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Not many posts for south of the Trent so here goes,

What memories do you have of Clifton Grove? I'm thinking about the "Ice House" at the church end of the grove or the Hall that was a school in my day and what games (keep it clean) slywink etc did you get upto in that area?

Rog

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When we was kids, we used to walk along the side of the Trent to 'Monkey Island'

I think that was near Clifton Grove?

Is there still an island in the Trent there?

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God, I could go on for a long time about the place

We lived at the bottom end of Clifton, and we'd walk up through the Grove to the village. I can even remember having picnics in the Grove on a Sunday afternoon. On a few occasions we'd go the opposite direction down towards Fairham Brook and the newly-built Clifton Bridge, but that was boring because it was just a few open fields, and those fields partly disappeared with the building of the Clifton Grove housing estate in the early 1970s. Before that estate was built there was a path which went from Clifton Lane (near the traffic lights at the bottom) through in to the Grove. I can remember driving a battered-up old motorbike along that path with a few mates, when I was about 14. Pretending to be bike-scrambling,

Back then, the path through the Grove up to Clifton Village was lined on both sides by mature elm trees. In the outbreak of dutch elm disease in the early 1980s those trees were all destroyed/chopped down, and I remember being there once in the late 1980s and being gobsmacked at the change. That top path was no longer had trees on both sides, it was just a wide open space, completely lost all its atmosphere. By now (25 years on) I'd guess the replacement trees have probably grown a bit and maybe the place is getting back to what it used to be.

Walking up through the Grove (when the elm trees were still there) towards the village, you eventually came to a fence around a small wood, and to get any further you had to cross a stile into a field. That was pretty exotic for an 8 year old kid from a council housing estate, and on the other side of that field you came to another stile, and then out onto the road in the centre of Clifton village. Those fields and stiles all disappeared in the early 1970s under a housing development. In fact, Clifton village lost its "village-ness" by the end of the 1960s.

There is still a village shop in Clifton, but there also used to be another part-time shop which only opened in summer for things like ice-cream and sweets. It was really just a house with a sign above the door, and to buy something it was like going in someone's back door and hanging around in the kitchen. Like a carryover from the 1920s (not that I remember back that far).

As a kid I can remember climbing up and down the steep bank on the edge of the river; and in the present Health and Safety-obsessed days, adults would have nightmares about how we used to knock around so close to the water. You could play hide-and-seek on a whole new level when you had embankments and trees and bushes and riverbanks. Usually, the idea of kids living on a council housing estate in the 1960s brings up images of hanging around on the streets with nothing to do; so looking back now, to have Clifton Grove so near as an extra playground was incredible.

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quite right Mick, Monkey island, in summer if the Trent was low you could walk across to the island from the grove real Huckleberry Fin/Tom Sawyer stuff,

Cliff Ton, some great memories there, I remember the village (part time )shop you mentioned and yes it was mainly iced cream and small amounts of sweets they sold, penny chews,arrow bars and stuff like that I think they used to sell frozen Jublies as well, that walk you spoke of with the stiles either end used to come out near to a good scrumping garden, in order to scrump the apples the raid had to be planned with military precision oh halcyon days, keep the memories coming

Rog

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  • 1 month later...

i used ta always go down the grove, fishin/bods nestin/tree climbin an me bestis mate ad a diana 177? an a webley. we would usually get there via the coke pathway an go strait dahn the bank to the trent an usually fish after scoungin some maggots,there was always the regulars there,one such chap who used to be there regularly fished where the bank dropped down suddenly, e only ad one eye an he would be leisurin for chub,anyone remember him,he was gettin on then.i made a canoe at compo an we often took it on the river,it wa great, will av ta take a trip down to capture the smells an the sounds(of the weir)an spray. remember the foam most tea times.

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  • 1 year later...

I remember going fishing with my Dad in Clifton Grove and watching the foam going down the river - always thought it came from Boots at Beeston. Sometimes there was more foam than river in view! There was also a pond - Home Pit or something - that I think was an oxbow of the river, down behind Clifton Hall.

Not far from the village shop is where the Grove path came into the village, but I'd forgotten about it till you mentioned it. I think the main shop in the village used to be the Post Office at one time, run by a man called Goerge? Allen, although the original Post Office was down near the dovecotes, I think. They used to play cricket on the field behind there and our parents would take us to watch, but we always had to come home early when they let the cows back in the field, as my Mum was scared of them.

