St Johns Grove, Beeston - Some of its Houses & Residents
St Johns Grove, centred on Devonshire and Elm Avenues in Beeston was laid out by The Beeston Land Society in 1877. Its 21 acres of land was divided into 28 very generously sized building
plots, each subject to tight covenants as to their use. This meant that, in practice, they would appeal to residents of standing who would, in the main, build houses of individual character. As we have already discussed,
the society's earlier years, up to the turn of the century, with just one or two exceptions, saw houses built in the peripheral areas on Glebe Street, on a row of smaller plots on Glebe Street North and on the particularly
attractive plots fronting onto Chilwell Road.
Development of the central part of the development, on Devonshire & Elm Avenue, took some time to gather momentum but, when it did, it resulted in some fine houses that are still admired today. Each of the houses had occupants
with stories to tell - and, in the following page, we tell the story of some of these houses, focusing on the years up the Second World War, in that context:
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Devonshire Avenue
Cavendish Lodge –, built in about 1879 was probably the first property to be built in Devonshire Avenue itself, and several years before others followed. Sited, as it is, on part of Plot 5, it was and remains
very well positioned on the northern corner of Cavendish Place and is now no. 10 Devonshire Avemue. This magnificent plot of land had been allocated to Robert Hogg, the Society’s Secretary at its founding in 1878 and he also
became an early resident in one of a pair of semi-detached villas built on the other end of the plot, fronting onto Cavendish Place.
Its first occupants were Frederick and Sarah Carrington. Frederick was born in Sneinton, Nottingham in June 1852, the son of Frederick & Mary (née Barnes) Carrington. Fredrick senior (b. Feb 1819, Nottingham)
started his career as a solicitor’s clerk before, by 1851, becoming Clerk to the Tax Commissioners for the Divisions of North Broxtowe and Nottingham area and moving with his wife and family to live in Beeston
- variously on Market Street (now Middle Street) and Union Street. Frederick junior was their second child and only son and followed his father to work as an assistant clerk to the Tax Commissioners. In May 1885,
after 20 years’ service, he succeeded his father, who was then retiring after 33 years’ service, to the position of Clerk to the Tax Commissioners. In December 1883, Frederick junior had married Sarah Godfrey at
St Nicholas Church, Nottingham, Sarah was born in Burton Joyce, Notts in January 1862, the daughter of Stephen Godfrey, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Goodwin). After her father’s early
death in 1866, Sarah went to live with her mother’s sister Sarah who was married to Thomas Flamson who was a Nottingham builder, the senior partner in the firm of T & H Flamson for 40 years up to his death in
1878, having been active in local politics for many years, as a Town Councillor and Guardian of St Nicholas Parish. Frederick and Sarah’s daughter, Christine Mary, was born in Beeston in July 1885 and was to
be their only child. Sadly, Frederick died, aged only 44, in April 1897, leaving a relatively modest estate, followed, almost exactly a year later, by Sarah, aged 45. They are buried together in Beeston Cemetery
where their memorial survives. Their daughter remained single all her life. At first, she lived and worked as a dressmaker with
two maiden aunts, Emily and Alice Gapp, in Beeston but later became a companion to a maiden lady in Southwell. She died in Nottingham in October 1980, aged 85, leaving an estate valued at £28,569.
