Neighbours have shared what life is like on a busy one way street in a town centre. Residents in Mill Gate, Newark, love living on the road despite the traffic, and say that it's a residential road where you get friends instead of neighbours.
The long residential road is home to a variety of people and has a lot of history, with some houses dating back to the 1700s and others being more modern. To protect the history, the street even has its own historical group known as the Mill Gate Conservation Group.
However, the street is often used as a cut-through in the town centre and can become congested for households at peak times. Retired Christine Stevenson, 65, of Mill Gate, said: "We've lived here about 12 years, and the original idea was to move here and open a small family-run bed and breakfast which we did do but are no longer running.
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"It's lovely here, we can walk into town and it gives us the opportunity to shop locally and use the market and local butchers. Having brought up a family in Nottingham and then moving here, it's the first place I can truly say your neighbours become your friends, not just acquaintances and we've made lots of local friends here."
She described the street as having a "lot of history" and explained that her own home is Georgian and was built in the 1780s. When asked if she would ever want to live anywhere else, she replied: "As we get older we would be looking to downsize but to find something small and local would be a challenge."
Speaking about the traffic, Christine added: "It can get quite busy, I think it's used as a bit of an alternative to Victoria Road for those that know it and it can be congested when the crossing is down or something has happened.
"On Friday afternoons it is bumper to bumper. Some of the larger HGVs that come down here are a worry in terms of the age of the street and properties but what is good is that it's double yellowed most of the way, otherwise, it would just be a long car park."
Retired Bernard Martin, in his late 60s, has lived on Mill Gate since 1985. When asked why he moved to the area, he replied: "Because it was in an attractive area and it's a good community."
Bernard explained that when he first moved to the street half of it was empty as it seemed that a lot of buildings would be demolished as there were plans to dual carriageway the road and have a bypass in the 1980s - but this never happened. He said: "The idea was to dual carriageway the road in the days when they liked to have bypasses around most towns.
"They were going to demolish everything that was on the other side of the road." Speaking about life on the road now, Bernard explained that it was mainly residential, but there are also two pubs, a boxing gym and a few other businesses dotted along the street.
He said: "It's a neighbourhood that has a big mix of people and we would like to think that we are all massively supportive of each other." Speaking about the traffic, he added: "We have what we call Friday traffic here and that starts Thursday lunchtime.
"We only have to have a small fault on the road and then everything starts to divert through town."
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