I also recall the little part time shop that sold icecreams. And several of the old cottages used to sell apples and pears in season.

There also used to be a gamekeepers? cottage near the school, opposite the Hall stables, but after the old fellow died, two new very modern houses were built there instead.

Edit: just found a picture of the gamekeeper's cottage, but apparently it was the coachman's cottage, on Picture our Past

NTGM019563.jpg

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  • Shame the old village has been spoilt by these new buildings, still got my memories of the place though, thats something the planners can't do away with,

Rog

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The Foam on the Trent I can remember.

Went with the smell.

Also in the river at that location was a little island

which we called Monkey Island

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Forgotten about Monkey island, The Grove was our playground fishing, swimming,climbing,geling. Remember in the early years we still went out as a family unit just to walk through and then sit on the village green near the dovecote, there was a huge rookery just across the main road and when they started up it was so easy to imagine yourself right in the middle of rural England instead of just across the road from one of the largest estates in the country. Dad loved it! he knew the area before the estate was even planned having been in service at Thrumpton Hall in the thirties.

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  • 1 year later...

Yes, Cliff Ton - those are the houses that replaced the old cottage. I think they started building them in the 1960s or 1970s and for a long time, they remained half-built and left standing like that. Presumably the builder ran out of money or couldn't find buyers.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I used to go fishing down there. Through the gate near the entrance to Clifton Hall school and down the track then across what I knew as Jelly island, the ground really did feel like jelly. Then to a pond of some sort with huge concrete blocks in. It was very near the weir. I used bread as bait or silkweed from the edge of the weir, it had little water snails in it.

I once swam across the Trent from Clifton Grove to Beeston side and back. I must have been mad. And I got a scar there that I still have. Whilst swimming my arm went over a broken bottle and gashed it. Lots of blood, but no stitches, but the scar's still there more than 50 years later, faint but there.

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And I've just remembered something else. On the way home I would try and go to the old blacksmith's house on Glapton Lane behind the police station and ask for a glass of water. They had a well in their garden and the water was lovely. The blacksmith's name was Jack Jack, I think. I don't remember a working forge there though.

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Slightly surprisingly, the former forge is still there. It's been a private house for many years; it would be really nice if it wasn't surrounded by the estate.

http://goo.gl/maps/1BU3a

I'd forgotten about the 'Jack Jack' thing. I'm sure that wasn't his real name but I remember him being referred to in that way. I don't think I ever saw or met the person though.

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Thanks for the reminder about Jack Jack Bing, I remember him well, I think I've mentioned him before in a post, we used to take our bicycle wheels to him to have them trued up after them being buckled, I think he charged about 3d each back in the mid 60's, by the time we got to the top of Farnborough road they were as bad again

Rog

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Talking of the village green and the dovecote, I remember they used to hold a fete and gala (as it was called) on the green. There were stalls and (I think) Morris dancers.

And there used to be bowling with the prize of a piglet. (Please tell me I didn't imagine that bit!)

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  • 5 months later...

Bump (apparently).

Anyone remember the wild area at the side of Swansdown Road/Southchurch Drive, where the leisure centre is now? Our little gang used to take jam sandwiches and "pop" down there in the summer holidays. There was a little stream that ran through it on its way to Fairham Brook. I think it surfaced near the bottom of Green Lane and ran through Glapton behind the blacksmiths and along the front of Glapton School. Some of the "ditch" that it ran in is still there in front of the school I think?

And how about the old Youth Club on Southchurch Drive near the "top shops"? It was used as the Catholic Church in the early days, but on Saturday mornings in the summer they used to show films like Reach for the Sky and The Dambusters and you could get Arrow Bars and chews to scoff while you watched.

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Anyone remember the wild area at the side of Swansdown Road/Southchurch Drive, where the leisure centre is now? Our little gang used to take jam sandwiches and "pop" down there in the summer holidays. There was a little stream that ran through it on its way to Fairham Brook. I think it surfaced near the bottom of Green Lane and ran through Glapton behind the blacksmiths and along the front of Glapton School. Some of the "ditch" that it ran in is still there in front of the school I think?

