidentally, the crater was used as our main defensive position during the so called Firbeck/Fernwood Estate Wars, we staked it out with barbed wire and flew our Swastika flag from the tree.

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would I be correct in believing Roger Moore lived in Cow Lane Bramcote? i seemed to have heard it from someone.

Is there a tenuous suggestion here that 007 may have gone tadpoling in Tottle Brook, The Man with the Golden Jam Jar?

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