EPW057127 ENGLAND (1938). Mapperley Brick Works, Nottingham, 1938

Sherwood Vale

Mapperley Methodist Church [ Closed 2020]

Standard gauge railway loading platforms of Mapperley Rise works. It is said (to be confirmed) that this branch was worked by a combination of gravity, horses and steel cables.

Nottingham Corporation's covered water reservoir.

The twin tramlines of the route which ran from Market Square, Nottingham to the first terminus at the junction of Porchester Road and Woodborough Road. By 1938 the tram lines had been extended as far as the junction with Westdale Lane.

Two bridges here carried the standard gauge railway above and over two narrow gauge railway lines that brought clay from the quarry area close to Woodthorpe Grange - later to become housing along both sides of Sherwood Vale.

Twin bore tunnels driven beneath Sherwood Vale for trains of dug clay to be brought to the works at Mapperley Rise and Woodborough Road.

The kiln and chimney of the works (or 'brick yard' as it was known locally) at Woodborough Road, Mapperley. The railway line terminated behind the kiln alongside the row of drying sheds.

Standard gauge railway junction. A steeply inclined plane linking the two brick works yards to exchange sidings at Sherwood railway station to which trains of railway trucks loaded with finished bricks and packed in straw were shackled to steel ropes and lowered by means of a stationary steam engine.

Scout Lane (now Woodthorpe Drive). Another ancient byway that crossed the clay fields from which the Nottingham Patent Brick Company dug clay. At one point quarrying extended well past Scout Lane, and along the western facing slope of Mapperley Plains in a north easterley direction into what was locally known as 'Breck Hill Fields'. The brick company cut beneath Sherwood Vale, Scout Lane and Breck Hill, constructing substantial brick lined tunnels through which were laid narrow gauge railway lines. The clay was transported in trains of four wheeled tipping trucks hauled by a combination of steel ropes and petrol driven locomotives to be processed at the two main plants - one with entrance at Woodborough Road; the other entered from Mapperley Rise.

Sherwood Vale. Originally an old footpath from Mapperley through the back of Woodthorpe Grange to Scout Lane (later to be renamed Woodthorpe Drive). The Nottingham Patent Brick Company found themselves quarrying on either side of this footpath which formed a junction with the first part of Sherwood Vale close to the north eastern boundary (trees and hedge) of Woodthorpe Grange. Eventually the path became a road which extended Sherwood Vale, from its junction with Mapperley Rise at a point close to Sherwood Station, through to Woodborough Road near Mapperley's first electric tram terminus near the police station and Nottingham Corporation's covered water reservoir.

Mapperley Rise. This steeply inclined road was constructed from its junction with Woodborough Road by the Nottingham Patent Brick Company (NPBC). Its purpose being to gain access for goods and members of the public to the Nottingham Suburban Railway at Sherwood railway station. The directors of NPBC and other brickmaking companies at Thorneywood, Nottingham, were, together with other business people, prime movers in getting the railway surveyed, planned and built.