West Bridgford
West Bridgford is a leafy suburb of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It lies south of the city boundary, delimited by the River Trent, and forms the largest town in the borough of Rushcliffe. As part of the Rushcliffe Constituency its MP is The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke, QC (Conservative Party). The headquarters of Nottinghamshire County Council moved to the town in 1959 from the traditional county town of Nottingham. The town is enclosed by the A52 and the A6011 (former A52).
History
Most of the main roads in West Bridgford are named after wealthy families that dominated the town's early history, however, new developments that are in effect suburbs of the suburb are named after different things. For example, the Gamston development has roads named after the Lake District, and Compton Acres has roads named after Dorset and the Purbeck Coast.
There are no 'Streets' in West Bridgford. When the town was planned in the Victorian period the roads were originally named as streets, for example, Musters Street and South Street. However, the planners eventually decided that the term 'street' was too urban and changed them all to 'roads', so today we have Musters Road and South Road. The only 'street' in the town is Village Street in Edwalton.
West Bridgford is notably different to the other suburbs of Nottingham in a variety of ways. During the Victorian period, Nottingham was growing fast, but development in West Bridgford was restricted as much of the land was owned by the Musters family.
Eventually, after much pressure, the Musters sold their land, but they also applied strict planning regulations to the area known as the West Bridgford Estate. This estate was planned over a grid of tree lined streets. The main roads such as Musters Road had restrictions on density of housing and housing size. All houses were specified a certain amount of bedrooms, for example. Smaller houses were permitted on side streets, and terraces were erected on roads such as Exchange Road for the servants of the wealthy Nottingham merchants who bought up property in West Bridgford.
What has resulted from these strict plans is a community that is still very separate from Nottingham. The town has no formal ties with Nottingham. In Nottingham itself, West Bridgford is often called "Bread and Lard Island" in the belief that its inhabitants spend most of their money on big houses and fur coats so they could only afford to eat bread and lard behind closed doors.[citation needed] Not suffering from the urban problems of some of the city's less wealthy suburbs, West Bridgford is still regarded as one of the most prestigious suburbs of Nottingham.
Population:
Transport
- Green Line 5 5A Gamston - Melton Road - Muster Road - Trent Bridge - Railway Station - City Centre.
- Green Line 6 Edwalton - Trevor Road - Central Avenue - Trent Bridge - Railway Station - City Centre.
- Green Line 7 Gamston - Abbey Park - Central Avenue - Trent Bridge - Railway Station - City Centre.
- Green Line 8 and 9 Wilford Hill Loop - Central Avenue - Trent Bridge - Railway Station - City Centre.
- Services 1,2,3,4,10 and Sky Link on Loughborough Road -24 hour service (hourly)to Friar Lane then the Railway Station - EMA Nottingham (half hourly 4 am to 11 pm) http://www.skylink.co.uk.
- Services 11 and 90 on Radcliffe Road.
Historically, West Bridgford UDC ran its own fleet of buses with a 'chocolate and custard' livery of brown and yellow. This was merged with Nottingham City Transport in 1968.
Local Government
West Bridgford was created an urban sanitary district in 1891. It became an urban district with an elected council under the Local Government Act 1894. In 1935, the parishes of Edwalton and South Wilford were added to the urban district. This then became part of the larger borough of Rushcliffe under the Local Government Act 1972.
Geography
West Bridgford is bordered on the north side by the River Trent, spanned by two road bridges, Trent Bridge and Lady Bay Bridge, and two pedestrianised bridges consisting of a suspension bridge and a toll bridge near the Ferry Inn linking nearby Wilford village with the Meadows area of Nottingham city. The pedestrianised bridges link particularly well with cycle routes to Nottinghmam city, railway station and the University areas making several rapid, safe, car-free routes available.
Two spans of the original mediaeval bridge still remain, surrounded by a traffic island on the south side of the river adjacent to Trent Bridge.
Neighbourhoods
Nearby Places
- Nottingham to the north
- Holme Pierrepont to the north‐east
- Gamston to the south‐east
- Edwalton to the south
- Clifton to the south‐west
- Wilford to the north‐west
West Bridgford should not be confused with East Bridgford, which lies some miles away and is much smaller.
Sporting Heritage
West Bridgford is renowned for its sporting facilities and heritage.
Nottingham Forest Football Club play at the City Ground on the banks of the River Trent. Founded in 1865, the clubs glory days are considered to be 1975 -1993, under its famous manager Brian Clough who died in 2004. Under Clough's guidance in the 1977-78 season, Forest became the last team to date to win the English First Division Championship a year after winning promotion from the English Second Division. In 1978-79 Forest went on to win the European Cup after beating F.C Malmo (1-0) in Munich’s Olympic Stadium and retained the trophy again in 1979-80 by beating SV Hamburg (1-0) in Madrid. The club also won the Europe Super Cup and three League Cups.
Trent Bridge cricket ground was first used for cricket in 1838 and hosted its first Test Match in 1899, for England playing against Australia. It is the third oldest ground to be used as a test cricket venue after Lord's in London and Eden Gardens in Calcutta, India. It has been described by some as the finest test cricket location in the world.
Trent Bridge is also home to Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, a first-class English cricket club.
The National Watersports Centre is Britain’s centre for water sports and is located in Holme Pierrepont, next to West Bridgford. Its facilities include a regatta lake, a white water slalom and water‐ski jumps. West Bridgford also hosts two rowing clubs, Nottingham Rowing Club and Nottingham and Union Rowing Club, and a rowing shell manufacturers, Raymond Sims Ltd. Several of the town's secondary schools have rowing activities on their curriculum.
