The old Norse word for 'clean' was hreinn with 'wath' meaning ford.
Another theory is that in the year c. 616 AD, the Saxon king of East Anglia, Rædwald, stayed at the site prior to Battle of the River Idle against Ethelfrith, King of Mercia. During the battle, Rædwald's son, Regehere, was slain, and from that day, the area was known as Regehere's Wath (Wath being a ford or crossing point over a river).
Over the years, many changes in the spelling of the name have been recorded, becoming Reynwath by 1268, then Raynwath, and further adapted to the present day name of Rainworth.[2]
Locally, some pronounce the modern day spelling as 'Renneth'.[3]
Rainworth started as a settlement close to a Roman road that went through Mansfield and Newark, and provided access to the coalfields of Derbyshire for the Roman settlements in the area to the east of Nottinghamshire. The sheltered location and access to clean water from Rainworth Water, meant that the area was often used by travelling Romans as a camp site.
In the year c. 616 AD, a mighty Saxon warrior, Rædwald, stayed at the site prior to a battle with Ethelfrith, King of Mercia. During the battle, Rædwald's son, Regehere, was killed, and from that day, the area was known as Regehere's Wath, and has been further adapted to the present day spelling of Rainworth.
Rainworth Lodge was first built in 1190 as a hunting lodge. Rufus Clarke lived there in 1212 and was with King John's hunting parties in the forest. Little more is known about the village until the 16th century, when it is recorded that it was a peaceful hamlet with 13 dwellings:
Three Thorn Hollow Farm;
Six houses in the Old Square known as Ramsden Croft;
The original Robin Hood Inn, then named the Sherwood Inn;
The toll house, nicknamed The Inkpot; and
Fve houses on the road leading to Mansfield.
The people who lived in Rainworth were farmers or nurserymen.
Until the opening of the railway line linking Mansfield to Southwell in 1871 there was no public transport and the only way to get from place to place was to walk. In 1879 an elm tree, later to be called the `Tree of Knowledge` was planted on the village green in front of the Robin Hood Inn. It became a favourite place for people to meet and talk. The tree eventually had to be cut down in 1962 when it became diseased. In 1890 Rainworth's first church, a wooden building was built. However it was later replaced by a brick building which was opened on the festival day of St Simon and St Jude in 1939.
The building of the pumping station in 1895 meant that householders no longer had to get their water from wells and springs but from the pump outside the Robin Hood Inn. In 1911, two mineshafts were sunk marking the start of work at Rufford Colliery. Only two years later the colliery suffered its worst pit disaster when 13 men were killed in an accident. As the pit prospered so the need for housing grew and new housing was built along Kirklington Road. In 1914 the first primary school to be built in Rainworth, Heathlands, was opened. Python Hill School followed in 1924. It was not until 1963 that Joseph Whitaker School opened and Rainworth had its own secondary school.[4] The school is named after the naturalist Joseph Whitaker, who lived for most of his life at Rainworth Lodge[4][5] on Blidworth Lane.
As well as growth, Rainworth has also seen decline. The local railway service was stopped and the railway station closed in 1965. Also along with many other pits in the area, Rufford Colliery stopped producing coal in 1993. The colliery provided housing for approximately 400 families and leisure facilities such as a football ground and lido (which was in disuse by the end of the war), along with the Miners' Welfare. After over 80 years of service Rufford Colliery closed in 1993. Plans were drafted and planning applications submitted from 2006 onwards for the development of a waste incinerator on the colliery site, but eventually these proposals were withdrawn after much local public resistance (see Rufford Colliery#After mining). The site has now been restored to provide a natural woodland habitat.[6]
The Miners' Welfare remains open, and has subsequent affiliations with the local football team and bowls club. In 1951, 40 council house had been completed, located on Kirklington Road, just beyond Python Hill School. A large housing estate was built in the 1950s, between Station Road and Warsop Lane (the Wimpey estate) and a further estate was built beyond the original council estate on Kirklington Road, sometime after 1965. This estate was built to accommodate families moved from mines in North East England – the estate became known as the Geordie Estate.
In 1975 killer Donald Neilson (the Black Panther) was caught by police officers helped by locals at the chip shop on Southwell Road East in the village.
Demographics
The population for the civil parish of Rainworth was 6,532 at the 2001 census and the population for the Mansfield 012A (Rainworth) area was 1,289, which means a combined population of 7,821.
98% of Rainworth residents were White British. 153 people were from an ethnic minority.
For the civil parish area, there were 7,058 residents reported for the 2021 census.[8]
Governance
The Newark and Sherwood part of Rainworth is a parish in its own right, while the Mansfield part is unparished.
Rainworth is part of Newark and Sherwood and Mansfield councils with the border being near the bridge over Rainworth Water on Southwell Road East. The Mansfield area is part of the Ransom Wood ward and is represented by Labour's John Smart.
In the 2019 local elections to the Newark and Sherwood District Council (NSDC) – the Rainworth North & Rufford ward was won for the Conservatives. Dr Louis Brailsford and Tom Smith represented the ward from 2019-2023.
In 2023, Linda Tift and Claire Penny re-gained the ward for the Labour Party.
In the 2021 Nottinghamshire County Council elections, the Rainworth and Blidworth County Division was also won by Tom Smith for the Conservatives.
Lake View Primary School is attached to Joseph Whitaker School.
Python Hill Junior and Infant School was an all ages to 15 school until the building of Joseph Whitaker School.
Heathlands Primary School was built on a temporary basis at the start of the First World War on Southwell Road East but lasted until 2004 when a replacement was built on a nearby site in the village.
