Castle Boulevard - Lenton

Photographs | Lenton Listener Archive | Family Memories | Street Map

Photographs
Click on each photograph below  to show the enlarged version

Lenton Listener Archive
Articles from 'The Lenton Listener' Magazine

The Story of the Tin Chapel - Issue 27 (Nov - Dec 1983)
The Birth of the Boulevard - Issue 33 (Mar - Apr 1985)
The Rock Chapel of St Mary - Issue 39 (Apr - May 1987)

Family Memories

Trevor Stainforth
Born in Nottingham in 1946 I was brought up in West Bridgford and later on in Radcliffe on Trent. However in 1964 I left for Australia in 1964 along with my parents and have been out in Australia ever since.

In the late 50s my father was the proprietor of the Shell Garage in Castle Boulevard, situated on the site which is now occupied by a set of modern apartment blocks. At the rear of the building was a series of caves. At the immediate rear was a small entrance which was partially covered by a brick wall and which opened out into several chambers. The rock chambers didn't lead anywhere as they had all been bricked up. At the northern or Castle end of the garage was a very large cave entrance and similar sized interior which had various offshoots and again all bricked up so that you could not explore any further - something I would have loved to do! My understanding is that they had previously been used as air raid shelters during the Second World War.

The garage forecourt area and building was some six to eight feet higher than the floor level of the caves and actually had a flight of steps down to the large cave. This was an ideal place for the kennel for our German Shepherd, the resident guard dog when the place was closed. I presume the raised site was to accommodate the fuel tanks and minimise excavations down into the sandstone.

Immediately next door to us on the southern side (the Lenton side) was a caravan sales yard called 'North's Caravans' and their premises retained the natural ground level and therefore from our garage forecourt, you could see across the roofs of the caravans.

In the Lenton Listener article featured in Issue 39, there is a picture of the caravan sales yard under a different ownership and if you look to the right of the photograph, you will see the low wall and parapet of the boundary walls of our garage. That actual corner adjacent to the footpath was a raised garden bed and had a large tower with the shell sign on top. At the other end of the forecourt was a similar sign and low walls led from both sides around to the garage itself which had a wash bay, lube bay, shop, office and toilets. I know this very well as I spent many hours working there as a young boy, especially on school holidays. I also painted those parapets on the walls white, as well as the kerbing at the entrances and around the two bowser islands on many occasions.

I see from the other articles on your website that the caves at the rear of the garage had both a historical and religious history but I wasn't aware of this then.

In one of your old photographs above I can spot Rowland’s Café. My father and I spent many occasions in there having our morning tea, lunch etc. It was a top café and his sausage sandwiches will be remembered forever. Rowland became good friends with my father over the years that we were at the garage. Rowland was also a photographer of some note and from memory, specialised in portrait photos and the like.

I am currently on the look-out for a picture of the garage. Both my parents have now passed away and apart from one cousin up in Scotland, I no longer have any living relatives in Nottingham or for that matter in England. In the late 1950s, a photographer was taking some shots of Castle Boulevard. We approached him to take a photograph of the garage and he agreed to do so. After borrowing our extension ladder and placing it against a light/power pole on the other side of Castle Boulevard, he obtained an elevated shot of the garage which he subsequently delivered to us some time later mounted in a frame. It had my father and myself standing on the forecourt and was displayed on the wall of the office until we left the premises. Unfortunately I have been unable to establish what happened to the photograph after this point.

I always supposed that the photographer was a professional from a studio or local newspaper. I have searched all the Nottingham-based websites but have been unable to find either a copy of this particular photograph or any other showing the garage.

If anyone can help me seek out a photograph of the garage I would be delighted to hear from them.

Geoff Smithson
In the summer of 1963 three friends, all aged about 14, were playing together - Robert Patman, Tony Lamar and myself.  We had just crossed the road at the zebra crossing from Gloveen’s Elastic Yarns factory to the bottom of Willoughby Street, when the person walking in front of us dropped a cigarette out of his packet and carried on walking.

It was one of those king size cigarettes which had a long filter on it. We all ran to pick it up I reached down to pick it up.  Tony was bigger and stronger than Robert and I and simply pushed me out of the way and took possession of it. He put the cigarette in his mouth and was going to light it when I stopped him. By this time we were outside Mann’s off-licence and I said, “Wait a minute I’ll get some special stuff”.

I went into Mann’s and bought a 2d. tube of lighter fuel in those rubber tubes.  I bit the end off the tube and poured it over the cigarette.  Tony said, “You have ruined it”.  I said, “It’s special stuff!”; Robert also went along with but could not stop laughing.  Next Tony put the cigarette into his mouth and I lit it.  Puff, a big ball of fire and Tony’s eyes lit up as those he had seen a ghost. Luckily no one got hurt.  I can still see his face today, the big surprise and those big eyes.

Sonia Mann
My husband’s great uncle, Alfred Woolley, lived at 309 Castle Boulevard.  He owned the row of houses from Abbey Bridge to Broadholme Street having made his money during the Klondyke Goldrush.  He was also the owner of the Lumley Castle public house at Hyson Green while having other business ventures on the go in Nottingham.

We don’t know quite when Alfred Woolley first came to Castle Boulevard but my husband’s family moved in next door to him in order to care for Alfred during the second half of the 1930s. His hobby was bee keeping although he used to keep the hives elsewhere at Mapperly Plains.  He gave talks about beekeeping at Nottingham University (this would be in the 1930s) and my husband, Ronald Mann, who would be then be aged about ten or eleven would go along with him.

