Wollaton Hall Museum

[MargieH 7,423]

When we visited this weekend, there were two cannons just inside the main door.  The gorilla is on the top floor with the African animal displays.  The gorilla didn't look as big as I remember him, but there again I'm not a little girl any more.   Our grandchildren mainly wanted to see the gorilla and the giraffe but we had to walk through all of the other exhibits on the first floor to get to them.  These were interesting as well, though

[Bing 78]

Just before  I left Nottingham and came to live in Thailand in October 2001, I showed my wife around Nottingham including Wollaton Hall.  There was back then a guided tour available, which we took.  There was only the guide and my wife and I on the tour so he took us everywhere including not only the tunnels under the front of the hall, but up into the large ballroom on the second floor  and then out onto the roof.   Wonderful views from up there.

[Bing 78]

If you are wondering who took the photo if there was only myself and my wife on the tour, it was a female member of staff who was in the ballroom.

[AlanB 13]

I grew up in Wollaton and have fond memories of the park and hall, and even though my Mum continued to live there until a year ago I hadn't visited since my own daughter was small - must be about 30 years ago. So today, before visiting Mum in the care home, I decided to go down memory lane. Amazed that entrance to the hall is still free, even though it now costs to park your car. The animals in there are still enthralling, and I found myself wondering if my little granddaughter would appreciate them. I remember going on one of the tours as a teenager, although in those days they only happened if you could get a group together. I noticed earlier in this thread that they used to cost £5, well they are now £10 and only twice a day!

 

Still a lovely park, but someone told me that they have laid off most of the groundsmen due to council cuts, so maybe it won't be as well-kept in future.

[plantfit 7,207]

Beautiful,what a lot Nottingham has to offer

 

Rog

[Brew 5,007]

How much money would you need to build and live in a place like that now days?

[DJ360 6,385]

When aahh wur a lad...

 

I was in the Wolf Cubs.  We went on a specially arranged visit to Wollaton Hall.  This would be around 1960.

 

We were shown the long tunnels in the sandstone beneath the hall.  The nearer parts of those as I recall.. housed the Taxidermy dept. of the museum. But further in was a side chamber with water in it, allegedly used as a morning bath by a long deceased lord of the manor. 

 

From the main hall we were taken via various 'hidden' or 'secret' routes.  One I recall involved a staircase 'behind' the wall in the main hall which carries the clock.  There's an almost un-noticed little window beneath the clock from which we peered down onto the main hall.  We were also taken into the roof space, which. IIRC, was limited to so many people at a time, due to concerns over its structural stability.  I've probably forgotten more than Ive recounted, but it was a fascinating  visit.

 

Many years later I was in the Hall when they'd just displayed some of the ( I think) hundreds of muzzle loading muskets they'd discovered in the vaults.  These were apparently purchased at the time of the 'bread riots' or somesuch in the early 19thC, for the purpose of defending the hall from us plebs.  They were supposedly never needed, and remained in the 'vaults, still wrapped in greasepaper, until rediscovered a century later and put on display.

 

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

The wall around the estate was built to stop the Middleton's and guests from seeing the scruffy miners going to and home from the colliery, not the one the NCB took over and ran, but the bell pits and later an underground mine to the west of the estate.

The Middleton's refused to allow anyone to build houses on their land around the hall and estate, so their employees, the miners had to walk from Radford to their colliery.

[DJ360 6,385]

They sound like such nice people....

[julie wright 2]

I went to Margaret glenn bott school from 1963 to 67  in wollaton park  I lived at kingswood road wollaton nottm

[letsavagoo 838]

I too have happy memories of Wollaton Hall. We used to go quite often on a Sunday afternoon, an oasis to my Radford home and to many from the built up suburbs. The 'adventure playground' with the zip line was a great diversion to the usual swings and slides found on other playgrounds. My dad was friends with one of the Policemen on the mounted section and we'd go to the stables occasionally when the mounted section horses were based there.

For almost 20 years I could see the hall from my back bedroom window on Truro Crescent. At night the twinkling string of amber street lights marking the route of the ring road in the middle distance with the illuminated hall glowing a mile or so away on the horizon. We used to go quite often when the grandchildren were younger. They always like to see the gorilla who they called 'big Willie' , don't know why!

We went on a guided tour with Berridge school about 1964 and remember the class joker falling down the stairs as he was so busy ogling the naked woman painted on the stairwell ceiling. 

Not been for ages until last week when we called in on a whim. Thought it was looking quite run down. Grass very long, no flowers near the Camellia house, fish pond at the back drained and all just a bit scruffy generally and not quite how I remember it.

I was involved a couple of years ago in a project to do with the history of Raleigh cycles. I worked in the Raleigh design office 1970-73. The buildings in the stable yard where the industrial museum is have several floors and are surprisingly spacious. They have quite a lot of historic items stored in there including a lot of cycles. I had access to the stores there plus an off site store in the City. Some very interesting stuff in there but perhaps a bit niche for general display. 

