Developers are currently busy at the corner of Loughborough Road and Bridgford Road, but can you recall the earlier buildings on that site? While the stone wall remains on Loughborough Road, you can make out the entrances to the houses that were there: numbers one and three Loughborough Road. A later addition was the National Westminster Bank, with its distinctive clock.
The original owner of number three was Charles Brealey, a cattle dealer, who bought the house for between £800 and £900 in the 1890s. He lived there until his death in 1933.
At number one was Robert Henry Cordeux. He was a doctor with an extensive practice, who became a prominent figure in the locality. When the West Bridgford Urban District Council was created in 1894 he was one of the first councillors elected. Cordeux was a keen sportsman, playing in the Notts Amateur cricket eleven, who also took a keen interest in falconry, possessing a very rare and valuable collection of birds.
Cordeux inherited a considerable fortune from his father and bought Bunny Hall in 1910. Sadly, Cordeux died just a few years later in August 1915 at the age of 51. His only son, Edward, was killed in action at Ypres the following month at the age of nineteen.
Number one continued to be a place visited by mothers-to-be, with the last birth there taking place in 1928.
The Westminster Bank opened in December 1929 with Mr L H Coxall as the manager, living at number one. The Bank building was integral with number one, with the bank’s safe actually inside the walls of the house.
Written by West Bridgford & District History Society.
The West Bridgford and District Local History Society meets on Monday 7 November in the hall of the Musters Road Methodist Church. The meeting starts at 7.30pm when Dave Needham will tell us about the Fire Service and Civil Defence in Nottinghamshire during WW2. Visitors are welcome.
For more information or to contact us, please visit the website at: www.BridgfordHistory.org