IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Stanhope Avenue, NOTTINGHAM, NG5 1QW

A glimpse through the trees of the top of the north portal of Sherwood Rise tunnel, constructed as part of the Great Central Railway's London Extension in the late 1890s. The ground has been built up considerably here since the railway closed, and today forms a small open space beyond the south end of Camelot Avenue.

The former railway cutting south of the site of New Basford station has become a small park, and a very quiet one due to its location at a lower level than the surrounding area beyond the end of a cul de sac. The trees in the background conceal the north portal of Sherwood Rise tunnel, which remains partially visible in the undergrowth (see Image).

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. After passing through a deep cutting in the sandstone south of New Basford station, southbound trains entered the 665-yard Sherwood Rise Tunnel, the top of whose north portal is shown here. The cutting has been filled in and the tunnel mouth sealed: the railway track was getting on for twenty feet below the current ground level. The sheer side of the cutting through the soft Lenton sandstone is clearly shown on the left of the picture. After leaving Sherwood Rise Tunnel, steam-engine crews had only a 100-yard respite at Carrington before the line entered the sulphurous 1,189-yard Mansfield Road Tunnel, which took trains to Nottingham Victoria station. See Image] and Image

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 much of its route has disappeared - embankments flattened, cuttings filled, viaducts demolished - and it is hard to follow. After passing through a deep cutting in the sandstone south of New Basford station, southbound trains entered the 665-yard Sherwood Rise Tunnel (ahead). The cutting has been filled in: the railway track was getting on for twenty feet below the current ground level. The sheer side of the cutting through the Lenton sandstone is clearly shown on the left of the picture. See Image] and Image After leaving Sherwood Rise Tunnel, steam-engine crews had only a 100-yard respite at Carrington before the line entered the sulphurous 1,189-yard Mansfield Road Tunnel, which took trains to Nottingham Victoria station.

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 much of its route has disappeared - embankments flattened, cuttings filled, viaducts demolished - and it is hard to follow. After passing through the 665-yard Sherwood Rise Tunnel (behind the camera) trains entered a deep cutting in the sandstone south of New Basford station. The cutting has been filled in: the railway track was getting on for twenty feet below the current ground level. The sheer side of the cutting through the Lenton sandstone is clearly shown on the right of the picture. See Image] and Image

It is hard to believe that this was once the site of a main line railway. Camelot Avenue is built on the site of the station and goods yard of New Basford station. Famous Nottingham railway photographers such as Gordon Hepburn and Tom Boustead stood approximately where I stood to take this snap to take their pictures of trains bursting out of Sherwood Rise Tunnel on the uphill slog from Nottingham Victoria. The remains of the tunnel are hidden in the trees directly ahead - see Image 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.

This footpath at the end of Camelot Avenue (a cul-de-sac), that commences behind the photographer, leads into this meadow that now exists within the walls of this sandstone-walled former railway cutting. When the Great Central Railway Company ran trains through here (until the late 60s) this meadow did not exist, indeed the cutting was even deeper than it is now, before it was substantially filled in and it became the public green space that it now is.

Ordnance Survey cut mark benchmark which is described on the Bench Mark Database at http://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm35167.

Beyond the south end of Camelot Avenue in New Basford, a footpath leads into a small open space (see Image).

There is an OS benchmark Image on the tall brick wall pier about 2m right of the entrance to this former day care centre.