Lenton Times

The Magazine of Lenton Local History Society

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BACK ISSUES 1 - 10
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A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE MAIN ARTICLES

Issues 1, 2, 3 & 6 have now sold out and are now available only online.  We have copies of all the remaining issues.  A brief synopsis of what each of these issues contains is included below.  Our charge for these is the cover price (which ranges from 70p to £1.00) plus the cost of postage and packing.  Anyone wishing to obtain any back copies should click here for more details.

Issue No.1  October 1988
This Issue Is Only Available Online

What The Council Did After They Bought Wollaton Park
For most residents to the west of the City, Wollaton Park must rank as the number one spot in which to get a bit of fresh air and the chance to stretch the legs without the need to leave Nottingham. But we might not have had Wollaton Park at all. In 1921 Sir Jesse Boot had offered to buy the Hall and grounds as a possible site for Nottingham's University College.This is the story of what happened after the City Council bought Wollaton Park.

Before The Golf Course
The parkland surrounding Wollaton Hall has long been a focus for Keith Taylor's twin interests of local and natural history. For a number of years, Keith worked in the park as a part-time ranger. In this article Keith concentrates on the south east corner of the Park, where part of the Wollaton Golf Course is now situated.

Lenton And Surrounding Parishes In 1823
A section of Sanderson's 1835 map of '20 Miles Around Mansfield' showing Lenton and the surrounding parishes. 

The Golf Course
The story of Wollaton Park Golf Course.This photograph, taken by Paul Bexon in October 2000, shows the Crane Houses still in use nearly 75 years on.

The Crane Houses Of Wollaton Park
If you've lived there all your life it's possible you don't find the houses of Wollaton Park Estate at all odd. Certainly outsiders often tend to be struck by the slightly strange appearance of all those bungalows with their tiny walls and huge expanse of roof. You won't find anything quite like them elsewhere in Nottingham and similar estates of such homes are pretty thin on the ground anywhere in Britain. The Wollaton Park Estate was conceived as a bold experiment in new building techniques, one on which the Council ultimately turned its back. We leave it to the reader to decide whether the Council made the right decision.

Mrs. Lowe Remembers
Back in the early 1920s Mrs Anne Lowe ran a shop on Hillside. Here she shares her memories of Hillside, Derby Road, Middleton Boulevard and the Crane Houses of Wollaton Park.

St Mary's And St. Barnabas
As one journeys in and out of Nottingham along the Derby Road the traveller passes the churches of St. Mary's, Wollaton Park and St. Barnabas, Lenton Abbey. This year both congregations have been celebrating their churches' fiftieth anniversary, an added reason for the inclusion of this brief account in the magazine.

Jubilee Tea-towels
We look at the annniversary tea towel, produced for the golden jubilee of St. Mary's and St. Barnabas.

St. Mary's - Les Berry's History
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of St. Mary's Church, Les Berry took it upon himself to produce 'St. Mary's Church, Wollaton Park 1938-1988', a thirty six page guide to the church and its history.  The booklet involved Les in many hours of research ploughing through parish magazines, church records and local papers as he sought all the information he needed to piece together the story behind the church's construction, consecration and subsequent history.

The Lenton Foot-Steeplechase
Each year one Sunday morning in late September or early October spectators eagerly gather at the roadside to cheer on runners as they take part in Nottingham's marathon and half marathon races. But this is not the first event of athletic prowess to happen here, as Lenton Local History Society recently discovered. This is the story of the 1840 'Lenton Foot-Steeplechase'.

Photos Of The Fair At Highfields
Photographs of the 1988 Funfair on Highfields Park

Society Snips
News from the Lenton Local History Society.

Bryan Bailey's Lenton Research
Bryan Bailey is one of that growing tribe of people interested in tracing their family history. One of his distant relatives was William Clayton who established a business beside the canal at Old Lenton. This is the story of  a 'family business.'

