Originally published @ 11:34 pm, Tue 30th Nov 2010 as "Walter Halls and Mapperley history" and promising to promising to be something different, prompted by a visit of Walter Halls school pupils to The Council House, it is a re-post a history of the districts that make up Mapperley ward. From a 2020 perspective, there is now a to more on the internet to find about the history of these parts of Nottingham city, whereas at the time, it felt that there was very little posted.
Mapperley ward
Mapperley ward is close to the city centre, being north-east of it, and consists of Mapperley itself, Mapperley Park and Alexandra Park; parts of St.Ann's (including St.Ann's Hill (Belle Vue) near the city centre, The Wells and Thorneywood.
Please find some quick notes I've put together below. I'm not a trained historian and
I'm more than happy to accept corrections and additions to my notes. I've drawn on notes from local historians such as John Beckett, Ken Brand, John Tanner, Richard Pearson and John Foster.
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The area north-east of the city was known as Clay Fields (referenced in the first known map of Nottingham, 1609). Further away, there were extensive coppices at the top of the hill, reached by Coppice Road (now Ransom Road).
St.Ann's, Mapperley, The Wells and Thorneywood grew to support the economic life of the city. Mapperley (intro)
Mapperley was distinctive for brick making and services provided by the asylums. Mapperley grew around a stately home built in the 18th century and its grounds which was developed for housing at the end of the 19th century.
The Wells
The Wells Road follows the centuries-old route into the city from the north-east. First wells, then a bath-house and a public house were established at the site of springs on the hillside. The wells were located where the Gardeners pub, off Kildare Road, now is.
Once known as Robin Hood's Well, it became known as St.Ann's Well and was the site that leaders of the city in mediaeval times would walk to from the city centre every Easter Monday as a pilgramage. There was also a turf maze nearby.
Its significance waned with time and with the arrival of the railways, the remaining memorial to the wells was buried under a huge embankment built up to support the new St.Ann's railway station. Deck-access flats and maisonettes were built in the sixties on the site of the railway station.
St.Ann's
St.Ann's takes it name from St.Ann's Well and Monastry.
The area was originally common land ... the Enclosure_Act of 1845 allowed the city to take 1,068 acres (4.3 km²) of the Clay fields. The idea was to ease the overcrowding in the St. Mary's ward, brought about by the boom in lace making. ...
... 10,000 standard back to back terraced houses were created, these were a great improvement on dwellings common elsewhere in the city at the time. A Lunatic asylum, parks, and a water reservoir were also built, the latter affording a panoramic view of Nottingham. ...
In 1969 however it was time for a change. The area was looking impoverished, with many of the shops and houses 100 years old or more. A local Housing Act raised legal standards for houses being 'fit for human habitation'. Clearance of some of the land began in December of that year, although building of new houses didn't start until 1973 and continued into the 1980s.
The St.Ann's Allotment gardens go back to the 1830’s and have hardly changed at all ... They were first set out as pleasure gardens and mostly used by the well-to-do, and although these sorts of gardens were quite common in other cities very few remain, in fact these allotments now "represent the most extensive detached garden site in England."
Mapperley
Further north from the city centre and St.Ann's, the name is thought to derive from that of Thomas Mappurley, from Derbyshire, who became owner of an area of land known as the Mappurley Closes in 1377. There are connections with the village of Mapperley, in Derbyshire.
A stately home - Mapperley Hall - was built around 1792. The grounds became Mapperley Park and the hills north and east of it became known as Mapperley Hills.
Extensive brickyards existed on Mapperley Hills for many years. These have supplied much of the building material for the city, hence the saying that “Nottingham was once on Mapperley Hills.” St.Pancras station in London was built using 10,000,000 of these bricks.
The Battle of Mapperley Hills took place on 23rd August 1842, following a series of Chartist disturbances across Nottingham for four days previous. Cavalry challenged a meeting of some 5,000 Chartists (who had just sat down to eat dinner) and arrested 400 men, leading them into town in rows of 4. The event was celebrated annually in the city for some years as a celebration of civil rights.
Mapperley was 'brought into the compass' of Nottingham in 1877 through the Borough Extension Act.
The Borough of Nottingham Lunatic Asylum opened on August 3rd, 1880, occupying 125 acres. It had its own farm, bakery and butchery, along with a church and recreation hall. It was designed by local architect George Thomas Hine, son of TC Hine, the designer of the Coppice Hospital.
The Mapperley reservoir was built in 1881.
The Suburban Railway (opened around 1888) ran alongside The Wells Road before entering a tunnel to reach Sherwood station and serve the clay pits off Sherwood Vale. The Kingsthorpe flats complex was built on the site of St.Ann's railway station and goods yard. A 440 feet long tunnel passes under Woodborough Road, to the works of the Nottingham Patent Brick Company at what is now the Penarth estate off Sherwood Vale.
Trams ran up Woodborough Road to the Porchester Road terminus and up St.Ann's Well Road to Donkey Hill (St.Bartholomew's Road).
The 20th century brought new housing, both generally, and specifically the in-filling the estates of Mapperley Park and the former hospitals, to support the economic growth of the city. Brick making finished in the fifties or sixties.
Mapperley Park is distinctive and is designated, along with Alexandra Park, as a Conservation Area. The Hall was owned by the Wrights, a banking family. The last member of the Wright family to live at the Hall was a Colonel in the British Army and many of the street names are associated with military campaigns. The estate started to be sold for development in 1873 and a very significant sale of the northern half of the estate for development took place in 1903. The estate is a clearly defined area, originally a quadrilateral formed by Mansfield Road, Redcliffe Road, Woodborough Road and the rear of the houses on Private Road; the southern boundary later became Mapperley Road. The estate rises in terraces from Mansfield Road to Woodborough Road: Carisbrooke Drive, Cyprus Road, Lucknow Avenue, Lucknow Drive. Distinguishing features of the estate are the street trees and the Bulwell stone walls. There are many grand houses on the estate, but recent trends have seen many properties, particularly in the south of the estate, converted to flats, including the Hall itself. The original large gardens invited recent attempts at infill housing.
The Mapperley Institute opened in 1906 and the Majestic Cinema opposite was popular in the forties and fifties.
Politically, Mapperley was a byword for Tory stronghold. Housing was overwhelmingly owner-occupied (in contrast to most of Nottingham). However as attitudes on housing ownership changed, and other social factors took a grip, Labour first won an election in the area in 1993 and it's believed that even Mapperley Park voted Labour in the 1997 General Election.
Thorneywood
Referred to as early as the 14th century, Thorneywood was a part of Sherwood Forest where deer were kept and covering a much wider area than the current neighbourhood. There were still not many houses when the railway line was constructed with a new station called Thorneywood. Housing subsequently developed nearby carries the name.