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My first introduction to Bramcote Hills was during those dark
days between November 1940 and April 1941. I was in uniform and on flying picket
foot patrols. 'Dad's Army' was being formed and our orders of the day were to
look out for evidence of parachutists or report anything else suspicious. Many
was the time I struggled up Sandy Lane onto the ridge in fog, frost, rain, snow,
mud, mostly during the hours of darkness, but also in the early months of Spring.
Needless to say, except for the obvious signs of poachers (catching rabbits),
we never found anything to report. However, although the area was really no
more than scrubland, its natural beauty stayed in my memory.
My next encounter with the area was in mid-1956. I had transferred
employment to the Beeston area from London, and my wife and I were looking for
somewhere to set up a home. The development of the new Bramcote Hills estate
was in progress, with only the lower (Derby Road) end of Thoresby constructed.
We soon found our 'ideal site' and settled for it, even though the area was
no more than a building site. With my previous memories of the 'Hills' recalled,
and the building of the property under construction, my association with Bramcote
Hills was cemented and so, from 17 April 1957 I have lived in the estate, watched
it grow and taken part in community life and the Community Association, serving
as a committee member and treasurer for a number of years.
The amenities available then on the estate were rather meagre
if not Spartan, with no local shopping facilities, no estate bus service, or
local doctor. Four dairy companies delivered butter, cheese; eggs etc. and a
mobile shop from the Nottingham Co-op took care of meat, poultry and vegetables.
A weekend shopping trip into Beeston was daunting, shopping bags tended to become
full and heavy, the return journey meant an arm-pulling walk along Wollaton
Road and the Derby Road, then uphill Thoresby Road. The alternative was a bus
from Beeston Square (No.4, 4A, 5A) via Lenton Abbey Estate, to Derby Road, changes
to the Trent/Barton services, but still the uphill trudge off Thoresby Road.
The unmade surfaces and buildings in progress caused problems
of access for some vehicles to some properties. Heavily laden coal delivery
vehicles had to park some distance from their delivery point with the sacks
of coal humped to the address. An accident that occurred on a building site
required the attendance of an ambulance that had to park almost 500 yards from
the scene, and the injured party had to be stretchered over terrain more applicable
to a bombsite. A builder's hut caught fire and the attending fire appliance
could get nowhere near to it; by the time the fire crew had dismounted, collected
their extinguishers and reached the scene, the hut had burnt to the ground.
On one occasion an ambulance had been called to take a patient to hospital.
Although temporary boards had been put up giving names of streets, the individual
properties were only numbered by plots. Since new neighbours were often unaware
of each other's names, the ambulance crew had to knock on several doors asking
if there was a patient to be taken to hospital.
Gradually the chaos became organised chaos, then as things
settled down, life on Bramcote Hills began in earnest, but with still no direct
link to Wollaton etc. The Bramcote Hills Community Association was formed in
the early 1960s. There had previously been some matters that had required the
consensus of opinion of the residents, i.e. some unbuilt land on Balmoral Drive
to be utilised for the construction of a petrol station! Garage, then the proposal
to build a pub on Sandringham Drive were perhaps the main concerns of the day,
with a few other minor issues. And since those days the Association has proved
itself and its worth in many ways, in its contact with both the local and County
Councils on behalf of the estate and in the amenities, functions, schemes and
outings that it has organised, encouraged and fostered. Now we have access to
Wollaton and the local shops via Thoresby Road and Bramcote Lane and with the
Bramcote Moor Estate came the long awaited local bus service.
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