WhysHistory: Sneinton and Me 7 - Peter Elliot Bates

(This article was first published in Sneinton Magazine, issue 38, Spring 1991)

Peter Elliot Bates never achieved international fame. He was not unique: there were (and are) many others like him. Yet the achievements of his long career are very much with us today. He was a small-time property developer.

His houses can be seen in Holborn Avenue, Baden Powell Road, Durham Avenue, Ladysmith Street and other locations in the area. He was not a builder by trade – he was the licensee of the Old Wrestler's pub at the junction of Castle Street and Sneinton Hollows for at least 15 years, and had before that carried on business as a baker. His property developments were in partnership with a builder called Richard Barry.

At the end of the eighteenth century, cities in Britain began to grow at breakneck speed – and have continued to do so ever since. Thousands upon thousands of humble dwellings were built to house the working classes of the new industrial era.

The entrepreneurs who provided this housing were themselves not very far up the social ladder. A shopkeeper, a publican or a small businessman with some savings would invest in the building of a few houses to provide income from rents.

Much of the housing provided in this way was terrible, and has been cleared away during the slum clearances after the two wars. But towards the end of the last century [i.e. the 19th century], laws were passed laying down minimum standards in house building. Under the control of these regulations, Bates and his kind built the superior quality terraces that survive today.

It is through the paperwork of the building regulations that we can begin to trace the careers of the spec builders, because they had to apply for planning approval, and their applications still exist, preserved at County Records Office.

I first came across Bates and Barry when I went through the Planning Permission applications for 1900 to 1905. It became apparent that they were among the most active builders in Sneinton during that busy period, with expansion into the allotments and open spaces between the old village and the suburban railway line.

I looked at applications for a total of 486 houses in the Dale and Boulevard area. These were entered for 34 builders. Of these, 23 applied for fewer than 10 houses; 4 for between 10 and 20 houses and 7 for more than 20. The biggest operator was the building firm of Elliot and Attewell, who applied for approval for 98 houses. Bates and Barry were second with 54.

The researching of detailed biography was not part of what I was doing, but I could not resist a digression to find out a bit more about Bates – using some simple sources to build up a rough outline of his life and career.

Back in those days, local directories existed, rather like the Thomson directory of today, but much more comprehensive. They contained an enormous number of entries, classified by trade, by name and by address.

When I consulted Wright's Directory of 1905/6 I found listed,

'Peter Elliot Bates, v. [i.e. victualler] Old Wrestlers, 15 Sneinton Hollows.'

This place ceased to be a pub long ago, but is still there at the junction of the Hollows and Castle Street, having recently been tidied up with a coat of rendering.

The next job was to track back through earlier directories to find a time when he wasn't licensee of the Wrestlers, so as to establish roughly when he took the pub. Wright's of 1900/01 lists him as the landlord, but the directory of 1895 tells us that the Wrestlers was kept by Robert Woodruffe. So we know that he took over the Wrestlers some time between 1895 and 1900.

If his name had been John Smith it might have been impossible to trace him back any further than this , but a check for his distinctive name in the alphabetical list of Kelly's Directory of 1895 tells us that he was a baker. His address was 102 Sneinton Road. (Later Harry Day's bakery.)

And White's Directory of 1888 also lists Bates as a baker but gives his address as 9, Roden Street, Carlton Road. This is the earliest reference to him I could find – a lacemaker called Underwood was living there in 1885/6.

My grandparents lived in Sneinton during the first three-quarters of this [the 20th] century, so having got this far, I asked them if they remembered Peter Bates. They did. My grand father described him as a '...big grey haired man who used to sit on a deckchair on a piece of wasteland that belonged to him in front of Belvoir Terrace.' He said he kept the Wrestlers.

My grandfather worked for the billposting firm of Mills and Rockley. At one time he tried to persuade Bates to allow the use of his land for advertising hoardings. Bates refused, saying it was his intention to build on it. We know that he never carried out this intention, and the 'wasteland' remains unbuilt on to this day. He must have changed his mind about the advertising though – I remember the land being fronted by hoardings during my childhood in the fifties.

I decided to check the directories of the late 1920's to see if Bates had an entry for an address on Belvoir Hill at that time. He did: Sneinton Mill Bungalow. A check in the planning applications revealed that it was he who built it – around 1928. I followed the address up in later directories and after 1932 he is not mentioned there. Nor could I find any other mention of him, so perhaps we can assume this is about the time he died – unless he moved out of the area.

Early in 1905, he put in an application for a pair of semi-detached villas in Durham Avenue. In March his application was disapproved because of a query as to the street – which was then unmade. A subsequent application submitted in April has with it a letter from Booker's (Bates' architects). '… The Avenue is not sewered or paved, if anything towards pulling [sic] the same into proper state of repair, Mr Bates is willing to do what he can … ' He also offers to donate the land fronting the house to any future scheme for widening the Avenue. This application was passed.

Bates lived in one of those houses, no. 2 Durham Villas, until 1916 according to the directories I have checked, and perhaps until he moved into his modern bungalow in 1928.

A little more checking in directories and planning applications finally resulted in this summary of his career:

1888 - Earliest discovered listing of Bates: a baker, living at 9, Roden Street, Carlton Road.

Between 1891 and 1895 – He takes over the bakery at 102 Sneinton Road. (listed under his name in 1895 and in the name of Mrs Eliz. Blood in 1891.

By 1900 – Licensee of the Wrestlers

1903 – He is building 27 houses on Ladysmith Street.

1903 – The bakery at 102 Sneinton Road is now listed as belonging to Alfred Bates – a relative?

1904 – He is building 6 houses on Baden Powell Road.

1904 – He is building 20 houses on Holborn Avenue.

1905 – He builds Durham Villas and moves into one of them. He continues as licensee of the Wrestlers.

1915/16 – Bates is still at Durham Villas, and he is still licensee of the Wrestlers. Alfred is still at 102 Sneinton Road.

1928 – He has moved into Sneinton Mill Bungalow.

1932 – Last listing of Bates at Sneinton Mill Bungalow.

The pioneering historian H J Dyos says in his book, Camberwell – a Victorian Suburb, 'The average Victorian suburb was the product of the unconcerted labour of many men...' Peter Bates was one of these. The graph lists 32 others (and women too). Some of these names will be familiar to some readers: my mother remembers Mrs Nall's bakery at the corner of Trent Road; the name Litchfield is commemorated in a street name (Calladine's name is not, it was decided to call the road Holborn Avenue instead); Albert Murfin was licensee of the Earl Howe; Whitings were pawnbrokers. These are some of the local individuals whose 'unconcerted labour' created the suburb of Sneinton.

'The average Victorian suburb was the product of the unconcerted labour of many men...' H J Dyos.

Below: sales of Manvers' land - a tracing taken from the Manvers manuscripts at Nottingham University. Bates and Barry are shown to have bought a parcel of land adjacent to Port Arthur Road for 6/3d (31p) a square yard. (A stark contrast to those prices of anything up to 36s (£1.80) a yard in the 1820s for inferior quality land in the town.)