IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
High View Gardens, NOTTINGHAM, NG17 9DQ

A sharp rise up to the ridge forming Robin Hood's Hills. Behind the camera the land falls away again even more steeply.

A sharp rise up to the ridge forming Robin Hood's Hills

Notts C C octagonal concrete post with slotted arms and octagonal cast-iron finial. An unusual survivor at a junction of classified roads, still standing alongside its modern counterpart.

Older houses relating to the earlier mining industry mixed with later 20th century commuter-style development.

Romantically associated with the famous outlaw who would sit here at the cave entrance surveying the wealthy travellers passing through the valley below carrying their valuable wares. A very helpful local chap who lives nearby explained how him and other local children would play in the cave before the unstable sandstone bedrock led to the local council infilling the site. There's nothing to see now really - the area is obscured by heavy bracken, gorse and sycamore undergrowth, some of which I had to scrape away to even obtain this picture. One for the imagination I guess...

Whilst waiting at the traffic lights, I glanced across Derby Road at this house because the plaque caught my eye. It reads "AD 1904 Highest Point in Notts 609 feet above sea level". Having come down this road and had to apply quite a lot of braking to stop, I pondered the sign for a whole minute before the penny dropped - there was something wrong! Luckily, a fellow Geographer had been here before - Image Fortunately, I'm going to stop worrying about this inconsistency, because in about a year's time, the growth will have covered the plaque and all will be well again.

Derby Road, just north of the Shoulder of Mutton junction. The gap in between the terraces has since been filled with more houses. The plaque between the upper windows of the closest house reads "AD 1904 - Highest Point in Notts - 609 feet above sea level". The road clearly rises between this house and the corner, though, which is a clue that this plaque is not in its original location. Its story has received attention in the local "The Ad" paper (May 2009): a letter from John Harris of Langley Mill states that the plaque was affixed, in the year noted on it (1904) to the Castle Houses (originally the Imperial Cafe & Restaurant) further up the hill. The plaque is made of slate, and was fixed in its present position in or after the 1980s. Mr Harris helped remove it from the Castle Houses, researched its history, and refurbished it, and so this seems like a fairly definitive account! The current contender is Image, but landscaping is also going on at Silverhill Colliery, in Image - see the discussion thread associated with this square.

Looking east off the main Derby Road, which has another section running parallel to it - left and right off this picture.

This combined farm track, bridleway and public footpath - off Nuncargate Road - leads to Grives Farm and beyond it to the "Top Car Park" of Portland Park Nature Reserve, a "Site of Special Scientific Interest".