Mapperley Tea Gardens

[mikede 13]

Thanks...has a tendancy to make me feel old though !

[Cliff Ton 10,457]

Everything on Nottstalgia has a tendency to make me feel old.   Maybe it's because I am old...ish.

 

[loppylugs 8,427]

That's why it's called Nottstalgia, Cliff.  

 

I hadn't read through it much before but it's amazing how many one or two time posters there seem to be.

[mikede 13]

Just had a delve back through som old pix

 

This one is outside the shop- my mum is on the right- I'm not sure who the others are- although I suspect the old guy is Grandad Gilbert

 

[Cliff Ton 10,457]

mikede, I've been reading your posts again regarding your various relatives and the Tea Gardens; could you be related to Lle who made a few posts just before yours, and who also had relatives named Gilbert. Maybe you've already been in contact, but it seems several the branches of Gilbert family have homed in on this thread.

[mikede 13]

Just had a delve back through som old pix

 

This one is outside the shop- my mum is on the right- I'm not sure who the others are- although I suspect the old guy is Grandad Gilbert

 

[mikede 13]

Thanks Cliff Ton- I'll get in touch- The Gilbert family history is very convoluted and difficult to trace as it seems they changed their name from Osman sometime in the 1910's- presumably they were concerned about the Germanic sound of it; and there is also a link to a family in Grantham by the name of Roberts (!!!) but we won't talk about that ! 

[Steve B 0]

It is a pity that the land was sold off to form the Co Op and the car park behind. Boots and what was once One Stop grocery store were also bought by the same development company.

When I lived there we found some of the old enamel signs from the tea gardens in our shed. There also used to be fruit trees and an aviary which have all gone now to form the car park behind the shops.

I believe that when Mapperley Tea gardens were sold, the original owners moved to another house on Haywood Road. 

[MargieH 7,599]

Welcome Steve B.  I've just Been looking on a Nottingham Facebook site where you were asking about Mapperley Tea Gardens, and were given a link to this thread on Nottstalgia!  

I hope you'll enjoy the forum and not just about the Mapperley area....  I was born and brought up in Woodthorpe but I've learned lots about other parts of Nottingham since I joined!  Strangely enough, I can't remember ANYTHING about the Tea Gardens...

[mikede 13]

Hi SteveB.... The Tea Gardens were a family concern headed up by my grandmother- Mabel Gilbert along with various family members - my grandfather Cyril was the baker; and my mum served in the shop. When Mabel died in 1955 (?) the concern was sold off- I cant remember the details as I was only about 4  !. They lived in the big house opposite the shop -33 Plains Road which was sold along with the shop;bakery and tea gardens. The Haywood Road connection was that 2 houses were built on the old tennis courts for my parents and my mums sister and her husband.

[mikede 13]

Hi

apologies for the delay- the two houses are Numbers 69 and 71- about halfway between Bennet and Whitingham Rd 

[Socram 130]

Baileys fruit and veg shop now closed.

 

The shop at the top of Westdale Lane was I think Scales in the 1950's (Peter was in our class at school).  Next door I think was a jewellers shop then a wet fish shop. (I used to by  a 1/4 of shrimps for sixpence...)

 

Then there was at least one or two houses and I think one was Williamsons, builders.  Mrs Williamson (not sure if it was the same one or sister in law) was our teacher in the last but one year at Mapperley Plains School and certainly later, lived on Westdale Lane, right opposite the end of Haywood Road.

 

On the corner of Haywood and Westdale was Syd's garage, and a National Benzole petrol pump on Westdale. 

 

Somewhere along Haywood lived Suzette Fletcher, who I promised to marry when I was 10...  She may have married and moved to the Birmingham area, but would love to get in contact and Friends Reunited when it was running was no help.

 

Gilberts Tea Gardens (the original thread!) I vaguely remember as a single storey wooden building and at the Haywood Road end of the land and may have looked a bit like Gedling Colliery's cricket pavilion (or a NZ colonial house...).

