Nottingham Road

Presently Nottingham Road starts at its junction with Kegworth Road but at the turn of the 19th/20th century if you had walked along what was then part of Town Street towards Nottingham you would have seen the Blacksmiths Shop with George Stocker’s gypsum plaster mill behind it. Originally horse draw traffic was used for the transport of gypsum, but in the 1900s a daily goods train left the mill, pulled wagons loaded with gypsum on the Gotham branch line to the Great Central Railway.

As the road turned to the right, allotments stood on a small strip of land on the north side of the road whilst the Weldon Hills reached up to the skyline. Opposite, low, thatched cottages stood.

Passing a fine Wesleyan Methodist chapel, replaced by Chapel Close a row of houses and shops was reached built in Victorian and Edwardian times. They were served in their midst by the Star and Windmill Inns. Farther on, after Wallace Street, a lane led to a large four storey building, then a disused flourmill. Flour having been ground there since 1870s, after the windmill on Cheese Hill had fallen into disrepair. As the road leaves the village more allotments could be seen, some still in use today.

Between the two World Wars, houses and the Memorial Hall were built along the north side of the road blotting out the views of the hills and the fields. After the Second World War major housing developments took place further along the north side of Nottingham Road at its junction with Bidwell Crescent.