Walter Granberg

The Bramcote Hills Community Association was founded in 1963. The Millennium celebrations invite retrospection and it seemed appropriate to ask a number of people prominent in the Association at different times between 1963 and 2000 to think back and record what they chiefly remember about their period of activity. This small book is therefore not an authoritative history, but rather a composite memoir, a series of personal recollections.

A brief chronological account will provide the background.
In 1952, Nottinghamshire County Council recommended in its Development Plan that a piece of farmland of about 100 acres north of Derby Road, bounded by Moor Lane, the Deddington Plantation and a frontage eastward of Sandy Lane, should be developed for primarily residential purposes, to house about 2000 people. In addition, an area between Bramcote Hill and Moor Lane would be set aside for a school campus.

Upon acceptance of this recommendation, applications from building fIrms began to arrive at the offIces of the then local authority, the Beeston and Stapleford Urban District Council. Thus, for example, in 1953 the fIrm of Hoftons applied to build on the east side of Sandy Lane, in 1955 application was made by Bernard Norman to build 50 houses, viz. 20 on Seven Oaks Crescent, lOon Balmoral Drive and 20 on the west side of Thoresby Road. In 1957, 29 detached houses were put up by Messrs. Rostance on Balmoral Drive and in 1963/4 Sherwood Construction was active in Warrender Close. Section by section the Bramcote Hills estate was being built up.
It is fascinating to compare three successive editions of the 1:10000 Ordnance Survey map for this area (SK 53 NW), of 1955, 1967 and 1973. The change in the physical topography is vividly apparent. In the 1955 map, portraying the situation before development, the whole of the area between Bramcote Hill and Coventry Lane in the west, the Nottingham Canal in the north, the Tottle Brook and the houses on Wollaton Vale in the east and the Derby Road, still a single carriageway, in the south is shown as farmland. The only dwellings are two farms, Bankfield Farm and Moor Farm, the only roads Moor Lane and Sandy Lane.

In the 1967 map, the whole of the Bramcote Hills estate appears as a solid block of houses and roads between Derby Road, now a dual carriageway, Moor Lane, Sandy Lane and the Bramcote Ridge. A new road, Thoresby Road, has been cut, although it is not yet made up on the W ollaton side and there are no shops yet on Bramcote Lane. There is the beginning of a settlement south west of Wollaton Vale down to Templeoak Drive on the west of Bramcote Lane and Wroxham Drive on the east. Within the Moor a few houses have been built on Rivergreen Crescent and Grangewood Road.

The 1973 edition of the same map shows further changes. A major development has occurred in Wollaton, which is now fully built up between Humberstone Road and Wollaton Vale, with Thoresby Road and Bramcote Lane providing a continuous thoroughfare. Rivergreen Crescent and Deddington Lane now form the boundary of a small but distinct estate. The rest of the Moor is still farmland, and Lowe's Nursery to the east of Sandy Lane is still intact.

The next stage came soon afterwards. In 1975 he building firm Wimpey applied for permission to build 349 two-storey houses in Bramcote Moor, between Deddington Lane and Moor Lane. The application was turned down by Beeston and Stapleford UDC but, after a local enquiry, the Secretary of State reversed the decision. Later that year, permission was also given to build 99 houses and 6 bungalows on the site of Lowe's Nursery.

Ten years later, in 1985, when Nottingham City decided to redevelop the flats in Balloon Wood, residential development was allowed in the small triangle off Coventry Lane, previously in the Green Belt, to form the Oaklands estate. The change ITom farmland to residential settlement, begun in 1952, was complete. The 20 contributions relate to the different periods of the Association's history in roughly chronological order. The first seven, by Elwyn Berry, Peter Knighton, Tony Grimley, Charles Beresford, Eileen Small, Bob Smith and Betty and Peter Jones, have a dual focus: life in the area as the estate was being developed and the story of how the Association was founded in 1963. A clear picture emerges of daily needs being met by just four shops, of younger children having to be bussed to Beeston Fields Junior School, of Thoresby Road finishing at the top of the Bramcote Ridge. Some of these details are obviously still vividly remembered 30 years later, and it seemed right to allow some repetition. Elwyn Berry, Peter Knighton and Tony Grimley relate, with different degrees of detail, the story of Mr Pounder and the opposition to the building of the pub on Sandringham Drive. Here too some repetition seemed acceptable.
Reading these early contributions as a whole, one has the impression that there must have been a need, felt by many, to overcome the isolation and difficulties of life on a new estate by joining together for social contact and recreational activities. When attempts to satisfy this need through existing facilities were obstructed, the movement to establish a new organisation took shape, strengthened by the example of concerted opposition to perceived threats and encouraged by the hope, alas not to be realised, for a community centre on the estate.

Several of these early contributors were prominent in this movement, and its success owes much to their determination, enthusiasm and organising skill. They, together with others on the committee, were at the helm of the Association for the first decade.
During this period the fundamental structure and pattern of activities of the Association were laid. The central Councillor Committee organises a series of one-off events, while numerous groups meet regularly to follow recreational or sporting interests. The two types of activity have never been mutually exclusive, with members of one or two groups also participating in centrally organised events. The result has been a rich social life.

The dual pattern is reflected in the contributions that deal with the period from the 1970s onwards, with some writers presenting a general picture, while others focus on a particular event or group.
Some of the events go back to the earliest times. Among them the annual dinner dance has undoubtedly been the high point of the Association calendar. Mavis Moore recalls that these were 'proper dressy occasions, with good food and good bands', Lindsay Power entitles her piece 'Dancing through the years', and both she and Marilyn Lincoln remember particularly the Silver Jubilee dinner dance at the Royal Hotel in February 1987, attended by 245 (or was it 250?) members. Less formal barn dances have sometimes been held, but 1999 saw a return to the more formal 'dressy occasion' under the auspices of the Millennium Committee.

Another regular event was until 1997 the Children's Christmas Party, described in affectionate detail by Gaynor Bryan. Perhaps that too may be revived in the future. The summer outing or summer pub ramble has also been a popular feature from the start: pleasant memories of outings in the late 1970s and 1980s are recalled in Stan Heptinstall's piece and John Spencer, who has been the main organiser of the event in the 1990s, reveals the planning needed to make the ramble a success.

Three affiliated groups or sections, all with a long history, are the subject of separate contributions. The badminton group and the drama group, which in 1985 expanded into the Bramcote and Stanton Drama Group, go back to the foundation years, while BRAMCADE (BRAMcote Hills Community Association Duke of Edinburgh's Group) was established in 1987, taking over from an earlier D of E section which had lapsed. D of E sections run under the auspices of a community association rather than a school or youth group are rare, and BRAMCADE's success has been remarkable.
It is significant that all the three authors of these pieces, Peter Jones, Doris Bannister and Ron Jones lay stress on the friendships that were born out of membership of a group and the same point is made by other contributors about joint work on the committee.

Continuity has been a striking feature of the Association's history. There have indeed been periods when the committee simply continued to organise events that had proved successful in the past. However there have also been periods full of innovations. The early 1980s seem to have been such a period, witnessing the establishment of activities that have continued to flourish ever since. These are the Children's Summer Playscheme, the Care Group, the Monday Club and above all the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme. This shows that sensitivity to the needs of the community at a given time has always been an important concern of the Association. As recently as 1999 a new group, the 'Friends of Bramcote Ridge' was formed and a new event, a Rounders Evening, was held.

In addition to promoting a rich social life, the Association has also been active to protect the interests of the community against public and private bodies and, where necessary, the local authority. This is mentioned in several contributions. Ron Jones reports on the efforts to curb the Zone and Collar Scheme, and for years Peter King scrutinised planning applications on behalf of the committee, ever vigilant to prevent deleterious housing developments. We hope that this publication will serve a number of purposes.

As a record of how a residential estate came into being and how an important social institution in it was founded and has developed over a period of almost 40 years it should prove of interest to future residents and perhaps to social and local historians. It will revive pleasurable memories among a large number of people who have participated in the Association's activities over the years and constitute a small tribute to those who gave of their time and energy to organise them. Finally it may act as a spur to those living in Bramcote Hills in the new millennium to keep up the good work..