First Impressions
No. 03 - Part 05 - Nottingham Road
w/e 24 April 2016
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
On our journey up Nottingham Road we have now reached
the area known as Kensington, the name being derived from William
Tatham's Lace factory that was established in 1824 in what is
now the Kensington Business Park on the western side of Nottingham
Road. Kensington is also the area where I grew up so from here
on it is home territory and this part of the First Impressions
series on Nottingham Road is actually a trip down Memory Lane.
As a child I never ventured much further down Nottingham Road
than here except for an occasional walk for a lesson in the hall
at the rear of St John's Church but back then this landscaped
area just above the entrance to the Business Park was occupied
by public toilets. The toilets were demolished, the site landscaped
and seating provided. The extension to the building above was
originally added as a restaurant area to the pub.
|
That pub was The White Cow but now the whole building has been
converted to a Tesco Express supermarket. I would walk or run
past here every weekday four times a day on my way to and from
school.
|
The school in question stands opposite the pub/supermarket and
is Kensington Junior School. It opened in 1886, not that I was
there then as three separate schools, one for boys, one for girls
and one for infants. The girls' school was situated closest to
Nottingham Road but by the time I attended in the 1950s it was
a combined school. With the baby boom after the war, this was
a time of severe overcrowding and resulted with as many as 50
children in one class at times. That was the reason why some
classes had to be held in St John's Church Hall and why additional
classrooms were built on a site off St John's Road to the right
of the image above.
|
In the 50s we often stood at the railings at the corner of St
John's Road talking to the lollipop lady who made sure children
crossed the road safely and especially in October we would stand
and watch the lorries and caravans struggling up the hill as
they made their way to the town centre for the annual Charter
Fair. Those railings have now been replaced by security fencing,
play equipment has been installed in the playground where we
used to kick a ball around or play "tick" but the classroom
on the corner where Mr Jackson prepared children in the top class
for their 11 plus exam still looks pretty much the same.
|
Moving up Nottingham Road and next to the former pub is Hargreaves
Court, a sheltered housing scheme for older people but before
that was built it was normal for children, myself included, to
run up a grassy bank and along the top before dropping down to
cross Kensington Street.
|
Kensington Street provides another access to the Business Park
where the Kensington Needle Works and Lace Factory stood. Not
only did the factory give its name to the area but the pub on
the right of the street is The Needlemakers' Arms, obviously
taking its name from the industry. Another business that was
familiar to children of my generation was the wood yard off Kensington
Street where Jimmy Walters did a good trade in wooden stilts
for all the youngsters in the area. Many years before that, in
1864 in fact, some parents took exception to William Sudbury
and Richard P Howard who noticed some "dirty and ragged
children" playing on a Sunday morning. It was from their
observations though that a Sunday School was formed which proved
a great success. It was held initially in a room in a nearby
cottage, expanded into a second cottage and then into a room
in the Needlemakers'. For many years cottages stood on what is
now the car park at the pub. Eventually the Sunday School moved
into purpose built premises further up Nottingham Road in 1869.
|
The site of the new Kensington Mission was opposite Park Drive
seen here in the middle distance on the right, the road on the
left being Whitworth Road which was name after the Whitworth
family who owned land on the western side of the town.
|
Like many places around here Whitworth Road holds many memories
for me. I remember skidding round the corner one frosty Christmas
morning on a brand new scooter and it was where I first learned
to ride a bike. I also had a trolley made with old pram wheels
and a wooden platform probably made from Jimmy Walters' off cuts.
It was guided by a cord from the waistband of a pair of pyjamas
that had a nasty habit of snapping and turning the wheels to
the right. It happened one day when I had two younger friends
on the trolley which meant I tipped them into a bed of nettles
at the far end of Whitworth Road. I fell off the back of the
trolley but avoided the nettles, something for which I don't
think they forgave me for quite a while.
|
Next up is the end of Park Drive, an area that has changed significantly
in the last couple of years. A new traffic island has been installed
and a new access road to Morrisons Supermarket. The island has
been officially named Gnome Island by Erewash Borough Council
after a short campaign following the mysterious appearance of
several garden gnomes on the island overnight. The supermarket
has been built on the former site of the South East Derbyshire
College of Further Education, an establishment that formed the
backdrop to my early life living in a property just beyond the
white building. Kensington Mission stood where the grassy bank
is and a pedestrian crossing was roughly where the new island
is as can be seen in the picture below.
The Mission was built in 1869 at a cost of £300 and became
affiliated to the Congregational Church but when the Congregational
movement became the United Reformed Church, the Mission decided
to remain independent. It was here that my wife and I first met
when we were still both toddlers but in the 1960s we started
and ran a Youth Club in the building in an attempt to encourage
more young people to join the church. Some years later with an
aging congregation and mounting repair bills, it became impossible
to keep the chapel open and it was forced to close. An even earlier
picture of the chapel from circa 1910 can be seen at Picture The Past.
|
That white building I mentioned stands on the corner of Pedley
Street and in my youth it was a greengrocer's shop. The door
and windows facing Nottingham Road have now been bricked up but
I used to call in most days at lunchtime for a packet of nuts
and raisins before riding my bike back to school. Everyone knew
the shopkeeper as Curly but I always called him Harold having
grown up with him as a neighbour. For the first 22 years of my
life I lived in a two-up, two-down cottage in the middle of a
terrace of three cottages that stood on the site now occupied
by a single detached house. The pedestrian crossing from the
end of Park Drive has been relocated to the corner of Pedley
Street.
Pedley Street was my playground and became my Wembley, my Wimbledon
and my Lords depending on the season but at the end of Part 4
I promised to tell you about an event of October 15th 1963. My
bedroom was at the back of the cottage and on that particular
night as I went to bed, the room was lit up by a flickering light.
Looking out of the window, I could see a red glow in the sky
down the road. The lace factory which by this time also housed
a coffee factory was on fire. All the neighbours in the area
went out onto Nottingham Road to view the proceedings, many in
their night attire. It's surprising how many people you don't
recognise when they aren't in their day clothes and have their
hair in curlers, aren't wearing glasses or have left their teeth
at home in a glass. I think it must be from that night too that
my addiction to roasted coffee can be traced. So as you can see,
whilst a newcomer to "Kensington" will have their own
"First Impression" of Nottingham Road, this area has
made a lasting lifelong impression on me and that will continue
as we conclude with the remainder of Nottingham Road in Part
06.
|
