Nottinghamshire

Towns & Villages

ARNOLD

Church of St. Mary, Arnold - Photo: Tom Courtney CCL

This busy centre is famous for the manufacture of hosiery and lace. It is now a suburb of the City of Nottingham and has both the county’s fire brigade and police constabulary within its boundaries. In the 12th century it was part of the great Sherwood Forest, small parts of which still survive. The birthplace of painter Richard Parkes Bonington, it has a fine parish church that dates back to the late 13th century. The remains of a Roman settlement can be found at Cockpit Hill.

BEESTON

Lying on the banks of the great River Trent, this ancient town is today dominated by industry, notably in the form of factories serving Boots the Chemist. It was Jesse Boot who founded this medicinal empire in his 20s after taking control of a herbal business founded by his father in Nottingham. He rapidly expanded the business and in 1883 created Boot and Company Ltd., with himself as chairman and managing director. The rest, as they say, is history.

Reminders of the town’s origins can be seen at the Church of St Mary, which dates back to the 14th century. Its many interesting features include a tower with a rebuilt spire, hammerbeam roofs, painted rood screen and a 16th century pulpit.

Beeston Lock - Photo: Christine Hasman CCL

COSTOCK

Costock Church - Photo: Chris J Dixon CCL

This village lies in the Rushcliffe area of Nottinghamshire and boasts one of Britain’s largest vineyards, Eglantine. Named after the wild rose that inhabits English hedgerows, the company began with a cutting from the Great Vine of Hampton Court in 1935. Planting began in 1980 and there are now four acres of vines comprising one of the largest collection of grape varieties in the country, with over 120 different vines.

Close by are the Trent Bridge cricket ground, the National Watersports Centre and beautiful Belvoir Castle, a fortress rebuilt during the 17th century for the 8th Duke of Rutland. The castle displays works by painters such as Holbein, Gainsborough and Rubens. The area also has a fine selection of museums and gardens, including the charity-run Flintham Museum, which has reconstructed old-fashioned shops.

Belvoir Castle - Photo: Kate Jewell CCL

Thrumpton Hall - Photo: Chris J Dixon CCL

Flintham Hall is a Victorian conservatory considered the finest of its type left in England while Thrumpton Hall is a 16th century Jacobean house with a Charles 11 staircase and a splendid drawing room. It has Byron memorabilia.

Nearby Ruddington Village Museum depicts life during the mid-19th century and even has an Edwardian fish and chip shop! Also here is a Framework Knitters’ Museum.

EDWINSTOWE

This is true Robin Hood country. Part of the great Sherwood Forest still survives within the Sherwood Forest Country Park. Here stands the ‘Major Oak’, the ancient tree beneath which the legendary greenwood outlaw sought the hand of Maid Marion. It was already fully grown when King John was on the throne and now has a girth of about 38 feet. Originally known as the Queen’s Oak, its name was amended to honour the 18th century antiquarian Major Hayman Rooke. As a precaution, the 1,000-year-old tree has already been cloned.

Major Oak - Photo: Paul Allison CCL

Fallow Deer in Sheerwood Forest - Photo: Lynne Kirton CCL

Near Edwinstowe is the stately home of Thorseby Hall standing in 12,000 acres of parkland. An earlier property was demolished in the 19th century and the present neo-Tudor house, designed for the 3rd Earl Manvers, replaced it.

LANGAR

This small town has an airfield run by the British Parachute Schools, which has become one of the top sites for skydiving and parachuting in the UK. The British formation skydiving record was created here in 1998 while the British Women's formation skydiving record occurred in 1994.

British Parachute School at Langar Airfield - Photo: Kate Jewell CCL

LONG EATON

West Park Lock Erewash Canal - Photo: Patrick A Griffin CCL

Officially a town in Derbyshire, Long Eaton is nevertheless a suburb of Nottingham and lies on the banks of the River Trent. It dates back at least to the 7th century and its name stems from an Anglo Saxon word meaning ‘town by the water’.

It rose to prominence in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution, becoming a centre for industries such as lace making and quarrying. The arrival of both the railways and the Erewash Canal enabled it to further expand. By the 1900s its booming lace trade was using an estimated 1,500 machines. Today the town is well known for the manufacture of furniture.

LOWDHAM

MANSFIELD

Mansfield Market Place - Photo: Peter Kochut CCL

This large market town stands on the River Maun and was once a wooded area within Sherwood Forest. It was industrialised during the Victorian era, becoming famous for shoe making and hosiery. Later it became an important part of the Nottinghamshire coalfield. The town has an ancient past. Old cave dwellings cut into sandstone cliffs were inhabited even during the 19th century. The Romans had an encampment here and a number of coins featuring several Roman emperors have been found.

NEWARK-ON-TRENT

This market town, once known as ‘the key to the North’, is also a small river port on the mighty Trent. At one time it was a post-town on the Great North Road. It has retained some of its charm, boasting a cobbled market place, some half-timbered buildings and the Church of St Magdalene - one of the most imposing parish churches in England. An earlier settlement was destroyed by the Vikings in the 12th century but it was quickly rebuilt, with Bishop Alexander adding a formidable castle. Unfortunately, this otherwise impregnable fortress became a tragic ruin after Charles 1 surrendered it to Parliamentary forces during the Civil War in the mid-17th century.

