Housing development - Wollaton and Balloon Wood

Image: © Stephen McKay Taken: Unknown

This scene has changed beyond all recognition since this photograph was taken late in 1967. In the foreground development was under way extending the large area of private housing that appeared to the south of Wollaton Vale and north west of Bramcote Lane from the 1950s to the 1970s. Nowadays, of course, sites like this would be locked in securely behind yards of Heras fencing but no such precautions were deemed necessary then. Beyond that, and separated by a railway line, the flats at Balloon Wood were being built. The flats were intended to house people who had lost their homes as inner city slums were cleared but they were never successful, unpopular with residents and suffering from construction defects, and were demolished in 1984 to be replaced by an estate of conventional houses.

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