Book launches and reviews, Summer 2008

Howard Fisher, Bob Hammond and Nigel Morley, Tollerton: An Airfield for Nottingham, 1929-2007 (Keyworth and District Local History Society, 2008)

One of Nottinghamshire’s best kept secrets, Tollerton, or Nottingham airport as it is sometimes known, is only three miles from the City Centre , an unpretentious location with a varied history. In this excellent study, the three authors examine its different phases: Howard Fisher on the pre-war years 1929-39, Nigel Morley on the war time years, and Bob Hammond on the period 1945-2007. Fully illustrated, the book tells the story from 1929 when Nottingham Corporation bought land at Tollerton for a civil aerodrome when it had grand ideas about a city airport, to its current position where Nottingham City Airport PLC is looking to develop the airport for future use.

John Beckett 

Hinrich Siefken and Stuart Mason (editors), Faith, Hope and Love: 120 Years of Methodism in West Bridgford (West Bridgford Methodist Church, 2008)

This is not so much a history as a collection of essays which look both at Methodism generally in West Bridgford, and more specifically at Musters Road Methodist Church. There are sections on Methodism in Nottingham, on the founding of the Musters Road Wesleyan Chapel in 1888, with its formal opening a decade later, Trent Boulevard Wesleyan Church (1901), choral traditions, the impact of war, Sunday Schools and so on. There are short sections on Bridgeway Hall, the Gordon Road Primitive church, and references to all sorts of activities over time. Inevitably it will appeal mainly to West Bridgfordians, but it is a good read, and an excellent commemorative volume for the ongoing Methodist movement south of the River Trent. This volume is available price £6 (incl £1 p&p), payable to The Methodist Church West Bridgford, from Professor Hinrich Siefken, 6 Mountsorrel Drive, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 6LJ.

John Beckett