The next occupants were George Edward Bell, his wife Ellen (née Chettle) and their family of three – Kathleen Mary, Oscar Leslie and Eric Stanley Bell. George Edward had been born in Nottingham in 1862, the youngest
son of William Bell, a successful Nottingham draper and Mary (née Gilbert), his wife. In September 1884, he had married Ellen Chettle at Car Colston, Notts, where her father farmed 236 acres and they went on to set up
home in Belfast where their three children were born. In August 1882, William Bell died, followed four months later by Mary, his widow. William left a very substantial personal effects, totalling almost £26,000 – which
equates to some £2.5 million in today’s purchasing power – which, no doubt, would have changed the lives of his heirs. It seems likely that this included George Edward and, accordingly by 1891, he and his wife, though
aged only in their mid-30s, were living on their own means in Southport, Lancashire and George has retired from his job as a fish dealer. Following the death of Sarah Carrington in 1898, the Bell family moved to Cavendish
Lodge, no doubt with much to look forward to but, in the event, it was not to be and their time there was to be short lived. Tragically, George Edward Bell died in January 1899, aged only 48 and, while Ellen remailed
there with their family for a few more years but, with her sons starting their own careers - Oscar in banking and Eric in the merchant navy - she and her daughter moved to a more home appropriate elsewhere. In 1917,
Kathleen Mary married Wilfred Jeffrey Bell who had emigrated to live in Vancouver, Canada in 1908 and was then serving as a Captain in the Army. After the war, the couple returned to Vancouver and were joined there for
several years by Ellen. Ellen later returned to live out her life in the Nottingham area. She died there in 1942, aged 81.
By 1904, Cavendish Lodge was occupied by Creswick Nichols, his wife Sarah Elizabeth (née Allsop) and their three sons Creswick was born in London in August 1861, the eldest child of Thomas Creswick and Rebecca Elizabeth
(née Grice) Nichols. By 1880, the family had moved to Nottingham and it was there, in 1885, that Creswick - who had already established himself as a salesman in the lace trade - and Sarah Elizabeth married and, within
a few years, had moved into one of the early homes in St Johns Grove, probably one of the semi-detached properties that had recently been built on what was then Glebe Street North (now Bramcote Road). As Creswick continued
to progress within the lace trade, going on to manage workshops and warehouses, he and his family made corresponding progressive moves in their houses they occupied and, by 1901 had already moved onto Devonshire Avenue,
probably into ‘Birklands’ (now no. 16) which, as we will see when this property is described, was taken over by his brother, Albert Edward, and his family when Creswick took the opportunity to move to nearby Cavendish Lodge.
But, by 1910, they had moved again, this time away from Beeston to ‘Hillside’, a house on Woodborough Road, Nottingham. Tragedy was to strike at Christmas 1923 when Creswick and his wife were staying at the iconic Palace Hotel
in Buxton, Derbyshire where, on Christmas Day, Sarah Elizabeth died there, apparently without warning. In 1927 he married Gertrude May Oswell and, in retirement, moved to live in Epperstone, Notts where he died in April 1944,
age 82.
So it was that, for a short while, in the years either side of the 1911 census, Cavendish Lodge was the home of Arthur James Pollard and his wife Lilian and their family. Arthur had taken over everyday control of the family’s
well-known lace making business on Cross Street, Beeston after his father’s death in 1903 and was to preside over one of the firm’s most prosperous periods, although things were changed dramatically by the Great War and the
changes in fashion that followed. In 1909, under his management, the firm was to purchase Anglo Scotian Mills which built on the company’s practice of renting ‘standings’ to the lace trade and others.
The next occupant was Margaret Armitage, born in 1864 in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, a daughter of Robert Robinson, a managing brewer and his wife, Mary Ann (née Mashiter), In 1888, she had married Stephen Armitage,
a son of the Quaker, Samuel Fox Armitage who, in 1869, had taken over the firm of Hutchinson & Armitage, a very successful Nottingham grocery enterprise. In 1890, he transferred the company to his sons, Wilson, Joseph John and
Stephen Armitage who continued to develop it, particularly by their opening of quality café/restaurants in Nottingham - notably the Mikado Café on Long Row and the Oriental Café on Wheeler gate. In 1897, the company
was floated as a public company as Armitage Brothers Limited with Stephen one of its Directors. By 1911, Stephen and Margaret had moved to live at Broadgate House, on Broadgate, Beeston with their family of four and Stephen
become well respected for his charity and philanthropic works - in particular using his experience and resources to guide and assist many of the local hospitals. Then, in February 1915, tragedy struck when Stephen died
unexpectedly, five days after an appendectomy, aged only 50. He left a considerable estate – over £22,000, worth approaching £2 million in today’s values. Soon after war was declared in August 1914, both sons, Stephen Cecil
and Sidney Robert, had put their newly adopted careers - solicitor and accountant respectively - on hold to serve in the Army. Sadly, Sidney Robert was killed in May 1917 (see more here).
