The Townsend Nursery

Does anyone have more information on the T A Townsend Nursery at Forest Town? This catalogue shows they were specialists in growing primroses. It is believed the nursery was between Clipstone Road West, and Ellesmere Road at Forest Town, and could have been established after the Sherwood Hall Estate was sold in 1937. T A Townsend may also have been a Thomas Arthur Townsend who was once teacher at Forest Town School.

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  • I was interested by the article on Townsends Nursery, as a youngster I lived on Sherwood Hall Road ( now Clipstone Rd. West) just a few houses along from the nursery. The nursey extended from No.35 Sherwood Hall Rd. towards Forest Town, ending just before Mr. Quinns house( No. 37?). The nursery extended back onto Ellesmere Rd. But part of the nursey was undeveloped and was made up of pine trees which extended as far as Mr. Fitchetts house.

    The article advertising the sale of primroses was news to me as I always thought of the nursery selling young trees and bushes.But the main fascination for me was the two ponds that contained fish and in the springtime lots of frogspawn which eventually hatched into tadpoles.

    When Mr Townsend locked his gate in the late afternoon and departed for home (he lived on Little Carter Lane), myself and another boy would sneak over the fence to play round the ponds and see what we could catch and then carry our trophy home in a jam-jar. Some of the older boys would sneak in to ‘scrump’ the apples, but we never ventured far into the nursery as it always appeared to be dark amongst all the trees and bushes. I think I visited once with my mother to buy bedding plants, but otherwise the nursery was just a place we passed on our way to school.

    By michael parkin (10/11/2016)

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