Weddington Village Today

PICTURE GALLERY 7: Weddington Village Today

This section contains photographs of Weddington in the twenty-first century. Huge changes are threatened in the early years of this century, with thousands of new houses being built on Weddington's green fields.

You can view images of Weddington Village from the twentieth century at this link.

Echoes of the Castle

Weddington's new Church Hall (built on the site of the original one) Pictured in 2007

A view of Castle Road, which was built on the site of the Castle

Castle Road

Shawe Avenue, where a housing estate was built on the site of the Castle. The Avenue is named after the Shawe family who owned the Castle.

Mount Jud. This quarry heap overlooks Weddington and Nuneaton

Remaining woodland in Sandon Park, formerly in the Castle grounds

Weddington Road in 2004

Fields at the back of St James' Church. Believed to be the site of Weddington's Deserted Medieval Village.

"Swinnerton's Heritage" : the new access road for the new houses built on the site of the allotments behind the old Church Hall, 2007 ***.

Sandon Park, the indentations in the ground show the outline of the Castle's ornamental boating lake.

Cleaver Gardens flats, built on the site of Weddington Gardens in the 1970s.

Sandon Park, with indentations of the boating lake visible

Sandon Park, Mount Jud in the background

Jack Whetstone sports pavilion in Sandon Park. Mr Whetstone was closely associated with Amateur Football in Nuneaton, and was Secretary of the Nuneaton Amateur League. He died in 1967.

Weddington allotments, on the site of the Castle

The walkway to Cleaver gardens, this avenue of yew trees once formed the southern driveway of the Castle estate

Cleaver walkway

Some remaining yew trees adjacent to Cleaver Gardens

Cleaver walkway

Yew trees in Sandon Park, these date back to the time of the Castle

Weddington Walk - public information signage

Weddington Walk - the former Ashby-Nuneaton railway line

Weddington Walk - the former Ashby-Nuneaton railway line Picture taken 2012. Site of this website's Webmaster & friends' 'den' in the 1970s...

Weddington Fields - site of proposed housing development in 2012

New sign erected in 2008. With some details of Weddington's history *

A map from new sign erected in 2008. With some details of Weddington's history *

"Lionel Close" on the Grove Park estate built in 2010. This is named after the former owner of Weddington Castle: Lionel Place.

Phase 1 of building work starts on Weddington Church fields, February 2014

After much campaigning it was agreed that the street names on the housing development on Weddington Church Fields would reflect the area's history. The first road sign went up in 2016, intended to be named after 'Watitune' the original name of Weddington 1000 years ago. It was misspelled!!

2007 - 2010

The River Anker flowing through Weddington fields

The River Anker flowing through Weddington meadows

St James' Church in the mist

Boy and granddad playing with model aeroplane in Church fields 2007. (c) John Brookes

Boy playing in Weddington Church fields, 2007. (c) John Brookes

Boy in cornfield, on path towards Caldecote. (c) John Brookes 2007

St James' Church and Weddington fields snowscape (c) Steven Cheshire

Walker, November 2010 Matt Gardner

Wildlife of Weddington before the Church Fields housing development (c) Steven Cheshire 2010

Purple Hairstreak. This species has declined in the UK by 23% over the past ten years. However, they still breed on the ancient oaks in the area of the proposed development. They can be seen on hot still summers evenings spiraling around the tree tops.

Field mouse

Baby field mice

White-letter Hairstreak. This is severely endangered and its population has decreased by 63% in the past decade

Brown Argus butterfly - a rare sight in Weddington fields

A Comma butterfly

A Redwing bird

The Common Blue: a small butterfly, rare in Weddington due to loss of breeding habitat

Baby field mice

A Common Darter - a more unusual Weddington resident

A Fieldfair bird

Large Skipper butterfly pictured in Weddington's green fields

A Red Admiral butterfly in Weddington

This Ringlet butterfly breeds on the old railway embankment and the Weddington fields next to it

The Small Copper is another tiny yet wonderfully marked butterfly that breeds on the fields

Small Skipper - a rare but welcome visitor to Weddington

Cows in Weddington's Church Fields

Local protests against housing development in Weddington in 2011 (SWORD* Group)

Postcard produced in 2012 by SWORD to promote Public Inquiry on 17th January

Rear of SWORD postcard

SWORD Residents' Meeting 12th January 2011

Supporters gather in Weddington Church Fields to hand over petition of over 4000 signatures in May 2011

Outside the Town Hall at 29th June 2011 public council meeting

Outside the Town Hall at 29th June public council meeting

Outside the Town Hall before 17th August planning meeting in 2011 (Nuneaton Telegraph)

Outside the Town Hall before 17th August planning meeting in 2011, presenting a petition of over 4000 signatures

Outside the Town Hall before 17th August planning meeting in 2011

SWORD Barn Dance fundraiser event at the Weddington Social Club, 7th September 2012

