Fishing In Vernon Park Lake.

A Memory of Old Basford.

As a boy I often fished in Vernon Park Lake. I'm now eighty-six and now living in Bingham. However, a year ago I paid a nostalgic visit to the Park to see if there had been any changes.Of course there had. Through the late sixties and earlly seventies I played cricket there for St.John's Church side every other Saturday. However, I gather that cricket had been stopped on the park, by the council, as being dangerous, although I guess it had been played there since the park opened in 1901. In 1948 when I was aged ten I was fishing with a school friend, in the lake, when a Nottm., Evening Post photographer came along and took a little group shot of us comprising me holding my fishing rod, my pal at my keep net and an old chap in a wheel chair with his grandson at his feet. It was in the Post newspaper the following week. My mother sent for a copy of the photo which I still have to-day. During my visit I wandered down to the same spot that the photo had been taken and was surprised to see that the iron railings that surrounded the lake in those days had gone. Having written to the Parks and Open Spaces Dept. of the council for an answer, without the courtesy of a reply, I then turned to the Evening Post who didn't know either. So, if anyone can tell me what happenened to the iron railings, which were originally put there as a safety measure, then I would be so very grateful. By the way, I then lived in Orville Road, off Hucknall Road, New Basford.
Many thanks,
Tony Knight

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