Issue No.2  May 1989
This Issue Is Only Available Online

The Story Of The Nottingham Canal
Given the focus of this Issue, we provide the reader with a brief account of the history of the Nottingham canal. 

Letter To The Editor - 1835
"I was yesterday passing by the river Leen and the canal, on my way to Lenton, when I observed numerous groups of youths in and out of the water in a state of complete nudity, amounting to at least a hundred in number, and varying in age from seven to seventeen years. For want of a suitable PRIVATE place of bathing,The canal at Hillside.  The date given is the 1920's, but the large building on Hillside came down to make way for the row of terrace houses, so the photograph is considerably earlier.  Photograph courtesy of Nottinghamshire County Library Service. some of our public walks are to the respectable female population worse than useless, and too frequently subject them to the most indecent and degrading insults"

Lenton And The Canal
Casting his mind back to the inter-war years, Les Berry recalls how the canals in and around Lenton looked, during his childhood and early working life.  

Recollections Of The Hillside Area
After talking to Jack Hill, now aged 86, Keith Taylor wrote down some of Jack's recollections of his childhood here in Lenton before the First World War.   

The Nottingham And Beeston Canal In Recent Years
The odd bit of commercial traffic that continued to use the canal between Nottingham and Beeston finally ceased in the 1960s leaving the waterway clear for leisure craft.  At that time the canal must have been viewed simply as a relic from the past that didn't have much of a future.  As most readers will be aware the situation is now much improved and in fact the Nottingham and Beeston Canal was recently included in a Department of the Environment case study of good practice in urban regeneration.

The Nottingham Canal As It Is Today—Beyond The City Boundary
To conclude our story of the Nottingham canal we provide readers with a brief armchair tour of those sections of the canal that can still be found beyond the City boundary.   

The Friary Housing Development
Back in January 1988 when A.F. Hunt (Builders) Ltd. began work on 'The Friary', no one ever envisaged that this housing development off Gregory Street in Old Lenton was likely to attract national media attention and the probable presence at its official opening of a government minister.  This interest all came about because the houses were subsequently purchased by a Nottingham company and became some of the first in the country to be offered for rent under 'assured tenancy' terms. 

Society Snips
News from the Lenton Local History Society.

Issue No.3  November 1989
This Issue Is Only Available Online

The Story Of The Rose And Crown
The history of The Rose and Crown - Derby Road, Lenton.

Back To The Rose
What of the Rose and Crown prior to 1885 when John Mills took over the tenancy? From the local directories we have assembled a list of those who had been The view of the Derby Road in the 1950's innkeeper there for the previous fifty-seven years.  

The Hillside Malting
In issue No.2.  we told the story of where Jack Hill spent his childhood. Now as a result of Frank Barnes' researches there is much more we can tell you regarding Hillside.

Growing Up In New Lenton In The 1930’s
Len Taylor recalls the Willoughby Street area of his childhood.

Rules Of The Game
Rum Stick A Bum, Tin Lurkey, Hop Charge & Cigarette Card Flicking  - Len Taylor explain the games of his childhood.

Cut Off! - James Green And Francis Evan’s Involvement With The Nottingham Canal
In Issue 2 we included a brief history of the Nottingham canal. Here Frank Barnes has more to relate about two of the men who were intimately involved in its planning and construction and who both bought land and built mansions in the Lenton area. These gentlemen were Francis Evans of Lenton Grove and James Green of Lenton Abbey.  

Family History
Iris M. Keeble explains her family's connection to Lenton.

Society Snips
News from the Lenton Local History Society. 

Issue No.4  June 1990 (price 70p.)

Nottingham Forest and Lenton
For some seven seasons in the 1880s Nottingham Forest F.C. played their home matches at grounds in Lenton.  A piece of sharp practice by their local rivals, Notts County F.C., meant Forest lost the use of the Trent Bridge cricket ground and, in the summer of 1883, was forced to look elsewhere.  The move to the Parkside Ground in Lenton was not an unqualified success.  The pitch sloped badly and the playing surface was rather uneven.  The local press also thought the ground was situated too far out of town.  The Club persevered with the ground for two seasons and then decamped to the Gregory Ground, also in Lenton.  This time the newspapers were full of praise for the new ground even though it was further from the centre of town.  Forest stayed here for five seasons until the Club decided it didn't really fit the bill and in 1890 moved to the Town Ground in the Meadows.  

