Nuthall - Conservation Area Plus
w/e 07 June 2015
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
Nuthall Village straddles one of the main roads into
Nottingham and has almost been swallowed up by the urban sprawl
of the city. The centre of the old part of the village though
is a Conservation Area and most of the images below with a couple
of exceptions were taken within that perimeter or just outside.
  We began this short walk
in Nuthall at the Basil Russell Recreation Ground (right) on
a fine sunny morning and found it being well used by a host of
dog walkers (left). In a corner of the recreation ground is Nuthall's
small but simple and tasteful War Memorial that bears the names
of twenty five villagers who made the ultimate sacrifice as a
result of the two World Wars.
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The beautifully maintained ground contains a football and cricket
pitch in its centre surrounded by a bowling green, tennis courts,
children's play area and skate park as well as adult exercise
equipment but after a walk round, we left down a sloping path
onto Watnall Road.
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Watnall Road joins the main road through the village (Nottingham
Road to the east and Kimberley Road to the west) at a T-junction
where a pub faces down Watnall Road. Depressions caused by quarrying
for local stone in the eighteenth century were filled naturally
by the Nuthall stream which created three ponds, only one of
which remains but the term Three Ponds is still remembered in
the name of the pub.
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An information panel next to the pub points out several places
of interest within the Conservation Area, one of which directly
opposite is the Old Rectory which was built in 1761.
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Next to the Old Rectory is St Patrick's Church. The tower dates
from the thirteenth century but like many churches of this age
it underwent some major restoration work during the nineteenth.
Now it is a Grade II listed building and together with Holy Trinity
forms the Church of England Parish of Kimberley and Nuthall.
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The Old Rectory stands on the corner of Kimberley Road and Watnall
Road and St Patrick's is on Kimberley Road but in the opposite
direction a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century cottages
stand on the northern side of Nottingham Road. These which stretch
as far as the M1 motorway bridge (just out of shot) which bisects
the village and marks the end of the Conservation Area, formed
in 1884, some of the 97 houses in Nuthall that housed a population
of 404.
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We headed off under the motorway bridge but before we see what
is there, here is what is described as a gatepier at the car
park entrance to the Three Ponds. Quoting from the information
board seen earlier "The original Manor House dating from
1755 was converted to a farm and stables and renamed Home Farm
by Sir Charles Sedley. Sir Charles commissioned the building
of Nuthall Temple which was designed as a Palladian villa and
completed in 1757. All that remains of the Temple today are the
Gothic Summerhouse (on private land) and the Gatepier...."
The Temple became derelict, was demolished in 1929 but both the
Summerhouse and the Gatepier are now listed structures.
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The original site of the Temple is a little way out of the Conservation
Area beyond the motorway and the new building that was constructed
on it as a community centre pays homage to the former building
by being named the Temple Centre.
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Access to the Temple Centre off Nottingham Road is via a joint
drive which also leads to Nuthall Methodist Church. The church
has a number of groups for young people including Boys' and Girls'
Brigades and also runs a Youth Group that goes by the name of
Templars.
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  We returned along Nottingham Road (left)
under the motorway bridge (right) to the Conservation Area and
the row of old cottages. At the end of the row the single storey
building now occupied by County Batteries was the former village
reading room which was opened by Reverend Robert Holden in 1876.
I include the above image though mainly for sentimental reasons.
It was from one of the cottages next to the reading room that
we obtained a pet kitten well over fifty years ago. His dad was
a ginger tom cat but our Suki was long haired and pure white.
For those old enough to remember he resembled the Kosset cat of the TV adverts.
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