My husband’s family lived at 307 Castle Boulevard from 1937 until 1950 and then they moved to Park Road Lenton having bought the corner off licence there.  In 1956 they also bought the greengrocery shop next door so they had Nos. 2 and 4 Park Road and the shops were known as Mann’s.  My parents-in-law, Albert and Frances Mann, retired in 1965 and then went to live at Gunthorpe.

Julia Pearl - Perth, Western Australia
On the corner of Castle Boulevard  and Abbey Bridge was a textile factory known as Gloveens in the 1960s. I think it's the building which was burned down. I used to pass it each day on the 4a or 5a bus route from Dunkirk to the city.

In the early '70s, while Ted Heath was leading the Tories, there was a bus strike during the winter. For some reason the clocks weren't put forward that year either and I would walk to Mundella School (near Trent Bridge) from Beeston Rd, along Abbey St and Abbey Bridge, Castle Boulevard, Arkwright Street and through the Meadows to Mundella. It took about an hour or so. We didn't have a car at the time. It was OK on a normal day but on sport days two bags and a hockey stick were a bit cumbersome. The worst part was setting off in the dark and arriving home in the dark.

In the '70s I would sometimes miss the final bus service at 11.15pm from town and again walk home - a bit dicey especially along by the canal, and past all the petrol stations. As a young twenty-something you're invincible!!

See also Memories of Abbey Street , Beeston Road, Dunkirk Road & Priory Street

Anonymous Contribution
The old photo of Castle Blvd. shows the house where I used to live, number 221, the last house in the block, next to a shop which was on the corner of Chippendale Street. The iron railings on the low wall were, I believe, removed during the war.

As far as I can tell from the few documents available, my parents moved there in July 1946. It was rented from a firm called "Jas. Holroyd & sons", 15 Wellington Circus. I have no idea whether they were owners or agents. The rent at that time was 12s 1d  (60p).

An elderly couple, Mr & Mrs Jackson, lived at 219, he worked at Raleigh. There was a common backyard entered through a gate on Chippendale St, and if I was playing there after school I always got a, not unfriendly, smack on the head from Mr Jackson's Evening Post (or News) as he walked through the yard, I still remember the smell of machine "suds" on his overalls. He picked up the paper from the newsagents "Jackson's" (I don't think they were related) on the corner of Marcus St. on his way home.

220 was a butchers' shop, run by Harry Ledbetter when I was a child, and later by his son John. They lived, I think, in Beeston, or Lenton Abbey. It had been run - perhaps owned - by Mr & Mrs Wakeling from before WWII. When Mr Wakeling retired, probably after the war, they continued to live in the house at the back and let, or leased the shop to Mr Ledbetter.

Mr Wakeling died in the early 1950s, and his wife continued to live there alone; dying, I think, in 1962. I remember her with great affection, a very "proper" lady. Button shoes, one with a built up sole - she had a very pronounced limp - print dresses, buttoned right to the throat, in the summer. Her house was always spotless (they had no children) and smelled of lavender.  Over the years I became very familiar with her biscuit barrel!

The other neighbours on that block, next door to Jackson's so number 217, were a family by the name of Martin. Quite a large family I think, but apart from one of the girls of my own age I am unable to remember more.  The back yard accessed only the four houses. A painter and decorator ran the shop on the extreme left of the picture I can't recall his name. I don't ever recall seeing anyone enter or leave the place, and it may have been just a showroom or storeroom. He had a large - to my eyes then - shed and office at the end of Chippendale St on the right, through double wooden gates, it backed onto the canal. I remember he had a large pre-war Austin car and a larger, wooden sided trailer to carry his ladders etc.

On the other corner of Chippendale St. was a beer-off, I can only remember the name of the last proprietor before I moved out of the area – Mr Shakespeare. A very nice man. He once introduced me (I was about 10 at the time) to a big well-dressed man who ran a caravan business on Castle Blvd. on the stretch where the road runs alongside the canal, and explained that the gentleman had been a Texas Ranger. You can imagine the effect of that on a young boy!

On the "town" corner of Marcus Street was a grocer's shop run by Mrs Harding. Sugar was weighed into blue paper bags, biscuits bought by the ½ lb. loose. That sort of thing. When sweets came "off ration" in the early 1950s that shop was my favourite.

When I was very small, around 1947 - 1950, I was always frightened and fascinated by the traffic along the Boulevard. I remember lots of military vehicles and indeed tanks using the road (not on transports). They had probably come from the Royal Ordnance Factory. They backfired a lot, and I thought they were firing their guns!  There seemed to be a number of livestock wagons as well, I clearly remember the noise of the cattle, the smell, and the effluent.

 There was a transport cafe about 100 yards towards the city that was well patronised. Other memories of Castle Blvd. traffic - the British Rail mechanical horses. They were I think Scammed vehicles. A three-wheeled tractor unit pulling various types of trailer. They did local deliveries and these quite large vehicles could turn round in the width of the road.

Across from our house was the factory of Hiking & Pentecost. The main works entrance was roughly opposite Marcus St. and used to house Mr Pentecost's Daimler car when he visited the factory.

Let us know your memories of Castle Boulevard

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