Watnall Troop S.N.Y.C. local history

  Inspired by recently shown interest the history of Watnall Hall and the history of the Rolleston family, a little more on the military career of Lancelot Rolleston. After his education at Oxford, he joined the South Notts Yeomanry Cavalry in 1868, presumably with a purchased commission. Famous for his actions in the Boer-War, in 1900 he led the 12th Company of the 3rd Battalion of Imperial Yeomanry. Against a Boer force in an attempt to rescue 500 British Army prisoners in transit. During the attack on horseback, Lancelot was shot in the arm, the bullet breaking his arm and passing through the side of his body. Taken to a field hospital, his wife Maud who was also in South Africa at the time working to establish a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, rushed to the battlefront to take care of Lancelot till he was invalided home with his wounds. After recovery, Lancelot returned to duty and resumed command of the regiment till his retirement in 1912. Famous for being the most hi...

  The top centre piece to the legendary Watnall Hall iron gates was a casting of the Rolleston family crest, and eagle's head. In heraldic terms known as, eagles head erased. Eagle's head erased was used by several branches of the Rolleston family, including one in Australia and one in New Zealand. Not unique to the name Rolleston, eagle's head erased is the crest of several other families. The motto of the Watnall Rolleston's was, - Ainsi et peut-etre meileur, (Thus and perhaps better). Mr and Mrs Malty were kind enough to allow me to pay them a visit to take a close up image of Sir Lancelot's signet ring. The ring was hallmarked in 1862, the year his father died. The ring is engraved in intaglio reverse with crest and motto. This is for the purpose of using the ring as a wax seal press, sealing wax dripped to the envelope flap and the ring rolled over to confirm it was sealed by Sir Lancelot. The ring now resides in the Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry M...

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" !

  I was aware that the Kimberley end of Watnall tunnel had been partially excavated a couple of years back, and photo's had been taken which I have managed to find again, and thought those here might like to see. I can just about remember the tunnel being open at the Kimberley end before being filled in the early 1980's. I think the recent partial excavation has been done to acquire sand for local building work in the area. At the Watnall end, the owners of the bunker, or Filter Station, leveled the land in front of their tunnel end exposing the entrance. Also, a rare image of Watnall Station taken from the opening of the tunnel, and from own collection, a rare postcard showing the Watnall Station and tunnel opening. You can clearly see the steep road to the side which was kept when the site was converted into the RAF Filter Station in 1943. The house to the middle of the image is still standing and gives a good perspective of the site.

  As a follow up to last year's topic about the history of RAF Watnall in WW2, I have been researching more into the bombing raids known to have hit Watnall and Kimbeley in 1940. I have several books covering the activities of the Luftwaffe over England during WW2 which I accessed last year, but have recently found a book concentrating more on the effect and locations of such raids. In last year's topic, Sarah Peason asked, " You mention attacks by the Luftwaffe on 30.10.40...I have recently moved into the area and been told that a house next to mine on Norman St was hit by a bomb, hence the fact in a street of Edwardian houses there is a relative new build. Where could I find information about this?" There is as a plaque shown in the image above in the shape of a bomb. This can be found on the fence of the nature reserve on Newdigate Street where the Railway bridge used to be, stating, "bombs dropped on Alendene ave 30.10.40." From what my research has show...

  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 ...

  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, ...