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Thanks for that.  As one of the earlier pics was of Central Avenue, which is the entry point for the golf course, it was logical that dad may have wandered through the gate and taken a pic from there.  When I get around to it, I have found a couple of negatives from what was Crosslands fields, as they started the earthworks, in effect destroying one much loved playground, but creating another, as young Warsop and I spent many a happy hour climbing around the part finished houses on Walsingham, swinging on the scaffolding etc.

 

This was of course well before Elf and Safety took all the fun out of living and banished kids into darkened rooms with electronic devices.  If Paradiddle reposts the aerial shots of the area, we might also see the bomb shelter that was on waste ground somewhere in the vicinity of the lower end of Somersby Road.

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Here's a cracking picture of the top of Woodborough Road showing Mapperley Methodist Church and the top of Porchester Road - hope it inspires some memories  

Rob, I think the picture would have been taken in the 60's when they started building on the land behind what was once Wardles's garage (i.e.before Wheelhouse had it).   We used to play football and g

Plains Road looking towards Nottingham. The road on the left is the top of Westdale Lane.

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Definitely the golf course. It was perfect for sledging down in winter, provided you steered for the bridge across the stream at the bottom of the hill, and not the stream itself.

 

Used to get there through a gate on Digby Avenue.

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27 minutes ago, Socram said:

.....  If Paradiddle reposts the aerial shots of the area, we might also see the bomb shelter that was on waste ground somewhere in the vicinity of the lower end of Somersby Road.

 

If you mean the pillbox, I was just talking to my older brother about it last week.  He said he remembers it as being at the far end of Littlegreen Road and just off on the right, before Somersby Road was built of course.

 

I remember climbing on it when I was little but only went inside once because it was smelly!

 

I mentioned to him about a fire I remembered on the rough fields up from there - it was when the Rosebay Willow Herb  was in flower (Devil's fingers). He said it wasn't the only fire - there had been several.

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Many thanks Rob.L for the link to the 1938 map below.  It confirms the location of the earlier pic. Gedling Lodge Farm.  It also shows the unmade or proposed Somersby Road and others planned for the area.  A great resource this map. paradiddle posted a pic some time ago of the first houses on Somersby, taken about 1948.  That was a terrible road for many years and almost impossible for motor vehicles in anything other than dry weather.  It must have been the 1960's before it was finally tarsealed, as we used to help cars up the top section in about 1960, in snowy winters.

138%20Mapperley%20Map.JPG

 

Onto what we knew as Croslands or Crosslands behind 'Arnoldhill House'  - Treetops and Maltby Road.  Dad probably took these pics in July 1959 as there is a pic of a gravestone of his best pal's mother, with grandson BL watering the flowers and she passed away June 1st.


This is when the earthmovers moved in.  Such a sad time for us.   Yes, we do know the names of three of the boys playing. 

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This is the end of Maltby Road and grading had already started.  

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One of those crosses is probably the new location of 'The Manse' for the Mapperley Methodist church minister!  The previous location of 'The Manse' was on the left down  Hazel Grove.  I think the Maltby extension houses here were built by A C Butler - Gordon Butler, who was one of the MM Church members, certainly moved into one of them, with wife Jill (nee) Briers, twin of Jim Briers, our ACHS teacher.

 

Oh, and Happy Birthday today to Paradiddle, who kicked off this thread!  

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 We were married by Rev Widdowson in March 1966 at Mapperley Methodist and we visited him at the Manse a couple of weeks beforehand to talk about the service/hymns etc.  I know it was somewhere round that area

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CT that map was way before the 1940s as it doesn't show Littlegreen Road, Wensley Road, Whernside Road, Patterdale Road, Coningsby Road and others in that area.  I used to walk down Littlegreen Road to school,and the houses were certainly well established by then.

 

It is also incorrect in that Fairview Road never actually joined Breckhill Road as shown on the map.... when I was little, the part of Fairview Road beyond Greys Road  was just a field.... it now continues as a road but ends in pedestrian steps on to Breck Hill

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The railway line is shown as being in LNER ownership, and it became part of British Railways Eastern Region in January 48 at the start of Nationalisation. Therefore I'd date it  at pre 48.

