Wollaton Vale -old railway bridge


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I was walking along the site of the Old Nottingham Canal yesterday when I came to the underpass on Wollaton Vale. Rather than take the underpass I took a footpath towards Balloon Woods (on the south side of the road) and this passed over a brick rail bridge adjacent to the concrete Vale Bridge that was built about 30 odd years ago.

Does anyone know when the original bridge was built and did it take anything other than footfall? Strange I had never come across this bridge before !!

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Bloomin' eck, have you just moved into the area?

Not so long ago I did a thing on here about it, I don't know where you'd find it, no doubt a discourse between myself and Bilbraborn, there are some of my photo's showing the Wollaton Vale bridge being built on that thread too.

I'm doing this on my I-Phone which is a pain, I'll put up some pics when I can get on to my PC, briefly it was known as 'Black Path Bridge' situated on a bridle path from Balloon Woods crossroads, along the back of Firbeck School (traces still remain). This unmade road served Jacksons House and open drift mine, the kennels and, over a hump back canal bridge to the farm, the railway bridge was the centre of all things when we were kids in the 50's and 60's, I recall it being bridge number 14, the damaged MR plate always refused to come off, so I obtained another from the bridge next to the Kimberley Brewery, no 14, that's in my shed along with other treasures.

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Is that the one your mates built the snowman on?

When I lived at Nidderdale (the road not the village) I used the bridge regularly to get to the caravan shop at Balloon Woods or the Gondola pub.

I think Pete my earliest times of being near that bridge were mostly when I was hanging around with you.

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I thought you guys might respond and give me some knowledgeable information. I cant believe it myself but I have lived in the area since 1971 and never come across this bridge before!! (observation powers nil! ).

I assume that between this and the bridge on Moor Lane was the approx. site of the Wollaton Brickworks that once existed, which suggests that there were clay deposits close by.

I have been fascinated by many of your previous posts showing just how industrialised the area was . Economic history has always been a favoured topic of mine and this area has it in bucket fulls.

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Sorry to interrupt your topic here Graham! [im staying just a few hundreds yards away from said bridge so I was hoping a 'local' might be able to help me with a question? [thanks in advance :) ] Do you know the history of that lovely white washed cottage behind the Hemlock pub on Bramcote lane? I have to confess to being quite fascinated by it? Ive been staying locally for just over a year now and have allowed Wollaton and Bramcote to get completely under my skin. After finding my namesake Mary Marlow buried in the St Leonards churchyard Ive been snapping pics and pouring over old maps and history books but cant find the cottage mentioned? Hope you dont mind my asking? [wasnt quite sure where to properly put my question? sorry.]

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It was the Old School House and owned by the Straw family up yo the 60's.

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That map shows you the course of Tottle Brook too and the cottages on the Barton property.

The Cockington Road area was known as Gutter Slang, amazing, where did that come from. Firbeck Estate was Dickeys Plantation, I wonder who he was.

Graham, if I get chance tomorrow afternoon I'll try and find some of our previous threads on the topic via my PC. The clay pits for the brickworks were situated across the railway via a level crossing and a steel bridge ( tin bridge we called it ), note the tramway running to it, we always suspected the existance of one, I published some pictures of both crossing and bridge on here last year. We called the clay pit 'Jacko's Oller' a very strange landscape and an ideal play area for us kids, apart from the lurking paedophiles. I can only remember the brickworks building as a pile of rubble and my memories of the area go back to the mid 50's.

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Is that the one your mates built the snowman on?

When I lived at Nidderdale (the road not the village) I used the bridge regularly to get to the caravan shop at Balloon Woods or the Gondola pub.

I think Pete my earliest times of being near that bridge were mostly when I was hanging around with you.

The snowman was built on that very bridge parapet by myself, the Withey Twins, Ian Hutchings and Mark Miller. It wasn't very big and was intended to land in the tender of the 4F on the midday, Nottingham bound pick up goods usually manned by the same nutty footplate crew who looked out for us to spray us with hot water via a hose from the engine, it was a good game!!

That day the freight didn't turn up, we waited and waited until the 12:30 dmu from Sheffield came along, the snowman somehow fell off the parapet and landed on it's roof with a big thump. The dmu started to stop, we legged it back to Firbeck rec and hid in the toilets giggling uncontrollably.

I don't think that you and I ever hung out on black path bridge or as us kids simply called it 'The Train Bridge', our meeting place for whichever adventure we would plan for the day. In those days we'd arrive pretty early, usually in time for the first trains of the day, wasn't the world a wonderful place in those days, perfect to create your own adventures, no distractions from early morning TV or mobile bloody phones. Right from the word go you and I were off on us bikes, I think the first expedition we made together was to cycle down to Radford Colliery sidings to see Flying Scotsman come through from the Mansfield direction one Saturday morning.

