Hyson Green: A brief history of the area

Hyson Green flats 1987

www.picturethepast.org.uk

Originally uncultivated heathland at the southern end of Sherwood Forest, Hyson Green is now a small inner city area to the north-west of the City of Nottingham.

There are differing opinions about the origins of the name ‘Hyson Green’ - one suggestion is that it was originally known as the ‘High Sands’ to distinguish it from the ‘Low Sands’ of Radford. Another view is that when an early resident of the area, John Ison, built two houses he named “Ison Green”  and soon afterwards, ‘Ison’ became ‘Hyson’ and has remained the name to this day.

The area was first developed in the early 1800s when housing was built for stocking-makers and warp hands who used the upper rooms as workshops. By the late 1880s most of the area consisted of small factories and workshops and streets of terraced housing.

In the 1960s, large numbers of houses were demolished as part of the council’s slum clearance project. In 1965, a large complex of flats was built on the site of former terraced housing; poorly built and unpopular with residents from the outset the flats were demolished in 1988. An ASDA store now sits on the former site of the flats.