Set alongside an account of Nottingham Forest's footballing exploits the article explores the changes in the game - the introduction of professionalism, the creation of the Football League, Forest's first experiment with floodlights - all of which happened while Forest was in Lenton. (10 pages)

The Campus: Facing up to its past
On the University campus there is a cliff face traditionally thought to be the work of the river Trent at the time when it flowed in a different pathway.  In his article Frank Barnes reveals that the cliff face is of much more recent origin.  It was created in Etching used as the frontispiece to 'Original Rhymes' by Lucy Joynes (1844) showing a train approaching along the embankment to Nottingham.  On the left are the factories of New Lenton and beyond the open field down in the valley is The Park. (Nottinghamshire County Library Service).then under construction.  Using Frank Barnes' help the reader can even discover on the first Ordnance Survey map of 1839 the presence of a temporary rail track laid to transport rock from the cliff face down to the railway line. (3 pages)

History on a Plate
Brian Howes is a keen collector of early advertising material.  In 1983 he popped into a city centre pub undergoing a major refurbishment to ask if anything of interest was being thrown out.  There was nothing in the advertising line but the workmen reported that they had come across a huge pile of glass photographic negatives stacked in an upstairs room.  They had taken a few samples to a nearby antique/junk shop but as the proprietor had shown no interest the plates had been loaded into the builders' skips.  Most of the plates had already gone off to the tip by then but Brian persuaded the builders to give him a few of those that remained some forty plates.  When he got them home he could see that they showed people standing outside their homes or in front of shop premises.  Suitably intrigued he asked a photographer to make a contact print of each slide.  After a lot of detective work it became clear that some ten of them were taken of people and properties in Lenton and that the photographs dated from the mid 1920s.  A couple of others were probably of locations elsewhere in Nottingham but the rest remained unidentified.  

Our article tried to offer answers as to how these glass plates had come to be in that particular pub and what exactly the photographer was up to.  It seems that inadvertently the builders may have discarded a major photographic archive. (3 pages)

More about Mr Mitchell
In issue No 3 Iris Keeble had written about her great grandfather, David Mitchell, gardener to Thomas Adams, a local lace manufacturer who lived at Lenton Firs, a substantial property now incorporated into the University campus.  Frank Barnes adds some further details about Mr Mitchell. (1 page)

Anyone for Golf?
This is our feature on Lenton Lane Golf Driving Range who sponsored Issue No.4 (1 page)

Issue No.5 February 1991 (price 70p.)

The Fleet's in Town
At the age of 48 Henry Robinson decided he had made enough money to retire.  A life of self-imposed idleness did not suit and when he successfully backed 'Grand Parade' to win the 1919 Derby he decided to invest his winnings in a new In 1921 the Town Arms, Plumptre Square, hired four Robinson char-a-bancs- for their day's outing. The photograph shows Henry Robinson (junior) in the driving seat with the other drivers posing by the rear wheel.  Herbert Robinson is the one standing in the middle.char-a-banc and hire it out for day trips.  He bought Clayton's Wharf and the accompanying property in Old Lenton, resumed a former career of coal merchant and combined this with his new interest in char-a-banc hire.  The combination worked very well.  When the demand for fuel slackened off in the summer the workforce could switch to the char-a-bancs - come the winter it was back to the coal deliveries.  In the next few years he built up the char-a-banc trade and at one point was running twelve vehicles.  The story of his 'Grand Fleet' Char-a-bancs was recalled by 'Bert' Robinson, Henry Robinson's son.   At the time of the article Bert was eighty eight but his memory of those early days of the char-a-bancs was as sharp as ever. (5 pages)

