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Digging around in family history research has produced another surprise for me; discovered my dad was born in 1925 at a house on Stockhill Circus - never knew we had any links with that part of Nottingham.

I assume they were "council houses" or whatever they were called back then; or could they have been privately owned at that time?

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Hi Cliff Ton, Stockhill was a council estate but it must have been the creme de la creme of council estates because it was really lovely around there in the 1950's. Across the way was Stockhill park, which had lots of land surrounding; including a bowling green and a tennis court. The park was beautifully kept like all the parks back then: Park Attendant and Gardeners.

In the summer hols we kids from off Amesbury Circus - another beautiful council estate - would do a tour of the parks: starting off on Amesbury Circus park, next Stockhill park and then we'd complete our tour on Vernon Road park.

Perhaps Aspley Library - an excellent library - just down the road from the Stockhill estate has some information regarding the estate if there's not much online.

When I worked for the WRVS some years back I had a lovely friend called Rita - lost touch - and she'd tell me about the glorious years she'd spent living on Stockhill and attending the Manning Grammar School.

Back then it was a place where I would have liked to have lived.

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That park was known locally as Cinderhill Park...and Cliff Ton,your Dad must have been born in a very new council house..they had only just started building the estate then.

I was raised on Llanberis Grove just up the road which was built in 1936...This 1920s map shows the Stockhill Estate half built.The Stockhill circus is already in place but not completely surrounded by houses yet. Llanberis Grove (arrowed) at this time had yet to be built in the grounds of a mansion house.And Broxtowe estate still open fields.

da72025d.jpg

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your Dad must have been born in a very new council house..they had only just started building the estate then.

That's something I've recently learned! And I also seem to have the same 1920s map as you. The house in question is actually shown on the map but gets slightly lost in the crease (on the corner of Bowness Avenue). It was obviously one of the very early ones

circus.jpg

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Stockhiil Estate was where lots of people from Aspley wanted to move to, I can recall adverts in the local newsagents windows looking for 'exchanges' from Aspley to Stockhill, my mam said it was because of the elevated position giving great views + good bus routes & decent schools nearby, & the fact that there was just a few houses, making them much sought after.

'Exchanges' were a system allowed by the council at that time, is it still allowed now? perhaps if it was you'd have people trading down as well as up, helping to cure the housing problems??

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Apparently Stockhill was the first council estate to be built in Nottingham.

 

Stockhill Estate: white, pebble-dashed houses with plenty of land around - perhaps that's what made Stockhill, Queen of the Council House Estates.

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They didn't all have large gardens though...The outstanding examples of those that did in Nottingham are some corner plots on Aspley Estate and many houses on Western Boulevard.

I live in one of these era houses in Sutton in Ashfield and could park 5 buses on my front garden.Today they would build those three storey rabbit hutches you see everywhere with postage stamp gardens.

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We lived at 458 Aspley lane, large corner plot, put mainly to grass. My dad would insist it was mowed every week in summer, by me!!, or no pocket money.

I was 'over the moon' when, after 3 years, he purchased a Suffolk Colt? lawnmower, all been done previuosly by push type mower..............

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Hi Paulus, did you know my grandma and grandad?; they lived on Aspley Lane in a double - I'm sure it was amongst the 400's, if you know what I mean. Their surname was Jackson and they had a son Peter who went to Peveril and then on up to Bilborough Grammar; this would be about very late 50's, early 60's.

Grandma and grandad had a massive garden: at the front, down the side and especially at the back. They spent hours in the garden, making it well landscaped, also growing their own produce. Lovely red brick house, almost like a vast cottage they made it. Happy times.

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Paulus, I forgot to mention the adverts in the newsagents' shop windows; used to make good reading when walking home, or on a Sunday afternoon when there wasn't much to do. 6d a week (2 and a half pence) for advertising, not bad. There was a newsagents near to Western Blvd, opposite Crown Island, absolutely jam packed with adverts; you could spend ages - absorbed in reading - your face glued to the window on a Sunday afternoon!

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  • 8 years later...

I recently discovered that in 1939, my great aunt, Rose Olive Bowles (nee SAUNT) lived at 34 Stockhill Circus with her second husband, George Bowles. Hubby number one died in The Great War.

 

My mother always told me that those houses were the first to be built by the City Council in Nottingham. They were also the first to be modernised in the mid 70s.

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The name Stockhill Circus rang a bell with me, going back to my family history research.

 

My father was adopted when he was around 10-12 years old (difficult to find the exact, official date) but he was born - and spent the first 6 or 7 years of his life - at 25 Stockhill Circus.

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Nottingham Corporation, in 2020,  are celebrating 100 years of the council house. I'm guessing the Stockhill Estate was that first one to be built.

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3 hours ago, Jill Sparrow said:

I recently discovered that in 1939, my great aunt, Rose Olive Bowles (nee SAUNT) lived at 34 Stockhill Circus with her second husband, George Bowles. Hubby number one died in The Great War.

 

My mother always told me that those houses were the first to be built by the City Council in Nottingham. They were also the first to be modernised in the mid 70s.

My granddad and his 2nd wife Rose M Burns lived at number 35 until his death in 1952. My mother lived there in 1938 when she married my father who lived at 5 Thorndale.

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Perhaps they knew each other, Dave!  After George Bowles died in 1940, my great aunt moved to Reydon Drive as her sister, Lily Baker, lived there at number 49. I believe they lived next door to each other for a couple of years until Rose died in 1944. Lily continued to live at number 49 until 1967.

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16 hours ago, davep5491 said:

My granddad and his 2nd wife Rose M Burns lived at number 35 until his death in 1952. My mother lived there in 1938 when she married my father who lived at 5 Thorndale.

 

19 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

My father.... was born - and spent the first 6 or 7 years of his life - at 25 Stockhill Circus.

 

My grandparents from there (who I never met)  probably knew your grandparents - 5 doors away. Mine were there in the late 1920s.

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Jill, Cliff Ton Considering the proximity of our ancestors to each other it would be a good bet that they knew each well, perhaps even friends. My granddad was a keen gardener and between 35 Stockhill  and my other granddad's house on Thorndale I spent enjoyable times with chickens, and gorging on gooseberries and blackcurrants before being treated to a visit to the original Lord Nelson on Percy street.

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  • 1 year later...

After researching my maternal grandparents The Brooks, I found out that my Great Grandparents William and Henrietta brook's lived on the Stockhill Estate and had 17 children, a few of the family married and settled in the area, including Bar Lane. Their 2nd child was my Grandfather Albert Brooks who I never saw, and another son went on to own Nottingham scrap metal in Radford. I have recently discovered that they are laid to rest in a Bulwell cemetery. 

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