Basford, Nottingham

Basford is a suburb in northern Nottingham. Basford parish was absorbed into Nottingham in 1877. It gave its name to the Basford Rural District which existed from 1894 to 1974.

There is both an ‘Old Basford’ and a ‘New Basford’ although New Basford is mainly Victorian. Basford lies close to the River Leen, a tributary of the River Trent. Basford is located on the main route of the Nottingham Express Transit, which connects it to Nottingham city centre to the south and Hucknall and Bulwell to the north.

Close to Basford Registry Office, is the site of a former workhouse, this was used for Basford and the neighbouring parishes. The workhouse later became a maternity hospital and then a psychiatric hospital. The hospital is due to be demolished.

The place name comes either from "the ford near the home of Bassa" (Bassa's ford) or "le bas ford" — the lower ford [ [http://www.twoatlarge.com/newbasford/newbasford-4.html Two At Large in New Basford, Nottingham ] ] . Despite this, Basford is correctly pronounced as "BASE-FORD" rather than "BASS-FORD."

Near Vernon Park there used to be a complex of high rise flats which consisted of horizontal and vertical blocks connected together by ariel concrete walkways. These were demolished in 1983.

Basford has a good range of shops in the area. It is a large area. Home to Vernon Park, Basford also has football teams who play in the area, and is home to the Bulwell and Basford Rotary Club [ [http://www.rotary1220.org/bub/ Club Homepage ] ]

Children in the Basford area usually attend Southwark Primary and Infants School or Old Basford School. The only senior school in the Basford area is the Ellis Guilford School and Sports College, located on Bar Lane. Ellis Guilford has been highly refurbished recently with a new school building, new changing rooms, new sports hall, tennis courts, and football pitches.

For many years one of the largest industries in Basford was the manufacturing of soap. A soap factory was established in Basford in the 1890s by Gerard Bros. In 1955 Gerard Bros. was acquired by Cussons Sons & Co. manufacturer of Cussons Imperial Leather soap. In 2005 the factory was closed with production moved to Thailand.

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