This article possibly contains original research .(July 2020) |
Norwell | |
---|---|
Location within Nottinghamshire | |
Population | 490 [1] |
OS grid reference | SK7761 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Newark |
Postcode district | NG23 |
Dialling code | 01636 |
Police | Nottinghamshire |
Fire | Nottinghamshire |
Ambulance | East Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Norwell is a village and parish about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Newark-on-Trent, in central Nottinghamshire, England. The population (including Norwell Woodhouse) at the 2011 census was 490. It is close to the border with Lincolnshire and the River Trent, and lies approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the A1 road and 1 mile (1.6 km) from the East Coast Main Line.
"Nortwelle" [3] is mentioned in Domesday Book (1086); it had a church, a priest and a watermill. The parish consists of Norwell, Norwell Woodhouse, and the now deserted village of Willoughby. For nearly a thousand years the parish of Norwell was owned by the church. Rents from land and houses were used to finance three canons (or prebendaries) of Southwell. The canons were the principal landlords and lived in moated manor houses: Overhall, Palishall and Tertia Pars. In the Middle Ages some prebendaries were national figures, such as Robert de Wodehouse (died 1346) who became treasurer of England.
In other respects Norwell was a typical farming community. Traces of the medieval open fields, with their ridge and furrow, may still be seen. Major changes followed parliamentary enclosure (1832) when the land was divided into small fields. Many small farms, possibly 28, were established, some in the village centre and others in outlying fields. Today there are a few large farms and no working farms in the village centre. Some old farmyards in the village like Church, Willoughby and Hill farms have been developed for new homes.
19th century Norwell was almost self-sufficient. Blacksmiths, wheelwrights, stonemasons, and builders were often grouped together in yards leading off the main street. There were two windmills, two steam mills and a watermill. For a time Norwell had its own brickworks. Personal needs were met by General stores, bakers and butchers, shoemakers and a tailor. There were at least three public houses; The Black Horse, The Crown (later The Elephant and Castle) and The Plough. Norwell has had a school since 1727.
The medieval church of St Laurence is Grade 1 listed and has features from the 12th to the 20th century. Almost all of the buildings are of red brick with pantiles. There are many timber framed buildings originally with mud and stud between the timbers. Most are now entirely encased in brick but the timber can still be seen internally. There are a few striking 19th century houses, most of which were built by Henry Clipsham, the Norwell builder who also restored the Church. A windmill and distinctive circular pinfold can still be seen.
The population of the parish is about 450, much as it was around 1250 and 1700. It reached its peak in the 1860s when it was nearly 800.[ citation needed ]
The first church in Norwell was almost certainly a wooden one, probably erected as a chapel attached to an Anglo-Saxon manor house standing on or near where a later moated manor house was built, immediately to the south of the present church. This may have been the church, with its priest, mentioned in Domesday, but no traces of that chapel or church remain. Shortly after 1100 it was certainly replaced by a small rectangular building like that surviving at Littleborough, Nottinghamshire. Fragmented masonry associated with this first stone church has been identified in the north aisle.
During the 12th and 13th centuries other traces were lost through major work creating the church we now see. Around 1180–1200, the south aisle was added and the south door moved to its present position. A tower with three storeys was built shortly after 1200 and by 1250 the north aisle was added. A further expansion took place around 1300, partly paid for by a legacy from Mr John Clarell, prebendary of Overhall (d.1295). The north and south transepts were added, the Chancel lengthened and, a few years later, the south porch built. Finally between about 1450 and 1500, the nave was heightened with a clerestory (a row of flat-headed windows) inserted, the transepts and Chancel were re-roofed and a fourth storey with battlements an gargoyles added to the tower. The 19th century, largely sympathetic, restoration (Chancel, 1857-8, rest of church, 1872-5) by Ewan Christian faithfully preserves St Laurence's medieval appearance. The only major structural change was that Christian restored the Chancel to its 13th century form by removing the low pitched roof that was part of the 15th century refurbishment.
Evidence from the church shows the wide variety of stone available in medieval Norwell. Much of the building is constructed in skerry, a form of pale grey sandstone, quarried locally at Tuxford, Laxton, Kneesall and Maplebeck. Magnesium limestone was brought from Mansfield and other limestone came from Ancaster in Lincolnshire, whilst local lias from Collingham and a light porous tufa, which outcrops in The Beck between Norwell and Caunton, has been identified. For high-quality monuments like tombs and effigies stone was sometimes imported over much longer distances like the Purbeck marble and Caen stone also present.
The Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on land donated by Revd W.Sturtevant in 1827. In 1843 this chapel was bought by the Wesleyans, who re-opened it on 6 November. This flourished and was enlarged in 1909, with a school room built by Henry Clipsham & Sons at a cost of £337. It became a private house in 1991.
Three school buildings still stand in School Lane. The charity school, a Grade II listed building, has been sold, thoroughly restored to maintain many original features and is in private ownership. Since 1966 the Victorian School has been used as a youth centre and, currently, by Norwell scouts, still fulfilling the original charity requirement that it was for the benefit of the young of Norwell. It is showing its age and will require restoration work to keep it in good order. The modern school continues to change and extra rooms have been added in response to evolving requirements for the education of young children.
Material is reproduced with permission of Norwell Parish Heritage Group.
The village pinfold or pound is located on Bathley Lane (west side) close to its junction with Main Street and Woodhouse Road. The 18th century circular structure is of brick with half round ashlar copings with a pair of square gate pillars with ashlar capitals. The wooden gate is 20th century. The pinfold is approximately 10m (33') in diameter and is reputedly the largest round pinfold in the county (Nottinghamshire).
