Issue No. 49 December 2024 (£2.00)
People Collapse During Nottingham Church Service [2 pages]
On Monday 19 January 1959 the Nottingham newspapers, along with some of the national papers, all carried reports about the distressing events that had taken place at Lenton's parish church the previous day. Towards the end of the Sunday morning service many of the choristers had begun to collapse and needed to be taken out of the building. Ambulances took many of them to the Nottingham General Hospital were they kept under observation before being allowed to go home. Our article explores what actually happened and identifies all the choristers involved.
Lenton Church Choir & That Sunday in January 1959 [1 page]
Among those affected by the fumes from the church's heating system was Margaret Abbiss (née Berry). She recalls the events of that day and tells us something of her family's involvement with the parish church in Lenton.
The Reverend Robert Purdon Neill (1910-1985) [4 pages]
The vicar of Lenton in 1959 was Robert Purdon Neill. Both his father and his grandfather had been clergymen in the Anglican Church of Ireland. The Neill family left Ireland for England following the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence in 1923. His father, Robert Richard Neill, subsequently became vicar of St John's Church, Deptford, in London.
In 1936 Robert Purdon Neill, B.A., Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge, and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, was appointed curate at St James's, Carlisle, having previously served as the church's assistant curate. Other appointments would follow: curate at Christchurch, Barnet (1938); rector of St John, Burslem, Stoke on Trent (1939); rector of St Peter's Church, Fremington in North Devon (1941); rector of St Wendreda, March in Cambridgeshire; vicar of Christ Church, Cambridge (1950). So it was not until 1957 that Robert P. Neill, his wife Margaret Mary, and their five children, finally moved into Lenton vicarage.
Our article reveals more about the Neill family and what the Rev. R.P. Neill got up to while he was vicar of Lenton. After Lenton he became vicar of St John the Evangelist, Worksop (1962) and priest-in-charge of Caunton with Maplebeck, near Newark (1973). He retired in October 1975.
Two of his three brothers went into the church - one of them, Ivan Delacherois Neill, became Chaplain-General to the British Forces. Reverend R.P. Neill's own son, James Purdon Neill, would go on to become a clergyman serving for thirty-two years as vicar of St Ann with Emmanuel in Nottingham.
The Willoughby Arms Coffee Tavern [4 pages]
During the 1870s advocates of temperance adopted a new strategy in their fight against the evils of drink. All over the country limited companies were established which began to open facilities providing non-alcoholic alternatives to the ever-present taverns and gin palaces. An added attraction for their investors was the promise of significant returns on their money. This alternative provision included coffee taverns, cocoa rooms, cafés, temperance halls, dining rooms, restaurants and temperance public houses with some of these establishments also offering cheap lodgings.
In Lenton something similar was being planned. A temperance group calling itself the Lenton British Workman's Association had come into being and was actively soliciting funds to enable it to erect a café in New Lenton. A suitable site had been acquired and a substantial sum already promised when its organising committee started to hold talks with the Nottingham Café Company. This company had already opened various temperance establishments in Nottingham and agreed to take over the Lenton project. The Nottingham Café Company commissioned the construction of a new building at the corner of Willoughby Street and Church Street. Known as the Willoughby Arms Coffee Tavern it was officially opened in October 1879.
Our article looks at the various establishments across Nottingham set up by the Nottingham Café Company. The business initially seems to have been profitable but then ran into problems that prompted the shareholders to pull the plug and, by 1887, all their properties, including the Willoughby Arms, had been sold off and the company had chosen to go into voluntary liquidation.
The Johnsons: Barrel Makers of City Road [4 pages]
In August 1899 John Johnson submitted plans to Nottingham Corporation, drawn up on his behalf, for a detached house located on a plot of land at the western end of City Road which extended from City Road to Ednaston Road. This is evident from the relevant entry in the Corporation's registers although the actual plans themselves have not survived. John Johnson was a barrel maker who was then a resident of Norwood Street in Radford. His business premises were also located at Radford in Bulwer Road but it is clear that Johnson was in the process of moving operations to Lenton.
