Description
Tennyson Street is a short street which runs from Station Street to Kirkby College, which is now Outwood Academy. Along the way, it runs between the Acre Centre for Young People and Hodgkinson Road car park. There is a fairly modern-looking semi-detached property on the right which constitutes 2-4 Tennyson Street. There is another residential property on the left set back from the road but this appears to be the rear of a Morley Street property.
Tennyson Street to Hodgkinson Road
From Tennyson Street to Hodgkinson Road, there is first a row of terraced shops and following that, separated by an entrance into Hodgkinson Road car park, a row of shops within a square, more modern-looking building.
Tomlinson’s Joinery
In a Facebook comment, Heather Mulholland recalled that Tomlinson’s Joinery was based in Tennyson Street in the sixties but that they may have closed or moved in the seventies when they started building Kirkby Academy. Jeff Newcombe commented that it was there in the early to mid-seventies.
Ken Tomlinson explained that he had been born at 20 Tennyson Street in October 1958. He recalled that at the side of the house was a very large, old building which “was… ramshackle to say the least.” He thought it was called Smiths wood yard and before that Lewis Shepperson from Sutton-in-Ashfield owned it. Ken recalled that his father, who was also called Ken, started working for Lewis Shepperson learning the trade as a Decorator.
He noted that at the back of the house and the wood yard was a large field which used to belong to Birds Butchers and that this field was known as the old brick yard Ken commented that this field was later used to make way for Kirkby Centre in approximately 1978. As far as he could remember the old wood yard was owned by D K and P Tomlinson until the late seventies when the local Council put a compulsory purchase order on everything at the bottom end of Tennyson Street.
Mandy Hoult confirmed that Ken Senior, her father, was the builder and joiner in this part of Tennyson Street. She recalled, “we lived at 20 Tennyson Street right at the bottom my late Dad was Kenneth Tomlinson was the builder and joinery, married Mary, had 4 children Jan, Ken, Mandy and Charnette, we had the best play ground going plenty of fields.”
Memories of Tomlinson’s
In a Facebook comment, Peter Payne recalled being brought here as the Tomlinsons had old cars and scooters riding around on their land for fun. Ken Tomlinson confirmed that this was the case noting “loads of fun all the time, best times ever“.
Tennyson Street in Family Diaries
Our family has no particular links to Tennyson Street. The street does not feature strongly in family diaries. However, there are one or two links and these are explored here.
George Alcock
On 26 October 1918, grandad recorded a serious accident at the wakes in which a six-year old boy had “his head cut off”, see Chapter 4. I researched this story and came across an article dated 1 November 1918 in the Mansfield Reporter and Sutton Times. The article reported on an inquest, carried out by Deputy District Coroner, Mr E Williams, on Monday 28 October, into the death of six-year old George Alcock who lived at 12 Tennyson Street.
A lawyer, Mr F Jackson, represented the owner of the roundabouts, Mr J Proctor. George’s grandfather, Thomas Alcock, said he had been last seen about a week ago. P C Robinson had been on duty about 7pm on Saturday 26 October. He received a complaint from Mr Proctor that boys were jumping on the gondolas while moving to avoid paying. He was concerned that they were risking injury. P C Robinson walked up the gangway of the gondolas and found a child’s head beneath the cars. He found his body about 20 feet away wedged underneath one of the gondolas near the rear wheel.
John H Dixon
In 1916, John H Dixon appeared before the Kirkby Tribunal twice seeking an exemption from military service because of the amount of work he had coming in as painter and decorator. The Chairman told him that his work was not as important as keeping the Germans out of the country. He was initially granted an exemption of two months but, when he returned to the Tribunal, his application was disallowed. He lived in Tennyson Street.
Residents of Tennyson Street
In 1901 and 1939, there were ten families living on Tennyson Street. These were all on the even side from number 2 to 20. In 1911 and 1921, it was similar. However, no-one was listed at number 2 in 1921 and no-one at number 14 in 1911. There is no mention of Tennyson Street prior to 1901.