Whilst surveying on Florence Road last Sunday 5 June, I finally began to get some answers to a perennial question that has come up ever since I began surveying for OSM back in March of this year:—

“Why is that house number missing?”

Now, this may never affect you and, if so, I congratulate you on your mental stability. For myself, years of computer programming have deepened my natural state. Something like the situation in Florence Road can create the equivalent of a mental itch that I cannot scratch that can last for days or weeks, months or years…

The house numbers in Florence Road flow naturally from Porchester Road to Hillview Road; even numbers on the south-side, odd numbers on the north-side. There are additions here and there (‘48’ & ‘48a’, ‘19’ & ‘19a’) and some “teeth” missing (only a gap between numbers 20 & 26), but what causes me to stare hard is number 43, which has 45 on the up side (no problems there) and 39 on the down side. What has happened to 41! Whilst contemplating this, the lady owner pulled up in her car & gave me the answer.

Florence Road was originally part of the Earl of Carnarvon’s estate, and was divided out into Allotment plots + sold off for houses. Her house was built on 2 adjacent plots (thus originally designated for 2 houses but only the one actually built). She also mentioned that the nearby Punch Bowl was originally the Earl of Carnarvon’s Estate House and, in so doing, transferred all of my original itch (missing house number) to “Earl of Carnarvon”. Who he?

The Earl of Carnarvon has the full title: “Earl of the Town and County of Carnarvon, in the Principality of Wales” and, to save bitter comments, the town & county are more commonly spelt “Caernarfon” these days. It is the 3ʳᵈ creation of the title (the male line died out with the first two; 3ʳᵈ time lucky, eh?). The 1ˢᵗ Earl was Henry Herbert and, in 1793 when elevated to that Peerage, was already 1ˢᵗ Baron Porchester (“Baron Porchester, of High Clere in the County of Southampton”, in 1780). The family tradition then became that the Porchester title was adopted by the son of the new Earl at his ascension (in other words, at the old Earl’s death).

That is supposed as the original source for both the name of the road & for Porchester Gardens. If you look at the West-side boundary of that link you will see (what used to be) the entire length of the original “Porchester Road” (it is now called that all the way down to Carlton Road, but the length from Carlton Road to Daisy Road was originally called “Thorneywood Lane”).

Let’s have some pictures before any more verbiage. Here’s an announcement of Porchester Gardens at the head of Kent Road where it meets Porchester Road:

The following certainly seems to prove the assertion about the Punchbowl (this is the gatepost for foot traffic to the Punch Bowl at Daisy Road/Porchester Road):

The Porchester St James History page states that “Porchester does not appear on maps of Nottingham as a place” (they are talking here of the church Parish of Porchester). Sadly, that still rings true for OSM. As best as I can tell, OSM does not have any Parish boundaries, or even Diocesan boundaries, which seems quite astonishing.

To be clear, we are not talking administrative nor urban boundaries here. That can be made very clear by comparing the admin boundary of Gedling, which can easily be found on the OSM map, with the Parish Boundary of Gedling using Parish Finder. Often the civil & ecumenical boundaries will be the same, but not all the time.

I’m actually very surprised that some church group hasn’t spotted this & taken ownership of putting themselves up on OSM at some point in the last 12 years. Parish Finder uses Google Maps; I assume therefore that they are paying Google for the privilege.

Using Parish Finder we see that part of Porchester Gardens (rather strangely) is within the Nottingham St Jude Parish, whilst the rest is within Porchester Parish. This latter includes many of the streets that I’ve been surveying recently, and runs up the centre of the very interesting Donkey Steps. All of these parishes are within the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham.

The Porchester History page cites the Earl of Kingston to have owned this neck of the woods due to his action in enclosing Marshall Hill in 1672 (and indeed much more, since he is also cited as owner of the Thoresby Estates). Now, you will understand that I am employing the original politically-correct language of those times when I use the word “enclosed”. In my native Yorkshire we tend to call theft by it’s correct word, but of course the self-declared nobility have been stealing the common land ever since William the Bastard robbed, raped, murdered & burnt his way through these lands in 1066.

Now, as best as I can tell that is Evelyn Pierrepont, 1ˢᵗ Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull (1715), 5ᵗʰ Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull (1690) & Marquess of Dorchester (1706). He was succeeded by his grandson (same name, 2ⁿᵈ Duke) and his sister became Lady Frances Medows; we have a direct line of descent from her down to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

The second son of Lady Frances Medows was Charles Medows, Earl Manvers (title awarded 1806). He had become Baron Pierrepont, of Holme Pierrepont in the County of Nottingham (1788) and Viscount Newark, of Newark-on-Trent in the County of Nottingham (1796). Charles had inherited Gedling through his family, and it was he that cleared Marshall Hill for farmland, and established Marshall Hill Farm. The whole of the farm estate was bought by the Earl of Carnarvon (the 5ᵗʰ Earl is the best well-known, for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun along with Howard Carter).

Marshall Hill is missing from the OSM map (only the ancient Bartholomew 1897-1907 map shows it). Westdale Lane West runs along the top of that hill, whilst Marshall Hill Drive climbs the hill & joins with Westdale Lane at the top.

Finally, and after much preparation, I can now sketch out how the land became available for building plots.

In 1887 the locality was entirely rural except for the Lunatic Asylum, built in 1880 on the other side of Porchester Road (more info in Nottingham Suburban Railway, Part 2). The Nottingham Corporation had dispossessed some folks of their allotments in order to build the Asylum. Those folks approached Samuel Robinson, Charles Bennett (of the NSR) and David Whittingham, who together agreed to act as guarantors so that they could continue to work some gardens. 6 acres (0.024 km²) were purchased from Earl Carnarvon on 26 March 1887 at the corner between Woodborough Road and Porchester Road. It became the start of Porchester Gardens.

Two things happened now:

1. Victorian Nottingham folk were mad-keen on allotments & gardening
2. They decided in the end that the best rewards come from growing houses

The original 6 acres swelled to about 250 acres (1 km²). The first house was in 1889, but the true spurt in building followed after the Great War in the 1920s & 1930s. Roads and mains water were laid and gardening allotments were converted to building plots. The suburbs had arrived.