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Gayhurst Road, NOTTINGHAM, NG6 0BZ

This was the local name given to a farm track accommodation bridge under the railway, later providing pedestrian access into Bestwood Estate. It was a tall narrow brick arch of similar proportions to the central opening of the London monument, hence the name. It was quite dark and was demolished following the closure of the railway, the line of which is now the Hucknall Road Walkway. The Walkway is a multi-user route; there is an alternative ramp to the left of the embankment - cyclists don't have to use the steps!

Looking north from the south eastern end of Brooklyn Road.

The trackbed of the Great Northern line to Derby has been partly filled in to make a small playground. The curious-looking parapet was a British Railways replacement for the wrought-iron original and rather remarkably dates from 1965 - a year after passenger services ceased and only two years before the line was abandoned completely. Basford North station was to the left and the Basford East junctions, leading to where the GNR met the Great Central main line, the southbound line via the "Rathole" tunnel, were to the right. The other side of this bridge appears, under the footbridge, in Ben Brooksbank's 1963 pictures Image] and Image My father always called this "Dobby Bridge", but I've no idea why, or if anyone else did, or of the name's origin.

This view eastwards from Park Lane bridge shows how the course of the former Great Northern Railway line from Nottingham to Derby Friargate has been obliterated since it closed in 1968. Ben Brooksbank's Image] shows what the lines east of here looked like in the days of steam; the position of the engine in that picture was just beyond the houses straight ahead.

The walkway is in the bottom of the railway cutting, which typically has been populated with sycamore trees. However, the top of the bank retains a line of mature oak trees which formed a windbreak alongside Hucknall Road prior to the construction of the railway in the late 19th century.

Looking north east from the junction with Brooklyn Road. The houses are typical of inter war council housing in Nottingham.

View eastward on the ex-Great Northern lines, towards Daybrook and Colwick ahead under the bridge carrying the ex-Great Central main line from Nottingham Victoria to Sheffield; Basford North (former Basford & Bulwell) station is behind the camera. The locomotive is Gresley V2 2-6-2 No. 60878 on the loop towards Bagthorpe Junction and Nottingham Victoria.

Old Basford is a good place for old painted signs on former Home Brewery Company off licences. This example, on the corner of Park Lane and Cheltenham Street, is the traditional version, advertising Apollo fizzy drinks and the Daybrook brew; on nearby Arnold Road the beer-off sports the 1960s version - see Image

The line of trees marks the former course of the Great Central main line from Nottingham Victoria to Sheffield and Manchester, which crossed Arnold Road on a bridge just to the right. This was a good spot for trainspotting, with traffic on the GC and also the GN Derby Friargate line. Derby-bound trains took the Bagthorpe West Curve, which crossed Arnold Road a little way down the hill to the left (see Image]); when the smoke of those from Derby was spotted away to the left, beyond the sidings where the depot behind these railings is, there was a frantic dash under the GC bridge to the right to see them emerge from the short "Rathole" tunnel which had brought them under the GN Back Line to Daybrook and Colwick and the GC - they then passed under Arnold Road on their way along the single-track Bagthorpe East Curve, whose route is echoed by the northern end of Fenton Road, which was built after the railway was closed and its cuttings and embankments filled or levelled, landscaped or built on.