Issue No. 37 December 2016 (£1.50)
No.83 Sherwin Road: Who Lived Here? (4 pages)
This article explores what is known about the occupants of 83 Sherwin Road. This Grade 2 Listed building is to be found at the junction of Sherwin Road, Church Street and Gregory Street. It was probably erected in the early nineteenth century although we have been unable to pinpoint who was living there before the 1870s. Quite a lot has now come to light about the people who occupied the property for the next sixty years. The post-war electoral registers provided us with the names of all the adults who lived there until the late 1980s. However we know far less about these individuals. The property used to be known as 'Trafalgar House' but this name does not feature in the earlier records. For most of the twentieth century the various sources of information merely refer to the property as No.83 so it is difficult to say quite when the renaming took place.
The Ear Foundation & Lenton (2 pages)
Nottingham has long had an enviable reputation in the treatment of hearing loss. Today there is the Children's Hearing Assessment Centre based on the Ropewalk; the MRC Institute of Hearing Research at Nottingham University; plus the excellent Ear, Nose & Throat Department in the Queen's Medical Centre. Added to this list is The Ear Foundation, a charity founded in 1989 with the aim of making cochlear implantation available for totally deaf children in the United Kingdom, and, since 1993, this organisation has been based at 'Trafalgar House' (*) here in Lenton. They later acquired the adjoining land on Sherwin Road and built additional premises which have been further extended in 2015. This article looks at the Ear Foundation's story.
(*) The property has since been renamed 'Marjorie Sherman House.'
The White Hart: The Pleasure Grounds & the Prison (7 pages)
Situated at the junction of Gregory Street and Abbey Bridge is the White Hart public house. This is one Lenton's oldest drinking establishments and one with a very unusual history. It commenced life as the Lenton Coffee House in part of a late seventeenth century farmhouse. In 1790s the Peveril Court began to hold its weekly sessions at Lenton and used one of the farm buildings as a prison - the occupants of which were primarily debtors. When the Gregory Street frontage was built in 1804 the court moved into the Coffee House and a new purpose built prison was erected here the following year. Our article looks at the history of the Court and the prison while it operated in Lenton. In the early nineteenth century the Coffee House acquired a drinks licence and slowly metamorphosed into the White Hart public house. Back in the days when it was still a Coffee House the establishment was famous for its pleasure grounds, which drew people in from Nottingham and the surrounding area. The pub continued with these pleasure grounds and our article goes on to explore what was on offer here for most of the nineteenth century.
A Gregory Street Childhood (4 pages)
Jean Barsby (nee Woolley) spent her childhood years growing up on Gregory Street in 1940s and 1950s. Her article recalls those years living at 4 Priory Place and out and about in the Old Lenton area.
The Marshall Family, the Lenton Works and Gregory Street (4 pages)
This article looks at the three generations of the Marshall family who operated a timber business on Derby Road, Old Lenton; many of whom were long-standing residents of Gregory Street. It concludes with a brief biography of Edwin Marshall, one of Lenton's centenarians and a longstanding supporter of both Lenton United Cricket Club and the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.
Ken Allen Remembered (1 page)
Ken Allen died in 2015 at the age of 95. In his will he left £500 to Lenton Local History Society. The Society has decided that one of the monthly meeting's each year will be dedicated to his memory and Ken's money used to pay the speaker and the room rental. Some of his money has also been assigned to 'sponsor' this particular issue of the magazine. We already knew quite a lot about Ken's business life in Lenton with A.P. Lowe and later Allen's Embroideries Ltd. [See Lenton Times Issue 19] and our short article also looks at Ken's life when not at work.
Local listings:
Wollaton on Old Picture Postcards compiled by David Ottewell revised edition 2015 price £3.95.
Our review compares the latest version with the original book first published in 1994. It alerts readers to the fact that the picture postcards featured not only cover Wollaton, Wollaton Hall and Park, but also Wollaton Park housing estate and the University Campus. [1 page]
Helen Kirkpatrick Watts: Suffragette 1881 -1972 by Rowena Edlin-White [pub.2016] price £2.
The story of Helen Watts has been featured in several editions of Lenton Times but Rowena Edlin-Watts has discovered quite a lot more about the story of Lenton's own suffragette. Rowena also provides us with a wonderful photograph of the Watts family taken in the garden of Lenton Vicarage in the mid-1890s and another taken in 1911 which shows Helen wearing the medal presented to all those who had been imprisoned while supporting the Suffragette Movement. [1½ pages]
The Lenton Railway Suicide ... or was it Murder? (1 page)
Researcher and writer, Mike Sheridan, recently published his third book Murder, Mystery and Mayhem on the Railways 1830-1899. The book includes the story reproduced in our magazine. It concerns the death of George Henry Charles Bennett, a twenty one year old lace warehouseman from Nottingham, whose body was found on the railway tracks at Lenton in November 1881. The first half of the story can be found in Issue 20 of The Lenton Listener. Mike Sheridan's article starts the same way, drawing on information provided in contemporary newspaper accounts but, unlike The Lenton Listener article Mike then goes on reveal that there was much more that subsequently came to light about this death - suggesting that it may even have been an unidentified murder.
Mike Sheridan's book Murder, Mystery and Mayhem on the Railways 1830-1899 is available as an e-book on Amazon for £2.01. The relevant link to access it is:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Mystery-Mayhem-Railways-1830-1899-ebook/dp/B019MZ67NC/
Society Snips (3 pages)
Lenton Times - Issue 37 - Downloadable PDF Version
Once the payment is confirmed, we will send you details of the download link.
The link will be available online for 2 weeks from the date of notification.