Are Watnall Hall's beautiful old gates now in Moorgreen?

Watnall Hall's gates

 

Are Watnall Hall's beautiful old gates now in Moorgreen? In a word.... no! 

There's a popular myth that the set of elaborate wrought iron gates outside 54 Moorgreen are from Watnall Hall but it is not true. The Moorgreen gates are very beautiful in themselves and very unusual to see outside a domestic house but they are from the Abel Collin¹ almshouses on Friar Gate in Nottingham as described in the Notts Evening Post article below. The only Watnall Hall link I can find is that Lady Maud Rolleston of Watnall Hall was a trustee of the Collin charity. The almshouses were demolished so that Maid Marion Way could be built. There's more about that scandal later but first let's investigate those gates...

The gates at 54 Moorgreen are not
from Watnall Hall

The gates can be seen in their original location in the picture below when the almhouses were in the middle of being demolished. The same view today looking down Maid Marion Way is shown too. You can see the building on the left is still there for reference.

The almshouses origins

The almshouses were erected in 1709 on a site between Friar Lane and Hounds Gate. They were ranged around quadrangle connected by a lime tree walk to a detached pair of separate lodges.

Pevsner in his Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire described the buildings as "a lovely group....one of the best almshouses of its date in England". In a 1930 article by the Thoroton Society, the almshouses are described as relatively simple buildings with some impressive decorative details such as the date stone and sundial. Elaborate carved cartouches above the entrance contained descriptions of their foundations under the will of the wealthy mercer Abel Collin and their erection by his nephew Thomas Smith, the Nottingham banker. 

Each of the 24 tenants was provided with their accommodation, a pension and supply of coal. By 1881 the name of the building had changed to Collin's Hospital. Another set of Collin's almshouses was on Carrington Street but they too were demolished to make way for the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre. Newer, more modern almshouses were built in Beeston and are still there to this day.

Tenants of the almshouses

South-east side of the almshouses showing the sundial

1709 - the Collin's almshouses first opened as a hospital

Location of the Collin Almshouses. Maid Marion
Way would run top left to bottom right.

The scandal of their demolition

The Almshouses were demolished in June 1956 to much public outcry in a story with very similar parallels to the demolition of Watnall Hall. The almshouses were subject to a preservation order that the powers that be decided to overrule. In Watnall Hall's case that was the Conservative government's Minister for Works, Hugh Molsen. In the case of the Collin's Almshouses it was the local council determined to have the new Maid Marion Way road scheme. 

The Thoroton Society suggested it would be an “antiquarian calamity” and particularly deplored the “wanton” clearance of the Jessamine Cottages and with them the romantic address of Gilliflower Hill. Alderman Bowles dismissed such considerations when he said: “We are not making this road 80 feet wide with double carriageways each 22 feet wide with a ten-foot wide island in the centre and 13-foot wide causeways on either side just for the benefit of those who own property on either side. We are making it for the benefit of Nottingham.” Not everyone agreed. Councillor G Twells said that Nottingham needed housing more than roads but he was a lone voice in the chamber and the proposal went through 46-1.

Jessamine Cottages

By law, the plan had to be put to a public vote so a meeting was called in the old Guildhall. It descended into uproar. After the first of four resolutions had been passed by 182 votes to 156 there were loud voices of dissent. Protesters demanded a recount and when Lord Mayor Ald G E Underwood refused, they marched out of the meeting “to count themselves”.

In January 1946, the scheme was put to the public vote and protesters led by Coun Swain expected a big turnout and victory. Ald Bowles argued: “I have not met with a sound argument against the scheme,” but it was defeated by more than two to one, although the local press weren’t allowed to watch the count, being ordered to “get out” by Ald Bowles. Sadly, the vote did not carry enough weight to deflect the council, less than 14,000 people bothering to turn out, just over seven per cent of the electorate. The arguments, discussions and negotiations rumbled on for years. It would be 1963 before work finally got underway and the new road was built.

St Nicholas Rectory in Castle Gate May 1957.
It was demolished to make way for Maid Marian Way

So what did happen to Watnall Hall's gates?

