NORTH WILFORD.
By an Order of the Local Government Board, made in 1894, the parish of Wilford was divided, and that part of the parish to the north of the Trent was directed to be called North Wilford. It will surprise some people to be told how large a portion of Nottingham Meadows was in the original parish, and now forms the new parish named.
The boundary of North Wilford can be roughly defined as follows: Commencing on the Victoria Embankment at about two hundred yards north-east of the Suspension Bridge, thence proceeding in a north-westerly direction, it includes the Exhibition grounds, Mundella Schools, St. Faith's Church, the back of Wilford Crescent, and all the houses erected by the Railway Companies, crossing the railway, then Queen's Walk at about eighty yards north of its southern end, along the front of the Cremorne Inn, and the backs of houses on the east side of Wilford Road, and then crossing Messrs. Jardine's Yard, and proceeding along the south side of King's Meadow Road as far as its junction with Pegg Street. It then proceeds to the junction of the Clifton Colliery Siding with the Midland Railway (Derby line); from this point the direction is southerly until the Tottle Brook is reached, and it gains the side of the Trent at a point seven hundred yards south of the mouth of the Tottle Brook.
Wilford Pasture. The great field in Wilford parish north of the Trent, and east of the Great Central Railway, was anciently called Wilford Pasture. East of where Mundella School stands, and between it and "The King's Highway" (London Road), was a field called "The Water Wessh." B. R., 3, 438.
The Chamberleyne of Nottingham in 1531 accounted for 6d. which he received of Maister Brown, of Newerk, "for the chiefrent of Bridgeford, in Wilford Pasture," but in 1541 he defines the item as 'the cheff rent of Wyllford in the parryshe of Brygeford belongyng to Ser Gervyse Clyfton in dekey." In 1512 there appears to have been a riot, which the Mickletorn Jury say was done "at owre fense be twixe our medo and Wilforth Pastur takyng vp the hegge, contrarie vn to the Kynges peas," for only a few months previously "Maister Clyfton and his seruantes" had been presented "for riotously brekyng off owre comon pastur hegges, that he causyd the yate to be browght thether a gayne; hit is thought contrary to right and to the comone weylle." B. R., 338.
In 1572 the Chamberlain paid 8d. "for fellyng ij lodes of thorns, one lode for the aushers (osiers) by Wylford Pastore." Boundary stones, called mearstones, were to be set "in Brydgford Fylde, Wilford Pasture, the Lynges," &c. For hedging at these "asheers" (osiers) and other places two labourers were paid for two days' work, in 1580, 2s. 4d. There seems to have been, in 1587, a lodge in the Pasture. B. R., 215.
The Wilford Meadow was the land west of what we call Wilford Boad, now the Colliery district, and south of "The King's Meadow." In a perambulation of the boundaries of Sherwood Forest in 1505, the officers started from the King's Castell att Nottingham, "and then by the Ould Trentt to the oulde corse of the watter of Leene (which is the bound between the King's medows and the medow of Wilford)," etc. B. B., 413.
In after years this is said to have been the Cottagers' Meadow—that is, the land let to the cottagers for joint pasturing.
The King's Meadow was, in the olden time, a meadow between the Castle and Wilford parish. Deering (page 172) gives some particulars with regard to it. Geffry Knyveton being Constable of the Castle in 1588, "He gives accompte of XII.l. 8s. cominge of XXiiii acres of meadow, lying in a meadow belonging to the castle of Nottingham called the king's meadow. The price 8s. 2d. so letten this yeare. And of XIVs. the latter agistment of the same meadow betwixt Michallmas and Martlemas happeninge."
Between the King's Meadow and Wilford Meadow, it is probable, the boundary was a great dyke. A lithographic view of Nottingham was taken by Henry Burn in 1845, apparently from the northern boundary dyke of Wilford parish, at the junction of King's Meadow and Wilford Roads. It shows the footpath to the ferry, and the dyke, with a tree prominent in the foreground. A copy of this picture appears in "In and about Notts.," page 248.
Crocuses. At the middle of the lastcentury millions of crocuses were growing on both parts of North Wilford meadows, forming a sight of beauty such as no-one who had seen them could ever forget. They are nearly all gone now. Two fields near the Colliery survive, west of Bosworth Boad Schools. But why mourn over lost flowers?