2011 - 2015

Morning in Weddington (c) Nellie Vin 2011

Access gate from Church Lane with nature walk signs, 2011 Ray Small

Public bridleway and Green Track sign, June 2011 Nigel Graves

New Year's Day 2011. (c) Fiona Cooper-Woods

Weddington Walk (former disused railway line)

Dog walking on bridleway, March 2011 Matt Gardner

River boundary of land, May 2011 Joanne Sara Michie

Family walking in fields. May 2011 Joanne Sara Michie

Child and cows in field, May 2011 Joanne Sara Michie

The former double track, railway bridge spanning the A444 Weddington Road in Nuneaton was constructed in 1972, but after only a few years in service it was closed along with the entire line, following the Beeching Report. (c) A.R. Demolition

Still under the ownership of British Rail, the bridge demolition was commissioned as part of BRB’s on-operational asset rationalisation programme. (c) A.R. Demolition

The structure was stripped back to its primary frame and the deck was gas cut into 6 sections weighing between 13 tonnes and 24 tonnes each. AR Demolition used a 230 tonne crane to lower each of the sections and both steel legs down onto crash decks where the pieces were further cut down for transporting off site. (c) A. R. Demolition

A Temporary Traffic Regulation Order for closing the road over the weekend 24th/25th September 2011 was granted to AR Demolition and work commenced on demolishing the structure at 3.00 am on the Saturday morning. The main work was completed by 11.30pm on the 24th, 24 hours ahead of schedule. (c) A. R. Demolition

Dismantling of rail bridge over Weddington Road in August 2011** (c) Pip Sheldon

Bridleway across the fields, December 2011 Nigel Graves

Dismantling of rail bridge over Weddington Road in August 2011** (c) Pip Sheldon

Church Fields in winter, 2011/12 G Edwards

Snowman building in Weddington Church Fields, Jan 2012 Sonja Burtenshaw

Walking in Weddington Church Fields, Jan 2012 Sonja Burtenshaw

Walking in Weddington, Jan 2012 Sonja Burtenshaw

Nuneaton Ramblers Club in Weddington Church car park about to set off on walk across the fields, March 2012 (Jenny Brookes)

Local family walking into Weddington Church Fields from Caldecote, March 2012 David Michie

Bridleway and kissing gate below Weddington Nature Walk access, 2012 Nigel Graves

Bridleway under bridge. Steps up to Nature walk on left (recently refurbished with wooden sidings), March 2012 Nigel Graves

Nuneaton and Bedworth Council Green Track signs on the land, March 2012 Nigel Graves

Father and son in Church Fields, March 2012 Dave Michie

Bridleway and kissing gate below Weddington Nature Walk, March 2012 David Michie

Family by protected Oak tree in Church Field, March 2012 David Michie

Father and son by protected Oak tree in Church Fields, March 2012 David Michie

St James Church in Weddington as seen from Church fields, March 2012 David Michie

Children playing in Oak tree in Church Fields, March 2012 David Michie

Dog walker in Church Fields, March 2012 David Michie

Children with bikes in Church Fields, March 2012 David Michie

Walker on kissing gate below Weddington Nature Walk, March 2012 David Michie

Two local dog walkers in Church Fields, March 2012 David Michie

Weddington flood, 2012 (c) Martin Mumper

Weddington flood, November 2012 (c) Chris Lewis

Weddington fields October 2013 (c) Paula Garrard

Sunset over Weddington Fields 2013 (thanks to Paula Garrard)

Yet more flooding in Weddington, January 2014 (c) Nuneaton News

Weddington Church Fields (c) Mark Palmer

In 2016 developers threatened to cut down six of Weddington's remaining old oaks. Local campaigners mobilised once more to protest against this. (c) Caroline Jones

Aerial view of Weddington in 2016, showing the impact of the Church Fields housing development.

The Church Fields development commenced in 2015

Church Fields estate in Weddington, 2016

2016 - the new development

"SWORD was a local residents group formed in 2009 to oppose plans to build thousands of new houses on Weddington's green fields. SWORD stood for 'Save Weddington: Oppose the Residential Development'. You can view the website at: www.saveweddington.org.uk

Sadly, due to Council incompetence and develop pressure, development on the estate began in 2015 by Davidsons Homes. You can download abd view a video of their Church Fields show home at this link.

Weddington Jubilee Party 5th June 2012, at the Weddington Social Club

Click on the image to the right for a full set of photos from this event (opens in a new window)

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*** Photographs by Lily Jones

** This was the avoiding line which was there to take freight traffic from Birmingham to Leicester and the other way round away from Trent Valley and thus not disrupt the main line, although when Abbey Street was open passenger trains also used the line as well and did not call at Trent Valley. It fell out of use in the 1980s