Image ID: 01130

136 Front Street, Arnold, c 1924

Front Street
Arnold
England

Following text by Olive Wightman, written March 2006: Now site of Natwest Bank. Brought by my Grandparents, Peter and Annie Truman around 1918 when the family moved from Hucknall. Consisted of double fronted shop, with wide, gated entry to side. Wide enough for the horse and dray, when in the 1930s and 40s my grandfather collected timber and made firewood bundles, which he sold door to door. Eventually around 1950 he bought a lorry. Up the yard were nine old cottages, and where it opened out at the top, there were outbuildings and a stable. Eventually, my grandfather demolished most of the cottages, and made a side garden. The shop first sold china and pots, which came packed in barrels, also gas mantles and spares for cycles. This would be in the early 1920s. Later, the shop was altered to sell fish and chips, in the daytime it was run by my grandmother and in the evenings by my mother and her sister, after they had worked a full shift in a Nottingham factory!!! In 1948, it was rented by Mr Harold Lenton with Mr John Wilkinson and opened as Notts. Refrigeration and Electrical Services, at that time mainly making butcher's cold rooms, Electrical appliances being sold as and when they became available. They changed the name to Lenton & Wilkinson Ltd, around 1952 and were very busy rewiring the older houses and installing electrical wiring to the new houses which were being built in Arnold after the war. In 1956 the Council compulsory purchased all the property and land from my Grandmother.

Date: 1924

Organisation Reference: NCCC003061

Organisation: