Elwyn Berry

Dennis and I came to Bramcote Hills in March, 1958, when the estate was more than half built; though in those days it ended at Sandy Lane on the east side. Those who have arrived since the mid­1960s might like to hear about life on the estate when it was still very new, and why the Community Association came into existence.
Bramcote Hills was put up in the late 1950s to early 1960s by several speculative builders with the houses selling in the price band £3,000 to £5,500. It attracted a high proportion of professional people, mostly of a younger age group, often with young families or with the intention of starting one in the near future. There were also a number of retired couples or those looking to retirement, but not many in the age group 40-55.

At first there were no shops on the estate, but the Nottingham Co-operative Society provided several mobile shops, offering butchery, grocery and greengrocery, and there were also bread and milk deliveries. About 1959 the Co-op built a wooden structure for general stores which displaced the grocery van, but the other vans continued to run until the wooden building was replaced by a permanent supermarket. On Seven Oaks Crescent four shops were opened which included a sub-post office, a branch of Marsden's grocery chain, a baby linen and a hardware shop. At about the same time the Planning Authority gave permission for a petrol station to be opened adjacent to these four shops, and a public house opposite to the Co-op supermarket. These last two projects aroused considerable objection from the residents and the filling station project was soon abandoned.
On the school campus there was a boys secondary modem
school, opened in 1948 but only accessible from Ilkeston Road or Derby Road and not from Moor Lane. A mixed grammar and mixed technical grammar school were built later.
In April 1960 a primary school was opened for children five to
eight years of age. Until that time all the young children had to be bussed to Beeston Fields Junior School or go the Church of England School on the other side of Derby Road. This bus service, started in 1955, was initiated by the parents and was the first instance of corporate action on the estate. Until 1960 there were no buses serving the estate, so that residents relied on the Derby Road service, but in that year Barton introduced a bus service that toured the estate hourly and went on to Beeston centre. In 1962 a considerable shopping centre was developed on Bramcote Lane and Thoresby Road was built into a proper road from being a narrow lane. The touring bus was replaced by one that cut straight through the estate and linked the city centre with Beeston.

In about 1955 one of the speculative builders went bankrupt and work was halted on some roads. Most of the roads on the estate had been made up by then, but when later someone else bought him out, the newcomer then tried to charge sitting owners a second time for road charges. The indignant residents leagued together, engaged a solicitor and fought and won their case against a further levy. Seven Oaks Crescent was one of those roads where building had been halted. While it was largely open land, the skylark was the commonest bird, but sadly after development it disappeared.
At that time the Ml had not come as far north as exit 25, but we realised that when it did, the traffic on Derby Road would increase, and at that time there was no pedestrian crossing on the A52. I am not sure at what time the road was made into a dual carriageway, with the speed limit raised to 40 mph, but it was almost certainly visualised by then. This made contact between the old village and Bramcote Hills less easy.

In Bramcote village there was the Memorial Hall and a one-day­a-week library - possibly a mobile one. The Hall was fully used, including by children from the Church School for school dinners and physical education. Bookings had to be made annually in July and it was not possible to make occasional bookings during the season. There were a few tennis courts in the local recreation ground, which could be booked by individuals.

The demography of the estate from its inception meant that there were a large number of professional women who were highly articulate, but knew hardly any of the neighbours and who, if they were at home looking after small children, could feel very lonely. At about this time a new organisation, originally initiated by the Manchester Guardian but later to be known as the Housewives Register, began on a nationwide footing. This attracted a number of the wives.

In 1961, largely through Eileen Small's initiative, the WEA started a class which was the first organisation ever to be allowed the use of the Grammar School.
A pre-school playgroup met in the Scout Hut in Beeston, which was run by the parents of children using it, but it was by no means an exclusively Bramcote Hills venture. However, it served to introduce mothers to each other. At the same time we formed a baby-sitting circle which was run on an informal basis, where parents returned services on an equal footing.

In 1962 the Hardy and Hanson Brewery applied for a licence to erect a public house on the site already earmarked for a pub, but this caused the residents in the immediate neighbourhood to draw up a petition against the scheme which received almost 100% support from the whole estate. All these several groups were coming together to see the value in forming a single community association which would have more influence than single-purpose organisations. The anti-brewery petition was followed at once by a petition that the site should be used for a community centre or library or both. This also met with an enthusiastic response, for the members of the Housewives Register needed a larger place to meet than the average sitting room, and they wanted to run a pre-school playgroup on the estate.