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Agreed. I think the houses Margie refers to were all 1930's construction. I remember the field at the end of Fairview. There was a considerable drop at the end of that field onto Breckhill. Also Arno Vale School is not shown (our alma mater!) that was a thirties building. Arno Vale Rd. which continued onto Somersby, is not there.

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2 hours ago, MargieH said:

It is also incorrect in that Fairview Road never actually joined Breckhill Road as shown on the map.... when I was little, the part of Fairview Road beyond Greys Road  was just a field.... it now continues as a road but ends in pedestrian steps on to Breck Hill

 

I'm sure you're correct. I've found that maps sometimes show planned developments as they were intended, but the eventual reality turns out different.

 

I could bore everyone with early maps of Clifton showing roads which never existed.

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29 minutes ago, Rob.L said:

That map also shows the mineral line under Woodthorpe Drive into the brickyard extension between Woodthorpe Drive and Breck Hill. When did that close?

 

It was still a working brickyard in 1954 because I remember playing in the trucks between Breckhill and Woodthorpe Drive at that time and being shouted at by a workman who told us to get out!  I don't know how much longer it stayed open as I found other 'playgrounds' to frequent with my friends soon after that.  

I did go on the brickyard between Woodthorpe Drive and Woodthorpe Road in 1966 when I collected Pussy Willow to add to the daffodils in the church where we were going to be married.  I'm fairly sure the track was no longer there - I just remember the clay was very slippery and there were huge pools of clay water everywhere,

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As I remember the clay carrying trucks were drawn by a cable which was driven by a motor at the brickworks end on Mapperley top. At the Breckhill end the trucks moved round a revolving turntable  thereby changing direction. In the 50's the clay was mined on the far side of Woodthorpe Drive and put into the trucks. The Breckhill field side was a hill sloping down to Melbury Rd. which provided a twisting sledging track around the thorn bushes in a snowy winter. It was a dangerous run and there were some nasty accidents.

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Phil, so the trucks I played on were just using the track to get on the turntable to change direction.   I never realised that...  now I come to think of it, that particular place had steep sides but they were partly covered in grass so by then it may have stopped being a working brickyard..  I know the main workings at that time were on the south side of Woodthorpe Drive because it had deep pits and was often waterlogged.

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As I recollect Margie the trucks went around a wheel as they were on a continual loop. It’s so long ago that I can’t remember the full details. I do recollect that my cousin, Peggy Burton, who lived at 4 Greys Rd. did keep a pony on Breckhill Fields during the summer months. In the winter it lived in stable at he back of a house on the street opposite the Methodist Chapel on the Plains. It used to pull a trap which took us at full pelt along the Plains towards the Travellers Rest and back! She sometimes collected me from Arno Vale on the pony and I went back for tea.

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10 hours ago, MargieH said:

 

 We were married by Rev Widdowson in March 1966 at Mapperley Methodist and we visited him at the Manse a couple of weeks beforehand to talk about the service/hymns etc.  I know it was somewhere round that area

Me too!  I was married there twice...  (Both marriages failed.) The Methodist system was that the minister stayed normally for 4 years, but the church council could get an extension of a year, or get rid after 3 years.  Rev Jones was the minister who lived on Hazel Grove and between him and Rev Widdowson was Rev J B Peet, who was just fantastic with the youth of the church.   In all my time with cubs, scouts, senior scouts and then running the cubs at the church, only Rev Peet ever bothered to come down into the schoolroom to put in an appearance at any youth meeting.  He had a great sense of humour and appeared at his first 'Mens Group Show', not long after arriving at Mapperley, carrying his trousers! 

 

Needless to say, the stuffy members of the church council had him moved on after just three years, as they resented his support of the youth of the church.  How short sighted can you be?  Not sure who followed Widdows but it could have been Rev McLaren?  I left the UK January 1983 to take up a senior managerial job in NZ, as thanks to M & S shifting clothing production off shore, the industry in and around Nottingham (and elsewhere) was decimated.  I have resented M & S ever since and laugh when I see that they have financial troubles in falling clothing sales. 

