CUCKNEY PARISH – Cuckney is an extensive parish extending eastward from Cresswell Crags, in Derbyshire, to near Thoresby Park.   It is bounded on the north by Welbeck, and on the south by Church Warsop, and is watered by the small river Poulter.   The parish includes the townships of Cuckney, Holbeck, Langwith, and Norton, and contains 5,127 acres of good forest land, principally sand, with portions of clay, black vegetable, and hazel loam soils. It is all enclosed and is partly in plantations and partly in pastures. In 1861, here were 277 houses, and 1,454 inhabitants.   Rateable value, £5,088. The Duke of Portland is Lord of the manor and owner of the parish.

Townships

Houses

Persons

Acres

Cuckney

111

540

1031

Holbeck

47

266

1204

Langwith

60

328

1282

Norton

59

320

1549

CUCKNEY is a township and scattered village on the banks of the river Poulter, five miles S.W. of Worksop, and six miles N.W. of Ollerton.   The township contains 1,031A. 3R. 15P. of land, and in 1861 had 111 houses and 540 inhabitants.   Rateable value, £1,358 12s. 0d.   Here are the ruins of a cotton mill, which was burnt down in 1792, occasioned by the carelessness of a boy taking hot cinders from a grate in the wooden coal-skip, and leaving it in one of the upper rooms.   The fire was first discovered by the postman, who rode through the village at three o’clock in the morning. He gave an alarm, and every assistance was got as quick as possible, but by eight o’clock it was burnt to the ground.   The present mill stopped working July 12^th 1844, and the machinery has all been sold, and many poor families left destitute.   The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a large ancient structure, with a handsome tower and four bells.  The benefice is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Books at £9 8s. 6½d., now £250, in the gift of Earl Manvers and incumbency of the Rev. B. W. Wright, M.A. The vicarage is a neat house near the church.   Cuckney was held by Sweyn, the Saxon, but after the Conquest it was given in fee to Hugh Fitz-Baldrick and Jocens 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 his manor of Mansfield.”   A great part of this parish was given by Sir Henry de Fawkenburg and others to the monks of Welbeck, which at the dissolution was sold to Sir George Pierpoint.   Earl Bathurst was lord of the manor and principal owner in Cuckney and Langwith townships till 1844, when his estates were sold to the Duke of Portland.   The vicarial tithe was commuted in 1840 for £219.   The large tithe is included in the rent of the farms.   Here is a small Methodist chapel. A reading society was established in 1839, which contains 350 volumes.   The extensive farms of Mount Pleasant, ¾ mile S.E., Park House, 1 mile S.W., and Shireoaks Hill, 1 mile W. of the church, are in this township.   The feast is on the second Sunday after New Michaelmas Day.

HOLBECK, or Howbeck is a township, including the hamlets of HOLBECK, (4 miles S.W. of Worksop), BONBUSK (1 mile W. of Holbeck). WOODHOUSE (¼ mile E. of Holbeck), and WOODEND (1 mile S.E. of Holbeck).   The township contains 1,204 acres of land, and in 1861 had 47 houses and a population of 266 inhabitants. The Duke of Portland is sole owner, having in 1810 received the township in exchange for that part of the forest land called Bilhagh.   At Woodhouse the Catholics had a chapel, which in 1841, was converted into an Episcopal place of worship. The Duke of Portland pays £45 a year to the vicar of Cuckney for performing service every Sunday evening, Good Friday, and Christmas Day.   The feast is on the last Sunday in October. Collingthwaite is a large farm in the township, 1 mile S.E. of Holbeck.

LANGWITH is township and pleasant village on the verge of the county, near the source of the Poulter, two miles W. of Cuckney and 7 miles S.S.W. of Worksop. The township contains 1,282A. 3R. 8P. of land, and in 1861 had 60 houses and 328 inhabitants. Rateable value £1,180 6s. 8d.   The village is called NETHER LANGWITH, and near it, in a delightful situation, is LANGWITH HALL, the seat of Samuel William Welfitt, Esq., and formerly the occasional residence of Earl Bathurst.   In the township is Cuckney Haywood, a large tract of land divided in four parts by rows of chestnut trees, having a large cedar in the centre.   During the last few years several large oaks have been felled.   The feast is on Sunday after Holy Cross.

NORTON sometimes called Norton Cuckney, is a township and pleasant village, occupying a delightful vale, near the confluence of the Poulter, with the extensive lake of Welbeck Park, one mile N.E. of Cuckney and 4½  miles S. of Worksop.  The township includes MILNTHORPE, a small hamlet, ¼ mile E.,   Hatfield, a farm of about 90 acres, ¾ mile S.E., and Hatfield Grange, a large farm, ½ mile S.E.   The two latter farms are the only places in the county which bear the name of the Hatfield division.

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.

Norton Cuckney Parish

1832~

~1864

Cuckney

Holbeck

Langwith

Norton

1832 ~ 1864

1832 ~ 1864

1832 ~ 1864

1832 ~ 1864

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