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Sorry if this has been done before but what was the name of the church on the opposite corner to Bentinck Girls School and why was it pulled down.

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Thats it,looks like it should have had a tower,in the building next to it they used to have a saturday night do for youngsters and have live bands on,many a happy night spent there.

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I seem to recall that there was a legend regarding this area. I may not have got this quite right and I believe versions varied but it was something to do with the buildings on each corner of the crossroads: a school (education), a church (salvation), a pawnbrokers shop (degradation) and a pub (inebriation??).

that isn't entirely correct but it was something similar and I'm sure there will be someone on this site who knows more about it than I do.

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DaveN, that was why versions varied. Some claim it was the Alfreton Road/Hartley Road junction and others claimed it was Ilkeston Road, where the same juxtaposition of buildings occurred.

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The only place I didn't go in was the pawn brokers,two years after I left the school it was changed to infant and juniors only.We girls from Bentinck used to go into the church at christmas I once had to recite a verse from the pulpit.

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The vicar at that church refused to christen my daughter when I admitted I was a single mother! Talk about 'suffer little children to come unto me'. I took rather an ungodly delight in seeing it demolished...........

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How times have changed Annie............rightly or wrongly its now the norm,...................

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The vicar at that church refused to christen my daughter when I admitted I was a single mother! Talk about 'suffer little children to come unto me'. I took rather an ungodly delight in seeing it demolished...........

Yes times have changed so much,.......most don't even get married now,and some often get married in Church after having the baby,they get pregnant knowing the sex of the baby..........some even know who the father is..............

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Are you perhaps thinking of this thread

'Ation Corner' - - Old Radford - Nottstalgia Nottingham Forums

nottstalgia.com › Nottstalgia Nottingham Forums › Areas of Nottingham › Old Radford

26 Sep 2005 - 13 posts - ‎4 authors

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I well remember when this church was knocked down. I was about 15 or 16 which dates it to the early 70's. I didn't live far away, in Radford but knocked around with a mate from Oldknow Street. The pews were just heaped up in a pile, presumably for burning so we liberated one. It was pretty long and weighed a ton and we carted it someway down Alfreton Road but being skinny gutter snipes had to give up so it we abandoned it a few hundred yards away near Players. No idea what happened to it but I don't think it was there long. Wish I'd got it now though.

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I went to St Michaels and All Angels and to Bentick Rd school and was a butchers boy but I never went in to the Alma. (made up for that since though) :biggrin:

#10 The Rev Cannon Leaper was a very kind man. I often walked with him from the church to his manse opposite the Forest gates on Mt Hooton Rd. He gave me a cigarette card album that was his as a boy. I have given it to one of my grandsons.

If Cannon leaper refused to christen you he was only following protocol as administered by the Church. He let us boys make little veg patches on the ground between the church and the hall. Please don't blame this gentle and kind man for following his discipline. Blame the Church as it was.

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#10 orphan annie - It was wrong for the Christening to be refused but I was grieved when the church and hall were demolished. Many happy memories from there and the Rev Cannon Leaper was a father figure to me when dad was at war. He was very kind and if he was the vicar at the time he would have been following instructions from the Church. Thank goodness that the 'Church' has changed.

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  • 3 months later...

I used to sing in the choir at St Micheal and all Angles. Cannon Leaper was a great man and had a great influence on me. He would spend countless hours with the choir boys,teaching us about many things. He later went to Southwell Cathedral. I believe the tower was incomplete due to lack of funds.Weddings were conducted some Saturdays and I used to get a couple of bob for singing Ave Maria while the bride and groom signed the registrar.Even though no spire was built their was still a bell tower which we would ring 3 x 100 times before Sunday,s sermons would start.I was sad to learn that the old church was demolished some years ago. Adjacent to the church was a hall that we used for various events,but I guess that is gone also.

We choir boys used to smoke in the Vestry toilet and Clement Leaper knew it,I remember getting the signal that he was on the way to the Vestry,'fags out'was the call (as if he wouldn,t smell them) in he came pointing to a painting on the wall of Jesus, "Jesus can see you in every part of the room" he said,sure enough the eyes of the painting watched you wherever in the room you were!!!!. I am not sure what year I was there, we emigrated to Australia in 1956,I was 13.I did visit him at Southwell where he allowed us to "scrump" the apple trees at the back of his residence.He wrote a letter of introduction for our our new life in Australia.Orphan Annie I can only reiterate earlier comments that he was following church protocol in your case. He was truly a great man.

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Hi,kj 792. I recall singing in the choir for a while, until my voice broke that is. That must date around 1955-ish I think. Like you I got paid for weddings, came in handy, as I didn't get much pocket money. Left the area to live in Forest Fields not long after. It was demolished in the seventies, and sadly, it was not unusual to see winos on the empty ground. I used to catch my bus home outside the Bentink School, so passed that way at least twice a week. My sister was at Bentink,until1955. 

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Hi Oldie, We must have been in the same choir, I am 74 so would have been 12 or 13 at the time. did you know Cannon Leeper ? your thoughts about him? I lived at Bobbers Mill and later at Cinderhill. Wow such a long time ago.

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