Below are three people from Netherfield’s past who have had a lasting impact on the town.
John Henry Bell
John Henry Bell was landlord of Netherfield’s only public house, the Railway Inn, or more familiarly, Jackie Bells.
Bell is remembered as everyone’s idea of what a pub landlord should look like – big, stout and cheerful.
Bell took over from John Stretch, the first landlord who opened the hotel in 1890, in about 1902 and retired in 1924.
Interested in Sports, he held boxing matches in an upper room at the Railway Inn and trained his whippets and ferrets in the nearby field, – which is still known as Jackie Bell’s field.
Samuel Bourne
Samuel Bourne was the son of a prosperous Staffordshire farmer.
Born in 1834, Samuel came to Nottingham in 1855 to work as a bank assistant. Developing an interest in photography he left the Bank in 1862 to go on a tour of India. When he returned to Nottingham in 1867 he married Mary Tolley, the eldest daughter of the Nottingham silk merchant and elastic web manufacturer, Abraham Tolley.
Having set up a business in India he went back there, with his wife, for two years before returning (now with a daughter) to England in 1869.
Once more in Nottingham, he entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, James Tolley, in factory in Robin Hood Street originally built by the well-known manufacturer William Windley.
Samuel Bourne soon took over a controlling interest in the cotton doubling aspect of the business and by 1877 he had formed his own independent Company.
Apart from the energy which he showed in running and expanding Brittania Mills there were several other outlets for his talents. He was a photographer of national importance and a water-colourist of distinction, a Justice of the Peace and heavily involved in Local Government at District, City and County levels.
He died at his home in the Park in 1912 and was buried in Nottingham General Cemetery. A blue plaque was placed on the side of his home. There’s also another memorial to him in the road name Bourne Street, in Netherfield.
Bourne is still regarded as one of the finest landscape and travel photographers of 19th-century India; combining a fine eye for composition with high technical expertise
Stanley Bourne
Samuel’s son, was born in 1875 and was educated at Nottingham High School, Rugby and Cambridge University.
He left Cambridge University and entered his father’s business and did much to promote overseas trade.
He eventually became Chairman of Directors of Bourne’s and Deputy Chairman of Courtaulds, Ltd.
Stanley continued to expand the family business and by the eve of the Second World War, Britannia Mills in Netherfield employed 1,000 people.
In addition to his business interests he was involved in public affairs as President of Nottingham Children’s Hospital, as a County Magistrate and in 1927 as a High Sheriff Of
Nottinghamshire.
He died at his home in Epperstone in October 1942.
