Wollaton Vale -old railway bridge


Recommended Posts

My response has just bombed so here goes again.

Many thanks for the detailed articles posted above and great photos.! Once this wretched wind drops I will take a camera to this area and try to align with the track and locomotives and Black Path Bridge.

You have said much in recent postings about tramways in the area. I will now take a detailed look at as many maps as I can and see if I can get some sort of timescale to them.

The first wodden railway in the world was on Old Coach Road Wollaton so its not surprising that Willoughby and business partners would want to extend tramways in the mines and pits that they owned.

Ah the age of steam takes me back to the good old days when I was an Ian Allen addict. I still have the book somewhere. My main time was 57 to 63 when the wretched Breeching cuts were enacted.

BTW thanks for the point about St Leonard's Riding School. My wife thought they had moved to Toton butas you say it was a brother.

Now to get the maps studied!

Link to post
Share on other sites

If Noggin the Nog came from the Norselands who was Nogbad the Bad?

The Sheriff of Nottingham?

Link to post
Share on other sites

"Britain from above" has a very clear photo of the Leader flush Factory at Trowell . I don't know how to copy this but it might be copyrite protected.I think its about 1946.

What do you think ? I think that the last steam train photo is the rail bridge which is on the lane to the Trowell Garden Centre which was built on the canal. I think the picture is taken from the track east of the bridge looking west . The photo is probably taken from the site of the Trowell Colliery.

Anyone like to comment?

Link to post
Share on other sites

The engine Pit Colliery is very interesting. I spent a lot of time in the local studies library finding out about mining in the Bilborough/Wollaton/Strelley areas. That mine is down as the first Willoughby coal mine in the modern sense. If you ever read the book Narrow Marsh, there is mention of it. When that pit closed and the Grove Estates 'Wollaton Colliery' opened, the site of the old mine became a brick works.

A small tale, Pete, about Wollaton Colliery Sidings signal box. Like you and your cronies, we also got up to some school kid pranks on Old Coach Road. This included constantly upsetting the signalman at Wollaton Colliery Sidings. This was all in the late fifties and early sixties. Put the clock forward to the early 80s. Yours truly is a passenger shunter at Nottingham Carriage Sidings with a very severe type of station chief in charge of the railway at Nottingham. His name slips my memory right now, but I remember him doing his nightly patrol around the sidings then coming in the ops cabin for a cuppa. I got chatting to him one night and it turns out he was one of the signalmen at Wollaton during the fifties and sixties. Like a pratt I told him I used to play on Old Coach Road at that time. ' I hope you weren't one of the little (expletive deleted) who used to fire rockets at us' He growled. 'Nooooo' I said. Good job I'm not Pinnochio.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Strange you should mention "Narrow Marsh"! I am half way through reading that now.

If you register with "Britain from Above" you can use the site's zoom. It enables you to get a very detailed look at the Nottingham Canal through to Trowell., using various photos. There are several ref The Leaderflush Door Factory and looking east clearly shows the Trowell Colliery, Canal, Bramcote Hills, Fields Farm and the view back over the meadows towards Nottingham.

Especially interesting to me is the photo that shows Wollaton Village and the Bramcote Lane which goes almost to site of the Hemlock Stone Pub and the farm next door which has been a topic of discussion lately. At the bottom of the picture, where some houses are being built, zoom in to clearly see a horse and cart.

Link to post
Share on other sites

"Britain from above" has a very clear photo of the Leader flush Factory at Trowell . I don't know how to copy this but it might be copyrite protected.I think its about 1946.

What do you think ? I think that the last steam train photo is the rail bridge which is on the lane to the Trowell Garden Centre which was built on the canal. I think the picture is taken from the track east of the bridge looking west . The photo is probably taken from the site of the Trowell Colliery.

Anyone like to comment?

Don't worry about the copyright, just make an explanation if you can, there are so many uncredited pictures floating about on the internet what's the point in worrying, unless they're published by Rupert Murdoch of course.

I'm sticking to my opinion of where that picture of the 4F was taken, no way is it the Trowell Nursery bridge, I've been to that 'colliery' bridge recently and it matches up to my memories, photo's and general alignment from old maps.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 7 months later...

The farm at the end of "Black Path" was Raynor`s Farm.Jeff Hardy shot me in the eyelid with a pellet from his air rifle one sunny Sunday afternoon as I peered out from an upstairs window c 1963.Caused Dr Peake to have words with the demolition company.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The farm at the end of "Black Path" was Raynor`s Farm.Jeff Hardy shot me in the eyelid with a pellet from his air rifle one sunny Sunday afternoon as I peered out from an upstairs window c 1963.Caused Dr Peake to have words with the demolition company.

The 'local demolition company' seemed to consist of the local youths from Firbeck and Fernwood estates. No sooner had the hearse containing the coffin of the old boy that lived there driven up the 'Black Path', and I was on the 'Train Bridge' at the time and saw it go by, then the gangs moved in and trashed the place.

Myself and Ian Hutchins were taking Chips the dog for a walk along the canal one day when the Pigs tried to arrest us for being seen vandalising the place, we happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it took some convincing to persuade them we'd had nowt to do with it.

After that incident, I had a look over the place, the destruction was incredible, I think that Harry Peake probably told the local council to get their arses into gear and do the job themselves.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 7 months later...

Re - the mystery photo I believe that the bridge in question was/is the steel bridge over the canal just along from where there were 2/3 part sunken barges.We used to stand in the middle part and look down into the canal from there.It was also used as a dare to the younger kids to stand inside as a refuge when the trains came through.The bridge in the background is the one midway between Balloon Woods and the crematorium which has been decorated by pupils from local schools(supervised drawings - not grafitti).

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...