 

'Paradiddle' posted aerial photographs of Mapperley Top taken by H Tempests but the hosting site he used has obviously dropped them.  I'll try and get a copy and host them on my own website, then they won't disappear.

 

As regards the naming and numbering of Woodborough Rd and Plains Rd.  I seem to remember that the even numbers were in fact changed, to align with the odd numbers, so it may well be that Woodborough Road then stopped at the top of Woodthorpe instead of Westdale Lane.  Back then,  it was the border between Carlton & District Council (even numbers) and Arnold District Council - odd numbers.  Carlton had grey dustbin lorries, Arnold's were maroon.

 

Presumably when the councils were amalgamated into Gedling, it was the catalyst for change?  I seem to remember Beardsleys (fish and chip shop owners) who lived right across the road from us, had their house number changed and we didn't. 

 

[Old Arnoldonian 8]

Gilbert's Tea Gardens (or tea rooms) was situated between Mapperley Top and Haywood Road and didn't seem to have a street frontage.  The buildings on Mapperley Top and Haywood Road backed onto a grass lawn, with the tea room building in the middle.

There was a driveway entrance from Haywood Road and I suspect some sort of passage from Mapperley Top, but I don't remember seeing one.

The building was, I think, a wooden structure and I have a mental image of it, but the last time I went there would have been in the early 1950s.  We had a sort of family connection with Gilbert through an aunt, who lived a few doors away, along Haywood Road.

The property was redeveloped years ago and when my wife and I visited England about ten years ago I didn't see anything I recognised.

[Cliff Ton 10,457]

This photo has recently surfaced, showing the Mapperley Tea Gardens. Amazing to think that this is now the site of the Co-op on Mapperley Top. The name C. Gilbert has obviously been hand-drawn in, probably to highlight and advertise the business.

[DAVIDW 1,681]

Great photo .....wonder how long before it appears elsewhere ?

[Cliff Ton 10,457]

13 hours ago, DAVIDW said:

....wonder how long before it appears elsewhere ?

 

Bear in mind it might be me who does it !

[MargieH 7,599]

I was immediately drawn to the wall as it's made of the same material as the one which was outside my old house.

Here's  a photo of me and Paul (and our old dog) taken over 40 years ago against our wall

[Brew 5,407]

and you've not changed a bit Margie.....

[MargieH 7,599]

Flatterer, Brew.   But I know better!

[philmayfield 6,115]

Good old Bulwell stone. I once built a rockery out of that during a school summer holiday. My father organised me a Dormobile van and I went back and forth to Mcarthey’s to get a bit at a time. I wonder if that’s still standing at No.3 Park Rd. It was at the rear of the house so ‘Streetview’ won’t show it.

[MargieH 7,599]

I didn't know that it was called Bulwell Stone.  Where in the Bulwell area was it excavated, or is it a mixture of materials?

[philmayfield 6,115]

Bulwell stone is famous around here. The original sandstone quarries were pretty much in the heart of Bulwell but they are now exhausted. I believe there is a Bulwell sandstone quarry at nearby Linby. Some of the Bulwellians on site will be able to furnish more details. Everywhere you go around Nottingham and district you will see walls and buildings made from the Bulwell sandstone. Googling will bring up more details. I think the quarry I went to was McCarthey’s on Thames St. but that was way back in around 1960.

[TBI 2,351]

18 minutes ago, MargieH said:

I didn't know that it was called Bulwell Stone.  Where in the Bulwell area was it excavated, or is it a mixture of materials?

Bulwell sandstone, Margie. Unsurprisingly, it was quarried up the top end of Quarry Rd, near the   pit. My dad was born on Quarry Rd, later Commercial Rd.

[MargieH 7,599]

I always think of sandstone as brown.... whereas these stone walls are light grey.   

[TBI 2,351]

Actually Margie, it seems much of Bulwell stone was also limestone, a different composition. I'm not sure when or exactly where the two sorts were quarried.