IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Rowley Drive, NOTTINGHAM, NG5 1GF

The main entrance into the old swimming baths that were provided for the use of Sara Lee/Courtaulds factory employees (now known as "Rowley Drive, Sherwood, NG5"). The swimming pool still exists but is now boarded over allowing the premises to be used as a commercially operated soft play centre. The building previously functioned as The Nottingham Climbing Centre.

Deep within a new-build development (off Hucknall Rd, NG5), referred to by Peveril Homes plc as "Burlington Place, Sherwood", is this converted swimming baths that was built for the benefit of employees who worked on the Sara Lee/Courtaulds textile-factory site that existed around it.

The rear-end elevation of a converted swimming baths that existed for employees of the Sara Lee/Courtaulds textile-factory that operated in this location until 2006. A block of new-build apartments can be seen to its right. The older building was subsequently used by the Nottingham Climbing Centre but is currently in use as a soft play centre. The photo was taken standing in the closed end of the Rowley Drive cul de sac.

Houses on Rowley Drive, Sherwood, NG5 with the Courtauld’s Factory Shop on Haydn Rd in the distance (although the latter is inaccessible from this “Burlington Place” estate). This new-build development is on the site of the old Sara Lee/Courtaulds textile-factory and the side elevation of the now-converted swimming baths for employees can also be seen.

New houses on Rowley Drive, “Burlington Place,” Sherwood, NG5 on the site of the old Sara Lee/Courtaulds textile-factory and the side elevation of the converted swimming baths that existed for employees until the factory closed in 2006. The "baths" premises are currently in use as a soft play centre.

A view of the Djanogly City Academy sports complex taken from the car park that belongs to the soft play centre now occupying the ex-Sara Lee/Courtaulds Factory swimming baths (at the bottom end of Rowley Drive, NG5). Djanogly City Academy replaced both the oversubscribed Nottingham City Technology College and Forest Comprehensive School in 2003. Beyond the sports pavilion the Courtauld's Factory Shop on Haydn Rd can also be seen, although it cannot be reached through the Academy's service road that exists at the foot of Rowley Drive.

The entrance to the Meridian Court Hall-of-Residence on Quorn Road, opposite Minstrel Avenue. Although described as being a part of the City Campus of Nottingham Trent University it is a 10-15 minute bus ride away from the city centre plus a 5 minute walk from the most convenient stop for the most best collection of services in & out of the city. It is situated on part of the former Meridian/Bairnswear textile factory site that had entrances on nearby Haydn Road. In 1963 the Courtaulds/Sara Lee Ltd conglomerate began to gradually take over the Meridian sites in the U.K. and to rationalise some of their manufacturing sites. Presumably this is why Nottingham Trent University were able to buy part of the site?

Looking east from Quorn Road.

A view down the gentle slope at this end of Quorn Road - in the direction of Haydn Road - from the junction with Glendon Drive (just visible on the left). The premises of a couple of small factories (light industrial) characterise this end of the street, where the Quorn Road, Quorn Grove and Bagthorpe Close meet. The road widens as it heads into the distance towards Haydn Road.

Basford Waterworks was located at the junction of Haydn Road and Hucknall Road at the site now occupied by the Severn Trent Water Authority. It comprised two engine houses housing three rotary beam engines. This photo is of the cylinders and valve gear to the No. 2 engine. It was built by Hawthorns in 1858. These engines are now in the industrial museum at Wollaton Hall. I've been in there and seen them but they don't recreate the noise, the heat and the smell of steam, oil and brasso when the engines were fully working.