The places where they grew are occupied with houses, and the houses are full of children, and the children are more beautiful, and of greater value than the flowers.
Victoria Embankment. It is difficult for anyone now walking on the smooth paths with grass verges—seeing the trees and shrubs, resting on the seats, and viewing the embankment steps, and the stretch of water on the one hand, and the recreation ground with its cricket and football, bowls and other sports—to realize the contrast of the scene before the work was undertaken, the mounds and holes, and swamps of the unlevel footpath, the jagged banks, the shoals of mud and gravel, the lost condition of the fences— like a garment so patched that it is difficult to discover the original.
The Corporation having acquired a large estate north of the Trent, decided upon the construction of the Embankment, and afterwards of the Recreation Ground. On May 29th, 1898, Alderman Lambert, on behalf of the Public Parks Committee, drove the first pile, and on July 25th, 1901, the grounds were opened to the public. The cost of the land was £29,352, and the cost of construction of the Embankment, including the masonry, dredging for gravel, excavating, filling up, turfing, fencing, paths, and roads, etc., was £58,409, while the construction of the Meadows Recreation Ground, including levelling, filling up, fencing, sewer, pavilion, etc., cost £15,689.
The area of the Recreation Grounds is 23a. 1r. 13p.
The Trent Bath for swimming in the river, was constructed in 1895, and no charge is made for admission.
On the Embankment, and looking down the Trent, is a statue (which formerly stood opposite to the Midland Station) of Sir Robert Jukes Clifton, Hart, M.P., 1861-69, obit May 30th, 1869. This statue was erected by the admirers of the deceased, but we are not called upon to admire either the character or the memorial.
Colliery. There are in North Wilford two parts necessarily and permanently divided. In the west section the Colliery is the principal feature. When the Pit was sunk, and the Colliery opened out, the business was for several years carried on in the name of Mr. Saul Isaacs as proprietor, until in 1876 the Clifton Colliery Company, Ltd., was formed. It is now the largest employer of labour in the parish, usually having 1,000 workmen and boys, and winning from 1,200 to 1,400 tons of coal per day, or about 300,000 tons in a year.
Churches. St. Wilfrid's Mission Church is in Briar Street, and is worked by the Rector of Wilford. As the building is only a temporary one it will doubtless be superseded by a better provision for the spiritual wants of a populous district. A re-arrangement is not improbable.
The Wesleyan Mission Hall in King's Meadow Road is just outside the Wilford boundary. It was built in 1885, there having been a wooden building four years earlier.
The Salvation Army has a temporary building on King's Meadow Road, in which they are doing their best to rescue submerged men and women who are sinking in something worse than Trent water.
Schools. The Bosworth Road Schools were opened in 1886, and provide accommodation for 354 boys, 300 girls, and 337 infants, the cost of the site and streets being £3,000, and of the buildings and fittings £11,545. Mr. Hooker, the Head Teacher, suggests that the names of local streets are reminiscent of the end of the Wars of the Roses, and of the Civil War.
Scouts. The lst Notts. Battalion of the Southwell Diocesan Regiment of Scouts is an organization founded in 1909. The movement was in the first instance a purely local one, started on Wilford Road, by Mr. D. J. Jardine, who is the Commanding Officer, the Bishop of Southwell being the Chaplain. It has recently been affiliated to the Church Lads' Brigade. There are troops in about 22 parishes in the City and neighbourhood, and each troop is connected with its parish church. It is claimed that by keeping the boys in touch with their church, and by training them in the habits of self-respect, courtesy, and cleanliness, with, in addition, instruction in military training, ambulance, signalling, music, and many other achievements of scout life, and by affording them healthy occupations and interests for their leisure times, they are, by these influences, made better citizens and better Christians.
Railway Houses. On the eastern side the parish are the houses built by the Great Central and Great Northern Railway Companies, and these houses give a singular illustration of how acts of parliament operate differently to what their promoters contemplate. In order to prevent the evil caused by the wholesale pulling down of artizan dwellings, an act was passed requiring that as many new houses should be built as the Board of Trade may, after investigation, require. Twelve hundred tenements were pulled down by the railway operations, and nearly three hundred houses were built, but were occupied by new comers, and not by the dispossessed, for the houses removed were small, and low rented, and the building regulations required better class houses, and therefore higher rentals, so the poor went out of one slum into others.
