Building Rise Park in 1976


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I can offer a few definitive dates and historical details for the Rise Park area.   Both Rise Farm and Top Valley farm were up for sale in 1940 but went unsold and were withdrawn from the ma

Well, permit me to blow my own trumpet ……. I was Victrix Ludorum twice at school.  However I’ve done very little running since leaving school but I can run for a bus when necessary! 

I've had a play with Kev's pic, using 'Paint' in Windows 7... then saving to my Flickr A/C so I can share it here. Not brilliant.. but I've managed to label a few things. Click on the image for a larg

  • 1 year later...

I can offer a few definitive dates and historical details for the Rise Park area.

 

Both Rise Farm and Top Valley farm were up for sale in 1940 but went unsold and were withdrawn from the market. Then in 1948 the city council agreed to a plan to convert Top Valley farm (and Forest Farm) into a golf course, to improve upon and replace the course on Bulwell Forest, this plan however was blocked the following year on the grounds of post-war agricultural needs. 
The fact that Rise Park was built before Top Valley, leaving a large gap between the expanding city boundary at Bestwood estate, may possibly be because the golf course plan had the potential to be revived, it was at least still being talked about again in 1952.  

 

The first residents on Rise Park had moved in by the end of 1963, Doctor McCracken apparently opened his practice on the estate in 1965 (and would later have a new road in the area named after him).  


Plans for the shopping area and bus terminus were announced in 1966 and an application for the Charles II pub was submitted that same year (the name of the pub having already been decided upon before they got the go ahead). It appears it was another three years before the shops and pub were built however, with the shops being advertised for let over the winter of 1969/70 and none appearing in the phone book until that time. A bus to Hucknall via Bulwell had been diverted to Rise Park every third journey for some time before this and this service had probably made use of the terminus road section before construction of the precinct buildings. 

 

The Rise Park Infants and Juniors (then distinct entities rather than one 'primary' as it's known today) were also built around this time with at least one or both schools opening in September 1970. Presumably local children had been attending Springfield school in Bulwell up to this point, which would explain why parents had become exasperated with the delay to the schools - having been planned as early as 1965. Perhaps this delay was due to the fact the schools ended up being built on land belonging to Top Valley Farm (the southern boundary of Rise Farm being Rise Park Road-Bracadale Road, cutting across the main access road "Bestwood Park Drive West" which still came to a dead end and a gate below the western edge of what would eventually become Shaldon Close).

 

I'd speculate that they might have originally intended to build at least one of the schools behind the shops, as this area was left unbuilt upon until the rest of the estate had been completed a few years later. If not intended for a school, they must have had something else in mind as it wouldn't make sense otherwise to have left that central section free for so long with building progress otherwise spreading from west to east. 

 

In 1970, it was reported that a new housing estate would be built on Top Valley Farm, with work due to start in August 1971 and to be completed in 1976 - completion being the 'East Glade' section between "Old Farm Road" and the new section of Bestwood Park Drive with the two roundabouts, a stretch which opened for traffic around 1974. The area backing on to the eastern boundary of Rise Park was still 'Home Farm' fields at this point. 

 

1976 saw the estate completed with the building of Shaldon Close and the houses directly behind the shopping area, which is what the OP must have worked on if he's got his dates right. 

 

An additional Rise Park supermarket, next to the existing shops, was built in 1977 - 'Grandways', which swiftly saw the demise of the general store "Mace" (Mace probably being the first of the original 1969/70 shops to close and change hands), Standstead school also opened in 1977 after the Rise Park schools had been forced to install mobile classrooms to cope with the demand for places, exacerbated by new housing now beginning to appear on the 'Home Farm' site which would eventually have its' own school - Warren Hill - by the end of the decade.

 

Tesco on Top Valley was built and opened in 1982, the Rigleys Wagon Works buildings having survived intact until a few years prior.  

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Batwing, many thanks for a very informative and interesting post. It tells me a bit more about the area in which I used to live.        B.

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I well remember Dr.Jim McCracken. He and his wife Anne were close friends. Jim was a fellow private pilot and he became an aviation medical examiner. I used to attend his Rise Park surgery for my aviation medical renewal. Being a friend he didn’t charge me but I always felt obliged to drop him a bottle of malt whisky in lieu of payment. It would probably have been cheaper to have paid his fee! He would have been most amused that the road named after him was a dead end!

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I should add that Rise Park was still being referred to as "Rise Farm Estate" in 1963 and apparently those living at the top of Brownlow Drive looked out onto what became known as 'black mountain' from their back windows, a large tip of coal waste dumped there by the local colliery which was finally removed in late 1970. Residents were inevitably unhappy with the news that Top Valley would be built upon, with many south facing windows losing their splendid view of the countryside (and what might have been a golf course had those plans gone through instead). Rise Park Road/Langbank Avenue home owners feared they'd have new homes built directly behind, but happily for them, that area ended up being the school playing fields - probably because it was the yet-to-be-sold "Forest Farm" fields rather than belonging to Top Valley Farm. Top Valley Comprehensive School was opened September 1973.

 

At the time I lived in the area, I'd assumed it had been farm land for hundreds of years beforehand, but Rise Farm (known as "Bulwellrise Farm" initially) had only existed for around 175 years, being part of Sherwood Forest before that - latterly the hunting grounds, for which one of the gamekeepers also happened to be one of my ancestors.   

