Nottm bus routes 1940s


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I've dug out an old 'Guide to Nottingham' which belonged to my parents, and one of the items in it is this map of bus services in Nottingham. It shows things as they were around mid-1940s. You can zoom in on it quite a bit to see things like route numbers.

Probably a bit of a rarity

Motor buses are red, trolleys are green

busmap.jpg

DOWNLOADABLE HIGH RES IMAGE BELOW:

post-1-021934300 1281715322_thumb.jpg

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A Robinson designed ex Creat CentralĀ O4 actually !

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Fascinating! Thank you for this!

There`s the number 40 trolley that whisked us up Wilford Road to town! I remember the destination board read, "Wells Road" and there it is at the end of the line.

If we wanted to go to Woolies etc we asked for 'The Fountain'. Sometimes wondered why there wasn`t actually a fountain there.

Ee - `appy days!

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If we wanted to go to Woolies etc we asked for 'The Fountain'. Sometimes wondered why there wasn`t actually a fountain there.

Ee - `appy days!

The Fountain near Woolies on Lister Gate would've been the Walter Memorial Fountain which was just outside where Woolies was.

Not sure when it disappeared but it was gone before my time. Here's a picture of it which I've borrowed from 'Picture the Past'

WalterFountain.jpg

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Brilliant map Cliff, thanks for sharing with us.

I was surprised also that it actually shows the railway station at Bulwell Hall Park, you dont see that on many maps.

I remember as a boy being dragged around the city on saturdays and I coudnt wait to see the 44 trolley come into the market square and take us home to Bulwell.

Owdtite.

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...I was surprised also that it actually shows the railway station at Bulwell Hall Park, you dont see that on many maps.

Despite featuring on a 40's map, Bulwell Hall Halt actually closed to traffic in May 1930.

Was mainly used by golfers playing at Nottingham City Golf Course.

No pictures of the Halt are known to exist...

Cheers

Robt P.

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Odd also that you could get a bus to Northern cemetary but NOT to the General hospital.

Often used the NCT 35 to visit my dad's grave...

The service ran from just south of Bulwell Market and, IIRC, was usually only operational at week-ends.

During the 50's the vehicle allocated was a magnificent single-decker, complete with plush leather seating.

Cheers

Robt P.

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...Probably a bit of a rarity...

Certainly is...many thanks for posting!

Reckon most, if not all, of these routes and route numbers remained the same until the great cull of all the NCT services, in the 80's/90's??

Cheers

Robt P.

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Brilliant Post Cliff.

If you contact me direct, I will make provision for a better quality copy to be available on the site.

You will see a sepperate thread develop from this soon.

I have a cunning plan!

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Most of the population back then was in the high density areas like St Anns, the Meadows etc.

Look at older maps of Nottingham going back to the early 1800's and you will find it only a small city with dozens of older villages surrounding it, Radford, Wollaton, Gedling just to name three!! All pretty small around 1800.

Was the industrial revolution that populated Nottingham starting with the sinking of Collieries, then came large textile mills, then engineering factories of the early 1900's.

The Meadows was just that in 1800, "The Kings Meadows" grazing lands prone to flooding almost annually.

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Have mentioned this before but a tram pole came off the wire and hit the walter fountain knocking off a lump which fell on to and killed a chap walking past! no other details or when etc. anyway heres an interesting photo, remember when we were all moaning last winter re lack of road gritting? any guess as regards the year? easy for those in the know!NTGM008436.jpg

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Judging by the sign, I'd say during the war years, 1944??

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Cliff has provided me with a high res image which is now attached to the OP.

If anyone has the time to resize it and stamp it with Downloaded from Nottstalgia.Com,

(To prevent redistribution without our name) I would appreciate it.

And thanks again Cliff.

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The trolley has war time h/lamp diffusers, so it has to be 39-45.

From The Times:

Ice storms are much rarer in Britain, but the worst incident struck during the Second World War. In January 1940, the country was gripped by an Arctic freeze, when freezing rain fell for 2 days over southern Britain. Roads turned into ice rinks, and many places sounded like a battlefield with the explosion of splitting trees, timber and cables.

Pheasants and rabbits were frozen in ice and could be caught by hand, birds were stuck to branches and even brought down in mid-flight by ice on their wings. Traffic was brought to a standstill and some drivers were trapped in their cars by frozen doors and windows. But reports of the ice storm were censored to prevent the enemy getting any useful information about the disaster. Only after the end of the war was the scale of the icestorm revealed.

Original story

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Re the "bus in the snow" photo, def wartime, theres a signpost that says "shelter" behind it, also the bus has the blackout white paint at various points as well as the mentioned light shutters, the bus, a 37 is pictured at junction of nottingham rd and mansfield rd, pre ww2 there were no islands there with nottm rd joining mansfield rd at a tee junction, no idea where/how gregory boulevard joined up? Looking at that map it would appear theres been a slip up with the drawing of the roads, or was there a different route for the 41 trolley bus as it shows that went past end of Bagnall Road?

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Alpine Street/Percy Street/Stockhill Lane (as drawn) is correct for the 41 route...

The error seems to be the drafting of Bagnall Lane end, which runs off Mill Street and not Stockhill Lane.

Cheers

Robt P.

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"The error seems to be the drafting of Bagnall Lane end, which runs off Mill Street and not Stockhill Lane."

yes that's what I thought, funny as they (the artist) manage to get the then disused Dark Lane tram route from stockhill lane to nuthall rd on show, the route of that and raised "trackbed" can still be seen in parts (or could 8 yrs ago went I left the area)

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Hi folks

I'm still here, I shall be getting back on line when the new computer arrives shortly and the Broadband server is organised, meanwhile been working full time and long hours for the past few weeks.

What intrigues me is the picture of the horse bus. It looks as if the picture was taken immediately post war, so what happened to it, was it one of those gems that the Council in their wisdom couldn't be bothered to preserve and thus got rid of, a bit like the last trolleybus which should have gone straight to the also now defunct Industrial Museum, but was fortunately saved in the end by a private individual and now lives in Sandtoft, Yorkshire, along with several other NCT trolleybuses that the LA couldn't wait to dump rather than save even one for posterity.

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What intrigues me is the picture of the horse bus. It looks as if the picture was taken immediately post war, so what happened to it, was it one of those gems that the Council in their wisdom couldn't be bothered to preserve and thus got rid of,

It was me who posted that picture, and I borrowed it from 'Picture the Past'.

According to them that photo shows "Special horse bus outing for the 50 Year celebrations of Nottingham Corporation Tramways in October 1947"

And apparently the Fountain was demolished "in the 1950s"

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