Sandstone Cave under Stonebridge Park

  Left: the car park area at the rear of the newly built Beacon Hill House, and right, the Peverel pub which stood on the site, and demolished in 2008.

Blue Bell Hill House, a block of new apartments in Dennett Close, hides a hidden secret, there was once a sandstone cave which now lies under the rear car park. The 1989 Nottingham Geo-environmental Desk Study of Caves, lists Bc1 (NGR 58134 40756) as being 36 feet long by 10 ½ feet wide. When the Peverel public house was built in 1975 its beer cellar occupied the cave. However, before the Peverel pub was built this cave was used as an air raid shelter during World War II.

The same study lists a second sandstone cave Bc2 (NGR 58090 40402) located under the former Blue Bell Hill public house shown here on the right. It is recorded as being 38 feet long by 12 feet wide, and was also used as an air raid shelter. Today it lies near Paul’s shop, which in the 1960s the pub was at the Alfred Street South - Robin Hood Street junction. The cellar consisted of a rectangular chamber entered by steps from the Pub with an exit at the far end into the yard. The shelter could accommodate 35 people.

Nottingham’s system of old sandstone caves date from the 16th century.

An appeal for new committee members

In the next few days I will be visiting residents on our estate to do my best in getting new SPTRA committee members to come forward, this is a copy of my letter I will be handing out, so I will be a little busy! 

Dear tenants & residents,

SPTRA was formed ten years ago by Mrs Maureen Graham & her neighbours as they recognised that our estate needed a lot of improvements: new doors windows and better perimeter fences. SPTRA were instrumental in getting the Regeneration Scheme up and running in 2006, and have helped to sort out problems experienced by our estate residents over the last decade.

SPTRA are now in urgent need of new committee members to help keep up this programme and over-see the planning & construction of new houses to complete Stonebridge Park, and further home & garden improvements.

Without SPTRA antisocial behaviour may rise because we will not have a strong community voice.

SADLY it now seems likely SPTRA will have to disband this season because of a lack of local support, they urgently need new volunteers to be part of their team to help with organising public meetings, some community events, deliver flyers & newsletters; or maybe just to make tea/refreshments at meetings.

You may give as much or as little time as you wish. Your valuable help is really needed right now, and will be greatly appreciated by others living on our estate at this time, as you will be helping to save our most important community asset.

Please help SPTRA keep on going. If you are interested in becoming a committee member please contact them by Email, or telephone me using the information at the top of this letter. Thank you for your support. .

Richard Pearson

Herzlich Willkommen auf unserer Website Stonebridge Park.

This post is translated into German and is aimed at our German friends who have visited our website in increasing numbers. I do not speak German myself so I hope that this translation reads fine. If not please let me know so I can improve.

Diese deutsche Übersetzung ist mit Babylon 9 Software.

Ich spreche nicht Deutsch, so bitte, vergib mir, wenn diese Übersetzung ist nicht perfekt

Stonebridge Park ist ein Stadtteil der Innenstadt von St. Ann in Nottingham im Vereinigten Königreich.

Die Stonebridge Park Regeneration Scheme begann im Jahr 2006. Alle Wohnblocks auf unserem Landgut wurden abgerissen, um Platz für neue beste Qualität erschwingliche Häuser zu machen. Heute neue Wandverkleidung Wärmedämmung wird an der Außenseite der viele der älteren Häuser setzen.

Diese Website macht sich auf in Fotografien und Videos aufzeichnen, wie die Stonebridge Park Estate, wie vor zehn Jahren, und historisch in den sechziger Jahren aussehen verwenden. Es zeichnet auch den Bau der 95 neuen erschwinglichen sozialen Häusern, Wohnungen und Appartements in den letzten zwei Jahren.

Diese ersten neuen Bauphase ist nun in der Nähe bis zur Fertigstellung, und es gibt Pläne, um mehr Häuser auf unserem Landgut in der nahen Zukunft zu bauen. Es gibt auch einen Plan, um eine neue, moderne ASDA store Nähe zu bauen.

Es war ein langsamer Prozess. Die Rezession in 2008 und eine Änderung in der britischen Regierung hat eine Verzögerung bei der Suche das Geld zu zahlen für das neue Haus Bauprogramm helfen, verursacht. Unsere Stonebridge Park Estate Website zeichnet die Schwierigkeiten von Offizieren der Nottingham Kommune erlebt, und die Bewohner in immer die Mittel, damit die Regeneration Scheme, um voranzukommen.

Die regelmäßige Video-Updates, die Sie auf unserer Website zeigen, wie unsere Stonebridge Siedlung heute aussieht.

Danke für Ihren Besuch, wir hoffen, dass die Informationen in unsere Beiträge enthalten sowohl informativ und hilfreich ist.

