IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mapperley Road, NOTTINGHAM, NG3 5NF

Ordnance Survey cut mark benchmark described on the Bench Mark Database at http://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm47856

There is an OS benchmark Image on a wall stone to the right of the pedestrian gate

Standing on the site of Watson Fothergill's family home which he built in 1871-2. http://www.watsonfothergill.co.uk/demolish.htm .

This fine house on the corner of Cramner Street and Mapperley Road is now used as offices for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

A hot first morning in July.

Who was the Robert Wilkinson Smith who funded the building of these endowed houses off Chestnut Grove? When the second Lord Rancliff of Bunny Park Hall, died he left his entire estate to a certain Mrs Burt, his housekeeper, who subsequently married a Mr Alexander Forteath. At some point after their wedding Mrs. Forteath (formerly Burt) made a decision that following her death the estate should be returned to the descendants of Lord Rancliffe’s family. Simultaneously however, she arranged that her niece, Arabella Hawksley, should enjoy the estates for the duration of her life. It seems that Arabella married a certain Mr Robert Wilkinson Smith late on in her life. Mrs Wilkinson Smith, (as she became) died in 1909 and the Bunny and Bradmore estates, which included Costock, East Leake, Keyworth, Ruddington and Wysall, were left to Sir Richard Levinge, of Knockdrin Castle, Ireland. At some point though Mr Robert Wilkinson Smith (or his wife's estate) funded this small housing complex.

The Robert Wilkinson Smith Homes are situated off Chestnut Grove. When the second Lord Rancliff of Bunny Park Hall died he left his entire estate to his housekeeper, Mrs Burt, who subsequently married a certain Mr Alexander Forteath. At some point after their wedding Mrs. Forteath (formerly Burt) made the decision that following her death the estate should be returned to the descendants of Lord Rancliffe’s family. Notwithstanding this however, this former housekeeper simultaneously arranged for Arabella Hawksley, her niece, to benefit from the entire estate for the remainder of her life. Arabella married a certain Mr Robert Wilkinson Smith, a successful Nottingham lace manufacturer but under previously agreed arrangements, when Mrs Wilkinson Smith (as she had become) died in 1909 the Bunny and Bradmore estates including assets in Costock, East Leake, Keyworth, Ruddington and Wysall were returned to a next in line family member - Sir Richard Levinge, of Knockdrin Castle, Ireland. Not however, before the founders and trustees of Robert Wilkinson Smith Charity funded the building of this small housing complex in 1910 at a cost of £1,310. Robert Wilkinson Smith, who died c.1910, left property (houses) of his own in Lister Gate, Long Row, Clumber Street and South Parade.

But whether you want modern or Victorian, it's all the upper end of the market. Off Cranmer Street.

A school playing field belonging to St Augustine's R/C Primary School is overlooked by a low-rise block of luxury apartments. Mapperley Road at the far end of the football pitch.

Chestnut Grove is now a cul-de-sac created by these gates, whereas the drive beyond the gates actually links to Berkeley Avenue. These gates act to secure one of the entrances/exits to Forest House, a property-with-grounds that has served several masters in the past. The domestic-sized house behind the gates may have been a gate lodge and a porter's lodge in the past. The extensive premises themselves (not visible here) were once the home of Thomas Isaac Birkin, of the lace making dynasty. When he became the 1st Baronet of Ruddington Grange and moved to Ruddington he gave the property away for conversion into a Children's Hospital. It functioned as such (with extensions) until the early 1980s when it became the HQ of Nottinghamshire Area Health Authority and later on the base of Nottingham Health Authority.