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Issue No.15 April 2000 (£1.00)

The Baths Committee and Lenton (14 pages)

Since the 1840s the provision of public baths and washing facilities has been responsibility of the Council's Baths & Wash-houses Committee. Always keen to expand the range of facilities, over the years it has drawn up all manner of plans. Some have come to fruition others have not. There was no end of plans for Lenton but, for a variety of reasons explored in this article, the area often didn't get what was initially planned for it. Apart from highlighting the situation in Lenton this article also provides a quite detailed history of the provision of swimming baths and other facilities across the whole city.

Life in Lenton's Wash-house (2 pages)

As a creative writing exercise Hilda Boosey once wrote a piece entitled 'Visits to a Municipal Wash-house'. The wash-house in question was Lenton's. The piece, somewhat modified in structure by ourselves, provides readers with a vivid picture of Lenton's wash-house both before and after modernisation.

Taking a Bath (1 page)

Not having a bathroom of his own, Pat Randle initially carried out his ablutions in a tin bath set up in the kitchen but later patronised the facilities at the Willoughby Street Baths.

The Building of Abbey Bridge (3 pages)

Plans for a new road from Castle Boulevard to Beeston had been drawn up by the City Council before the First World War but nothing had come of them. Then in 1920 Sir Jesse Boot announced he was going to have University Boulevard built. The City Council were very happy with this arrangement as it required them to build only the linking road between Abbey Street and Castle Boulevard. A scheme was put in hand. It couldn't start until all the people displaced by the demolition of properties in the Castle Boulevard area had been rehoused. Sir Jesse Boot, eager to see the scheme come to fruition, paid for the construction of the Penn Avenue flats. In due course the roadworks were completed. The full story is told in this article which is accompanied by some superb photographs of the road in various stages of completion.

Ernest Burton: Alan Sillitoe's Grandfather (3 pages)

In 1972 Alan Sillitoe published Raw Material which was part novel part autobiography. With the author's permission we have extracted his observations on Ernest Burton who was once a blacksmith in Lenton and constructed this article.

Our Sponsor's Story (1 page)

'Angels by Day' is a Montessori Children's Day Nursery established in Lenton by Fiona Day.

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