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Until the 1820's Long Acre was named Husband or Husbandman
Street because of the large number of farms and farm workers living here
in the 16C and 17 C. Some of those buildings are still recognisable. Starting
near the traffic lights, Nº2 is from around 1830 and unusually is
not on former Chesterfield land. At the turn of the 18C the Horsepools,
butchers and farmers, owned the original plot. From about 1890 until 1911
Doctor Eaton owned it. The 1960s Eaton Place is named after him, whence
the surgery moved from what is now No2A. Later the equally well-known
Dr Croft lived here, commemorated in the name given to the small development
of bungalows on Tithby Road on land once belonging to No2. The infill
continues with the building of two bungalows here in 2002.
Nº4 is on land
sold by the Horsepools to William Stokes, bricklayer, who built four houses
in a yard in about 1822. It is possible that parts of existing cottages
to the rear were incorporated. Later a south-facing workshop with its
own gable roof was added on the south east corner - you can see the join
in the brickwork. The workshop was probably for framework knitting. The
position of a wide workshop window can still be traced at the rear. By
1910 four had become two and in the 1920's were owned by John Cooper Hart,
son of wheelwright Reuben. It became one house during the 1950s.
| The villas opposite (Nos1-17) were erected
in 1880-7 by James Walker, whose yard is now Walkers Close. In the
early 1900s Nº17 was home and workshop to monumental mason,
Stephen Squires, much of who’s work can be seen in the church
yard. (cousin of Albert who built Ebenezer House on the Banks).
The house is now a funeral director's. Carnarvon
House (No6) and Nos8 and 10
were built around 1900 on land leased from the Carnarvon Estate,
the freeholds not being sold until 1920.
21 Long Acre |
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Opposite, the central part of Nº21
is an original farmhouse from about 1650, but much altered
outside. The front door is only 5'8" high, a sure sign
of its great age as people then were shorter then. Inside,
doors not hallways connect the rooms and the ceilings have
very old beams, one of which has been dated to 1650. The second
storey has been added later and the roof would have been thatched.
The shop is 19C and was a butcher's. There is a wood enclosed
pump at the rear. The pigsties and barns were incorporated
into the Buttercross Veterinary Practice; the slaughterhouse
is now the operating theatre! A detailed historical report
on number 21 is available
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Next door the Horse and Plough was
built in 1818 as a Primitive Methodist (Ranters) Chapel.
Later a Salvation Army Hall, it has also been the Central
Hall, a betting office and sauna! The doors on the wall
facing the main road are a recent false embellishment,
but the ground floor of the original building was given
over to residential cottage accommodation. Opposite, Nº10
is an early 19C farmhouse and was latterly the residence
of Walker's head dairyman before the farm was replaced
by the 1970's developments of Walkers Close and the Paddock.
Recent building works revealed a blocked up doorway on
the street side near the east end and also show that the
top storey is made of different bricks to the lower storey,
suggesting another example of a second storey being added
later. |
The 2001 infill of offices, shops and flats is Linley
Court, named after Mrs Linley the former postmistress who had lived in
the bungalow that formerly occupied the site. The new development has
been designed to blend in well with the older frontages. The architect,
Alan Heafford, is a scion of the family who owned Hardstaff and Brown.
| The Wheatsheaf
dates from 1792 as the sign proudly proclaims - but more
likely 1722, a date found carved on a window timber. There
are signs on the gable ends of an upwards extension. Notice
the change of brickwork revealing the shape of the first
(probably thatched) roof, and of an extension rearwards
at the SE corner - you can see the join in the brickwork.
The post office moved to Long Acre from the Market Place
in 1936. The building has inglenook fireplaces and a central
chimney which dates it at least to the early 18C. This
may have been the house of the Needham family who certainly
owned a two acre croft on this site from the mid 1600s.