Best wishes

Website: Herr Richard Pearson

The Wright & Dobson factory

Wray Close was originally named ‘Storer Street’.

One of the last ‘old’ streets to be completed was Storer Street which had been built by 1916. Storer Street was renamed Wray Close when the new Stonebridge estate was constructed by Wimpey’s in 1976. Storer Street was twice as long as Wray Close is today, and had many Victorian terrace houses with courtyards extending either side along its length.

The Co-op building replaced school buildings

Another prominent feature was a small infant & junior school at the bottom of St Matthias Road, junction of Carlton Road. Today the large Co-op store occupies this site. The school playground lies under the large grey warehouse building situated at the junction of Stonebridge Road and St Matthias Road. The school itself lies under the Co-op store. The Co-op closed down in 2008.

Wright & Dobson

On the 1881 Ordnance Survey map, nothing is shown on the land that became Wright & Dobson. Then on the 1919 & 1938 Ordnance Survey maps a small lace factory is shown on the site. After 1954 the lace factory on Carlton Road became the Albany Works (Bleaching & Dyeing), and finally Wright & Dobson’s. The factory closed in 2002 and was demolished soon after.

I came across the Demolition firm Matrixgrade while researching this post, which has an interesting connection to Wright & Dobson’s. The company’s website has this entry by Christopher Rooney:

“It is perhaps no surprise to learn that Matrixgrade, a demolitions firm, was formed by a group of textile manufacturers at the company Wright & Dobson in 1979. Based on Carlton Road, just to the east of the City of Nottingham, Wright & Dobson had been carrying out dyeing and fabric printing for more than 100 years, so it perhaps appeared a little overdue when Stephen Farmery founded Wright & Dobson Football Club.

“In the early days, the team trained every day across the road from the Wright and Dobson factory, on King Edwards Park. They only played friendly matches with other Sunday teams for the first six months, before beginning to take things a little more seriously. In 1980, they joined a Sunday morning league, playing the likes of the Royal Oak, Plough and Harrow and Hucknall Colliery Welfare (now the Conference North outfit, Hucknall Town).

“They remained in this league until the mid 80's, when they took the decision to switch to Saturday football in the Spartan League. In the late 80's, the Club severed its links with Wright & Dobson, assuming the name of its new sponsor Old Rose Football Club, a pub in the Radford area of the City.”

Memories of Wright & Dobson

Wright & Dobson’s was demolished in 2003

 

In 2000 the air ventilation ducts on the roof of the main Wright & Dobson’s factory caught fire causing significant damage. Managers tried to carryon working, however, the main building continually filled with fumes which was bad for the workers. In 2001 the factory closed down for the last time and was demolished soon after.

The large brick chimney was the local landmark, which was used to burn off waste oils.

There were plans to turn the main brick building of Wright & Dobson’s into industrial units, however, vandals caused a fire inside the building making the structure unsafe. During this fire the whole of the Stonebridge Park Estate suffered a major power cut lasting several hours.

‘Common Lands’ at Nottingham playhouse

Saturday 6th October --- FREE Admission

A fantastic opportunity to see a play in the early stages of development. In the decade leading up to 1976, St. Ann’s estate was born. It was a struggle between politics and the rights of commoners. After a Summer of research and talking to people in St Ann's, Nottingham playwright Mufaro Makubika will share some of the stories he has gathered from the past and present communities living there.

The event is fully booked, however, you can add your name to the waiting list, please book your place through the Box Office.

Box Office 0115 941 9419

Update: Homes & Communities Agency

Video update: external wall cladding day 42

9th September 2012

114 Days to completion on 31st December 2012

Update: 10 Downing Street news

In January – April 2012 I wrote to government ministers to make them aware that the Stonebridge Park Estate is in urgent need of funding to ‘kick-start’ the next house building programme. I wanted them to assist in providing new funding to help regenerate our housing estate in the near future.

I will now write again to ministers to ask them to provide money urgently to kick start the building of new houses on our estate – and also put the Stonebridge Park Estate on the government’s agenda. Richard Pearson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘What a wonderful blog!’

Anonymous07 September, 2012

First of all I would like to say what a wonderful blog!

I had a quick question which I'd like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to find out how you centre yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing. I have had a difficult time clearing my mind in getting my ideas out. I do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or tips? Kudos!
Here is my web page; resort-am-suedstrand.de

Number one:

‘Don’t rely on Google to translate a reply in German! I tried this earlier with a strange result!’

Hello and thank you for visiting our website and your kind words.

I have been involved with Stonebridge Park for 18 years now. I use to live on the estate and I followed the Regeneration Scheme from the beginning, so I know my topic. I also use to be a journalist writing for our local newspaper.

The key word here is ‘Promotion.’

You need to ask "What is the message that I want to convey"

Then contact friends and other local council officers to ensure that the information you have is correct.

