The history of Arnold
Arnold, Nottinghamshire, grew around its parish life and quiet residential streets. Slalom Run sits near St Cyprian's Church, built in 1935 by C. E. Howitt and blessed that May by the Bishop of Southwell, a building that gave this corner of Arnold its settled, modern shape.
Slalom Run is a residential street in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, near St Cyprian's Church, built in 1935 by C. E. Howitt and blessed that May by the Bishop of Southwell. The church's font, carved in the 13th or 14th century, was rediscovered serving as a horse trough between Gedling and Shelford before being traced to a demolished chapel at Shelford Priory.
A horse trough turns out to be a medieval font
On Slalom Run itself, there's little to see beyond ordinary houses. About half a mile away stands St Cyprian's Church, Nottingham, built in 1935 by the architect C. E. Howitt. The Bishop of Southwell blessed it that May, and its font is far older than the building itself.
The font is 13th or 14th century stone, found doing duty as a horse trough in a field between Gedling and Shelford. Horses' harnesses wore grooves into its rim before anyone realized what it was. Historians credit it to a chapel at Shelford Priory, torn down in the 1400s. From there it passed through a vanished Nottingham church before landing at St Cyprian's.
An organ carries pipework from a vanished church
St Cyprian's served the growing streets around Carlton Hill and Bakersfield through the rest of the 20th century. Its organ, built in 1935 by E. Wragg & Son, reused pipework from an older organ at St. James' Church on Standard Hill, carrying a piece of that vanished building forward too.
A line of priests kept the parish running. The Revd Fr William John Gull led it from 1990 to 1999, followed by Fr Kevin Ball from 2001.
A priest-in-charge answers to the Bishop of Beverley
Fr Andrew Waude took over in 2007 and served until 2015. St Cyprian's sits in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, but it answers to the Bishop of Beverley under a special arrangement for parishes in the Traditional Catholic tradition. The Revd Fr Ian McCormack leads it today as priest-in-charge, with Fr Lee Dunleavy as curate. Sung Mass is still held there every Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
St. Paul's Church, Carlton-in-the-Willows went up in Carlton-in-the-Willows in 1891, and the Boulevard United Reformed Church, Nottingham was built in 1900 as a Congregational church on Gregory Boulevard, after a congregation first formed in 1824. Slalom Run itself stays quiet, a residential street among the houses these churches were built to serve.
Slalom Run remains an ordinary Arnold street, with Nottingham's 20th-century church-building boom still standing within walking distance.
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