Bakersfield, Nottingham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bakersfield is a small suburb of Nottingham situated in the eastern part of the city. It lies near the suburbs of Carlton, Sneinton, and Colwick.

Centred around Oakdale Road (an extension of Sneinton Dale), Bakersfield was developed during the 1930's, with a mixture of private and council residential housing. A remarkable feature of the council housing (designed by T. Cecil Howitt) is the space given over to gardens and other open spaces. Other amenities added later included a supermarket (Greater Nottingham Coop on Oakdale Road), numerous smaller shops and a sub post-office. In common with most Nottingham developments of the time, housing was provided first, with other facilities being added later. The parish church of St John the Baptist at Carlton (further up Oakdale Road, opened in 1957) and St Stephen's on Sneinton Dale cover the area for the Church of England. The Church of St Cyprian is located on Marston Road, off Dale View Road, was built in 1913.

The Rio cinema on Oakdale Road opened in 1939 and closed due to the onslaught of television in 1959. It then became a night club; later still it was converted into a shop ('Supasave'). At present, the ground floor is used as a shop, called "Oakdale Stores" with the former balcony level as a snooker club.

On the edge of Bakersfield is Colwick Woods, a large area of ancient woodland and green open space, leading down to the Nottingham Racecourse at Colwick. A significant area is given over to a public golf course, or perhaps more accurately deknown as a "Pitch and Putt"

A famous former Bakersfield resident and owner of the Oakdale Road Post Office was Mr Jack Burkitt. Mr Burkitt captained Nottingham Forest to their 1959 FA Cup win against Luton Town. On his retirement from the Post Office Mr Burkitt retired to Yorkshire and he sadly passed away September 2003.

There are extremely fine vistas to be had from the top of Colwick Woods, with panoramic views of the Trent Valley (as far as Belvoir Castle) and across the City (to Wollaton, Clifton and the Ratcliffe on Soar power station).

Mainly residential it has a number of small businesses including a couple of public houses, a medical centre and a community centre. The area is served by the Jesse Boot Primary School (opened in 1935) and Greenwood Dale Technology School. A feature of the area is that many of the roadnames end in 'dale' (for example Parkdale, Middledale, Langdale, Greendale and Kirkdale); which sometimes causes confusion for first-time visitors.

Comprehensive age students accessed schools around the immediate area, such as Greenwood, Manvers Pierrepont, Carlton Road and further down Sneinton Road. Further Education was initially at the Forest Fields College and in the late 1990's at the now defunct Manvers Pierrepont Comprehensive, Carlton Road.