Lenton Gregory F.C.
This is the story of one of Lenton's local football teams.  Founded in 1924 the Club started playing in the Boys Realm League and by 1932 had graduated to the 2nd Division of the Notts Alliance.  In 1934 for reasons not entirely clear the Club decided to disband.  Twelve years later a group of local men decided to re-establish the Lenton 'Gregs' and entered two teams in the Notts Amateur League.  The Club continued for some fifteen years until the members called it a day in the early 1960s.   Albert Ellis who was Club Secretary from 1946 to 1958 provided information about the Club and its footballing exploits, plus all the photographs used in this article. (3 pages) A further article on Lenton Gregs in the 1920's in Issue No.6.

Advertising the Past & Church News 1942
An assemblage of some eighteen adverts for local businesses that first appeared in the Lenton Parish Magazine for July 1942 set alongside some of the Church news from that war-time period. (2 pages)

Local Profile: Iva Keen
Born in Manchester, Jamaica, Iva Keen came to England in the mid 1950s.   At the time of writing her hairdressing business had been part of the Lenton scene for some twenty odd years.  Iva's corner-shop business was the one permanent fixture in a part of Lenton that has seen no end of changes. (2 pages)

Hillside Recollections Part 2
The first half of Jack Hill's Hillside recollections (in Issue No.2) focussed on the stretch of canal that ran alongside Hillside.  In this second helping his recollections take us to various other locations in the Lenton area.  (3 pages)

Our Sponsor's Story
This recounts the history of G.B. Willbond, a plumbers' merchants, who until recently were based on Faraday Road, Lenton. (1 page)  

Issue No.6 October 1991 (price 70p.)
This Issue Is Only Available Online

Down Your Way
Sherwin Road  Sherwin Road is a comparatively recent name for a thoroughfare that may well be very old.  Until the 1880s it was known as Birch Lane and a number of substantial properties, including Flora Cottage, could be found alongside it.  Following the death of its occupant, Flora Cottage and all the associated land were sold on to developers in the 1890s, who had the property demolished and used all the land for building purposes.  The story of this and other housing developments elsewhere on the street is told in this article. (7 pages)

Mirberry Mews and Birch House
Mr Tucker's anti-snoring deviceOne of the other imposing properties on Sherwin road was Birch House which came down in 1970 to make way for a housing development known as Mirberry Mews.  This article looks at what we know about the various occupants of Birch House including a certain John Tucker, who once attempted to patent an anti-snoring device. (2 pages)

At Home with the Bennet-Clarks
The Bennet-Clarks lived at Birch House from 1937 to 1945.  Thomas Archibald Bennet-Clark had been appointed Professor of Botany at University College, Nottingham in 1936 and brought his family to live at Birch House in 1937.  His son, Henry Bennett-Clark, who went on to become a Zoology lecturer at Oxford University, relates something of his family history and recalls his childhood spent in Lenton during the Second World War. (3 pages)

Lenton's Chocolate Factory
After the Bennet-Clarks moved to London Birch House was bought by Leonard Mitson who decided to move his chocolate making business there from premises in Mansfield Road.  For the next twenty years or so Leonard Mitson proudly declared that his chocolates were 'made in the shadow of an Old World Garden Lenton Nottingham'. This article looks at both Mr. Ken Bamford as 'Merrie Man' in his back garden at Highbury Vale 1935Mitson's business activities and his political career.  For a number of years Leonard Mitson served as a City Councillor, to begin with as a Conservative Party nominee but later under the auspices the Labour Party.  (3 pages)

A Little Horse Play
In 1935 the Nottingham & Notts Historical Pageant and Industrial Exhibition was held in the city.  The Pageant involved a large cast of local people in twice-daily performances given outside at Wollaton Park over a period of six days in June.   Ken Bamford was selected to be one of Robin Hood's 'Merrie Men' and he amusingly recounts the trials and tribulations involved in mounting this event. (2 pages)