[benjamin1945 15,560]

Lots of memories of Wollaton park in general, first one that comes to mind i was about ten,,and a bunch of us from old Bestwood estate biked along the Boulevards to get there,,an adventure in its self,about five mile i would think,,

 

As we entered the gates an old well dressed Gent saw us and asked. ""are you the"" Radford Ruffians?"" my mate Harry replied. ""No mate,we the Bestwood Bashers"" silly sod,we never Bashed anybody,, still recall that day every time I pass the gates,,and that was about 1955,,

[Cliff Ton 10,008]

There's a piece on the Lenton Times website about the time in the 1920s when the City Council bought Wollaton Park, built housing on some of the land, and opened the rest to the public. That housing is now the estate which runs either side of Middleton Boulevard, but which used to be part of the park.

 

https://www.lentontimes.co.uk/back_issues/issue_1/issue_01_01.htm

[Tim in the North East 199]

When relatives came to stay my Dad an Uncles would pack us up in the cars and we would go to Wollaton Park for a picnic. In the late 1950s / early 1960s the entrance was up the lime tree grove and passed the golf club. You could park in the deer park and picnic there. From there you could walk over to the stables to see the Police horses 

[LizzieM 9,272]

On 7/3/2019 at 10:00 AM, Cliff Ton said:

There's a piece on the Lenton Times website about the time in the 1920s when the City Council bought Wollaton Park, built housing on some of the land, and opened the rest to the public. That housing is now the estate which runs either side of Middleton Boulevard, but which used to be part of the park.

 

https://www.lentontimes.co.uk/back_issues/issue_1/issue_01_01.htm

My grandparents, together with my Dad and his siblings, moved into one of those bungalows on that estate, believe it was called The Crane Estate (William Crane, as in the school also?). They moved there in the early 1930s I think, judging by family photos outside the bungalow on Toston Drive.  Dad said it was a very cold house, metal framed. 

[Cliff Ton 10,008]

Coincidence. In my family history research I was surprised to discover that my grandparents (my mum's family) had lived on Hawton Crescent in that estate for a couple of years in the mid 1930s, when it was fairly new. It must've been a big move upmarket for them because they'd come from back-to-backs on Willoughby Street, Lenton.

 

They didn't stay on Hawton Crescent very long, and spent the next 40 years living in Radford, just down from Letsavagoo.

[FLY2 10,106]

An aunt and uncle of mine lived on Hawton Crescent throughout the 50's. I always considered it quite a posh area.

[radfordred 6,278]

That's my round I do both sides of Middleton Boulevard & everything behind.  

[LizzieM 9,272]

1 minute ago, radfordred said:

That's my round I do both sides of Middleton Boulevard & everything behind.  

My Dad had that round too ...... papers! 

[radfordred 6,278]

Its long 33,000 steps on me app about 16 miles!

[radfordred 6,278]

George the Gorilla always thought his name was Pongo? 

 

[radfordred 6,278]

Surprised we do not have a dedicated WOLLATON HALL tread?

It is in NOTTINGHAM after all? 

I do not want to start a new tread & watch it buried under song association, hows you day & Facebook type posts, I’m sure some might enjoy seeing Wollaton Park @ Christmas? 

If not I do apologise  

 

Excellent photos by Tracy Whitefoot (Tracy is a member here) 

 

[Stavertongirl 1,684]

Amazing pictures. We are so lucky to still have it and be able to wander round the grounds and lake for free. We go there regularly, it’s about a half hour walk, and I am always in awe of the hall it’s so beautiful, seems amazing one family owned so much. 
It was really busy through the summer which was good to see and there are still quite a few going there now. We will be walking With Kai there on Christmas Day, weather permitting, with a flask (tea) to sit by the lake before walking round it and then home  possibly via the Admiral Rodney if it is open. 
I have many happy memories of going there with Mum and Dad, we always went to see the police horses, and then used to picnic down by the lake. 
I haven’t been inside since I came back to Nottingham, from what has been said I gather it is possibly a bit run down? I can remember my Dad lifting me up to a Bison(?) head up on the wall, I screamed the place down. I was never able to live that down, it was always brought up whenever we went there. I can remember the cases of butterflies and insects, the latter fascinated me. 

Am I right in thinking it is going to be refurbished internally, think I saw something on Nottinghamshirelive about it?

 

 

 

[Alpha 166]

 

Hiya, Stavs,

 

In your following quotation; "Amazing pictures. We are so lucky to still have it and be able to wander round the grounds and lake for free. We go there regularly, it’s about a half hour walk, and I am always in awe of the hall it’s so beautiful, seems amazing one family owned so much."

 

I immediately thought of all the miners' sweated labour that paid for most it. We are now constantly reminded of the African slave trade. We, in England, had a slave trade of sorts right on our own door step! I would not be surprised of where the Middleton's original wealth came from. 

[philmayfield 5,509]

It’s true about home grown slavery. Wealthy mill owners paying a pittance in wages to workers, many of them children. People lived in tied houses from where they could easily be evicted and were forced to use tokens to buy their food in company shops. It still goes on in places like Leicester where wealthy factory owners pay their countrymen/women around £3 an hour to work in their sweatshops.