By 1801 the Needhams had moved to a new mansion in Lenton
and sold the house for £785, now described as including
malt rooms, to Joseph Oliver, malster, who was already
the tenant. In 1807 Oliver sold the land for the development
of Market Street
described elsewhere. In the 1822 directory Oliver is described
as a tanner and wine and spirit merchant of Long Acre.
In the 1830s and 40s he was also the tenant or mortgagor
of the pasture land at Kirkhills
and Chapel Closes on the (School Lane) windmill site.
It was formerly a hotel called the Vaults, although not
appearing as such in directories until 1891. The census
of 1891 identifies Henry Johnson as a wine and spirit
merchant of 'The Liquor Vaults' Long Acre, presumably
continuing the business initiated by Joseph Oliver! The
building would have had the space for Mrs Hannah Arnesby's
Apartments noted for Long Acre in 1889. |
The Wheatsheaf |
The Post Office |
Look carefully and at an angle from the right and
you will see the words 'VAULTS' and 'BAR' still in outline
on two of the small windows either side of the post box. The
delivery drays passed through the wide arched doorway, using
the hook (still to be seen) over the door on the wall inside
to assist unloading. The original steep pitch of the roof
shows it would have been thatched. An old postcard
of the building without the modern white rendering clearly
shows the newer brickwork of an upwards extension from the
string course. To accommodate this the pitch was reduced,
but only on the south side. Was this to add an extra storey
or to give additional height to existing rooms up in the (thatched)
attic?
The building at the western corner with
Fisher Lane was built in 1840 as a school. The land was donated
by the Earl of Chesterfield. Many pieces of older narrow brickwork
can be seen on the north facade, suggesting a pre-existing
building may have been incorporated in the new school building.
On the east wall a large area of newer brick 'patching' was
possibly a classroom window. The windows to the rear look
original. The boys moved to the East Street School when it
was built in 1845; the girls stayed here. Later it took infants
only under the care of Kitty Kettle. Older children went to
East Street. Subsequently, the 'Reading Rooms' (1896), it
has been used variously as coffee rooms, British Legion (1920s)
and workingmen's club. In the 1896, 1900 and 1904 directories
it is recorded as the headquarters of the Bingham Town Bands
(brass or string). In the 1920 directory it is a cinema operated
by Sam Foster Blood who was the licensee of the Crown Inn
in the Market Place.
The pair of Victorian former cottages on the other
corner of Fisher Lane is particularly attractive, but little is known
about them at present.
Temperance Hall |
Eastwards, Long Acre is a mixture of 18C and
19C cottages with 20C infill. The gap between Falcon House (1779)
and Tealby House (1830s and named for a 17C Bingham benefactor), leads
to yet another yard (Temperance Hall Lane in the 1840s, Doncaster's
Yard in the 1851 census and Temperance Hall Yard in 1861) and the
former Temperance Chapel. It was founded and probably built by John
Doncaster in 1843 on land donated by him from Providence House (See
Fisher Lane). It was rebuilt in 1882 as an Independent Methodist
Chapel in attractive chequered brickwork. It is now a private residence.
There is a large date stone (1882) on the front of the building, but
also to the rear a single ordinary brick in the gable end carries
the poorly-inscribed date 1843. A thirty-feet deep bottle well (narrow
collar above ground opening into a bottle shape under the surface)
is in the front garden. The pink house (No36) is Bradshaw's Cottages
and is late 19C. |
The 1853 directory mentions the Marquis of Granby
public house with licensee John Tinkler. Although one needs to be cautious
interpreting census sequence numbers it is interesting that the 1851 census
positions him somewhere around Doncaster's Yard. It also says he farmed
18 acres (mixing the two occupations was commonplace in 19C Bingham).
It had disappeared from directories by 1864.