Use a word processor to write your news item and check it for Spelling.

Use a Thesaurus to check the meaning of descriptive words & choose the best word that fits the image you want to give to your reader

I treat my writing as poetry and read my news item several times to ensure that the words flow when it is read by the reader --- that means getting all the commas and full stops in the right place.

Write your news story from top to bottom with the most important information in the first paragraph, then the next most important, and so on, until you explain everything.

Try to keep to the point.

Copy and paste your work into something like Microsoft Notepad to remove formatting. Then copy and paste it into your webpage where you can format it as you would like it to appear.

You may like to use other means to express your message instead of writing about it. Add a video, photos or even a slideshow. Buy yourself a nice camera, install an 8 GB memory chip, and go out and take 200 photos at a time, and some video. Then enjoy yourself putting together a video (slideshow) updated every 2 weeks, and show the world just how lovely your German resort is. Ask permission to go inside one of the apartments, photograph the room and show the amazing views out of the windows. Walk along the beach and take lots of photos etc. … In a few months you will have a world wide audience wanting to visit your island after seeing your website.

let me know how you get on?

Regards Richard.P

Pym Street ~ its school & chapel

 The western half of Pym Street leading to Blue Bell Hill Road was completed in 1916, and was a main arterial road bisecting the northern half of the Stonebridge Park Estate in a north-south divide.

Harold Smith was born on Girsby Terrace, off Pym Street. He used to be a paperboy at the paper shop on the corner of Pym Street and Gordon Road. When the owner retired, he bought the business. Mr Smith gives an account of his life living in St Ann’s in Ruth John’s book: St Ann’s, Inner City Voices, published in 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bluebell Hill Schools (Indicated by the red dot on the map) opened in 1883 by the Nottingham School Board It was situated at the junction of Bluebell Hill Road and Pym Street. The small building with a gable end was the school hall mainly used by the infants. The attached building contains the junior school upstairs, with the infants on the ground floor; the school closed in 1973, and was demolished in 1974. The school canteen was retained which is now the Blue Bell Hill Community Centre shown above. The caretaker’s house was also retained and this is today the old brick building of the community centre. Today the building is in regular use, and remains at the heart of the local community. The Community Centre is the focus of the Bluebell Hill Playgroup and Out of School Care Scheme. The contact telephone number is 0115 9476722. It is also interesting to note that St Ann’s Welfare Rights Group (SAWRAG) started off here in 1983, and is still going strong today in the Neighbourhood Centre on the Robin Hood Chase. The founder members included Mrs Kath Ross & Mr Ron Bell.

On the opposite side of Pym Street, looking out onto Blue Bell Hill Road stood the Morley Memorial Chapel. The Chapel was designed by R C Sutton (Architect) and built for Primitive Methodists, costing £2,500. It was opened on 20 October 1889 with seating for 600. The following notice appeared in the London Gazette, 18 November 1941:

The church closed in 1942 and the building was sold to the Boot's Company and used as a warehouse, as well as a timber store until it was demolished in 1972. This is a list of Baptisms held at Morley Memorial Chapel, from December 19th 1897 - July 25th 1909.

Winifred Mary Hopkins; Alice Clara Thurlby; Gladys Eva Walkerdine; Eliza Frankton; George Ernest Keyworth; Ernest Rogers; Herrick (Eric) Boot; Ellen Maud Cooper; Ralph Stacey Baxter White; Lily Webster Johnson; Clara Skinner; Leslie John Birch; Frank Harold Smeeton; Winifred May Seward; Abraham Johnson; Madge Rogers; Frank Alfred Brackwell; Frank Miller & Clement Frederick Bacon.

In 1916, Flewitt Street was also completed; it crossed all the way over Pym Street, through the area of the Stonebridge Park Estate, which today (2012) is known as Limmen Gardens, and then into Melville Gardens. In 1916, this area of our estate had three roads linking Beacon Hill Rise Road in the west to Gordon Road in the east; they all passed over Flewitt Street. Above Pym Street, which was the largest road on our estate at the time, was Massey Street, Hunt Street and Young Street.

Memories of Pym Street

   In 1995 St Ann’s Library launched a ‘Day of  Memories’ with talks by local historians.

Old photographs of St Ann’s was on display,

these are some of those photographs

Stonebridge apartments ‘all let’ in one mad rush

  Within days of the notice board going up in Magson Close advertising two bedroom apartments with a monthly rent of £350, the registration process was halted due to the large volume of interested residents wanting to live their. A spokesman for the estate agents said today that the rooms will be available for residents to move into before the end of the month. The monthly rent includes fridge/freezer, washing machine, dishwasher & window blinds.