Lenton Gregory F.C.
 Following the publication of Issue No.5 we received a letter from John Attenborough in Ringwood, Hampshire.  He was the person who actually started the Lenton Gregory Football Club back in 1925.  He corrected a number of errors that had crept into our article and was able to tell us more about those early years including the reasons behind the initial demise of the club. (1 page)  A further article on Lenton football in the 1920's in Issue No.9

Our Sponsor's Story & More about The Boat
Our sponsors were the proprietors of The Boat Inn in Old Lenton.  After a page long feature on the pub as it was in 1991, we added a further two pages which recounted something of the history of this particular hostelry. (3 pages)

Issue No.7 September 1992 (price 80p.)

In 1992 Holy Trinity, the Parish Church in Lenton, celebrated its 150th anniversary.  Consequently the focus for Issue No.7 was 'Holy Trinity Connections'.

Holy Trinity: The Genesis
After a year as curate the Rev. George Browne became vicar of Lenton in 1840 and immediately set about raising sufficient funds to replace the existing parish church.  This he considered to be too small for present purposes, in the wrong part of theThis shows a drawing of Holy Trinity Church carried out prior to the arrival of the railway line in 1848.number of local worthies, sufficient money was raised to get the project underway, and by October 1842 Lenton had its new Parish Church. (3 pages)  

The Inside Story
As tastes changed so the fabric of Holy Trinity was altered.   It also gained stained glass in its windows and the odd extension.  This article outlines the various restorations and additions undertaken since the church was first opened. (4 pages)

Holy Trinity Benefactor: Francis Wright
All the land and a large part of the money needed for the new church were provided by Francis Wright of Lenton Hall.  He had Osmaston Manor built for himself and in 1849 the Wright family left Lenton for Osmaston in Derbyshire.  Francis Wright was one of the partners in the Butterley Company based at Ripley and this article also provides a thumbnail sketch of his business career. (2 pages)

New Lenton 1935
In 1935 an intrepid photographer climbed on to the roof of Holy Trinity's church tower and took a panoramic shot of New Lenton.  Set along side the relevant section of the O.S. map for Nottingham we reproduce the photograph and explore the changes wrought on the area since that time. (2 pages)

Patagonian Missionary: Rev. George Despard
For a short time in the mid 1850s the Rev. George Pakenham Despard was curate at Lenton.  He was a leading light in the Patagonian Missionary Society which wished to bring 'enlightenment' to the native people of Tierra del Fuego in South America.  The natives proved hostile and a number of the missionaries lost their lives.  When a new plan of campaign appeared to be in trouble George Despard resolved to resign his curateship in Lenton, go out to South America and take control himself.   This he did but there was a further tragedy awaiting his fellow missionaries.  George Despard returned to England a disillusioned man and in due course emigrated to Australia. (3 pages)

'At it Again': Helen Watts Lenton's Pioneering Suffragette
Helen Watts was the daughter of Rev. A.H. Watts, vicar of Lenton from 1893 to 1917.  She had become involved in the 'Votes for Women' campaign, hitting the headlines when she was arrested at a suffragette demonstration.  At the resulting court case she was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in Holloway Gaol.  When she came out Helen Watts was in great demand as a speaker at meetings and public functions.  Some of her correspondence and the text of her talks were found in Bristol and copies of these have now been deposited at Nottinghamshire Archives.  Chris Weir, the Senior Archivist, explains what these letters and speeches reveal about our Lenton suffragette. (3 pages) A further article on this subject in Issue No.10.

Holy Trinity Benefactor: W.G. Player
William Goodacre Player, son of John Player of Player's cigarettes, lived for many years at Lenton Hurst.  A devout churchman, W.G. Player, maintained close links with Lenton Parish Church.  We provide a short history of the Players' business, including more recent events, while focussing on W.G. Player and his various acts of munificence both within Lenton and elsewhere in Nottingham. (3 pages)

Issue No.8  May 1993 (price 80p.)