Much of the brickwork of Pinchpenny Cottage
(No38) is from about 1720; the interior structure with a twisted staircase
and the remains of inglenook fireplaces support this date. A previous
resident found thousands of animal bones in the garden and concluded it
may have been a veterinary surgeon's home and practice. Certainly a veterinary
surgeon named Ebenezer Hutchinson is recorded in Long Acre in from 1848
to 1864/5. By the time of the 1881 census he had retired. No40 is of similar
age; the modern brick patching suggests it may have been one of the several
shops in Long Acre mentioned in 19C directories.
The dentist's surgery on the
north side is on the site of one of several blacksmiths'
shops recorded during much of the 19C. Some of the building
may be original. The grounds of No53 formed the old
Chesterfield Estate timber yard; the present house is
a converted barn. There may have been living quarters
here as John Watson, woodman, is recorded in the 1865
directory as living in Long Acre. In 1904 John Scott
was recorded as forester to the Earl of Carnarvon and
living in Long Acre. Nos 61/63
are amongst the oldest houses in Bingham being of mid
17C cruck construction underneath 19C Arts and Crafts
imitation Tudor decorations, carried out by architect
Beetham Shaw who lived opposite at Eskdale. The coach
house was his office; the original furniture and fittings
are in store in a Nottingham Museum. |
Regency House |
Regency House is mid 19C and was a tearooms in the
1950's before becoming a decorator's house and shop. The Victorian villas
further east (Nos 71-85) are known as Porchester
Terrace and were built in 1883/7. Seven of the eight residents of
1894 merited an entry in the directory of the time. One of these was Henry
Wootton, one of the succession of doctors to have lived in White Lodge,
Church Street (in 1889). He had presumably retired to Porchester Villas
as they were then known. Porchester Farm has an early 19C front but other
parts of the building are 18C. The Bowls Club occupies what were the 18C
dovecote (for meat and manure) and a stable of the farm. The battered
remains of a young woman murdered towards the end of the 1800s were found
under the stable floor during restoration. The modern shop at the junction
of Long Acre and Long Acre East is on the site of Reuben Hart's late 19C
blacksmith and wheelwright's premises - his cottage next door is 19C but
extended in the 20C.
Porchester Farmhouse |
In 1931 documents Long Acre East was just Long
Acre, 'East' being added later. Mostly modern development on former
fields and closes, there are a number of older properties scattered
at intervals. The Pinfold, a pound for stray animals, was on the
site of the modern development named for it.
The symmetrical arrangement of windows shows
Boscobel House (No8) was once a pair of sem-detached houses. Next
door is No12 not No10, confirming the point. They were 19C tied
farm cottages once serving Starnhill Farm, part of the Chesterfield
Estate.
Holme Lodge
was released from the Crown Estate only in 1951. It was built around
1830 as the residence for the Earl of Chesterfield's estate manager.
Its grounds extended south to Grantham Road and were sold in 1965
to build the bungalows of Perry Grove. |
No18 was built in 1965 on another plot from the Holme
Lodge sale. It is actually an engulfed cottage - the modern house has
an old cottage at its core. The conversion of an old Holme Lodge barn
(No18a) in 2001 revealed that some of the north wall was of mud construction,
similar to the wall between White Lodge and Robert Miles School in Church
Street, thus making it probably mid to late 18C. The barn had a chimney
suggesting some domestic use originally. It was built to the same proportions
as Donkey Green's Cottage, opposite.
| Donkey
Green's Cottage is another candidate for 'oldest house'
in Bingham. It is 17C but named after Robert Green who
sold garden produce from his donkey cart in the 1880s.
Sold by the Crown in 1931 it was subsequently purchased
in 1944 by the then tenant of Holme Lodge. The properties
remained in common ownership for 20 years. A detailed
historical report is available. |
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East
Cottage bears the date 1860 and the letters JW. We
think this was for the builder rather than the first owner.
Next door, number 29
has a date stone beneath the west gable end marked HT
1909. The house was built for Mr H Thompson on land that
had once been part of a large plot called Parr’s
Close. East Cottage’s land had been another part
of the close. |
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