At least the Collin's gate were saved from the scrap yard unlike the gorgeous gates from Watnall Hall. I've previously looked into what really happened to Watnall Halls old gates in a separate article on the "Tales From Watnall Hall" website. You can read it here...

The mystery of the Watnall Hall gates

Notes and sources:

Notts Historic Buildings archive - https://her.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/Monument/MNT21607; Nottingham Evening Post archives; Facebook pictures of Kevin Chamberlain and Nottingham Hidden History.

"Collin's Almshouses, Friar Lane. A lovely group of 1709, one of the best almshouses of its date in England. Tragically demolished in 1956". SNT4 Monograph: Pevsner N. 1979. The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire 2nd ed.. Penguin. p 228.

"Wrought iron gates. 1709. Re-sited 1973. Skeleton piers, 1973. These gates were part of the original scheme of Collins Armhouses, Nottingham". SNT228 Published document: DOE. Listed Building Description

1 - History of the Abel Collin charity

The United Charities of Abel Collin date back to 1708 when Thomas Smith, acting as executor for his late uncle Abel Collin, bought land in what is now Friar Lane for the erection of twenty-four almshouses. These were completed the following year. Although his father, brother-in-law and nephews were public figures, Abel Collin (1653-1705) seems to have been a very private man. Nevertheless, he was extremely aware of the needs of others and his lengthy Will of 1704 also included provision for buying coal for the poor and for payments to debtors in the Town and County Gaol. Thomas Smith was the son of Abel Collin's sister Fortune and her husband Thomas Smith, a mercer whose family had originally been small landowners in Cropwell Bishop. His founding of Smith's Bank in 1688 is commemorated by a plaque on the wall of the National Westminster Bank at the corner of Exchange Walk. Another son of Thomas (the elder), Abel, was the forebear of the Abel Smith family, who had links with the charity until recently.

Thomas Smith the younger bought a further plot of land in the Broad Marsh area to provide income for the charity, and in 1829 another twenty almshouses were built on part of the site. In 1936 this property was sold. The proceeds enabled the trustees to build twenty-six houses on the Derby Road site, where the charity is now based. The Friar Lane almshouses continued as a well-known Nottingham landmark until 1958, when they were demolished as part of the Maid Marian Way development. The compensating transaction with the City Council consisted of cash to build twenty-four single bungalows on Derby Road, and the transfer of commercial property in Chapel Bar. In 2000 the charity sold the Chapel Bar land and buildings for development. Its investment income now comes from a mixture of commercial property in Nottingham, and financial investments in the money markets.

In 1982 and 1986 the Trustees were able to build two groups of three bungalows using a generous legacy from Mrs Marion Kitching and a grant from the Skerritt Trust. In 1990 a further group of three bungalows was built using the charity's accumulated funds from the Chapel Bar commercial property that it then owned. Starting in the late 1990s, the charity embarked on a long-term programme of modernization, beginning with major refurbishment of the houses, as funds allowed. In 2008 the sale of one of the charity’s investment properties and of the Drury Homes in Chilwell (for which modernization was not practical) enabled work to start on four new bungalows. These, called the Drury Bungalows (numbered 53a,b,c,d Collin’s Homes), have been designed to high environmental standards and their completion at the end of 2009 celebrated the charity’s 300 years since its foundation.

Governance and Policies

The Collin’s Homes is a charity, and is not run along the same lines as a housing association or the local council. It is answerable to the Charity Commission, is guided by the National Association of Almshouses, and governed by the laws applicable to charities. Its policies are reviewed regularly and copies are held in a folder in the office. The charity is administered by a minimum of seven trustees. A list of the current members of the Board of Trustees is posted on the Hall noticeboard. The trustees meet regularly, normally 8 times a year, at the Collin’s Homes. They come from various walks of life – some are retired, some are still working. They receive no payment for giving their time to the running of the charity, but all have a common interest – in continuing the work that Abel Collin laid down and left provision for in his Will over three hundred years ago.