Lenton Times

The Magazine of Lenton Local History Society

The Lenton Listener- Archive Articles - The Lenton Listener was a neighbourhood magazine produced between 1979-88 for Lenton Community Association 

In the years since the photograph above was taken, the small cottages in the foreground of the picture have all been demolished, but the continued presence of the huge building to the rear, albeit with certain structural alterations, should make the location easy to identify.  Most readers, however, would probably find it difficult to place the house in the photograph to the left, even though it is still standing today - such are the alterations it has undergone.  In 1908 it was the home of Arthur Tetley (second left in the picture), described in the City Directory for that year as a letter carrier.  These days the building houses part of the general store and newsagency presently run by M.D. and Y.A. Elliman on Leengate.

Number 4 now stands alone, but formerly there were shops either side, as can be seen from extracts taken from the City Directories.  Old Lenton's post office was housed at number 8 until about 1920, when the business was transferred to its present location on Abbey Street.  A corner of No. 8 can be seen on the right of the cover photograph, though by this time it was a general grocery shop.  The name plate visible on the cottage (No.10) reads 'Tanner's Yard'.  This led to a small block of three storey maisonettes which were locally referred to as 'the barracks' - though quite why is not clear.  In the 1920s and 1930s, No. 10 housed the Singleton family.  Mr. Singleton was employed by the Nottingham Gas Company as the local gas light attendant.  Every evening at dusk, he went out armed with his long pole to light each of the street lights of Old Lenton and Dunkirk.  He would then have to rise early each morning to turn them out.  During the day he could be found, ladder on shoulder, walking about the area, cleaning and maintaining the lighting.

For many years the Roe family ran a dairy business from premises at No. 12.  Their cows were usually kept in fields on the opposite side of the road. When Jack Roe died in the late 1930s, the buildings were bought by a Mr. Farnsworth as a depot for the milk from his Trentside Farm.  With the exception of No. 4, Leengate was cleared of these old build­ings in the early 1960s and the site of No. 12 provided the site of the new home for the Monty Hind Boys Club which moved there in 1967 from its old premises on Willoughby Street.  Just as the Boys Club was establishing itself on Leengate, Bayley's the leather dressers were closing down after many years in Lenton.  The Bell Fruit Company subsequen­tly took over the buildings and, as most people know, are still there.  Among the articles we are eager to write is one on the Bayley’s factory, but it appears that all the company’s documents have now been destroyed.  If anyone can help us with information or photographs, we should be delighted to hear from them.