Issue No. 48 June 2024 (£2.00)
The Simpson Family & Lenton (5 pages)
Several generations of the Simpson family have made their home here in Lenton. One of their number, Joseph Simpson, ran the grocery & beer-off housed in 34 Gregory Street for some forty years. The property in question is no longer with us, having been demolished in 2013 to make way for the tramline from Toton Lane to Nottingham. John Simpson, one of Joseph's descendants, tells us more about this family.
Ada Howitt and the 1931 Irish Free State Hospitals Grand National Sweepstake (4 pages)
In 1930 an Irish sweepstake was launched with the avowed aim of raising funds for hospitals and medical services in the Irish Free State. Its operation consisted of two distinct stages - the second part of which involved specific horse races taking place in England. At the end of the first phase all the returned counterfoils for the tickets, which had cost ten shillings each, were placed in a huge drum at the Mansion House in Dublin. Tickets drawn out of the drum were now assigned the name of one of the horses due to take part in the forthcoming race. Already guaranteed a certain level of prize money the 'winning' ticket holders could now collect a much larger sum of money if their horse performed very well in the actual race.
The very first of these Irish sweepstakes focused on horses entered for the Manchester Handicap Plate held in November 1930. The first horse home was Glorious Devon winning an Irish ticket holder £204,764. Coligny II came second and won someone in British Columbia £81,905. The prize money for Nestorian, the third horse home, was £40,953. Before the race Mrs Selina Thompson, a widow, who ran the Station Hotel at Worksop sold on a half share in this horse, which was a 100 to 1 outsider, and came away with over £22,000.
The second sweepstake based on the Aintree Grand National took place March 1931. Among those who had actually drawn horses were two local people: Samuel Ashmore of 8 Hockley, Nottingham, and Mrs Ada Howitt, 10 Claude Street, Dunkirk, Nottingham. Mr Ashmore had shared the cost of his ticket with Bernard Morris of 449 Meadow Lane and their ticket and had drawn 'Endwell.' Unfortunately this particular horse had already been withdrawn from the race so these two young men had to be content with sharing the £1,281 assigned to each ticket paired with a horse. All the local interest now focused on the Howitt family and the Forman family who had bought a half share in the Howitts' ticket for five shillings. Those wanting to know what happened will have to read the article.
We also feature brief accounts of other Lenton residents who subsequently won consolation prizes in the various Irish Sweepstake draws made before the British Government made it illegal in March 1934 for individuals in the United Kingdom to participate in this particular form of gambling.
The Boots Company at Dunkirk & Beeston (4½ pages)
John Beckett offers readers a detailed account of how the Boots Company came to build their new factory complex on land straddling the Beeston and Lenton parish boundary. He covers both the initial purchase of the land in the late 1920s and the subsequent erection of the various factory buildings during the 1930s.
William Henry Allen: A Titanic Victim (3 pages)
The RMS Titanic, the luxury steamship on its maiden voyage, sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912, off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic after sideswiping an iceberg. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 lost their lives in the disaster. Among the passengers who died was someone who was born in Lenton. Our article details his story along with that of his widow, Florence Allen (née Rigby) who spent the latter part of her life living at various addresses in the Lenton area.
George Hunt and Bertie Gilbert Hunt (2½ pages)
As of 2022, information is now available via the Lenton Times website about each individual listed on the Lenton War Memorial. Click on a name and it will take you to the profile assembled on the Nottinghamshire Great War Roll of Honour (*). An earlier source of information about them can be found in Nottingham at War 1914-1919 & Lenton: A Suburb's Sacrifice by Peter Foster and Stephen Zaleski, published in 2014. This book not only profiles each person named on the war memorial but also includes write-ups on a number of other men who had Lenton connections but whose names were never included on the memorial. In most instances the two sources of information agree as to the identities of those listed on the memorial. There are, however, a few instances where the two sets of researchers have come up with different individuals. One of these is Lance Corporal George Hunt. It turns out that the book correctly identified who this individual was but managed to give him someone else's service details and date of death. The anonymous researcher constructing George Hunt's on-line profile plumped for the person who best fitted this other set of service details. In order to set the record straight we provide an extended write-up of Lance Corporal George Hunt and then do the same for Lance Corporal Bertie Gilbert Hunt. This second individual is someone who was not on Lenton's war memorial and is also missing from Lenton: A Suburb's Sacrifice.
Lenton's Graveyard Tales: The Pownalls (5 pages)
Frederick and his wife Ada Joyce Wright (née Bateman) moved from Radcliffe Lodge in Radcliffe-on-Trent to Lenton Hall in 1878. The Wrights brought with them five children and a further three would be born while the couple lived at Lenton. A whole retinue of servants probably came with them from Radcliffe-on-Trent. A total of eleven were listed as living in the house in the 1881 census with several more housed elsewhere on the Lenton Hall estate. One of these ancillary staff members was Nathan Hyde Pownall. He had been the head gardener at Radcliffe Lodge and was taking up a similar position at Lenton.
The five members of Nathan Hyde Pownall's family are the subject of this Lenton graveyard tale - three of whom were buried in Lenton churchyard. The latter part of the article is given over to Nathan's son, George (Hyde) Pownall who was not buried at Lenton as he died in Australia. George Pownall clearly had an artistic bent and was both a skilled musician and talented artist. Our article features two of the paintings he carried out while his family were living in London.
James Winskill and the Archbishop of Canterbury (2 pages)
In 1891 James and Elizabeth Winskill were living at 289 Lenton Boulevard - later to become 289 Castle Boulevard. On the afternoon of Monday 13 July 1891 members of the Nottingham constabulary came to No.289 and took James Winskill into custody. He was brought before local magistrates and charged with sending an offensive letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. This was the latest in a series of letters it was believed Winskill had sent - all of an offensive character. He made a series of appearances before the magistrates before being given bail on his own recognisance of £100. He was due to return to court the following day but he simply vanished. Using the national newspaper archive on line we have discovered what subsequently happened to James Winskill and where he was living at the time of his death.
Local Listings: Nottingham Canal - An 18th Century Motorway
by Graham Woodward, [pub.2023], 68 pages, ISBN 978-1-7395403-0-2, price £7.00 (1 page).
Society Snips (2 pages)
Lenton Times - issue 48 - Downloadable PDF Version
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