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Thanks to all, especially Pete .That map is VERY interesting and helps with a previous thread about the Tottle Brook and Moor Lane Cut through.

The map alludes to a tramway at the Clay Pit which was adjacent to the brickworks. Could it have crossed the Moor Lane Bridge? A bridge must also have been used for coal transportation to the canal and before the canal to The Trent, continuation being down Moor Lane

All this adds up to me thinking that the Moor Lane cutting was indeed originally made for horses and carts (with or without a tramway added) and a direct link to mills at Beeston and onwards to the Trent, providing a cutting through the Bramcote Hills sandstone. I cannot see any other logical explanation.

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Also at the back of our council estate in Southampton, there was a disused quarry where we used to have our gang dens and have pitched battles with rivals (bricks, stones, bows and arrows etc).

Often we fought but as mates we looked after each other. Guess it was no different here !

We were all warned about strange men frequenting the overgrown quarry ( paedos were not a known word in the 50s ) but the lure of battle and collecting newts overcame that fear. In those days our parents encouraged us to get out all day and learn how to look after yourself. It certainly helped if anyone tried to bully you as you grew up! If you didn't come home not needing a bath they thought there was something wrong with you.

We used to climb through all sorts of tunnels , sewers and streams. You never asked what floated in them!!

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Noooo, the tramway ran through the clay pit, you could make out it's route as the levels of the pit were all over the place. It then ran under the railway via 'tin bridge' straight into the brickworks, I'll try to dig out those pics tomorrow, given my surveying/architectural previous life I could probably draw up a topographical map of the clay pit, it's features are etched in my memory, even the types and positions of trees.

By the way, we reffered to the paedos as 'Omos', we weren't that scared of them as we trained our Border Colly pal 'Chips' to attack them, he bloody did too, when one tried to attack us with a hammer old Chips nearly tore his wrist off, that taught him,never saw that one again.

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The name "Tottle brook" suddenly unearthed childhood memories, I was born in Lenton Abbey council estate and spent the first 6 years of my life playing around the area locally.

Remember hunting for frogs in the Tottle brook, and climbing over a tin fence to get to the lakes which must have been in the Wollaton hall grounds.

We called it "over the tins" when we were heading there, we were gruesome buggers because we used a garden can with a 6" nail with the head sawn off, tied in the cane end to make a rather nasty spear !

Also remember my brother and his mates, 6 years older than me, making some sort of burner thing out of a baked bean tin with holes in the bottom like a mini brazier. They used a bit of twisted fence wire to make a handle so you didn't burn yourself while holding it and running to get the air flowing through it to get the twigs and sicks to burn.

They used to run around with these things issuing sparks and smoke, god knows why ? but it was fun at the time watching them.

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On the 1901 map the terms Union and RD By and Union and UD By are shown. Looks like these are byways.

Has anyone any idea what the "Union and RD" and "Union and UD" stand for?

.........................or they could be boundaries not byways.

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Graham, I went on my PC when I got home from work and the bloody thing went crazy, it had something to do with an update message from Apple. Just before it occurred I tracked down some interesting maps and photos on the topic I'd not seen before. I've uploaded these but can't get them on Photobucket, in the end I've had to turn off the PC with the switch!! I've things to do now, I'll get back on it tomorrow, meanwhile,try pages 10 and 11 on 'Growing up in Bilborough', http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11421&hl I published some of my pics on there that are self explanatory.

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Thanks for the pictures of "Black Path Bridge". We had friends in the who moved into one of these houses just after they were built and we thought they looked rather strange at the time. Lego Land springs to mind as people have said.

I wonder if this bridge could have been built using bricks from the Wollaton Brick Works?

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I know what you mean Pete but I remember us cycling over that bridge and down the cart track to Where Wollaton Vale and Arleston Drive met. I remember the Gypsies on that cart track. Modern (!?) caravans one side and trad caravans on the other. Later when I lived on the Nidderdale Estate, we moved from the 2 bed flat on Nidderdale to a 3 bed house on Airedale Walk when our second child was born. My eldest was about four in 1976 and enjoyed wandering around the local area with his Dad. We used to walk up to Moor Lane and explore the bit of land between the canal and Izzards Roses. And it was obvious some kind of trackwork had been there sometime in the past. We even built a rockery back home out of old sandstone from the destroyed canal bridge.

I remember one sunny evening we walked down Moor Lane, through Bramcote Hills Park and over Stapleford Hill, across to the site of Trowell Moor Colliery and back along the canal. No mean feat for a 4 year old at the end of a sunny day. I was up next morning at 3AM for work. But he turned round and said - 'Daddy, can we do it again". That was 38 years ago and he still loves going for walks with his Dad (and also my grand daughter).

