West Bridgford Past
by Geoffrey Oldfield
Published by Phillimore £14.99 132pp + Map Endpapers
ISBN 1 86077 168 8

This is the first history of West Bridgford published since 1914. Only one person was really capable of writing this comprehensive history, Geoffrey Oldfield. He has lived in West Bridgford for the past 40 years and through out that time he has recorded in words and photographs its past and its present.

After an introduction the book is divided chronologically into six sections with a full bibliography and index at the end.

Geoffrey outlines the slow rise of the Doomsday settlement of some 40 people in 1086, though its last days as a village as recorded in the 1881 census with 293 inhabitants and 54 houses, to its rapid expansion into one of Nottingham's more desirable suburbs.

The great change was initiated on 4 November 1878 when John Chaworth Musters, the owner of most of West Bridgford decided to sell off his estate for development.

Much has been made of West Bridgford's uneasy and at times antagonistic relationship with "them" across the Trent. The advantages to those in Bridgford were succinctly put in some of the first publicity extolling the blessings of the new estate in the 1880s, words that still have a familiar ring after 120 years.

"Few better opportunities have been or can be offered for the erection of residences so near to Nottingham, upon sites which combine the convenience of proximity to a large town, with the advantages of a perfectly rural neighbourhood, and freedom from urban rates."

The book is fully illustrated, with many of the photographs taken by the author. Besides recording the rise and fall of buildings and the changes in local transport, Geoffrey has provided plenty of photographs of people of all ages, at work, at play and even at school.

Geoffrey uses his knowledge of the workings of local government to take the reader carefully through the changes in the provision of utilities and facilities in West Bridgford in the years since the 1880s.

One can truly say this volume will fill that gap in your collection of books on local history. It gives a distinctly local perspective to the evolution of a Nottingham dormitory that has fiercely retained its independence.

The book conveys a very strong sense of local identity, in my mind's eye I really could look across that river boundary to the different world of the City of Nottingham. When I lived in Woodthorpe I always felt part of the city.

Ken Brand

Early in December 2001 Geoffrey received his M.B.E. from Her Majesty herself. I really should have congratulated Geoffrey in September's Newsletter for getting this award "For services to the heritage in Nottinghamshire." (Editor)