Sarah Julian, producer says " It’s a story of pride, of building a community from scratch. Many interviewees told me that in the early days, moving out to a new way of life in the country, they felt like pioneers"

Starting at the Southchurch high rise flats, the tallest structure south of Nottingham for around 20 miles, we take a tour of the Clifton Estate.

Listen to Sylvia, a resident of the high rise flats, describe her view (28k).

In the 1950s when the Estate was created, homes were built for 30,000 people. The Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Cllr Roy Greensmith, lives on the Clifton Estate. He moved to the estate in the early days. He and other residents tell us how raw the estate was in the early days.

Listen to Roy Greensmith talk about the early days of the estate (28k).

Listen to Cliftoners reminisce about the early days of the estate (28k).

Bill Dennis was one of the planners of estate, he designed Clifton and also named all the streets. He now lives in Essex but came back to Clifton for the recording of the programme. He says the idea behind the planning of it was to create a ‘sense of place’.

Listen to Bill Dennis, estate planner, explain the idea behind Clifton (28k).

The people who moved there had to forge a community from scratch. One group of Christians even built their own church.

In the programme the church builders group describe how they set about building a church for themselves.

Listen to the people of Clifton describe how they built the estate's church (28k).

Producer Sarah Julian says recording these extracts was one of the highlights of the whole Sense of Place project.

"St Francis, the ‘people’s church really is a special place. You wouldn’t know it but behind the plaster on the walls are bricks with the names of all the people who helped build and fund the church."

"Of all the places I visited on this project I feel that St Francis was the place I felt the ‘sense of place’ of a community most strongly."

Since those early days Clifton has had it’s share of criticism, one visiting comedian called it ‘Belsen in Nottingham’.

The early ‘pioneers’ are now getting older, one jokes ‘ now they’ve even built us a funeral parlour!’ Young people talk of the lack of facilities on the estate, some talk of an estate going downhill.

Sarah Julian, producer says she found even though Clifton’s seen many changes, the spirit of those early days is still alive.

"I didn’t know much about the Clifton Estate but in making this programme I became very fond of the place, the community there achieved something very impressive, and they’re rightly proud of it."

Listen to the audio documentary >>>