Dawn House School, a private school for children with speech and language difficulties, is also located in the village.
Health
Rainworth lies in the Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation NHS trust area. Rainworth has its own GPs' surgery called Rainworth Primary Care Centre.[9] The King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield is the area's local hospital.[10] It has an Accident and Emergency Department. Out of hours GP services are also based at King's Mill.
Culture and recreation
Referred to as the childhood home of the orphaned Mrs Holroyd in The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd by D. H. Lawrence.
Pubs in Rainworth are the Lurcher on Westbrook Drive, Sherwood Inn on Kirklington Road, the Archer on Warsop Lane and the Robin Hood Inn on Southwell Road East (now a Tesco store) near the Co-op. There are no public houses in the Mansfield side of Rainworth.
Across from the Tesco on Kirklington Road is The Venue, a snooker club in the same building that used to house the old village cinema.
Rainworth has a five turbine wind farm called Lindhurst Wind Farm which was built in 2010, the wind farm was controversial at the time of building.[11]
This wind farm is on Newark and Sherwood Land in the nearby parish of Lindhurst, but is built within 400 m of the Mansfield District Council part of the village who had no direct say in the planning.
Transport
The main road running through Rainworth is the B6020Southwell Road East. The A617 dual-carriageway bypasses the village to the north; it opened in 2000.
Nottinghamshire is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county borders South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Nottingham (323,632), which is also the county town.
Edwinstowe is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England, on the edge of Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries. It is associated with the legends of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and to a lesser extent Edwin of Northumbria, from where the village gets its name. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 5,188. A 2019 estimate put it at 5,261, and was 5,320 at the 2021 census.
Newark and Sherwood is a local government district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest district by area in the county. The council is based in Newark-on-Trent, the area's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Southwell and Ollerton along with a large rural area containing many villages. Much of the district lies within the ancient Sherwood Forest and there are also extensive forestry plantations in the area.
Sherwood Forest is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Michelle Welsh, of the Labour Party. The constituency's name is shared with Sherwood Forest, which is in the area.
Ravenshead is a large village and civil parish in the Gedling district of Nottinghamshire, England. It borders Papplewick, Newstead Abbey and Blidworth, and is part of Nottinghamshire's Hidden Valleys area. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 5,636, reducing marginally to 5,629 at the 2011 census, but increasing to 5,891 at the 2021 census.
Bilsthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 3,076, increasing to 3,375 at the 2011 census, and dropping slightly to 3,365 at the 2021 census. It is located near the junction of the A614 and A617, around five miles south of Ollerton, nine miles east of Mansfield and six miles north-west of Southwell.
The A617 road runs through the northern East Midlands, England, between Newark-on-Trent and Chesterfield.
Kirklington is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England. The population as of the 2011 census was 400, falling to 388 at the 2021 census. Kirklington lies on the A617 road between Newark and Mansfield.
Rainworth Water is a watercourse that is a tributary of the River Maun near Rainworth, Nottinghamshire, England. It is characterised by a number of lakes, including that which forms part of the country park at Rufford Abbey. L Lake at Rainworth forms part of the Rainworth Lakes Site of Special Scientific Interest. There are two designated Local Nature Reserves along its length, one of which is also known by the name Rainworth Water. The Rainworth Water LNR is owned and managed by Nottinghamshire County Council.
Blidworth and Rainworth railway station served the villages of Blidworth and Rainworth in Nottinghamshire, England; it was a stop on the Midland Railway's Rolleston Junction to Mansfield line.
Lindhurst is a civil parish and hamlet in the Newark and Sherwood district, is 120 miles (190 km) north west of London, 11 miles (18 km) north of Nottingham the county town, and 3 miles (4.8 km) south east of Mansfield, the nearest market town and bordering its district border. It sits within western Nottinghamshire county, England.
Kings Clipstone is a settlement and civil parish, in the Newark and Sherwood district, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. The parish lies in the west of the county, and north west within the district. It is 122 miles north of London, 15 miles north of the city of Nottingham, and 5 miles north east of the market town of Mansfield. In the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 312. The parish touches Clipstone village, Edwinstowe, Rufford and Warsop. The parish was formerly part of the wider Clipstone parish, on 1 April 2011 it became a separate parish. The area is within Sherwood Forest, well known for the Robin Hood legend.
Bilsthorpe Moor is a hamlet in the civil parish of Bilsthorpe, in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England. It is 120 miles north of London, 13 miles north east of the city of Nottingham, five miles south of Ollerton and close to the junction of the A614 and A617 roads.
Warsop Vale is a village in the Mansfield district of western Nottinghamshire, England. It is 18 miles (29 km) north of Nottingham, and 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Mansfield. It is in the civil parish of Warsop. Warsop Vale's heritage is primarily as a former mining village. It lies in the very picturesque area known as the Dukeries and is easily accessible to Clumber Park, Thoresby Park and hall, Rufford Park and the Earl of Portland estate of Welbeck, together all part of Sherwood Forest.
The 2022–23 season was the 116th in the history of the United Counties League, a football competition in England. The league operated three divisions in the English football league system, the Premier Divisions North and South at Step 5 and Division One at Step 6.
The Rolleston Junction to Mansfield line was a railway line in Nottinghamshire, England linking the village of Rolleston with Mansfield. Whilst parts of the line date back to 1847, it was opened throughout in 1871 by the Midland Railway; by the 1920s, the dominant traffic was to the collieries east of Mansfield. Through passenger services ceased in 1929 and the line was closed completely in 1983.
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