Nigel Kirk from Mellors & Kirk auction house looks at a century-old reminder of one of Nottingham's most famous streets.
One of the most interesting aspects of auctioneering is the daily unearthing of objects that remind us of how the people of Nottingham, worked, lived, played and occasionally died in former times.
Such tangible links to the past tell us much and can be wonderfully evocative; even everyday items that people took for granted can transport us back in time to another era.
I was reminded of this when an old, cast iron street sign or nameplate for Chaucer Street arrived at Mellors & Kirk. Rusty, with peeling paint, it was almost certainly cast locally more than 100 years ago. Surprisingly, objects like these, which we might not have expected to survive, do turn up from time to time.
Although not usually of high value, someone somewhere decided they should not be lost forever and kept it for many decades.
In bold, clear sans serif lettering the street proudly proclaimed its name, amongst that cluster of streets named after some of the greatest Englishmen in history – Clarendon, Dryden, Shakespeare and many others – that lie between the city and the Forest.
In the 18th and 19th centuries many British towns and cities had distinctive signage peculiar to that place, for example Cheltenham and Liverpool, and where this survives it subtly adds much to the charm of the area. This is something not lost on the Civic Societies and other champions of the architectural heritage.
Some years ago Mellors & Kirk sold a Victorian cast iron nameplate from Drury Hill, that wonderful and historic winding way leading from Low Pavement to Sussex Street, lost forever under the Broadmarsh Centre. It made more than £1,000 at auction, paid by a Nottingham collector who had fond memories of Drury Hill in the 60s.
As and when signs needed replacing they were usually scrapped, but a few were saved and there are several in Nottingham Industrial Museum. I have no doubt that still more were simply 'liberated'! Sometimes they were replaced when a street changed its name – for example, when Beck Lane became Heathcoat Street in 1874.
Most street signs are not worth much, certainly not when compared with steam locomotive nameplates, one of which sold at auction recently for £60,000. A 20th century Westminster City Council enamelled Downing Street example recently sold at auction for a much higher than expected £7,800 (perhaps to an aspiring prime minister?).
Nottingham has lost much of its built heritage, not least through misguided planning decisions of the mid-20th century, and the people of Nottingham now have a bewildering array of permanent and temporary signs and other street furniture with which they have to contend, not least due to the building of the new tramlines. I cannot help but think the Victorians would have organised matters differently, and finished the job on time.
The Chaucer Street nameplate was bought for by a proud Nottingham resident who will, no doubt, treasure it for many more years. A piece of local history preserved for a little longer.
*Nigel is auctioneer at Mellors & Kirk in Nottingham and can be contacted on nkirk@mellorsandkirk.com.
