ACX         Nottinghamshire as seen by a Londoner

I moved from Hampton Middlesex in about 1990.  I had lost my wifw some years earlier to the disease that was contracted before we got married in 1951.  Jeanne must have contracted rheumatic fever at the same time as she had a very severe attach of bronchitis.  She was unaware of the more serious infection at the time of her illness, but became aware that she had a heart defect soon after.  I have consulted a very knowledgeable medic, and he has informed me that brinchitis does not affect the heart whereas rheumatic fever does.  When we got married Jeanne knew she had a mitral stenosis and that her life expectancy would be lower than normal,  Jeanne had a valvotomy that improved her condition but later developed a serious leakage of the tricuspid valve.  Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub failed to repair the leakage and Jeanne  only lasted weeks following the operation at Harefield.

I lived on my own for a while and eventually sold my house and moved in next door  with my elderly mother.  In due course we both decided to sell up and realise some value from our houses and move to where my second daughter lived  --  in Nottingham.  I knew the area slightly as Jeanne was born about thirty miles up the road at Clowne in Derbyshire.  I liked the different culture of the local people while not looking down on suburban London people.

I have joined the local community of the East Midlands and am accepted here.  I do not hide the fact that I am a foreigner by admitting I do not know a lot of local names and places that anyone who was brought up here would be expected to know,  When I am asked by local folk why I abandoned West London I tell them that I am an asylum-seeker from a Heathrow flightpath.  The overhead din was one of the reasons for moving up here.  We do occasionally hear an aircraft, but it is not like it was down in Hampton when one just stopped talking (personally or on the 'phone) and waited for quiet to resume (for a very short period) until the next ear-splitting assault occurred.

Nottingham is not the back of beyond, but Wollaton Park is tranquil compared with Hampton.  House prices then and now are significantly lower than in London.  Initially I bought a bungalow with quite a lot of ground for £75.000.  The same property in Hampton would have fetched close on a quarter of a million at that time.  Heaven knows what it would fetch now.  I met my second wife and we moved to Clowne but local personal problems caused us to move back to Nottingham.  I now live about a quarter of a mile from the first property.  I have done a bit of work on this house and it is just about all we need.  I can't see me moving again except by somebody else's muscle, and I will be in a box.

The point I wish to make to any southern reader is that the Midlands, or some call it "the Near North", has almost everything that London has.  Besides all the usual amenities like theatres, an ice rink et cetera, the airport is about ten miles by crow and a shade further by bus.  East Midland airport is not Heathrow, but is a thriving airport nevertheless.  BMI Baby flies from there to most UK destinations as well as a number of European  places.

But what I like most about the county is its rural nature.  Most southerners know a bit about Derbyshire, but Nottinghamshire is not well know by Londoners.  I can confirm that the two counties are very similar in having a few big towns and a lot of pleasant countryside.  Some charming little villages and pubs are only a short ride from the centre of Nottingham.  Tyou don't have to go nearly as far as you do in London to find tranquillity.  Five miles outside of the City of Nottingham and you are in open country  This suburb of a suburb (Wollaton Park) adjoins the deer park of the same name.

  The suburb of Wollaton is quite large and has a range of incomes within it.  Mention the name "Wollaton" to a resident of, say,  St Anns and they will say "You live where all the nobs live". It's true; there are a few roads where REAL money is evident, but there is a much more run-down part of Wollaton where the roughs live.  This sub-suburb is rather unique.  The local History Society has a website covering this estate http://www.lentontimes.co.uk/oct88_05.htm  The novelty of this estate is the style of its bungalows.  The website gives some history of the "Crane Built" houses as well as a picture of a typical bungalow if you scrolldown a bit.  They may look a bit strange, but they are quite nice to live in.  This house has a front garden of similar size to the one shewn in the hyperlink

  This Crane Built bungalow I live in is one of a semi-detached pair.  I was lucky enough to get one that had a modest sideway that is just wide enough the allow me to park my Fiat Punto "Active" car and  with just enough room to get past the car with my electric disability scooter or a wheelie bin.  I had the fences and gates renewed when I bought the place. As I have worked in the electrical industry all my life, I fitted Italian electric gate controls a while after I moved in, so now I can open and close the gates with the radio-key from inside the car.  I had a verandah put in by a local builder before doing the electrics, so now I can leave the kitchen by the back door in the pouring rain and get into the car.  Open the gates and drive out onto the road snug and dry.  When I bought the place it had the old 1930s slab paving stones everywhere, and they were sinking in all sorts of odd places, but a local asphalt company laid out the whole of the front and side of the house, making it look quite presentable.  The total amount I have spent on the property is under five thousand pounds, much less than I would have had to pay to have the work done in Hampton.  I have lights and 13A sockets in the verandah (all protected by RCBs, making it self-contained and able to charge the pair of electric scooters, or plug in the machine to mow the front lawn .  I've even put a second freezer in the verandah for when we defrost the big one in the house.

The roofs are tiled with cement asbestos pantiles.  (Don't get in a tiz over asbestos, the dust from the white variety is no more dangerous that many other building materials).   When the tiles were new they must have looked superb, but red dye fades rapidly in the sun and most of the originals on the estate are now a dull grey.  Originally in 1925-to-1930 the estate was largely Council-owned, but now only a few of the houses are not privately owned .  A number of the Council-owned properties have had their roofs replaced with a variety of different types of tile or metal mock-tiles

There is a spacious loft space above the single-storey ground floor.  Again, when I moved in, I had the old perished black felt removed and the rafters lined with thick white lining paper. A couple of fluorescent fittings and it is a very light and airy  storage place for light-weight material.  Access to the loft is a bit restricted via a flap in the external boiler hose.  A previous owner had a ladder fitted .  Some nearby bungalows have had the upper space converted into bedrooms,. but the upper floor needs strengthening  as the two-by-two angle iron structure would not safely carry the weight of the average bedroom furniture.

The back garden is tiny, but has the novel feature of a brick-built outhouse.  Last year I planted a number of blackberry and loganberry canes along the rear fence, and we had a bumper crop.  A garden tap provides the small amount of water needed to irrigate the plants.  The previous owner must have been a wine buff as I removed a lot of wine racks when I moved in and fitted every wall with copious shelving.  A sink with cold water and a drain into the sewer; a hot-water radiator and electrical power had also been installed.  I fitted a solid bench and a five inch Record vice together with a pillar drill and a twin emery wheel.  There's not a lot that I can't do in the way of DIY.  (Have a look at my DIY section of this website).  I've an extension ladder stored in the roof and a small aluminium work platform plus two pair of steps stored in the gap between the "shed" and the house.  I had the gap  roofed by the builder who put in the verandah.  This space also houses garden tools and some miscellaneous timber, as well as the mower.  I'm self-contained !

Thirty seconds walk from the house is a typical Asian corner shop that is neither on the corner or is it run by Asians.  It is open 7 days a week and closes at after nine PM.  Prices are a little higher than at the local Co-op, but they have a very good stock of groceries.  A local Post Office cum newsagent is close to "Dairybox" (the name of the "corner shop").  The local medical centre is only a hundred yards from this house, although it is due to re-locate to about half a mile away as it is too small for the  future trend of the NHS.  I have no worry about selling the place when my daughter finally probates my Will.  Please forgive me for being so smug.  I'm happy in my old age.  I've managed four score and am trying for my fifth .