From 'The Lenton Listener' Issue 23
March - April 1983
Looking Up Leengate
Photograph probably taken in the 1940s - courtesy of Lenton Local History Society
Extracts from Kelly's Directories
1912: LEENGATE
2 Paget Howard, hair dresser
6 &8 Bradford Thos. Fredk. shopkpr. Post, Money Order, Telegraph &c Office, Box cleared 8.15 &10.15 a.m. &12.15, 1.30, 4, 4.45, 6, 7, 9.30 &10.30 p.m.; Sunday 7.15 p.m.
.......... Tanner's Yard..........
12 Roe Mrs. Sarah, cowkeeper
BAYLEY T. &CO. LTD. leather dressers; F. J. Bradley, mngng director; Jsph. H. Davis, sec Rowland Miss Jane
Canal Bridge leading to Spring Close
1932: LEENGATE
2 Paget Howard, hairdresser
6 &8 Alien Thomas William, shpkpr
.......... Tanner's Yard..........
12 Roe Mrs. Sarah, dairyman
Bayley T. &Co (1931) Limited,leather dressers (W. S. Oldham, managing director; D. Pearson sec.)
Canal Bridge, leading to Spring Close
Spring Works, Cassel &Keeble Ltd. spring seating mfrs
In the years since the photograph above was taken, the small cottages in the foreground of the picture have all been demolished, but the continued presence of the huge building to the rear, albeit with certain structural alterations, should make the location easy to identify. Most readers, however, would probably find it difficult to place the house in the photograph to the left, even though it is still standing today - such are the alterations it has undergone. In 1908 it was the home of Arthur Tetley (second left in the picture), described in the City Directory for that year as a letter carrier. These days the building houses part of the general store and newsagency presently run by M.D. and Y.A. Elliman on Leengate.
No. 4 Leengate in 1908
For many years the Roe family ran a dairy business from premises at No. 12. Their cows were usually kept in fields on the opposite side of the road. When Jack Roe died in the late 1930s, the buildings were bought by a Mr. Farnsworth as a depot for the milk from his Trentside Farm. With the exception of No. 4, Leengate was cleared of these old buildings in the early 1960s and the site of No. 12 provided the site of the new home for the Monty Hind Boys Club which moved there in 1967 from its old premises on Willoughby Street. Just as the Boys Club was establishing itself on Leengate, Bayley's the leather dressers were closing down after many years in Lenton.
The Bell Fruit Company subsequently took over the buildings and, as most people know, is still there. Among the articles we are eager to write is one on the Bayley's factory, but it appears that all the company's documents have now been destroyed. If anyone can help us with information or photographs, we should be delighted to hear from them.