Somehow the initial groundwork came my way, and from notes I made at the time, I think I can piece the different steps together reasonably accurately.
From various contacts I had with County Councillors, we were advised to seek assistance from the Further Education Department at County Hall. As a result we held the first of three meetings in my house in November 1962 with a handful of invited guests representing various interests on the estate, as revealed in the two petitions already mentioned: leading figures in the WEA group, including Eileen Small, the curate at Bramcote, someone with previous experience of a Community Association, a representative from Further Education and Peter Jones, and apologies from Tony Grimley, both of whom were prominent amongst the anti-pub petitioners. At this meeting we found that to obtain a Community Centre we should first have a Community Association. To set one up we should have a public meeting to discover how much support there was for such an outlay.

The Ministry of Education would give us 50% of the cost of the building and land if they were satisfied that there was a demand for it, that there were groups in existence ready to use it and that funds had already been collected. The County Council was empowered to donate 25% of the cost, but had never done so to date. All alternative accommodation would have to be considered first.

We set up a steering committee to organise a public meeting, preferably in the Grammar School, but otherwise in the Secondary Modem Boys School. This was to be in December. Meanwhile I contacted the Clerk to the Urban District Council as it then was, who was interested but non-committal. However, he told me that there were plans for a library to be built on the campus.
Our County Councillor at the time was Mr Pounder, who cherished what I believe were somewhat autocratic ideas of his position. He was also the Chairman of the Governors of all the Bramcote Hills schools, Treasurer to the Trustees of the Memorial Hall, as well as Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee of the County Council.

Bookings made for the schools between Governors' meetings (once a term) were referred to Mr Pounder, who had the last word. Any appeal to the Education Committee was pointless as the policy was to uphold the decision of the Chairman of Governors. We were not allowed to use the Grammar School but met in the Boys School. At this first public meeting about 50 people attended, and another 20 or so sent apologies. The representative from Further Education told us that we should associate existing groups with a move to set up a Community Association and for this purpose should send out a questionnaire to every house on the estate. To this end we set up a committee of Investigation, which included Mr Langdale, Peter Jones, Peter Knighton, Mr Lyons (the Headmaster of the Grammar School), Tony Grimley, a Church of England representative, myself and a few other people. (Apologies if I have forgotten names.)

Mr Lyons volunteered to undertake the duplicating, distributing and collection of the questionnaire, although in the event the weather on the collection date was so appalling that it fell to the committee to take on the collection. It worked out well, as everyone was at home, and pleased to see someone else, so we finished up with about 50% responding to the enquiries.

Peter Knighton, following a hint from Mr Lyons, approached Mr Pounder informally, but he still proved uncooperative and refused the projected Community Association any use of the grammar school. Furthermore unless we called the association Bramcote rather than Bramcote Hills we could not have the use of the Memorial Hall either. He also refused to let the Sunday School have the use of the primary school after an initial letting. Constructively, he suggested that we should co-opt one of the school governors who lived on the estate as a member of the steering committee. We did this and found that he was very much his own man and gave us useful advice on how to handle some of the tricky encounters with the powers!
Looking back on the relationship with the County Councillor, it seems that he had little feeling that his place was to represent us, rather that we should do his bidding. It also caused us to feel that perhaps Mr Lyons was awkwardly placed: as headmaster of Mr Pounder's favourite school, if he was too strongly associated with a body that had no intention of cow-towing, it could make life difficult for him. He might prefer to stand down and let his wife take his place on the Committee, which is what subsequently happened.

The general agreement was that since the nucleus for the Community Association was in Bramcote Hills that should be its name.
The second public meeting was to inaugurate the Community Association in February 1963 with Mr Pounder, Mr Oldershaw (District Councillor) and the Clerk of the UDC all attending. There were also representatives of other Community Associations and the City and County Federations. There was genuine support for the project. We agreed to the setting up of an Association, with a working party. We were to establish sections in accordance with the fmdings of the questionnaire, collect subscriptions on a door-to-door basis and consider both finding a site for a Community Centre and the funds for financing it. Although some of the original committee members had said they would only serve until the Association was launched, most of them had become so interested in the nitty-gritty of the details that they stayed on. About 450 households joined within a few days of its launch.
It is ironical that the very fact of Mr Pounder's opposition to the scheme acted as a spur to getting it started in spite of him! Subsequent policy changes at government levelled to a greater use of school buildings for community purposes, so the need for our own community centre diminished. Later, the pub was established, and I believe has been much used by the Committee.
We have to thank a dedicated band of enthusiasts that the Community Association took place as it did. I can truthfully say that the experience of making the numerous contacts was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever enjoyed and I would take this opportunity to thank all those who took part. If there is waning interest in it now, that is because it was the right thing at the right time. Long may it last