 

I'd appreciate it if anybody can pinpoint the location the photograph below was taken, said to be Bulwell viaduct. I'm not certain, as it's not been snapped on a clear day and I'm not overly familiar with the Bulwell common layout at the time (I don't know what the buildings in the foreground are), but I think you can see Top Valley farm land through the haze above the viaduct, towards the left from the centre. The picture is dated circa 1976, but if this is Top Valley in the distance - with the school on the extreme left - then it was probably taken a year or two earlier. 

 

1970s-Bulwell-viaduct.jpg

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The Top Valley farmland was part of our long cross country course at Mellish in the 50’s/60’s. After going up Kersall Drive, St.Alban’s Rd. and over the Common we crossed Hucknall Rd.,went under a railway bridge onto farmland. We ran over the fields and returned to Hucknall Rd. through another bridge and then onto the bottom end of the Common by the golf course.

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14 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

The Top Valley farmland was part of our long cross country course at Mellish in the 50’s/60’s. After going up Kersall Drive, St.Alban’s Rd. and over the Common we crossed Hucknall Rd.,went under a railway bridge onto farmland. We ran over the fields and returned to Hucknall Rd. through another bridge and then onto the bottom end of the Common by the golf course.

 

Presumably this was one of the bridges....

Rise-Farm-underpass.jpg

 

This was for access to Rise Farm, I think it was just south of where Bestwood Park Drive West now joins Hucknall Road and was still there until the late 1970s. 

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17 hours ago, Batwings said:

  I'd appreciate it if anybody can pinpoint the location the photograph below was taken, said to be Bulwell viaduct. I'm not certain, as it's not been snapped on a clear day and I'm not overly familiar with the Bulwell common layout at the time (I don't know what the buildings in the foreground are),

 

That is definitely Bulwell Viaduct - Nottingham to the left and Hucknall to the right. Hidden between the buildings and the trees in the foreground is Bestwood Road.

 

 

Earlier I'd made a comment about where I thought that photo was taken from. That was total rubbish; my sense of direction had gone awol.

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I'm really struggling to make head or tail of it. 

 

It could have been taken from up on the grassy hills behind the back of Rise Park, looking south west with Bulwell-Hall-Estate out of picture on the extreme right, which the railway line ran behind (not in front of, from this perspective). The problem then is, if you bump up the contrast and zoom in - what are we looking at beyond the viaduct? What is the large building top-left and what is the housing estate to the right? 

 

If the photo was taken from the opposite side of the viaduct, looking eastwards, as I originally assumed, then I can't see where you'd get enough elevation to get that shot. 

 

On the left edge, the brickwork along the top of the viaduct stops and becomes safety railings, which must be the section over Hucknall Lane (there was no deviation from the brick work as it went over Bestwood Road).

Looking at a photo of it going over Hucknall Lane (see below), the first arch on the eastern side was a large half-circle shape, the first arch  to its west was thinner,, so looking again at the colour photo, this seems to suggest we're looking east from somewhere behind Ken Martin's swimming baths, but then the foreground doesn't make as much sense. 

 

https://i.ibb.co/vQBHMgV/1955ish-Bulwell-viaduct.jpg

 

 

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1 hour ago, Batwings said:

I'm really struggling to make head or tail of it. 

 

Are you on Facebook ?    There's a Page named Bulwell Bygones which includes that exact photo....and  several more showing the viaduct from various angles.

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.143270162539026&type=3

 

(If you aren't on FB that link probably won't work).

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Not a facebook member but happily I am able to see the photos. 

 

It looks as though my initial instinct was right, the colour photo was taken from the western side of the viaduct, looking NEE (with Nottingham city off to the right and Hucknall off to the left). 


The photo at this link....... 
https://www.facebook.com/BulwellBygones/photos/a.143270162539026/124706571062052
..... shows the same foreground buildings on the right of the picture I posted and the faceboook uploader mentions that this is where Morrisons is now.

 

The distinctive foreground building to the left is captured again here....... 
https://www.facebook.com/BulwellBygones/photos/a.143270162539026/149481025251273/

 

This next one I've seen before, taken in May 1968 when the last train ran on this particular line. 
Rise Park clearly visible in the background with the entrance to Bestwood Park Drive West on the extreme right. 
https://www.facebook.com/BulwellBygones/photos/a.143270162539026/151464351719607/

 

 

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This appears to be a clear view of either Top Valley or Southglade farms before any houses had been built on them. 

Bestwood village presumably in the distance on the left, and the edge of Bestwood Park estate on the right, a chimney stack at the Bestwood colliery just peaking up behind the hill to the right of the telegraph pole. Dated circa 1965.

 

1496003_185391921660183_1474948645_o.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

Just came accross this website on my search for information and photographs about Rise Park, I just joined the site today so is this topic still live as I lived in Rise Park on Dunvegen Drive from 1975 until 1997 I have lots of memories to share so if this topic is still live I would like to contribute.

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Welcome RPC. topics here never die, they may go dormant once in a while, but as soon as someone makes a post it usually  triggers more memories from other members, so go for it, reminisce away...

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Welcome to the twilight zone R.P.C. my cousin lives on Portree drive, which I believe is quite close to Dunvegan.

Look forward to reading your recollections of past times. You)) find a wealth of information from this wonderful band of Nostalgia fans.

I hope you enjoy the site.

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