Retail
West Bridgford's main shopping district runs from Central Avenue through Tudor Square to Gordon Road. Multiple retailers in the central area include Vision Express, Boots, Greggs, a large Co-operative supermarket, Iceland, Blockbuster Video, and Argos. Marks & Spencers opened a food supermarket in early 2006. These established chains complement a variety of independent specialist shops like Strawberry Blinds, the BuyTheBook bookshop (pictured right), the independent hardware store, Jayline, and the unique No.8 Deli providing fresh, seasonal foods.
There are cafes (such as Bar des Amis, now 'La Vina', and Caffè Nero), pizza chains including Pizza Express and Pizza Hut as well as contemporary restaurants, typified by Five Rivers serving fusion Indian cuisine. Following refurbishment and street improvements in 2000, the quality of shopping in central West Bridgford has noticeably improved.
There are two food superstores in the area: ASDA in West Bridgford and Morrisons in nearby Gamston.
West Bridgford has a place in British retail history as the location of the UK's first major out-of-town shopping development. In 1964 an American company called GEM opened a store on Loughbrough Road, West Bridgford. However, despite ambitious expansion plans, GEM's British operations were not a success, with only one other store (at Crossgates, Leeds) being opened. National concessionaires withdrew from the stores and in 1966 the fledgling ASDA company (then known as 'Associated Dairies') of Leeds, acquired a controlling interest in the GEM operations. The Loughborough Road site still houses a major ASDA store, although this was resited and rebuilt some years ago. (For a fuller history of the site and GEM, see Whysall (2005) in International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 15(2), 111-124).
Pubs and Restaurants
As West Bridgford expanded in the Victorian and Edwardian periods The West Bridgford Protection Society was formed that worked hard to prevent any licensed premises being opened in West Bridgford. This has meant that there have been a relatively small number of pubs in the area until recent years.
The first pub in West Bridgford was the Trent Bridge Inn, next to Trent Bridge Cricket Ground.
In the late 1930s, planning was granted for the Wolds Hotel, effectively a pub (on Loughborough Road) and the Test Match Hotel on Gordon Road. Many of these establishments are called 'Inns' as public houses were prohibited in West Bridgford, but hotels were thought to be more acceptable. In reality, places like the Test Match never operated as a hotel. The Test Match was refurbished a few years ago by its then owners, Hardy and Hansons Kimberley Brewery, and was recognised as the best refurbishment in Britain by CAMRA, reflecting the care and attention given to preserving its distinctive art deco features (which were recognised as important by English Heritage). Hardy and Hansons has since been taken over by Greene King.
West Bridgford nightlife has been growing in recent years, particularly after the opening of new drinking establishments such as La Vina (ex-Bar des Amis, September 2007), Monkey Tree(under re-development September 2007) and the Pearl. Other drinking establishments include the long running West End Cabaret on Central Avenue, and the Stratford Haven on Stratford Road.
Along with many established local restaurants a new branch of Pizza Express has opened on Central Avenue. Fire&Ice, a bar/restaurant on Bridgford Road featuring an authentic wood fired pizza oven has quickly become more popular as a venue for late night drinking along with the very recently refurbished Oriental Pearl. Many of the pubs and bars in West Bridgford are frequented by people who live south of Nottingham, before heading onto the larger bars and clubs in Nottingham itself. However, increased interest in West Bridgford has attracted around 20-40% more people from town to stay in West Bridgford according to local taxi firms who say they seem to take more and more people from Nottingham to West Bridgford every week.
The increase in drinking establishments in West Bridgford has brought new problems to the central area. Establishments such as the 'Pearl' and 'Fire and Ice' take little responsibility for customers who, during summer months and at weekends and celebration periods, often spill out onto the pavement to drink. They have been accused of generating large amounts of inebriated and noisy motorists and pedestrians at very late hours of the night and morning, causing disruption and nuisance to local residents (this is a suburban area, not a city centre). Making West Bridgford 'trendy' has perversely led to new bars and restaurants that generate large amounts of trade (causing rowdyism and local disruption), which provides little help to the shopping area as it occurs outside normal trading hours. The local authority is attempting to control these problems by a renovation programme and work by the police to ensure that groups 'move on'.
Education
There are two state-funded Comprehensive schools, the West Bridgford School [1] and Rushcliffe School. The Becket School is a local Catholic school, although in a separate Local Authority from West Bridgford. The private Grosvenor School is also located on Melton Road in Edwalton. The largest site of South Nottingham College is in West Bridgford and the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University are within three miles.
The number of highly ranked schools in West Bridgford is often cited as a reason for its relatively high property prices. This, along with the gentle nature of the town, a leisure centre and proximity to the beautiful south Nottinghamshire countryside, including the Vale of Belvoir, ensure that West Bridgford is a popular location for families to live in.
Local Facilities
- Rushcliffe Leisure Centre – swimming pool and gym.
- Rushcliffe Arena – Indoor Bowls and gym.
- Roko Health Club - Members-only health club
- David Lloyd Club – members-only health club.
- Edwalton Golf Club
- West Bridgford Library
- Bridgford Park -
- West Bridgford Bowling Club - members-only outdoor bowling.
- West Bridgford Bridge Club
Notable Residents
The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke, QC MP lives on Melton Road.
Harry Wheatcroft, the famous rose grower lived with his family in West Bridgford. The Wheatcroft family garden centre is located in Edwalton, now owned by a chain.
Numerous Nottingham Forest F.C. and Notts County F.C players live in West Bridgford and adjoining Edwalton.