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TOLLERTON IS A PROSPEROUS AREA WITH THRIVING SOCIAL LIFE, BUT….
Change creates a gap between the old and new.
TOLLERTON, a village that over the years has changed its name and character several times, has now become a prosperous area with a thriving social life, although some of the “old” village residents are not sure that they appreciate the transformation.
Many years ago, according to the historians, the name was Roclaveston. Later it became know as Torlaston, and eventually Tollerton.
Much of the old section of the village remains but is overshadowed by the large-scale development that has taken place over the last ten years or so.
The new development is not integrated with the old village, and this has created something of a gap between the new people and the original Tollerton residents.
One person who was charged with trying to ensure that the two sections of the village did integrate was the Rev. John Finney, the village Rector. “On the whole I think this has worked, and people in the new area are mixing well,” he says.
Mr Finney, who has been at Tollerton since 1965, says there is no shortage of social organisations in the village, most being well supported.
The parish church members are busily engaged on raising money for the erection of a new vestry for the 12th century building. Work has begun on the project which will cost about £3000.
RENOVATION
The success of the recent flower festival at the church – profit will be about £500 when all the money is in – does show, says Mr. Finney, that the villagers can mix well together, and support events run for their general benefit.
He says that the renovation of the village rectory room – in the grounds in which his own home stands – has done a great deal towards helping to revitalise village life. “The building is always in use, and we find that social life here has been tremendously assisted by it”. He says.
It cost £2,000 to smarten up the place and bring it up to modern standards, but it now forms part of the focal point of the village.
In the past some development at Tollerton has been held back because of a lack of main sewage facilities, but this is now being provided, and further development is expected.
This could well be an important asset to the village’s future although it is claimed that many of the newcomers to Tollerton do not really take an active part in its life, treating the village as just a dormitory after their life and work in the city.
One couple who have seen all the changes at Tollerton are Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Edgson, of 232 Tollerton Lane. They have lived in the village for 40 years and can recall the day when the small village school – it was a room in a house not far from where they live – had only 11 pupils.
“We had one teacher, and she taught us everything,” said Mrs. Edgson. She thought the newcomers to the area had played a big part in the progress of the village over the past few years.
Mr. and Mrs. Edgson remember when people at Tollerton had to rely on horse and cart to get into Nottingham or go on foot. “And we did that many a time,” said Mr Edgson.
The village has a number of personalities, one of them being Mrs. Helen Rowe, better known by a professional name as writer Helen Cresswell.
She and her husband, Brian and their one daughter, six-year-old Caroline, have lived in the village for eight years, and during this time Miss Cresswell has made a name for herself in the literary world.
In this period she has published 30 books, including 15 novels. She made her debut with what turned out to be a very popular children’s book under the name of Jumbo Spencer and since then has turned out many other popular productions, as well as writing for the BBC.
Miss Cresswell is a children’s writer, and specialises entirely for their needs.
She enjoys living at Tollerton – although they are shortly to move – but has not had much time to mix socially with people there, although for a while she did belong to the local Women’s Institute and attended meetings regularly.
Miss Cresswell attended King’s College in London, where she read English, and says that right from an early age she was interested in writing. Her daughter now attended Nottingham Girls’ High School and is showing some interest in her mother’s work.
ROAD SAFETY
While at Tollerton it would be impossible to think of road safety, and when thinking of road safety, one automatically thinks of the name of Mrs. Margaret Heason of ‘Burnwynd* [37 Tollerton Lane], Tollerton Lane. Mrs. Heason has done more for the furtherance of road safety in the village than most other people and is know to some as “Mrs. Road Safety.”
At present she is not engaged on any project in her own village but is all ready and eager to start again in a few weeks’ time.
Her main interest in the field of road safety is the training of children for their cycling proficiency tests and over the years it has been because of her active interest that many hundreds of youngsters have become better and safer cyclists.
Many young children call her Aunty. They are not confined to Tollerton but include the many other places where Mrs. Heason how takes classes for youngsters.
Although her road safety work all began at Tollerton, it has spread, and she is know over a wide area.
She began ten years ago when her daughter was seven. At the time her daughter had a new cycle, and there was no way of having her trained to use it correct, so Mrs. Heason took on the task. “I soon found that many other parents were sending their children along to me to train them as well”, she said.
In addition to her cycle training, Mrs. Heason has been responsible for starting a Tufty Club in the village. It has become very popular, and after being held in various private homes, it has recently expanded and is held in the Methodist Church Hall.
Two more village housewives, Mrs. Jill Watson, of Stella Avenue and Mrs. Rosemary Kieran of Bentinck Avenue are running the club.
Mrs. Heason does not confine all her activities to road safety, however, and is responsible for running the village keep fit classes for women. These have proved a great success, and from a start of one evening a week the group now hold a second meeting in order to cater for everyone. Mrs. Shirley Gaskell, of Sedgley Road, being responsible for the extra evening.
ONE PUB
There is one public house at Tollerton, although initially there was opposition to the granting of a licence.
Mr. Eric Ronald Pursglove is the licensee of the Air Hostess, which is on Stanstead Avenue, on the new estate. Plans for the public house were announced in 1965, but there was an outcry against it, and a survey conducted at the time by the Tollerton and District Ratepayers’ Association revealed that 83 per cent of the 899 people aged over 21 who were interviewed had said that they were against the scheme.
A special parish meeting was also called, and this also decided to oppose the idea, but in June 1965 Bingham magistrate granted the licence.
Many people in the village are under the impression that the Air Hostess – named because of Nottingham Airport connection with the village – was the first public house in the parish, but old records show that an inn existed 600 years ago near the village church.
This inn, which was open in 1686, after which year there is no record of it still being in existence, was the scene of a tragedy in the 1350s, when two brothers had a fight which ended in one stabbing the other to death.
Another important part of village life at Tollerton is St. Hugh’s College, a Roman Catholic establishment housed in the old Tollerton Hall. Fr. Mark Swaby is headmaster of the college, which takes boys from the age of 11 and also accepts day boarders.
The college has been open for 22 years, and at first catered for about 30 pupils. It now has 90 and serves several counties. Tollerton Hall was once the home of the village squire, and its position gives the impression that many years ago the parish was small, the church, the hall and rectory and the few houses all being clustered together with just a few outlying farmhouses.
The Hall’s age is not known, although there is evidence that it has been standing for several hundred years. During the last war it was used as a prisoner-of-war camp. Later the American Army used. It.
ON OUTSIRTS
The village post office is on Melton Road, on the outskirts of the village, but has not always been there. At one time it was in the village centre, Mrs. Dorothy Foster lives at 230 Tollerton Lane, where the post office used to be.
“Of course, the village was different then, and it wasn’t nearly so big” she said, explaining that the official business of the office had been carried out in what is now a back conservatory to her quaint home on the corner of Cotgrave Lane.
Whatever people say about new development spoiling an area, this does not apply at Tollerton, because most of the new buildings have been constructed a good distance from the “old” village centre, leaving the best of the original section untouched, yet bringing a new modern outlook with new shops, a new school and many new houses in the village just a short way off.