A LITTLE MORE ON THE ROLLESTON'S

A small collection of items, images, Watnall Hall stationary which turn up in auction in recent years. Sadly, I was not the winner. Find it interesting that the phone number of the Hall in 1916 was "80 BULWELL" !






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NOTTINGHAMSHIRE YEOMANRY MARKED I.C.1. MARTINI-HENRY CAVALRY CARBINE

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  Another Martini-Henry Cavalry carbine has come to light recently marked to the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry. The butt stamped, Y over NTT.S over 236. Previously recorded was an identical carbine with identical marking, but with the individual number of 166. It is still unclear as to whether the "S" refers to Sherwood, or South for either of the two respective  Yeomanry regiments of Nottinghamshire. Some swords with similar markings with the "Y", and "NTT" have also had "SN", and presumably, swords issued to the Sherwood Rangers would be marked "SR", but the observed carbines only carry "S". It may be that both units were supplied with firearms from the same armoury somewhere in Nottinghamshire, and therefore firearms were only marked as belonging to the Notts Yeomanry, rather than one, or the other of the two regiments.  Both carbines carry a store's date in the 1880's, one clearly marked 1886, the last digit on the othe...
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RAF WATNALL SPINNEY

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  Another place in Watnall close to my heart with fond memories is Watnall Spinney to be found at the end of Trough Lane, along Trough Road. It would have been either 1980 or 1981 that I first visited the area. I went on a play-day to my school friend's house, Richard Johnson who lived on Rolleston Crescent. He told me about the Hall which once stood where his house was now which I was fascinated by. We called for our mutual school friend, Paul Horton. We then went over Richard's back garden onto the fields beyond. They showed me the graves for the first time. They were completely overgrown. Paul seemed to have inside knowledge that there were in fact graves inside. The gate could just be made out and a small tunnel through the overgrowth through which someone had crawled through in the past to make the discovery. I remember the rusty locked gate and some of the fence was visible, but I remember the surrounding fence being much taller than what is there now, - but then again, ...
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RAF STATION WATNALL

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  It may come as a surprise to some just how much of Watnall was covered by the RAF station in the 1940's, and equally surprising how little of it remains today. From Trough Road to the end of Common Lane was taken over by the RAF. All that remains above ground today - as far as I know, and please correct me if I am wrong, are, the covered Stanton Air-raid shelter in Watnall Spinney, "the Hut" at the back of the Royal Oak, the entrance to the underground operations block in the grounds of the HGV testing station facing the Royal Oak, and the Filter room aside Common Lane, below ground level and recently renovated and shown in the TV programme, "Restoration Man". Please examine the map of RAF Watnall dated 1949, image-2. It may be an idea to save the image to your pictures to enable you to zoom in. It is scanned from a book I have, if the details are too poor, p/m me your email address and I will send you the image in a higher resolution. It is not a brilliant ...
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