Newark Castle - Photo: Richard Croft CCL

NOTTINGHAM

Nottingham Castle Gate House - Photo: Rob Bradford CCL

Legend has it that Robin and his merry men lived in Sherwood Forest and constantly humiliated evil King John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Although the truth is hardly transparent, there really is a castle here and at one time it was commanded by King John and his merciless Sheriff. There are also a number of statues of the archer-warrior.

Today the castle – built by William Conqueror in the 11th century and later reconstructed by the Duke of Newcastle – is the city’s splendid museum and art gallery. It explains how Nottingham emerged from the Dark Ages and took a leading role in the industrial revolution.
 

Originally a Saxon settlement and later part of a Viking kingdom, Nottingham was a prosperous market town in the Middle Ages.

But the decision by Richard Arkwright to install his first steam-powered spinning machines here in the late 18th century sparked an industrial boom. The population exploded, as did the manufacture of hosiery and lace - for which the city has long been famous - despite an uprising by so-called Luddites who smashed machinery in the mills.

In more recent times thousands of jobs were created in the city by three great High Street names - bicycle manufacturers Raleigh, cigarette makers John Player and local entrepreneur Jesse Boot’s company Boots the Chemist.

Greens Mill at Sneinton - Photo: Alex Foster CCL

Woolaton Hall - Photo: Rob Bradford CCL

The Brewhouse Yard Museum traces the city’s life through the ages while the Shire Hall is home to the Galleries of Justice, which gives a unique insight into crime and punishment through the ages. Meanwhile, beneath Nottingham’s streets is a unique labyrinth of over 400 man-made caves in which there are reconstructions of places such as a tannery, air raid shelter and Victorian slum.

Of course, the city is famous for its annual Goose Fair held each October – a tradition started in the 13th century – but also has two inns, ‘The Salutation Inn’ and the ‘Trip to Jerusalem’, which date back to the same period.

Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem - Photo: Patrick A Griffin CCL

RADCLIFFE-ON-TRENT

National Watersports Centre at Holmes Pierre Point - Photo: Colin Smith CCL

Lying on the River Trent near Nottingham, Radcliffe has a population of about 8,000 people. The local church of St Mary’s dates to at least the 13th century and contains interesting monumental brasses and a number of features from the time of Edward 111. The National Watersports Centre is close by while the neighbouring village of Stoke Bardolph witnessed Henry VII’s defeat of an army led by the pretender to the throne, Lambert Simnel, during the War of the Roses in 1487. Simnel was later given a job – in the royal kitchens.

RETFORD

Chesterfield Canal - Photo: B Hilton CCL

River Idle in Kings Park - Photo: B Hilton CCL

SOUTHWELL

The Minster - Photo: Andy Stephenson CCL

SUTTON-IN-ASHFIELD

This industrial town on the western edge of Sherwood Forest has Saxon origins and at one time lay in a wood consisting mostly of ash trees. Its name appears in the Domesday Book and its church - which still retains much of its original architecture - was built by the Norman family of de Sutton. Only a few miles from Mansfield, Sutton has a history of coal mining going back as far as the Middle Ages, though the pits have now closed. Its other major industry, the manufacture of hosiery, has survived. Cardinal Wolsley passed through here on the medieval ‘Great Way’ from Yorkshire to Nottingham. He stayed briefly in the locality but died en route to London.

Mary Magdalene Church - Photo: Ann Ballinger CCL

TEVERSAL

St Catherine's Church - Photo: Church Crawler CCL

A village with an ancient heritage, Teversal has a Norman church that boasts remarkable 17th century furnishings including its pulpit and pews. Visitors will notice a number of monuments built in honour of the Teversal branch of the Molyneux family who once owned the area. Teversal Manor was rebuilt following a fire in the late 18th century by Henrietta Anne Howard Molyneux and was later immortalised by D.H. Lawrence who called it ‘Wragby Hall’ in his infamous ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. Henrietta was to marry Lord Porchester who became Lord Carnarvon and financed the discovery of Tutankhamen’s Tomb.

WEST BRIDGFORD

WORKSOP

Worksop Manor - Photo: Michael Patterson CCL

Although this is essentially an industrial town on the edge of the Nottinghamshire coalfield, Worksop claims to be the capital of what has become known as the county’s ‘Dukeries’ because it has numerous noble houses in the vicinity. These include Worksop Manor, Wellbeck Abbey, Clumber House and Thorseby House. To the south are remnants of Sherwood Forest and a number of picturesque parks.

Worksop itself has Saxon origins and its most attractive feature, the Priory Church of St Cuthbert and Mary, dates to the 12th century, boasting a huge Norman nave and a 13th century Early English Lady Chapel.

Clumber Bridge - Photo: Mick Garrat CCL

Creswell Crags - Photo: Christine Hasman CCL