An application relating to a site on Main Street, opposite the Admiral Rodney, for the erection of two single storey dwellings and the conversion of a former smithy into a studio workshop has been refused by Gedling BC as it fails to preserve the character and appearance of the Conservation Area.
A recent view (below) of the former smithy also showing, just behind the gate, a circular concrete base with a metallic spike in the centre. This shape was used by the blacksmith for completing wooden wagon wheels.
The wheel was placed over the spike and a red-hot metal band was fitted around the outside. As the metal cooled it contracted until the band held the whole wheel together.
At the southern end of the site near the corner of Woods Lane that leads to the cricket ground, are the remains of a chapel. The chapel was built by “The Roeites”, a religious sect similar to The Quakers, formed in Calverton about 1785 by John Roe. Two of his female supporters were held in Nottingham Gaol, as it was known then, for about 10 years for contravening various religious Acts and ecclesiastical rules. The chapel was used by the “Roeites” until the 1830s when they could no longer maintain the building. It was taken over by the Primitive Methodists for worship until the early 1900s when they moved to a new larger building on Main Street which is now used as the Baptist Church.
The image above is part of a larger photograph taken over 100 years ago of “The Potteries”, also on Woods Lane, where plant pots and similar items were made. In the background can be seen the tall, narrow windows of what was once the “Roeite” chapel.
By the 1970s much of the chapel was in ruins.
Written by Chris Peck – Secretary of Calverton Preservation & History Society.