Woodborough’s Heritage

Woodborough, a Sherwood Forest Village, recorded in Domesday

Kelly’s Directory 1928

Woodborough is a parish and large straggling village 3½ miles north-west from Lowdham station on the Nottingham and Lincoln line of the London Midland and Scottish Railway and 7½ north-north-east from Nottingham, in the Broxtowe division of the county, wapentake of Thurgarton, Basford union. Nottingham petty sessional division and county court district, rural deanery of Gedling, archdeaconry of Nottingham and diocese of Southwell. The church of St Swithun is an edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a low embattled western tower with four pinnacles and containing 4 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 and 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 east window is of stained glass, and also one in the south chancel, this latter having been erected in 1920 as a war memorial: the font is Norman: the church contains an interesting mediæval veil hook, and an ancient altar table given by a Recorder of Newark to celebrate the end of the Civil War: the church plate includes a chalice and alms-dish, dated 1676, and a flagon of 1802: the church was restored during the period 1891-97, at a cost of £2600 and affords 200 sittings. In the churchyard, which is now closed for burials, is a cross of Cornish granite, erected by local subscription, in memory of the men connected with the parish who fell in the Great War 1914-18.

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 £300, and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Southwell, and held since 1919 by the Rev’d Myles Atkinson M.A. of St John's College, Cambridge. The Baptist Chapel built in 1832, has 200 sittings and there are Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels. A cemetery of 1 acre was formed in 1879 at a cost of £300, which has a lych gate but no chapel. The poor have £2 13s. yearly. The people are employed in the framework knitting, surgical hosiery, ties and shawls. Woodborough was a Roman settlement. Woodborough Hall, the seat of Herbert A. Dowson Esq., is a very ancient mansion standing on a pleasant lawn at the extreme end of the village. The ecclesiastical commissioners are Lords of the Manor. The principal landowners are Lady Charnwood, the Trustees of the late Lt-Col. F.E. Seely TD. JL.JP. and Charles Ernest Foster Esq. The soil is clay and sand; subsoil, clay and sand. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans and peas; plums and strawberries are also largely grown. The area is 1945 acres; the population in 1921 was 682.

Parish Clerk, Charles Wright.

Post & Telephone call office. Letters arrive through Nottingham. Epperstone is the nearest M.O. & T. office.

Carrier to Nottingham - John Leafe, Wednesdays & Saturdays.

An omnibus service between Nottingham and Epperstone passes through here daily at frequent intervals.

Private residents

(for T.N's read telephone numbers).

Atkinson Rev’d Myles M.A. (Vicar) - Vicarage

Blagg Charles - The Woodlands

Dowson Hubert A. - Woodborough Hall

Foster Charles Ernest - Woodborough Manor

Paulson Frederick - Thorneywood House

Commercial

(Marked thus º  farm 150 acres or over)

Alvey Joseph - boot repairer

Baggaley Tom - farmer, Old Manor Farm

Bailey George - farmer, Bank Farm

Ball John Thomas - grocer

Binch Herbert - market gardener

Bish Herbert - farmer

Blackmore A. & Co. - merchants T.N. 19

Bruce Mary Mrs - grocer

Burton Albert Edward - market gardener, T.N. 15

Butler Thomas L - farmer, Mill Farm

Cemetery (Joseph Clayton - Clerk)

Chettle William - market gardener, Rosedene.

Cook Joseph - market gardener

Desborough Walter - hand knitted tie, scarf & hosiery manufacturer, T.N. 20.

Dring Ann Mrs - farmer, Shelt Hill Farm

Dunthorne Arthur - market gardener

Dunthorne Frank - smallholder

Foster Arthur Evelyn - market gardener, T.N.30

º Foster Charles Ernest - farmer & chairman of the Parish Council, Woodborough Manor, T.N. 7

Foster James - market gardener

Foster John Herbert - shopkeeper Post Office

Glover Thomas & Sons Ltd., - surgical hosiers, T.N. 14

Hallam Wallace - farmer, Home Farm

Hogg William - joiner

Inger Phyllis M. (Mrs) - fried fish shop

Joy W.J. & Son - market gardeners

Kelk Bertie - boot repairer

Kelk Louis - smallholder

Kirkham Allan - farmer Bank Farm

Leafe John - carrier

Marriott Harriet (Miss) - shopkeeper

Mawbey Frederick Harris - pianoforte tuner

Nurcombe Harold Edgar - wheelwright

Nurcombe Thomas Arthur - joiner

Parker William Henry - butcher, T.N.10

Poole Charles Ernest - farm bailiff to John Poole Esq. Park Farm

Raynor Arron Hardy - dentist (attends Thursday 3-5 p.m.)

Richardson Joseph - gardener to Hubert A. Dowson Esq.,

Roe Samuel - market gardener

Savidge Sidney Charles - carpenter

Shaw Arthur - Nag's Head Public House

Sneath Frederick - newsagent

Spencer David - market gardener & rate collector

Stanfield Albert Victor - farmer, Woodborough Wood

º Stanfield Samuel - farmer Stoup Hill Farm

Stevenson Joseph - cow keeper

Sutton John - farmer

Taylor William - smallholder

Turtle John - farmer

Ward Herbert - market gardener

Wheatley Ethel Miriam (Miss) - poultry farmer

Woodborough Industrial & Provident Society Ltd (William Chamberlain, manager)

Worthington Jim - Four Bells Inn

Wright Charles - newsagent & parish clerk