Woodborough’s Heritage

Woodborough, a Sherwood Forest Village, recorded in Domesday



White’s Directory 1894

Woodborough is a parish and large straggling village, in a narrow dale near the Dover Beck, 8 miles north east by north of Nottingham. The parish is in Basford union, Nottingham county court and bankruptcy court district, Thurgarton wapentake, Nottingham petty sessional division, Gedling rural deanery, Nottingham archdeaconry, and Southwell diocese. It had 768 inhabitants in 1861, and comprises 1046 acres of land: the rateable value is £4073. The school was endowed in 1736, when 252 acres were allocated to the three prebendaries of Oxton and Woodborough - 66a. 1r. 1p. to William Taylor Esq. and 53a. 3r. 11p. to the late John Bainbridge Story Esq., in lieu of the great tithes and their manorial claims, they being both impropriators and lords of the manor, which is now in three divisions, called the Prebendal, the Copyhold and the Freehold estates. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are lords of the manor, and Mansfield Parkyns, Esq., George Kirkland, Esq., William Lamb Huskinson, Esq., Colonel Seely, M.P., William Bradshaw, Esq., and Roby Thorpe, Esq., are the principal owners. The Hall was anciently the residence of the Strelleys and Bainbridges, and is now the seat and property of Mansfield Parkyns, Esq., The Church (St Swithin) is a large structure consisting of nave, with aisles, chancel, and tower with four bells and clock. In the chancel, which is very large, is a fine sedilia, an aumbry, and piscina. The church contains some very fine fragments of ancient glass in its windows, which, when perfect, were exceedingly beautiful. It has been largely restored at a cost of about £1500 raised by subscription, towards which Colonel Seely, M.P., contributed £500 to restore the chancel. Discoveries made show that a Norman church formerly stood on the same site, the only relic of which is an arch built into the wall of the north aisle. The Register dates from 1547. It is a vicarage, value £250, with residence and 55 acres of glebe. The Bishop of Manchester is the patron, and the Rev’d W.E. Buckland, M.A., is the vicar. The Baptists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists have each a chapel here. There is a small cemetery with a mortuary chapel and lych gate. The Free School, founded by the Rev’d Montague Wood in 1736, now possesses a yearly income of £90, arising from a farm of 61 acres at Blidworth, and 7a. 3r. 31p. of land at Stapleford. The poor have 20s.; and 20s. yearly is paid to the master for teaching ten boys and girls to sing psalms, and interest of £40 from the bequest of William Edge in 1796.


The Feast is held on the Sunday after the 2nd July.

Post Office at John Foster's. Letters arrive at 7.15 a.m., and are despatched at 6.15 p.m. to Nottingham. Epperstone is the nearest Money Order Office; Lowdham and Arnold are the nearest Telegraph Office.



Allcock, Tom - grocer

Allison, William - victualler, Punch Bowl

Alvery, Mrs Charlotte - cottager

Ashmore, George - carrier

Bagguley, John - boot maker

Bagguley, Joseph - boot maker

Bentley, Robert - farm bailiff, Park Farm

Biggs, George - Endowed School master

Bish, Herbert - cottager

Bish, John - cottager and market gardener


Brown, Henry - farm bailiff

Buckland, Rev’d Walter E. MA - vicar, the Vicarage

Burnett, Arthur - farmer and shire horse breeder

Burton, John E. - victualler, New Inn

Clayton, John - framework maker

Clayton, Joseph - market gardener

Collyer, George -farmer

Co-operative Society (**) - grocers & drapers; Joseph Bagguley Junior, manager

Donnelly, Mark - framesmith

Dring, George - cottager

Dring, Henry - bag hosier and market gardener

Dring, James - bag hosier and cottager

Dunthorne, John - carrier

Flinders, Mrs Betsy - farmer

Footitt, George - cottager

Foster, John - grocer, draper, market gardener & postmaster

Hancock, John - farmer

Hartshorne, Francis - farmer

Henry, Frederick - farmer, Nether House

Hogg, William - cottager

Hogg, William junior - joiner, builder, & victualler, Nags Head

Holmes, Miss Charlotta, Endowed School mistress

Kelk, John - farmer

Kelk, John ? - Cottager

Lamin, William - farm bailiff, Hall Farm

Leafe, Joseph - beer house

Mackie, John - surgeon; h Lowdham

Marriott, Joseph - shopkeeper

Mellors, Thomas - baker

North, John - coal dealer

North, William - grocer

Orme, William - blacksmith & wheelwright

Page & Ashmoor, horsebreakers

Parkyns, Mr Mansfield - the Hall

Patching, William - bricklayer

Plumb, Joseph - cottager

Pollard, John - tailor and assistant overseer

Poole, Joseph - farmer

Richardson, Mrs Ann - shopkeeper

Richardson, Arthur - bag hosier

Richardson, John - grocer

Richardson, Joseph - parish clerk

Richardson, Mark - butcher

Richardson, Mrs Selina - dressmaker

Richardson, William - shopkeeper

Robinson, Edward - bag hosier

Robinson, William - shopkeeper

Roe, John - cottager

Small, James - market gardener

Southern, William - cottager

Stevenson, Mrs Ann - dressmaker

Stevenson, James - farmer, Stoup Hill Farm

Stocks, Thomas - farmer, Wood Farm

Taylor, William - threshing machine owner & victualler, Four Bells

Thurman, John - farmer

Tomlinson, Mrs Martha - butcher

Turtle, John - farmer

Ward, Richard - wheelwright & blacksmith

White, John - market gardener

Wild, Mrs Susan - cottager

Carriers - George Ashmore & John Dunthorne to Nottingham, Wednesdays & Saturdays.

Railway - Lowdham is the nearest station.


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