IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Valley Road, NOTTINGHAM, NG5 1HX

The low brick wall on the other side of the road is all that remains of the south abutment supporting a huge plate girder bridge which carried the Great Central main line from Nottingham Victoria to Sheffield 40ft above the road. That bridge, replacing the original simple brick arch, was built in the late 1930s, when Valley Road was widened and became the northern part of the ring road. The houses opposite are built where the embankment has been removed; the trees above them are growing where the sandstone railway cutting shown in my Image] once was. For more about the railway network in these parts, see Image], Image], Image], Image] and others.

Tunstall Drive is built where the Great Central Railway main line from Nottingham Victoria to Sheffield and Manchester once ran - on the top of an embankment in the region of 40ft above the present road level. The trees in the background grow on the slope of the truncated embankment and give an idea of how wide the earthworks were. Bagthorpe Junction and its signal box once stood roughly where I stood to take this picture, but a long way above my head. The scene at the top of what remains of the embankment is shown in Image], and for more about the railway network in these parts, see Image], Image], Image] and others.

I hope the poor technical quality of this picture (scanned and cropped from a tiny square print) is outweighed by its historical interest. The Great Central Railway no longer exists and this cutting in the soft sandstone has been filled in and built on - see Image I was excited enough by the sight of a British Railways 9F 2-10-0 belting southwards with the nightly Immingham fish train to press the shutter - too early, as usual. The signals and signal box at Bagthorpe Junction (where the line to Derby Friargate diverged) are just visible in the distance. They too are long gone, along with the bridge which once carried the line high over Valley Road and the embankment beyond it.

The Great Central Railway main line from London Marylebone to Sheffield via Leicester and Nottingham was the last trunk route to be completed (1899) and the first to close (1967). North of Nottingham and in the city much of its route has disappeared - embankments flattened, cuttings filled, viaducts demolished - and it is hard to follow. The best part of fifty years ago I used to cycle up here of an evening to watch the trains pass under Perry Road bridge. On the left the newer houses between the 1930s ones are on the site of the cutting shown in Image] and the concrete wall on the right (over which I took Image]) is the site of the bridge parapet from which Image] was taken.

Standard Commonwealth War Graves Commission cross with simple inscriptions (no names). Looking unkempt, but this former cemetery is deliberately allowed to be a bit wild to encourage insect life.

The trees to the right are growing on the remains of the Great Central Railway embankment. Beyond them, the embankment - 40ft high where the railway crossed Valley Road on its way south to Nottingham Victoria - has been levelled and the houses of Tunstall Drive built. Fenton Road follows the course of Bagthorpe East Curve, which brought trains from the Great Northern Derby Friargate line to join the GC at Bagthorpe Junction (which was just north of Valley Road bridge, way above the roofs of the present houses, and those on Harmston Rise and Heatherley Avenue, whose alignments follow the bottom of the former embankment). In railway days the downward slope straight ahead was a single railway line rising to meet the main line. To the right of the houses in the distance on the left of the picture, the railway passed through the cutting in the sandstone ridge shown in my Image

High Victorian stones, seen from Perry Road on a spring morning.

A view towards Vicarage Close (a cul de sac) taken from the opposite side of the twin chapels-of-rest.

Looking towards Perry Road. A corner of the derelict Bulwell stone chapel is on the extreme left.

The main line from Nottingham Victoria to Sheffield and Manchester ran straight ahead - the right wall of the modern factory is parallel to the former tracks. Bagthorpe East curve, carrying Derby Friargate trains to Basford North and on to Kimberley and Ilkeston, passed to the left of this building, where the bushes are. Behind the camera the embankment - 40ft high where it crossed the ring road - has been levelled and the houses of Tunstall Drive built. For more about the railway network in these parts, see Image], Image], Image] and others.