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Further to my post about Bramcote Lane formerly being called Noggin Lane (or Noggy Lane) I have noticed, from the above mentioned 1901, that on the canal on the way towards the now Trowell Garden Centre there is a Noggin's Nook.

Who was Noggin?

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Here's a picture of 'Black Path Bridge' taken from Wollaton Vale bridge looking west, unfortunately it's fairly modern:-

blackpathbrg.jpg

If you look down on the left hand abutment you'll see the number 14, this isn't the original MR cast iron plate, that vanished years ago. The pipe running across the railway wasn't there in our day, nor was all that ducting that you can see running along the railway, nor was that disgusting graffiti. When it rained we used to shelter under the left hand arch, in those days there was no security fencing, either side of where the camera was positioned was all hawthorn hedges, the other side of the bridge was post and wire which wouldn't keep anything off the track, especially small boys. Also there were no trees and shrubs at the side of the track, unlike today. Every summer a gang used to come along the embankments and burn off the grass to keep foliage down, apart from that there would often be fires caused by burning cinders emitted from steam loco's, I recall my hair catching fire at Trowell Junction when 'Alberta' opened up to attack the climb up to the bridge. Just to the left of the bridge was a track leading to Jackson's Farm, if you stood on that spot you had a view all the way down to the site of Trowell Moor Colliery sidings, we would all stand there to see what was coming and identify the class, 'Brits' were easy because of the smoke deflectors, or could it be a 9F??

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I found several pictures on Google Images taken by the father of someone called Dave L, who seems to be the same age as me and left the area in 1965, could we have known each other?

This picture I've published before, taken in 1952, it shows the brickwork's crossing in the foreground ( what happened to those signs?) with the 'tin bridge' immediately behind, under which traversed the tramway. Where the distant signal stands you can see the orchard behind it where Jackson's Farmhouse stood, the clay pit was to the left of the track, you can see the 'Black Path Bridge' in the background. The distant signal covered the stop signal for Trowell Moor Colliery sidings, it was permanently 'pegged', we used to jump up and down on the cable to make the arm bounce up and down, if you think about it, it was a long way from there to Wollaton Colliery signal box, note the cable in the foreground stretching even further down to TM colliery, it was carried under the track at the distant via a pulley, though thinking about it, this may have been the distant to cover Wollaton Colliery sidings:-

brkyd1.jpg

Taken from what appears to be the east side of the canal bridge, this picture shows 'Jube' 45659 Drake, shedded at the time at Leeds Holbeck I believe, passing under Moor Lane bridge, you can see the distant signal in the background, an interesting selection of rolling stock on show:-

jubemorlane.jpg

Another view, this time taken from near Coventry Lane bridge with the canal and Moor Lane bridges in the background, all views looking east:-

brkyd2.jpg

Finally, a mystery shot, is this taken at the overbridge into Trowell Moor Colliery, I'm not sure, the caption says Wollaton, but where, any suggestions:-

trwlmoorcoll.jpg

I think that this bridge, which is still there linking to the canal, is the one into the colliery, on the other side of the bridge was a quarry, you can still see the remains of it today, with an old building, possibly a platelayers hut, which I can just make out in the background, again this still exists.

In the far background can be seen a factory, was this the old Leaderflush door company at Trowell. Next to it is a home signal which I presume covered Trowell junction and I suspect would have been worked from the signal box there. The signal behind the loco looks like a home, I thought it may have been a distant covering Wollaton Colliery sidings, about two miles away.

This great find shows the layout of Trowell Moor Colliery:-

Trowell_Map2.jpg

Where it says Nottingham Canal, track south from the 'M', a track is marked which led to the bridge on the previous photo, you can also see the factory on Stapleford Road. The loco is heading east, shown by the track curvature and the obvious position of the sun. I see 'SB' or signal box marked near that point, I didn't know there was one, I assumed there was just a ground frame, perhaps one of the lever plates I have from Wollaton Colliery Signal Box may say more, or did you have that one away Bilbraborn.

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Another interesting map I found was this one:-

TrowellMoormap_1.jpg

Next to where the Wollaton Brickyard is marked on later maps is 'Engine Pit Colliery', which seems to be next to a canal basin linked by a tramway, or 'Tram Road', up to Balloon Wood crossroads, then up what is still a track to Springwood farm, to another 'Trowell Moor Colliery', not the same one described in the previous posting. I don't know what the date of this map is, but it has some fascinating details on there, the mine towards Trowell as shown on the previous map, doesn't exist for a start. Note the 'Tram Road' to Strelley Coal Wharf, during the winter when the fields had been ploughed and hoed, you could see the remains of this from the top of our school, BGS, it was a raised square area, black with coal dust, this is the first time I've seen confirmation of it on a map. I also note the Midland Mainline through Trowell but no connection across to Radford junction.

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