It was perhaps understandable that Margaret should move away from their Broadgate home which would have held so many memories of their family life together and the choice of Cavendish Lodge would mean that she was close
to Beeston Parish Church where she had played a very active part and continued to be for the remainder of her life.
In more recent years, the property was acquired by the local Council, along with adjacent properties, for clearance as a car park. In the event, Cavendish Lodge was not demolished immediately but was used by the Council to
accommodate various voluntary organisations. Later, when the Council wished to demolish the building, objection from local residents with the support of other interested individuals, caused the Council to reconsider and, in
about 2015, the property was prepared for sale for residential use again. It was sold for such use in 2019 and, happily, now takes its appropriate place in the Devonshire Avenue street-scene.
Devonshire House – now no. 18 Devonshire Avenue - was built around 1910 and, from the start, was occupied by Arthur Lane, his wife Agnes (née Leatherland) and their two daughters, Laura Annie and Nellie Agnes. Arthur
was born in Nottingham in August 1864, one of at least eight children of Benjamin Lane, a tailor and his wife Mary (née Bentley). For whatever reason, perhaps not relishing his position as one of the youngest in the family
hierarchy, when he was just a boy, he ran away to sea, serving time ‘before the mast’ in the era of the sailing ship. Later he found work in America, including in the cotton growing areas.
By 1884, Arthur had returned to England and, in the summer of that year, he and Agnes married at Nottingham Register Office, By then, building on the experience and ideas he had gained, Arthur was employed by the firm of Joseph
William Wright, a yarn agent, as a warehouse clerk at the firm’s premises on Castle Gate, Nottingham. This undoubtedly increased his knowledge of how the yarn trade worked and he was, over the rest of his career, to build-on and
make full use of this knowledge, variously as a sales representative, broker, agent and eventually with his own company, Arthur Lane Ltd, as a merchant from its premises on Broad Street and on Pilcher Gate, Nottingham. In its
heyday, the firm also had offices in London, Glasgow, Manchester, Plauen and Leipzig in Germany, and in Calais. For many years, he made annual business visits to South Africa and to South America. For 25 years, he was a Member of
Manchester Cotton Exchange.
In the early years of their marriage, they and their daughters had established homes in Nottingham and, later, in Gunthorpe, Notts but, by 1901, they had moved to Beeston and were living at 5 Grove Street and employing a domestic
servant. The house, positioned as it was, close to Beeston railway station, would have been particularly conveniently situated to assist his developing career as a yarn agent and for commuting into Nottingham. Their move to
Devonshire House within the next ten years appears to reflect Arthur’s subsequent success in business in his own right.
In fact, it was in July 1911, not much more than a year after the move to Devonshire House that their elder daughter, Laura Annie, married Robert Francis George Hayter at Beeston Parish Church and the reception was held in the garden of
Devonshire House, A surviving photograph taken at the event (shown here) gives us an indication of the high social standing and standard of living that Arthur’s business success now gave them.
But despite that, Arthur never forgot the less fortunate, quietly helping the poor amongst the elderly and the children. He also gave valuable support to Beeston Lads Club.
By June 1934, with his health beginning to fail, Arthur Lane Ltd was wound-up - significantly, the notice of winding up was signed by “C Nichols - Secretary” so, it seems highly likely that Arthur and Creswick Nichols, for a
short while a near neighbour at Cavendish Lodge, were working together for at least for part of their careers,in the yarn trade. On 23 September of that year, Arthur passed away, aged 70, at Devonshire House where the family had lived
for about 25 years - and his wife Agnes continued to live there up her own death on 14 November 1949, aged 83. They are buried together in Beeston Cemetery, where their memorial survives and can be seen
here and here.
More stories of houses in St Johns Grove - and the lives of those who lived there - will follow.
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