Rushcliffe Borough Council: Fill & Download for Free

Nottingham Forest F.C.’s stadium is known as the City Ground. Nottingham Forest had been founded in 1865, had won the F.A. Cup in the 1878–9 season, had applied to join the Football League when it was founded in 1888, and had eventually been elected to the Football League in 1892,, they did not start playing at the City Ground until 3rd September 1898, not long after they had again won the F.A. Cup in the 1897–8 season, beating Derby County in the final at Crystal Palace before 62,000 fans, and all of this early part of the club’s history was before they had moved to the City Ground.Nottingham Forest moved to the City Ground on 3rd September 1898, 33 years after theor formation and six years after election to the Football League. To raise the £3,000 required to finance the move the club asked members, supporters and businessmen to subscribe to "New Ground Scheme" bearer bonds which cost £5 each. Over £2,000 was raised this way. The ground only a few hundred yards from the old Town Ground at the opposite end of Trent Bridge, which had been named after the nearby Town Arms pub.Nottingham was granted its Charter as a City in 1897 and so the new ground was called the City Ground to commemorate this as the land on which it stands was at that time within the City boundary. In 1952 boundary changes resulted in the ground coming under the local council of West Bridgford (Rushcliffe Borough Council) rather than the City.The picture shows the City Ground and the area in which it is situated. In the foreground of the picture, on the city side of the River Trent there is Meadow Lane, which has been the home of Notts County F.C. since 1910 (though the club was founded in 1862).The City Ground is on the opposite bank of the river, and right alongside it, only 270 metres from Notts County’s ground. The two grounds are therefore the two Football League club grounds that have been the nearest to each other (though Notts County are currently out of the league, but bidding to return at the time of writing this). Although they are the nearest grounds in England, there are two grounds in Scotland, nearer to each other, being on opposite sides of the street, these being Dens Park (home of Dundee F.C.) and Tannadice (home of Dundee United F.C.)In the background in the picture above you can see the Trent Bridge cricket ground, home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and also a long standing venue for the England team’s test matches. Ut has been a sports ground since 1838 and was once the home of Notts County F.C. At the near corner of the ground is the Trent Bridge Inn, facing the famous Trent Bridge which is just within the picture. The tall building at the other corner of the corner of the ground, on Radcliffe Road is known as Trent Bridge House and contains Nottinghamshire County Council offices.The curved white building on the south bank of the River Trent was originally the New Bridgford Hotel, before housing the offices of Rushcliffe Borough Council, but has more recently been converted to an upmarket residential development of apartments known as the Waterside Apartments. On the banks of the river on the city side, directly opposite, is another residential development of apartments and houses known as Turney’s Quay, where my wife and I considered purchasing one of the houses just over 20 years ago.I attach below a link to an interesting article containing photographs of the City Ground over a period of 121 years.See how the City Ground has changed over the yearsThe current capacity of the City Ground is 30,445 (all seated, of course) though in the past it has held more than that. The record attendance was at the ground was 49,946, and this was for the First Division match on 28th October 1967 between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United, which was a big occasion because the previous season Manchester United had been league champions and Nottingham Forest had been runners up. Forest won 3–1 that afternoon, with two goals being scored by Joe Baker and one by Frank Wignall.

The most iconic bridge in my city of Nottingham here in the East Midlands of England is the famous Trent Bridge, so called because it conveys the A60 road approaching the city from the south of the city over the River Trent.The first bridge is thought to have been constructed on the site in 920. A second bridge which was started in 1156 had more than 20 stone arches and a chapel dedicated to St. James at one end. It was maintained by a religious organisation. On 21 February 1551 the responsibility for repair passed to Nottingham Corporation, through a Royal Charter which created the Bridge Estate. It was known as Hethbeth bridge, Heath-beth bridge, or Heck-beck bridge. This bridge was damaged by floods several times, and the northern half was washed away in 1683. The repaired bridge had fifteen arches across the river and flood areas, giving openings covering 347 ft in a total length of 538 ft. Although it was repaired, the foundations had become unsafe and a project to replace it was started in the 1860s.The new bridge was designed by Mr Marriott Ogle Tarbotton, who was probably the most outstanding city engineer that Nottingham ever had and was also responsible for the development of the city’s sewerage system. Construction of the present Trent Bridge started in 1868 and was completed in 1871 by Derbyshire iron maker, Andrew Handyside. The general contractor was Benton and Woodiwiss of Derby. The carving on the bridge was executed by Mawer and Ingle of Leeds. Trent Bridge was completed for a cost of £30,000 (equivalent to £2,743,769 as of 2018). There were three main cast iron arch spans each 100 feet (30 m) braced by wrought iron girders. The width between the parapets was 40 feet (12 m). It is a Grade II listed building.The new Trent Bridge formed part of a series of works along the banks of the river to improve flood defences by the construction of stepped, stone embankments. Between 1924 and 1926 the bridge was widened to 80 ft by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company.Above is a present day picture of Trent Bridge,looking north towards the city of Nottingham from West Bridgford on the south bank.The aerial view above shows Trent Bridge and its surrounding area. In the right foreground of picture you can see the famous Trent Bridge cricket ground, which has been a sports ground since 1838. It is the home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and also one of England’s leading cricket grounds famous for hosting test or international matches too. Perhaps the most memorable spell of cricket ever played here was the two hours before lunch on the first day of the England v Australia test match in August 2015, when Australia were all out for 60 runs, with England fast bowler Stuart Broad taking eight wickets for 15 runs. (See my answer to the question How do I hide my nationality? for an amusing little story about that.)In the centre foreground is a large H shaped building known as County Hall, because it is the headquarters of the local authority Nottinghamshire County Council, having been built in about 1950. The town on this side of the River Trent is known as West Bridgford, being outside the Nottingham city boundary and within the administrative areas of Nottinghamshire County Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council.Very near to Trent Bridge on this side of the river you will notice a white curved or crescent shaped building dating from the 1970s when it was originally the New Bridgford Hotel, but later became the headquarters of Rushcliffe Borough Council. The building is now being converted into a prestigious residential development known as The Waterside Apartments, and should be completed later this year or early next year.Behind this building you can see the famous football ground known as the City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest Football Club since the late 19th century, currently playing in the Championship (or former Second Division) but of course European Champions back in 1979 and 1980.Behind the football ground you can see a sandy coloured building is that is the local headquarters of the Environment Agency, appropriately located close to the River Trent, whose cleanliness and water quality is of course closely monitored by the EA. Just behind that building you can see the arches of another bridge over the River Trent. Known as Lady Bay Bridge, this bridge formerly carried a railway over the River Trent but in more recent years following the closure of the railway, the bridge was converted into a road bridge to provide a second road crossing and thereby relieve the traffic congestion at Trent Bridge.The city of Nottingham on the opposite, or north bank of the River Trent is, as you can see in the photograph, largely an industrial and commercial area rather than a residential or retail area. (The city centre is outside the photograph, to the left.) In the top left hand corner of the picture you can see the tall chimney of the incinerator used to burn rubbish domestic refuse collections. This is located at Eastcroft, the depot of the unitary authority Nottingham City Council which provides services to the city (and which was my employer from 1989 to 2000, but on an agency basis for the water company Severn Trent Water).Quite close to Eastcroft at the left hand edge of the picture you can see another football ground known as Meadow Lane (after the long straight road running roughly parallel to the River Trent on which it is situated) and since 1910 this has been the homer of Notts County Football Club, founded in 1862 and our country’s oldest surviving football club. Last season was the most dismal one in the club’s history, because having been always been members of the Football League (and indeed founder members) since 1888 they were relegated from the Football League for the first time in their history.On the north bank of the river, very close to Trent Bridge there is a residential development of apartments and houses known as Turney’s Quay, and would you believe before we moved to our present home in Nottingham in 2000 we almost purchased a house here. Also by the bridge on the opposite side of the road is what was for many years a pub known as the Town Arms, now a pub-restaurant in the Brewhouse & Kitchen chain. With its outside tables overlooking the river, it is a very pleasant place for lunch on a fine summer’s day. After lunch you can then go for an equally pleasant walk along the Victoria Embankment, which continues off the bottom left of the picture.

