To distract me from the difficulties of mapping the houses within Manderley (a recent development of £400,000 GBP houses ($494,000 USD, €467,000 Euro), half of which do not yet appear on Bing) here is a useless challenge for you:–

Find the Tree Rat

Non-golfers are warned of the danger of death from hi-speed golf-balls, and therefore not to trespass on to Mapperley Golf course. However, I walked all around the perimeter of the course, and took pictures every few seconds the whole way. At one point I came across some of the local wildlife; it tried to hide from me but I did manage to get a single frame with it in view.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to (virtually) walk the perimeter of the Golf Course. As a virtual walk protective head-, elbow- & knee-gear are optional.

So, starting at the first frame of the walk, find the tree rat (sorry, squirrel). Be warned that the only way I could get it in shot was to photograph from a distance, so it is small & well blended in with the tree trunk as it rushes to get away from me. If you reach the houses then you have missed it (although the walk continues after the houses are mapped until we reach the clubhouse).

Golf:– a good walk, spoiled

words — wrongly — attributed to Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

After surveying the desert of Manderley — it was midday Wednesday, 16 November & the place was almost entirely devoid of human life — I walked clockwise around Mapperley Golf course starting at the traffic lights at the top of Arnold Lane (having bought Pink Floyd’s single + LP as a young man I love that road just for it’s name), passing through Digby Park along the way (check out the Alphabetical Arboretum if you think that you can identify every tree & bush from it’s leaves) & finishing at Mapperley Golf Club-house. The Golf Course is full of dire signs warning walkers of imminent death, so the walk does not dare trespass upon the course but instead circumnavigates the perimeter.

It is late autumn, far too warm for the season & too many leaves on the trees. There are many fine views across the golf course from the walk. Here is one; you can spot the Manderley houses at the top right-hand side:–

The land is owned by Gedling Borough Council but run as a golf course by a private body, so there is a small chance that it will not be redeveloped in the next 10 years (I bet that they have talked about it).

All the land south of Plains Road was probably originally owned by the Digby Coal Company, who operated Gedling 1 & 2 until 1937 (Top Hard, Main Bright & High Hazels seams), when it was taken over by B.A. Collieries, Ltd., then nationalised in 1947. I was told by a householder early in my walk, shortly after the Mapperley Top shops, that his land was originally purchased in 1934 from Digby. That becomes even more clear as you pass the Colliery football & cricket pitches.

Gedling Shafts were finally closed in 1991, even though in 1980 it was said to have a “long-term future”. Thanks, Maggie. This is a aditnow.co.uk picture of the Gedling Headstocks:–

…and these are the spoilheaps today from the other side of Arnold Lane (the council is planning to redevelop those green hills (pdf)):–

Hint

This is the squirrel-frame, if you cannot find it.