 

That second map must be way, way before the map posted earlier, as it doesn't even have Somersby Road on it.  

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10 hours ago, MargieH said:

CT that map was way before the 1940s as it doesn't show Littlegreen Road, Wensley Road, Whernside Road, Patterdale Road, Coningsby Road and others in that area.  I used to walk down Littlegreen Road to school,and the houses were certainly well established by then.

 

It is also incorrect in that Fairview Road never actually joined Breckhill Road as shown on the map.... when I was little, the part of Fairview Road beyond Greys Road  was just a field.... it now continues as a road but ends in pedestrian steps on to Breck Hill

I lived on Greys Road when I was very young. We moved in 1971. I remember the land separating Fairview Road and Breck Hill as a wood - we called in 'Magpie Wood'. It was fenced off and I never got in. Then it was all cleared and they started building the new houses.

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29 minutes ago, DavidA said:

I lived on Greys Road when I was very young. We moved in 1971. I remember the land separating Fairview Road and Breck Hill as a wood - we called in 'Magpie Wood'. It was fenced off and I never got in. Then it was all cleared and they started building the new houses.

 

You are right, David, there was a little wood right at the bottom of Fairview Road but this then opened up into a field which had that lovely feathery grass in summer (loved walking through that!). Some of the parents cut some steps in the bank which led down to Breckhill Road, so their children didn't have to walk the long way round to Arno Vale via Greys Road and Maitland Road, but these steps were very slippery after it had rained...  

Where on Greys Road did you live?   I had several friends/acquaintances who lived on there ... Sally Freemantle who had a younger brother Andrew, Patsy Knowles who had a younger brother David (?) Jeremy Gisborne, Julian Packer who had 2 older sisters I think,  Stephanie and Nick (?) who lived in a newer house next to the wood you mention.  

Phil may be able to remember even more people on Greys Road..

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Socram, I think I can only really remember Rev Widdowson, even though I went to that Church intermittently from when I was about 14 (1957) until I was 17 ish, when I left home to work at Harlow Wood Hospital.  My parents still lived on Woodthorpe Drive so I did still go to the church occasionally when I was on a day off.

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11 hours ago, MargieH said:

 

You are right, David, there was a little wood right at the bottom of Fairview Road but this then opened up into a field which had that lovely feathery grass in summer (loved walking through that!). Some of the parents cut some steps in the bank which led down to Breckhill Road, so their children didn't have to walk the long way round to Arno Vale via Greys Road and Maitland Road, but these steps were very slippery after it had rained...  

Where on Greys Road did you live?   I had several friends/acquaintances who lived on there ... Sally Freemantle who had a younger brother Andrew, Patsy Knowles who had a younger brother David (?) Jeremy Gisborne, Julian Packer who had 2 older sisters I think,  Stephanie and Nick (?) who lived in a newer house next to the wood you mention.  

Phil may be able to remember even more people on Greys Road..

Yes, Margie, I remember all of those people. The last time I saw Julian Packer was when we both ran for Notts in the national cross country championships around 1960. We reminisced about primary school days on the coach to Birkenhead. My aunt and uncle, the Burtons lived at no.4. He was a coal merchant. At the very far end was a chap called Langford who was a scoutmaster and Sunday school teacher. He worked at Leyland Office Equipment. Also along there was Henry Swain, the County Architect. Next door to the Packers lived two Polish immigrants, Hans and Joseph. Hans repaired timepieces and Joseph Giemza was a somewhat ‘gay’ ladies hairdresser who had a salon on Market St. I’m racking my brain on this one. My uncle Bob Burton had about an acre of land next to the house and kept pigs, chickens, bees and at one time a goat. My father and I used to lend a hand at weekends. I half thought Peter and Anthony Wright also lived there but it might have been Fisher Avenue, behind Arno Vale.

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