I refer to the Ordnance Survey map of Nottingham below, and in particular to the red arrow pointing to a site on the banks of the River Trent at Nottingham’s iconic Trent Bridge.Below is an aerial view of the area around this site, which as you can see contains a high rise building on the banks of the River Trent on the West Bridgford side of the bridge. Also visible in this photograph are the Notts County F.C. ground on Meadow Lane, Nottingham on the far side of the river, while on the near side of the river we have by the river the Nottingham Forest F.C. ground (known as the City Ground, despite being outside the city of Nottingham), the Trent Bridge cricket ground (a test match ground and home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club in the foreground, and the H-shaped building County Hall, headquarters of Nottinghamshire County Council, to the left.The building on the banks of the River Trent is now about sixty years old and is pictured below. Originally it was a hotel known as the Bridgford Hotel (later New Bridgford Hotel) and when it was opened in around 1960 it was one of the most prestigious hotels - indeed perhaps the most prestigious hotel - in Nottingham.Pictured below is an early advertisement for this hotel dating from the time soon after it was opened. The hotel was named the Bridgford Hotel because it is on the West Bridgford side of the river, whereas the city of Nottingham is on the opposite bank, with the River Trent forming the boundary of these two administrative areas.A more appropriate name for this hotel would have probably been the Trent Bridge Hotel, but it could not be called that because the Trent Bridge Inn was already in existence nearby, just a little way further back from the river, and is an old inn dating from the 19th century.The Bridgford Hotel remained inexistence for another twenty years or so, and then in 1982 the building was taken over by the local authority Rushcliffe Borough Council and became known as the Rushcliffe Civic Centre, housing most of the offices of the council. The Rushcliffe Civic Centre is pictured below in its latter days in 2017, shortly before the council relocated to a new headquarters and this building was sold.The building was purchased for redevelopment for residential use, to create 121 luxury apartments, with prices starting from £170,000 for a one a one-bedroom apartment. The building was renamed The Waterside Apartments and contains 25 one-bedroom apartments, 84 two-bedroom apartments and 12 three-bed duplex penthouse apartments., with these penthouses having panoramic views over the city of Nottingham.Pictured below is the completely refurbished Waterside Apartments building.Pictured below is a view of the interior of one of the penthouses.The site occupied by this building has an very interesting history too. In the 1920s and 1930s the Pavilion Theatre occupied the site, and it is pictured below as it was in about 1930, only a few years after Trent Bridge had been widened in 1926.In later years the theatre became the Plaza Cinema and had a new art deco frontage, before closing in 1942 and finally being demolished in 1955. The photograph below was taken just before it was demolished.However before that in the early 20th century a very unusual building housing a fascinating visitor attraction occupied the site, but was open for only fourteen months before it was destroyed by fire in July 1904. It was known as the Midlands Industrial Exhibition and is pictured in the postcard below.You can read more about this short lived but remarkable visitor attraction by accessing the link below.Midlands Industrial Exhibition, Nottingham, 1903-4I must admit that although I have lived in Nottingham for a long time I was unaware that the Midlands Industrial Exhibition had ever existed until I fact checked some of the information I have written in this post. I am sure that most people who live in Nottingham have never heard of it either, and probably one of the reasons for this is that it had such a short life that was ended by that fire.