I know the stream you mean. Some of it is still visible, although some of it was culverted in the 1970s, and when that was done the parts which stayed open were straightened out so that it didn't really look like a "wild" stream any more, and a lot of the bushes on the bank were removed; so it ended up a bit like an industrial channel. If you look on Streetview you can see the various sections.

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Hi Riddo the stream is still there in the same place kids still play in the stream, as for the youth club it was a wooden hut, it stood on what is now the Morrisons delivery yard, the British Legion was just across the road and it was also used by the Citizen Advice Bureau

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Re post #3. Cliff Ton, me and the wife went over to Clifton Village just after the new year for a look at St Mary's Church and Clifton Hall etc. Hadn't been that way for a few years, so good to see that not a lot had changed in that time - except the area to the side of Clifton Hall. It was gated off to Joe Public and new (to us) housing round the back of St Mary's.

We took a walk into the Grove from the car park opposite the church. It must be over 30 years since we last did this. What a shame about all the elm trees! The main path that ran between them seemed much narrower than we remembered and there's a lot of low-growing "scrub" all over the place.Like you say, none of the old atmosphere at all. We abandoned it as a bad job and cut back by way of the cut through leading into the "new" village.

I remember the "black path" route; it was often the scene for older kids threatening to do all sorts of horrors to us little 'uns. What about the Spinney in the middle of the field just up the hill from the path? There was often a rope swing set up on one of the trees and the drop below you as you swung out over the steep bank was terrifying!

At that time (1960/61) we had a gang, and us leaders decided that any new members would have to undergo an initiation ceremony. This consisted of being thrown (i.e. pushed hard) down the banks of the Grove about midway between the village and the black path, so pretty steep around there. Some bright spark thought that if we expected new members to survive this ordeal, then maybe we ought to prove ourselves worthy by taking it in turns to be launched into the void too! After we'd all had a go, we thought it wasn't that bad. But strangely we never did get any new members. err....

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And another thing....

#16 VW Golf. They still hold a "fete & gala" type thing on May Day in the spot you describe, outside the old Village Hall (where we had our wedding reception back in '69). I remember seeing kids dancing round a Maypole too at one time, maybe in the '90s. The last time we went was 2008 and by then it had declined to a few stalls with an ice cream and burger vans. The Village Hall itself is kept in good nick and used for meetings/talks/kid's parties etc. Whether this will continue once there's four lanes of HGVs within 50 yards remains to be seen.

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My memories of Clifton Grove and the Dovecote area.

At the bottom of the track past the old church I seem to remember a flat field leading to the river.

In the summertime the field became cracked and paved, but took on a kind of "springiness" as you walked over it.

Vividly remember the foam it was like white tumbleweed and had a certain kind of aroma.....

We once crossed the river with our bikes in some sort of ferryboat??

This was on our way to Toton to carry out a spell of trainspotting, came back through Beeston / Highfields then over Clifton Bridge.

Often played both football and cricket using the walls of the Dovecote as stumps or a goal.

An interruption to the games was usually brought about by a South Notts bus pausing at the adjacent Bus stop.

Everyone would look to see if their parents / brother / sister or anyone they knew would be getting off.

This event gradually reduced the number in the team until it became pointless carrying on.

I can remember the Maypole dancing and also a fireworks display in the field now occupied by the University.

The shop further up in the village on the right had (I think) a series of steps leading up to the entrance.

I'm sure the owner was a Mr Reckless?

The church was very spooky and inside had lots of strange crypts etc, not for the fainthearted at dusk.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Back in my school days at Clifton Hall, there were a lot more gravestones than when I visited last year, plus an old crypt of some sort. Reckless was a name that featured on some of the headstones and I always used to think how marvellous it would be to have a surname like that.

George Allen had the shop on the right during the Sixties, as one of his daughters came to the school.

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I never paid much attention to Clifton village church when I was a kid; I ought to go back now and have a closer look at everything there.

Back in my school days at Clifton Hall, there were a lot more gravestones than when I visited last year, plus an old crypt of some sort. Reckless was a name that featured on some of the headstones and I always used to think how marvellous it would be to have a surname like that.

The Reckless family had several people who were sheriff of Nottingham. Take a look at this list around 1590-1610 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff_of_Nottingham_(position)

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