The structure is Grade II listed by Historic England (listing number 1045950). [8]
An attached plaque carries the inscription:
A date stone suggests that Norwell's tower windmill, in Main Street, was built in 1852. It is a five-storey brick tower, standing 43' (13.5m) high to the curb, with Yorkshire sliding windows. The cap was a typical ogee shape and probably originally covered in iron plates. There were three pairs of millstones on the first floor, overdriven by a wooden upright shaft in wooden bearings. The stones could be disengaged by means of elm glut boxes (glut box timbers have a slot cut in them to allow the top of the quant (the vertical shaft) to be removed, enabling the stone nuts (pinions), and hence the millstone to be disengaged from the great spur wheel).
The mill had four sails which used the Cubitt patent system of a striking lever to the rear so that the shutters could be furled by only removing the weight from the chain to the striking lever. It was winded by a fantail which served to turn the main sails of the mill automatically into the wind.
On the ground floor there was a hurst frame supporting two pairs of stones which were driven by a layshaft from a steam engine and later a mobile oil engine. A layshaft to the mill, the bearing stone block and cast iron boxes for the bearings were present in 1977.
A 1910 description, which was part of a national survey to establish a new property tax, states that the Mill House was in good repair, with two living rooms, kitchen, dairy, and three bedrooms. Outside there was a coal house, an outside privy, a stable (with two stalls), chaff house, cart shed, bake house, engine shed (wood, iron), and a mill powered by steam and wind in good repair. The whole property was assessed at a market value of £480 of which buildings accounted for £420.
Plans to restore the Tower Mill have failed and Planning permission has been granted to convert the building into a dwelling integrated into the existing 1970’s bungalow alongside.
Norwell roads including Main Street, Carlton Road, Ossington Road, Bathley Lane and Woodhouse Road are unclassified. The speed limit through the village is 30 mph with an advisory 20 mph along part of Main Street due to the proximity of the school.
The A1 Trunk Road (Cromwell Bypass) passes the parish approximately 1.5 miles to the east of Norwell. Although not within the parish it is of interest that Cromwell Bypass was the location of highly collaborative trials of the slip-form paver in 1964/65. [9] The first such machine to be brought into the UK was used to trial the laying of unreinforced and reinforced concrete carriageways with dowelled contraction and expansion joints. The surface has now been rebuilt using tarmac (asphalt concrete). The A616 road passes approximately 2 miles to the west of Norwell.
The East Coast Main Line crosses the east of the parish in an approximately north/south direction, passing approximately 1 mile to the east of the village itself.
The nearest railway stations are in Newark-on-Trent, seven miles to the south-east. Newark North Gate is located on the East Coast Main Line, between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, and Newark Castle is located on the Nottingham to Lincoln line.
Pleasley is a village and civil parish with parts in both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. It lies between Chesterfield and Mansfield, 5 miles (8 km) south east of Bolsover, Derbyshire, England and 2.5 miles (4 km) north west of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The River Meden, which forms the county boundary in this area, runs through the village.
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Dronfield is a town in North East Derbyshire, England, which includes Dronfield Woodhouse and Coal Aston. It lies in the valley of the River Drone between Chesterfield and Sheffield. The Peak District National Park is three miles (4.8 km) to the west. The name comes from the Old English Dranfleld, probably meaning an open land infested with drone bees.
Meanwood is a suburb and former village in north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
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Ossington is a village in the county of Nottinghamshire, England 7 miles north of Newark-on-Trent. It is in the civil parish of Ossington, but for census purposes its population count is included with the civil parishes of Ompton and Laxton and Moorhouse. It was centred on Ossington Hall, the ancestral home of the Denison family, but the house was demolished in 1964 and all that remains are a few outbuildings and a private chapel that now serves the parish as Holy Rood Church, Ossington. This is a Grade I listed building, originally 12th century and rebuilt in 1782–1783 by the architect John Carr, with minor 19th-century alterations and additions. It includes earlier monuments and stained glass. There is a barrel organ built by Thomas Robson in 1840.
Kinoulton is a village, civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in Nottinghamshire, England, 10 miles (16 km) south east of the city of Nottingham. It is probably Saxon in origin, and once had a brick-making industry. It is close to the A46 road, and has a population of about 1,000.
St. Laurence Church, Norwell is a parish church in the Church of England in Norwell, Nottinghamshire.
Holy Rood Church, Ossington is a parish church in the Church of England in Ossington, Nottinghamshire.
St. Giles' Church, Cromwell is a parish church in the Church of England in Cromwell, Nottinghamshire.
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Moorhouse Chantry Chapel is a Grade II* listed Church of England chapel in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham at Moorhouse, within the Laxton and Moorhouse civil parish, Nottinghamshire.
Norwell Woodhouse is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Norwell, in the Newark and Sherwood district, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. It is close to the villages of Caunton, Kneesall, Cromwell and Laxton and around 8 miles (13 km) from Newark-on-Trent. In 1931 the parish had a population of 69.
The Church of St Edmund is on Old Manor Road, Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, England. It is an active Church of England parish church in the deanery of Mansfield, the Archdeaconry of Newark, and the Southwell and Nottingham diocese. Its benefice has two churches, St Edmund’s is the main parish church, also the Church of St Chad, Pleasley Vale. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
Moorhouse or Laxton Moorhouse is a hamlet within the Laxton and Moorhouse parish, in the Newark and Sherwood district of central Nottinghamshire, England.
Media related to Norwell, Nottinghamshire at Wikimedia Commons
Community website http://norwell-online.org.uk