Norton
Cuckney
WHITE'S DIRECTORY 1832
CUCKNEY PARISH Extends eastwards from the vicinity of Creswell Crags in Derbyshire, to near Thoresby Park , and is bounded on the north by Welbeck, and on the south by Church Warsop. It is watered by the River Poulter, on which are two large cotton mills and containing 267 houses, 1648 inhabitants and 5284 acres of good forest land, all enclosed, but partly in plantations and extensive pastures. It is divided into four townships, of which the following is an enumeration , with the population and extent of each:- |
Townships |
Houses |
Persons |
Acres |
Cuckney |
93 |
633 |
1095 |
Holbeck |
46 |
244 |
1718 |
Langwith |
66 |
437 |
1295 |
Norton |
62 |
334 |
1297 |
CUCKNEY is a considerable village on the small river called the Poulter, 5 miles S. by W of Worksop. Here are two large mills for spinning cotton and grinding corn, and also the ruins of a cotton mill which was burnt down in 1792. Throsby, who wrote in 1796, says, "Here are children from the foundling hospital, London, who are employed at the cotton and worsted mills, under the care of superintendents; boys under one roof and girls under another;" But this is not the case now, the poor parishioners having sufficient children to watch the mill machinery. The church, which is a large ancient structure with a handsome tower, was re-pewed, new-roofed and thoroughly repaired in 1831, when a number of free seats were provided. Towards this necessary reparation, the Duke of Portland and Earl Bathurst, each gave £100, and the Society for Building Churches, £50. The vicarage is valued in the Kings books at £9.8s.6 1/2d. The Rev. Edward Palling B.A. is the incumbent, and Earl Manvers the Patron, but Earl Bathurst is owner of the soil and Lord of the Manor of Cuckney, which was held by Sweyn the Saxon, and after the Conquest given in fee to Hugh Fitz-Baldric and Joceus de Flemangh, except two carucates, which Gamelbere, an old Saxon Knight, was allowed to retain for the service of shoeing the King's Palfrey, "as oft as he should lie at the manor of Mansfield". A great part of this parish was given by Sir Henry de Fawkenburg and others to the monks of Welbeck. In Cuckney township are extensive farms called Mount Pleasant, Park House and Shireoak Hill. The great tithes of the whole parish belong to the owners of the different manors, and are included in the rents of the farms, but vicarial tithes are paid by the tenants in money. |
HOLBECK, or HOWBECK township, is the largest and most thinly populated division of the parish. It contains five small hamlets, called Holbeck, Bonbusk, Woodhouse, Woodend, and a few scattered farmsteads lying at the west end of the parish, from 4 to 5 miles S.S.W. of Worksop, one of which is Collingthwaite, where there is a corn mill. It is all the property of the Duke of Portland, who in 1810, obtained it from Earl Manvers in exchange for the part of the forest called Bilhagh. At Woodhouse is a small Catholic chapel, established by the Rev. John Tristram, and now visited monthly by a priest from Spink-Hill, near Eckington. |
LANGWITH is a romantic village and township on the verge of the county, near the source of the Poulter, where there is a large cotton mill, and several fine woody acclivities, 2 miles W. of Cuckney and 7 miles S.S.W. of Worksop. The village is called Nether Langwith, and near it, in a delightful situation, is Langwith Hall, now occupied by R. N. Sutton Esq., but once the occasional seat of Earl Bathurst, to whom it still belongs, together with the rest of the township and manor, of which he is Lord and Impropriator. His Lordship's seats are now at Oakley Grove, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and at Fairy Hill, Kent. |
NORTON sometimes called Norton Cuckney, is a pleasant village and township lying in a delightful vale near the confluence of the Poulter, with the extensive lake of Welbeck Park, 1 mile N.E. of Cuckney and 4 1/2 miles S. of Worksop. It all belongs to His Grace the Duke of Portland, the Lord of the Manor, whose benevolent Duchess supports a school here for the education of 35 poor girls, whom she also provides with, frocks, cloaks, and bonnets. |
MILNETHORPE is a hamlet in Norton township distant a quarter of a mile from the village, and near it is Hatfield Grange, the only place in the county which bears the name of this great division of Bassetlaw. |
CRESWELL CRAGS, about half a mile north of Holbeck, and three miles S.W. of Worksop, though in Derbyshire, are so adjacent to Nottinghamshire as often to be considered a part of that county. Lying out of the way of good roads, and almost inaccessible for carriages, they are not often visited by tourists, though remarkably curious consisting of lofty precipitous rocks, torn by some convulsions of nature into a thousand romantic shapes, and presenting a miniature representation of the more majestic scenery on the Derwent, near Matlock. |
Cuckney parish participates in Dame Frances Pierrepont’s charity, of which the
chapter of Southwell are trustees. |
WHITE'S DIRECTORY 1832
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Norton
Cuckney Parish |
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1832~ |
~1864 |
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Cuckney |
Holbeck |
Langwith |
Norton |
Last updated by Brian F. Johnson 08 July 2003