Trams and Lenton
This is a history of trams in Nottingham with particular reference to Lenton.  Two tram services served Lenton.  The route of the first, opened in 1902, ran along the Boulevards.  The second arrived in 1914 and came along Derby Road as far asCastle Boulevard (or Lenton Boulevard as it was then known) in the region of Chippendale Street showing the central poles still in situ along with some of the residents of the nearby streets.  Photo reproduced courtesy of David Ottewell. Gregory Street.  There were periodic suggestions as to how the tram network might be extended but the only proposal to come to fruition in Lenton was a short extension to the Derby Road route to serve the needs of the Wollaton Park housing estate. (6 pages)

Assisting Family Historians with their Enquiries
The burial plans for Holy Trinity churchyard have failed to survive which makes it very difficult for anyone trying to locate a particular gravestone. The Family History Society surveyed the surviving headstones in 1981 and published a list of the monumental inscriptions found there.  They didn't however, indicate where to find each grave.  Members of Lenton Local History Society resurveyed the graveyard in 1992 and as a result we can now provide a specific location for most of those headstones listed in the 1981survey.  They also found another ninety inscriptions not listed in the 1981 survey and the relevant details are given in this issue. (4 pages)

Dunkirk Cricket Club Remembered
In 1948 at a meeting held in the Dunkirk Hotel six local lads agreed to form a cricket team.  Among them was John Watkins who remained an active participant in the Club for the  next thirty years.  It is his memories which form the basis of this article. (3 pages)

Eric's Store
The Church Square shopping precinct opened in 1968 as a replacement for all the shops that had been lost when the Willoughby street area was demolished in the early 1960s.  Eric Denham & Dennis Boden had run a grocers/greengrocers in the old Willoughby Street.  They managed to find alternative premises when they had to leave Willoughby Street.  They kept the business going while they waited for their shop unit in the new shopping precinct to be made ready.  In autumn 1968 they moved in.  It was not the immediate success the two men had hoped for and Dennis Boden decided to quit and take a job with the G.P.O.  Eric and his wife Jean resolved to carry on and the story of what happened in subsequent years can be read in this article. (3 pages)

Our Sponsor's Story: Genristo
Based on Prospect Place in New Lenton, Genristo make electric heating components which are incorporated into a wide range of industrial equipment. (1 page)

Issue No.9 November 1995 (price £1)

On the Trail of Clifton Boulevard: Part 1
In 1925 the City Council unveiled its plans for a major new road system which would run round the western side of Work in progress on reducing the gradient of what will become Clifton Boulevard.  We are looking towards Dunkirk.  Wilford Power Station is on the left of the horizon and Linday's soap works on the right.  Photograph courtesy of Nottinghamshire County Library Service.Nottingham and link into Valley Road at Basford.  The first portion of this outer ringroad appeared with the building of Middleton Boulevard which was opened in 1927/28.  This was followed by Western Boulevard which was formally opened by the Minister of Transport in November 1932.  The next section, opened in late 1938, was the modest stretch of road running from Middleton Boulevard down to Beeston Road which enabled vehicles to travel on into Nottingham via Abbey Street and Abbey Bridge or out to Beeston via University Boulevard.  The story of the road's construction and what had to go to make way for it form the subject of this article.  (5 pages)

Lenton: Passing Memories
Although Peter d'Auvergne spent his entire childhood in Beeston he had good reason to pass through Lenton on a regular basis.  His mother ran a boot and shoe shop on Ilkeston Road and during the school holidays he would often accompany her as she walked to and from work.  His memories of those regular perambulations take in Lenton Firs and of Sir Thomas Shipstone; the Raleigh cycle works; relatives who lived in Chippendale Street; Wollaton Park; University Park and Highfields Lido  - he recalls in a very engaging manner. (3 pages)

Archives and Lenton
Chris Weir's article on Nottinghamshire Archives explores the development of the Archive Service and gives readers some indication of what Lenton material can be found there. (4 pages)

