Woodborough’s Heritage

Woodborough, a Sherwood Forest Village, recorded in Domesday



Kelly’s Directory 1888



Woodborough is a parish and large straggling village, 8 miles north-north-east from Nottingham, 3 miles north-west from Lowdham station on the Midland Railway. In the Rushcliffe Division of the county, wapentake of Thurgarton, Basford Union, Nottingham petty sessional division and county court district, archdeaconry of Nottingham, rural deanery of Gedling and diocese of Southwell. The church of St Swithin is an edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and low western embattled tower with four pinnacles containing four bells, dating from 1612 to 1680, and clock; there are remains of a good Norman doorway; the chancel is Decorated and the tower of Perpendicular date, the nave and aisles being in a later and debased style: the chancel retains very fine sedilia, an aumbry on the north side and on either side of the communion table are stone brackets with figures of Edward III, and his queen): some remains of the oaken rood screen still exist and a few specimens of ancient stained glass: the font is Norman: the church plate includes a chalice and alms-dish, dated 1676 and a flagon of 1802: there are 250 sittings, the churchyard is now closed. The registers date - 1547 for baptisms, 1573 for marriages and 1572 for burials, and are in good condition. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £250, with 55½ acres of glebe and residence in the gift of the Bishop of Manchester, and held since 1876 by the Rev’d Frederick Goode-Slight B.A. of St John's College Cambridge. The gross yearly value of the living was increased in 1875 from £118 to £300 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who have also bought the premises formerly used as a free school and have converted them into a vicarage house. The Baptists, Primitive Methodists and Wesleyans have each a chapel.


The cemetery of one acre was formed in 1879 at a cost of £300: it has a lych gate but no chapel, and is under the control of a burial board, consisting of five members. The poor have £3 10s yearly. The people are employed in framework knitting. Bricks are made here. This was a Roman settlement. Woodborough Hall, the seat of Mansfield Parkyns Esq. M.A. is a very ancient mansion, situated on a pleasant lawn at the extreme end of the village. The Ecclesiastical commissioners are lords of the manor. Principal landowners are Roby Liddington Thorpe Esq. of the Manor House, Charles Seely Esq. D.L., J.P. of Sherwood Lodge, Arnold. Mansfield Parkyns Esq. M.A. of the Hall, Charles Shaw Esq. and Robert Howett Esq., the last is proprietor of the large racehorse breeding and training establishment in the village, where there are between 70 and 80 racehorses. The soil is clay and sand; subsoil clay and sand. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans and peas. The area is 1940 acres: rateable value is £4017: The population in 1881 was 889. Woodborough Dumble is 2½ miles west.

Parish clerk, Joseph Richardson.

Post Office - John Foster, Postmaster. Letters arrive through Nottingham at 7.35 a.m.: despatched at 6.15 p.m.

The nearest Money Order Office is at Epperstone and telegraph office at Lowdham.

Endowed School, built in 1878 at a rent of £1600 for 300 children: average attendance 150. The school has an income of £90 yearly, left by the Rev. M. Wood in 1706 with house for the master, Frederick Housley, Master.


Carriers to Nottingham - William Ashmore and James Dunthorne, Wednesdays and Saturdays.



Howett, Robert - the Manor House

James, Henry

Parkyns, Mansfield - Woodborough Hall

Slight, Rev’d Frederick Goode, M.A., Vicar

Thorpe, Roby Liddington  - Manor House, commercial


Alvey, Charlotte (Mrs) - market gardener

Ashmore, William - New Inn

Baguley, John - shoemaker

Baguley, Joseph - shoemaker

Bish, Herbert - bag hosier

Bish, John - market gardener

Brett, Edward - valuer

Brown, Henry - farm bailiff to Mr G.W. Collyer

Cemetery (F. Housley, Clerk in the Burial Board)

Chantrey, George - farmer

Clay, William - market gardener

Cook, John - bootmaker

Co-operative Stores Limited (John Clayton, salesman)

Donnelly, Mark - framesmith

Dring, George - farmer

Dring, Henry - bag hosier

Dring, James - bag hosier

Dunthorne, James - farmer and carrier

Flinders, William Thorpe - farmer

Footit, George - market gardener

Foster, John - shopkeeper

Hancock, John - grazier

Hartshorn, Francis - market gardener

Hartshorn, John - butcher

Hill, William - brick & tile maker (and at Saxondale)

Hogg, William Junior - Nag's Head

Howett, Robert - farmer, landowner & racehorse breeder

Lamin, William - farm bailiff to Mansfield Parkyns Esq.

Leafe, Joseph - beer retailer

Marriott, Joseph - shopkeeper

Middup, William - farmer

North, John - coal dealer

North, William - shopkeeper

Orange, David - shopkeeper

Orme, William - blacksmith

Patching, William - bricklayer

Pollard, John - tailor

Poole, John - farm bailiff to Colonel C. Seely

Poole, Joseph - farmer

Rawson, John - farm bailiff to C. Shaw Esq.

Reavill, Emma (Mrs) - Four Bells

Richardson, Ann (Mrs) - shopkeeper

Richardson, Arthur - bag hosier

Richardson, John - shopkeeper

Richardson, Mark - butcher

Robinson, Edward - bag hosier

Robinson, William - shopkeeper

Roe, John - market gardener

Southern, William - market gardener

Southern, James - farmer

Taylor & Dixon - machine owners

Thorpe, Roby Liddington - farmer, Manor House.

Tomlinson, Martha (Mrs) - butcher

Turner, Charles - coal dealer

Turner, Eliza (Mrs) - shopkeeper

Vasey, Henry - trainer for Robert Howett Esq

Ward, Richard - wheelwright

Whitworth, William Surplice, Punch Bowl.

Whysall, German - gamekeeper to Robert Howett Esq.

Wood, Thomas - farmer

Woodborough Co-operative - Land & Building Society Ltd, John Richardson - assistant sec.

 

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