Update: External works on Wray Close

This series of photographs taken today shows the external works taking place on Wray Close, the upper left image shows the ‘Closed Board’ fencing residents in Lytton Close & Eastham Close will have round the front of their gardens adjacent Eastham footpath.

New home owners make hansom profit!

Did estate agents selling the newly built Stonebridge houses earlier this year get their sums wrong?

New home owners on Stonebridge Park may have made a quick profit of up to £50,000 by buying newly built houses at bargain prices. In the case of the four bedroom Victoria & 3 bedroom Carlton type houses in Dennett Close, the profit made could be much more than that?

House prices jumped a "surprising" 1.3% in August, the Nationwide building society has said in its annual report.

It was the biggest monthly rise since January 2010 and left the average UK house price at £164,729.

It means prices are only 0.7% lower than a year ago, despite the recession and continued mortgage rationing.

However, the society's chief economist, Robert Gardner, warned that "we should never read too much into one month's data".

"Nevertheless, the fact that the annual pace of house price decline moderated to minus 0.7% in August from minus 2.6% the previous month provides evidence that conditions remain fairly stable.

"This may be explained by the surprising resilience evident in the UK labour market, with further increases in employment in recent months, even though the UK economy has remained in recession," he added.

Wray Close: WATES fencing -- done on the cheap!

The latest Newsletter by the Decent Homes team was circulated around our estate yesterday afternoon. It follows the debacle of mid August when WATES Production Manger Mr Alan Bridgewood refused to answer a simple question from locals about External Works, and with the absence of any WATES contact details, he advised all Stonebridge tenants to telephone Nottingham City Homes if they wanted any of their questions answered!

Such poor customer relations by contractor WATES came as a surprise to local tenants & residents so soon after the cladding & external works began in July. Therefore, the latest newsletter is WATES’ response to local criticism?

The Newsletters of 9th July and 13th August stated that the External Works “was going according to programme.” They would begin on 20th August & finish at the end of October 2012. This was unbelievable, it would have meant that contractor WATES would carryout the external works in a record time of just 72 days! We now know that information published in these Newsletters was ‘unreliable.’  External works are set to begin in Stonebridge Road on 12th September, and in Eastham Close, Lytton Close & Dennet Close in October. Today a  WATES manager advised  one of our website correspondents that the Exterior Works programme “is unlikely to be completed before Christmas.”

The photo published in yesterday’s newsletter shows the high quality wooden fence constructed by Lovell’s in March 2012. It is part of the perimeter wall & fencing for new home owners in Blake Close; top of Magson Close – near Wray Close.  This fence has nothing to do with what Nottingham City Homes' contractor WATES are doing in Wray Close today. The wooden 1.8m fences being installed by WATES are of far inferior quality. There are no concrete support pillars & no concrete base slates. So a big thumbs up to Lovell’s for their good quality workmanship & materials, and . . . a ‘thumbs down’ to WATES for installing inferior quality wooden fencing -- done on the cheap.! 

Video update 1st September – ‘Once in a blue Moon’

When two full Moons happen in the same month we call it a Blue Moon, and yesterday we could truly say ‘Once in a blue Moon.’ The Moon really isn’t blue of course, it looks the same as every other Moon in the sky.

Today was earmarked as the completion date for the new 96 houses,flats & apartments on the Stonebridge Park estate, and as the latest photographs show there is still more to do -- but not much more.

The video begins in Dennet Close looking around the apartment block named Blue Bell Hill House, and the nearby new homes which now have new occupiers. We then move into Paxton Gardens to see how far WATES have installed the new exterior wall cladding their. We then visit Rocket Park, and on into Melville Gardens were WATES began installing the cladding on 28th July. Finally, we look around the new flats & apartment block in Magson Close, and the new homes in Blake Close at the top of the road.

Finally we view the wilderness of Jersey Gardens, before we end up looking at the site of the former Pym Walk flats, which is now a storage depot. Richard.P

Video: Homes For Heroes

A great deal has been written about the Nottingham Blitz of World War 2, and other parts of Britain which were devastated by Adolph Hitler’s bombs.

The raid on the night of 8-9 May by the German Luftwaffe was targeted at Nottingham and Derby. The X-Gerät beams set up to cover the Rolls Royce works were detected, and radio counter-measures diverted the attack to the moors north east of the town.

There were over 100 bombers in the Nottingham raid. Emergency services tackled 97 fires on the night of the Nottingham Blitz on May 8 and 9, 1941. Records list 12 fires as serious, 40 as major and 42 as medium. In some cases, fires started by incendiary bombs were put out before they took hold.

As the War ended there was a major house rebuilding program set up by the Government, known as “Homes for Heroes.” Its aim was to provide homes for returning British troops, and for families who lost their homes as a result of the blitz. Town Planning was hotly debated at this time, and in this interesting and informative video, town planners of the time explain there ideas and way of thinking © BBC TV.