This article looks at John Johnson activities as a barrel maker and what he got up to at his City Road site. It details what happened to each of the Johnsons' children and what happened to the business after John Johnson junior left Lenton in the early 1930s.
Nottingham's Free Public Library Committee & Lenton's First Public Library [5 pages]
Libraries and reading rooms had periodically been established in Nottingham and the surrounding villages - including Lenton - by various religious, social and voluntary organisations. in most instances access to these facilities required paying some sort of subscription. Such ventures are not discussed in this article. Instead the focus is on the free public libraries established by the Nottingham Corporation.
When the building that had formerly housed the Willoughby Arms came on to the market in 1885 it was acquired by Councillor John Benjamin Walker. He was a lace manufacturer, a resident of The Park with lace factories in Radford and Lenton. In 1877 Walker became a Liberal councillor on the Town Council representing the Castle Ward (made up of The Park and Lenton) and remained on the Council for ten years. He immediately offered the Library Committee the chance to lease the property from him in order to finally establish a reading room and reference library in Lenton - hitherto the Library Committee had been unable to find a suitable building in Lenton. Councillor Walker's offer was immediately taken up and the library was formally opened on Saturday 19 December 1885. Initially it consisted of just a reading room with a supply of daily papers and magazines along with a reference library. Over the next few years the Lenton facility seems to have been well patronised and in September 1888 the chief librarian, John Potter Briscoe, recommended that the Library Committee should upgrade the facilities at Lenton so that it should include a lending library provision. This was agreed and the Lenton library soon acquired an additional 1,500 volumes which could be taken home and read by its patrons.
Our article briefly details all of the Nottingham's public library provisions and looks at the subsequent campaign to house them in new purpose-built facilities. Radford and Lenton would not get its new library facility on Lenton Boulevard until 1926. The Willoughby Street premises would then be sold off and would later become the home of the Monty Hind Boys Club.
Philip Ernest Frank Clay: Philanthropist and Lenton Industrialist [5 pages]
On 24 July 1952 the Robin Hood statue on Castle Road was unveiled in front of five hundred Nottingham children. Among the guests of honour were the Duke and Duchess of Portland, the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Nottingham, and the Mayors and Mayoresses of Mansfield and Worksop, together with the Town Clerk of Nottingham and the Under-Sheriff. Also in the official party was Mr Philip Clay and his wife, Henrietta Ada Clay.
Philip Clay had been the public benefactor who had paid for the statue and its subsequent erection in Nottingham. He was currently the managing director of various businesses housed in the huge factory then to be found at the Lenton end of Castle Boulevard. Over the years businesses base here had included: Thomas Glover & Son; Glovers (Thread Coverers), Ltd.; Fine Wires Ltd.; Gloveen Ltd. and Elastic Yarns Ltd.
The article looks at Philip Clay's life story while also revealing a little of what these Lenton-based businesses had been involved in. We also reveal what other philanthropic gesture Philip Clay undertook out at Radcliffe-on-Trent, which was where in later years the Clay family home could be found.
Our Sponsor's Story [1 page]
Our sponsors are GEDA. They are an award-winning, multifaceted construction, civil engineering and development company founded in Northern Ireland in 1982. The company's principal base is in County Tyrone but more recently GEDA has also established a presence in the East Midlands setting up a separate base in Kegworth in 2011.
GEDA are currently [2025] involved in the construction of a set of apartment blocks in Lenton for Jigsaw Homes Midland, a housing association based in Arnold. Our article provides more details of this housing scheme which when finished will provide thirty-four flats which will be available both at an affordable rent and also under a Rent to Buy scheme.
Society Snips [3 pages]
Lenton Times - issue 49 - Downloadable PDF Version
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Next Issue: Lenton Times No.50 should be available in June 2025.