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Currently running on BBC 2 on Saturday nights is a series called Century Road, one of a rash of programmes inspired by the end of the 20th Century.

 

The series has been looking at different communities up and down the country who live in streets built around the turn of the last century. Newark, of course, has its own Century Street - off Barnbygate - and originally this was a contender for inclusion in the series.

It was not successful but the story of how Newark's Century Street came to be built is every bit as interesting as those featured on the television.

Today, as it nears its 100th birthday, Newark's Century Street appears, outwardly at least, to have changed very little.

The short terrace of 12 houses (with one modern addition) still fronts on to an unmade, unadopted road -almost, one might say, as when its builder and developer, John Bailey, packed up his tools after the building work was finished.

At that time Bailey's was one of the most respected building firms in the town, and in the years around 1900 John Bailey was responsible for erecting fine, solid housing in a number of streets around the town.

On Bowbridge Road those on the eastern side (from No. 75 to the junction with Earp Avenue) are Bailey's, while on Barnbygate he built Nos. 75 to 93 (from near the tennis courts to Century Street).

On lower Appletongate the houses opposite Jacksons Building Centre (roughly Nos. 40 - 50) and some of those in nearby Sydney Street were also built by him.

John Bailey (1845 - 1926) had started his working life in his father's iron foundry, the Devon Foundry, on Farndon Road.

He received some elementary education at Fletcher's School on Lover's Lane (one of the so-called private 'academies' which then flouished in Newark).

While working at the foundry he began to attend night classes to learn shorthand and several foreign languages.

John Bailey was a man of broad interests and in later years became a practical amateur astronomer and an adept chess player, conducting postal matches with correspondents in America and other parts of the world: several of the chess problems he devised were published in the national press.

In his youth John Bailey is credited with riding the first 'bone shaker' bicycle to appear in Newark and as a sideline to his main building business, also developed a fleet of 40 or so pleasure boats on the Trent.

When Newark Rowing Club was founded in 1873 it was Mr Bailey who provided their first craft. John Bailey died at the age of 81 at his home, 79 Bowbridge Road, on November 29, 1926.

The building business, however, which he had established in the mid 1860s, lived on, first under his son, John William Bailey, and latterly under his grandson, Cyril Bailey.

Mr Cyril Bailey still lives in Newark and has been able to provide some interesting insights into his grandfather's association with Century Street.

The original plans, for instance, still survive, and we learn that permission to build the 12 houses off Barnbygate was issued by Newark Borough Council in July 1899.

Building work appears to have commenced immediately with Mr Bailey employing a small workforce of both skilled and unskilled labour. His sons were involved in the project, Edward Harry Bailey as a joiner and John William Bailey as bricklayer.

The bricks used were produced locally at Cafferatas brickworks on Beacon Hill. Each house in Century Street comprised a parlour, living room/kitchen, pantry and scullery (with built-in wash copper).

A staircase in the centre of the house gave access to three bedrooms (two with fire grates) on the first floor. At the rear, each house had its own coal store and lavatory - quite an advanced feature for the time.

At the end of the street a high brick wall marked the boundary of a large garden belonging to Dr Job who had his surgery in a large house at No. 10 Beacon Hill Road.

Early residents of Century Street remember a fine pear tree which used to hang over the wall from the doctor's garden and provided rich pickings for the children.

Running parallel to Century Street along its eastern side was the yard of Joseph Wright the builder and, further down, the premises of W. C. Halls and Co., gum and starch works (makers of the patent 'Kufshyne' linen gloss for starched collars and cuffs.)

The building of Century Street and the accommodation it provided could not have come at a more appropriate time. In 1900 the population of Newark was increasing rapidly and many local industries were expanding their workforces.

Under these circumstances Mr Bailey found no difficulty at all in renting out his new houses to local families. Early residents of the street included such well known names as Gabbitas, Gelsthorpe, Gales, Orton, Daubney, Milnes and Bennett.

It is to be hoped that Century Street will continue to provide homes for Newark families for many years to come.

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