A large quantity of land facing the Victoria Embankment, and extending to the Mundella School, has been enclosed with a view to an Exhibition being held.
Mundella School. This Secondary School was opened in 1899 as an Organized Science School, and as a Secondary School in 1905. Owing to the long association of the late Rt. Hon. A. J. Mundella, M.P., with the city, and to his zealous efforts in Parliament on behalf of national education, his name was adopted as a title for the school. It may here be mentioned that Mr. Mundella was for twenty-nine years M.P. for Sheffield. As Vice-President of the Privy Council, and Minister of Education, he established Higher Grade Schools. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, which indicates his interest in science. He filled the office of President of the Board of Trade. Pupils in the school who desire to rise will do well to consider that Mr. Mundella rose by his energy, skill, character, and tenacity of purpose, from being an assistant in a hosiery warehouse, who having been observed by a Nottingham manufacturer for his capacity and attention to business, at twenty-three was offered a partnership, and the firm built the big warehouse in Station Street, now the offices of Boot's Cash Chemists, Limited. In addition to his business interests he became an active member of the Nottingham Town Council, a Captain of the Robin Hoods, the moving spirit in a system of conciliation and arbitration between masters and men. His tomb may be seen in the Valley of Rocks, in the Church Cemetery.
This School offers Secondary Education of the very best type for some 560 boys and girls, drawn from the city and from adjacent residential suburbs. County scholars are admitted annually at the age of twelve, but most of the pupils enter at ten, and pass in the four years course. The report for 1913, signed by nine Government Inspectors, testifies in highly eulogistic terms to the high standard the school has attained through sound method, good teaching, and an excellent spirit of keenness on the part of teachers and taught. The most notable feature in the English work is the remarkable unity of aim and method to be found among the numerous teachers who take part. The Head Master, Mr. J. A. Jones, is complimented on his untiring attention to detail, and the stimulating influence he exercises over his staff, which has undoubtedly played an immense part in bringing the School up to its present high level. There are 28 Masters and Mistresses, with 7 Teachers or Instructors in departments, and the Governors are congratulated on having secured so excellent a staff, and the general behaviour of the pupils, not only in the school, but on their way home, and at their sports, is highly praised.
Is it not strange, and highly gratifying, that in this extreme boundary of a cut-off portion of a parish, near to the very spot where four hundred years ago our forefathers quarrelled as to a gate and a hedge, contrary to the King's peace and the common weal, there should be now established an Institution for promoting that Higher Education which results in culture, and in the possession of what is very uncommon, but of the utmost importance—a sound judgment, in a broad outlook, and wide sympathies, and therefore in disinterested effort to promote the public good? This is the culture which is being obtained through personal application and strenuous effort, with tenacity of purpose, involving, to a certain extent, the sacrifice of the frivolous pleasures which lull and satisfy the many, but are barren in future results, for here are the men and women who in the next generation will be the leaders in commerce, the teachers in knowledge, who are being trained, not for the dazzling glory of personal admiration, or advantage, but for the higher purpose of being of use in the world, of getting to give, for the highest education is that which fits a man, or woman, the better to promote the public good, accompanied with the determination to do it.
The adjoining building, the Collygate Road Junior School, was opened in 1899, and the cost of the land for the entire, block was £2,534,and of all the buildings and fittings, £27,791.
St. Faith's Church. This church is now in course of erection, near to the Mundella School. The site was given by Sir Hervey Bruce. The chancel, nave, and vestry will be first built, and the side aisles, transepts, etc., will follow. When the complete scheme is carried out the cost will amount to £7,000. The gravel foundation is 11 feet below the street level. This Gothic building will supersede an iron structure, which for ten years has served its purposes The people have contributed in small sums £1,410, Lord Hy. Bentinck has given £500, the Church Spiritual Aid, and the Church Extension Society, £2,650, total £4,560. The Vicar, the Rev. A. E. Barnacle, is working hard to bring the scheme to completion Messrs. Sutton and Gregory are the architects. The population is nearly 4,000. Lord Hy. Bentinck in laying the foundation stone said, and the words are worth preserving, "One great proof of our Divine origin is that we have in us a love and appreciation of everything that is beautiful, worthy, and dignified. It is hidden in some of us because our eyes are fixed on the ground, and our thoughts are of the earth earthy, but there it is, and everything that is beautiful and dignified is a link between us and that immortal Spirit and power that dwells unseen among us."