Making the News: Snippets from the Past
One of the on-going projects carried out by the Society is a scrutiny of old Nottingham newspapers looking for items with a Lenton connection.  This piece is an assemblage of news items from the years 1832-1835. (3 pages)

Football: The Local Scene 70 years ago
Drawing on information contained within an old copy of the Nottingham Journal Football Guide Brian Howes describes what it reveals about the local football scene in the early 1920s. (1 page)

Midland Avenue Fire Watchers
When the first German bombing raids commenced in 1940 people in Nottingham began to organise themselves into neighbourhood groups.  The intention was to mount night-time patrols to keep a look-out for incendiary bombs being dropped and help minimise the damage they might cause.  Marshall Atkin, who provides us with this account, was one of a number of volunteers who shared this task in the Midland Avenue area of Lenton. (2 pages)

What's Going On?
In a superb photograph from the late 1920s a crane can be seen lifting the superstructure of a railway carriage into or out of a barge moored beside the river Trent.  But what exactly is going on?  The accompanying text provides the explanation. (1 page)

Our Sponsor's Story: La Grenouille Restaurant
In 1976 Yves Bouanchaud resolved to open a restaurant in Nottingham serving authentic French cuisine.  He acquired premises in Lenton and twenty years later was still running his restaurant.  La Grenouille remains part of the Lenton scene although Yves Bouanchaud has now sold the business. (1 page)

Issue No.10 October 1996 (price £1)

On the Trail Of Clifton Boulevard: Part 2
The story behind the construction of second half of Clifton Boulevard which stretches from Abbey Street/Beeston Road, over the river Trent and on up to the junction with A60 is long and involved.  It starts with the compulsory purchase in 1938 of theOur present day photograph, taken by Paul Bexon, is the view of Clifton Boulevard looking south from an upper floor of the Engineering Tower on the Nottingham University campus.requisite land needed to take the road as far as the river Trent and only concludes in 1995 with the most recent road and bridge-widening scheme. (8 pages)

The Lenton Heliport
In 1956 BEA began to operate a helicopter service between Nottingham and Birmingham.  The story behind this venture and the reasons for its ephemeral existence are charted in the course of this article. (1 page)

Mark Cockerill - A Lenton Bobbie
During the latter part of the nineteenth century Police Constable Mark Cockerill was based in Lenton.  Mary Pick, his granddaughter, recounts some of the family tales of life on the Lenton beat at that time.  Her most sensational story involves the occasion when he was bitten by rabid dog in 1886.  Only the year before Louis Pasteur had announced that he had finally developed a vaccine which would prevent the onset of rabies in humans.  The members of the Watch Committee agreed that P.C. Cockerill should be sent to Paris to get the necessary treatment.  Having set something of a precedent, the Watch Committee subsequently paid for several other Nottingham citizens to travel to France for the same treatment. (3 pages)

Manslaughter at New Lenton?
In October 1836 the jury at an inquest held at the White Hart in Lenton returned a verdict of manslaughter on Henry Thomas Mortimer.  They considered he had not done all that he should while attending the deceased, one Maria Castles, in his role as an accoucheur.  For those unfamiliar with the term, an accoucher was a man who assisted women at childbirth.  We recount the details of the subsequent trial held at the Shire Hall in March 1837 and go on to reveal a little of what we have discovered about the principle participants.  As for the result of the court case - seek out Issue No.10. (3 pages)

Helen Kirkpatrick Watts: Portrait and Politics of A Nottingham Suffragette
Richard Whitmore offers a further instalment in the life of Helen Watts.  Drawing on the papers held at Nottinghamshire and other source material he provides an analysis of her political beliefs and details other protests which led to a second prison sentence, this time at Leicester. (4 pages)

Our Sponsor's Story: E.A.M.
In 1987 Edwin [Eddy] Alexander Maxwell moved his home and business premises to 45 Clifton Boulevard, Lenton.  In 1998 the E.A.M. Building Group was declared 'Best Business with over 20 Employees' in that year's East Midlands Ethnic Business Awards organised by Nottingham First Enterprise. (1 page)

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