Nottinghamshire Contents

Southwell Town and Parish

Southwell , which is the head of an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and was once the occasional seat of the Archbishops of York, is an ancient market-town, pleasantly situated upon a gentle eminence, embosomed in trees, and in the centre of an amphitheatre of swelling hills, on the western bank of the little River Greet. It is 14 miles north-east of Nottingham, 8 miles west of Newark, 12 miles east-south-east of Mansfield and 129 miles north by west of London. Its market day is on Friday. The annual fair, for horses, cattle and sheep is on Whit-Monday, and the hiring for servants at Old and New Candlemas and Martinmas.

The town has been much larger than it is at present, for it is said that the foundations of a whole street, running in an east and west direction, have been frequently discovered, in a part of the immediate vicinity where there are now no inhabitants. However, with its adjacent hamlets of East Thorpe and West Thorpe, it has still the appearance of a tolerably large, though scattered, country town. It is properly divided into two parts, or constablewicks, viz. the Burgage and the Prebendage, the former of which comprehends all that space between the Market Place and the River Greet, whilst the other, which is called the High town, is the Collegiate Church and its property.

The parish is very extensive, comprising about 5,613 acres, divided into five constablewicks of High Town, Burgage, East Thorpe, West Thorpe and Normanton, with the four parks of Hexgrave, Hockerwood, Norwood and Southwell, and various scattered farms bearing different names. The five districts maintain the poor conjointly, but their roads separately. Its population in 1851 was 3,458. The soil is generally a rich clay, one-third being arable, about 200 acres in hop grounds, and the rest pasturage.

That Southwell was a Roman station, there can be no doubt, though antiquaries have disagreed about its name. On the Burridge or Burgage Hill are the remains of a Roman fosse, evidently the Burgus or camp, and many Roman bricks have been found in the prebendal houses, and the discovery of a Roman bridge in the Trent, near to Winthorpe, from which the road to Southwell was traced by Mr Dickinson Rastall, has tended very much to confirm the belief that Southwell was the true Ad Pontem of the Romans. Horsley, in his Britannia Romana, whilst commenting on the sixth Iter, thinks that if the distance of Ad Pontem is set off from the station near East Bridgford, it will bring us to Farndon, over against Southwell, but he adds that, though Newark has by some been supposed to be the place which Bede calls "Tiovulfincaster", yet that termination seeming to imply a Rman station somewhere in its neighbourhood, (which he did not believe Newark to have been) might apply to Southwell, "an ancient place, but on the wrong side of the river." He still, however, considers Ad Pontem to have been in this neighbourhood.

The modern name of the town is supposed to have arisen from a spring or well on the south side of the church, now called Lady Well and Holy Well, a noted spring situated on the right of the cloisters. Lelands in his "Itinerary" says, "Southwell town is metely well builded, but there is no market public. The Minster of Our Lady is large, but of no pleasant building, but rather strong."

The National School, in Moor Lane, was erected by subscription in 1840. It is a neat building, to accommodate 200 children.

The Town Hall is a neat brick building, in the Market Place, in which the Petty Sessions are held every Saturday. The upper part is also used as an Assembly Room, and for public meetings. A Newsroom is kept on the ground floor.

The House of Correction, in the burgage part of the town, is a prison for the county at large. The original Bridewell was erected in 1656, and enlarged in 1787, but the whole was rebuilt in 1808, and has since been considerably enlarged, so that it is now spacious and commodious. Mr John Dewhirst is the governor, and Mrs Mary Coulton the matron.

The Police Station is at Burgage Green. William Wimant is the inspector, with one man, and there is one man each at Farnsfield and Eakring.

The Savings Bank, in Westgate, was established March 3rd 1818. There is also an Annuity Society connected with the Savings Bank, established in 1839. Rev. John M. Wilkins is the treasurer, and My John Kirkland the secretary. Also at the same office are established an Endowment Society and a Friendly Institution. Mr John Kirkland is the secretary. There are also in the town several Benefit Societies, besides lodges of Druids and Odd Fellows. A Literary Institution was established in 1847, and is held at Mr Child's in Queen Street. It consists of sixteen honorary members, forty-six shareholders, and sixty-five subscribers, and contains 800 volumes. Mr W. Jones is the president, Mr Jno. Townrow the treasurer, and Mr Thomas Pyzor the secretary.

In 1847, the Midland Railway Company erected a handsome station, and constructed a branch line of railway from here to join the main line, below Fiskerton, but owing to a want of traffic it is all but closed, there being only one goods train a day, and one passebger train weekly, namely to Newark on Wednesday at 11.30, for the convenience of the farmers &c. Mr John bridges is the station master.

The Post Office is in the Market Place. Mrs Martha Lawton is the post mistress, Letters arrive from all parts by the Newark mail gig, every morning at 7 o'clock, and are despatched by the same at 6 in the evening. Money Order office opens from 9 am to 5 pm.

White's Directory of Nottinghamshire 1853

[Last updated: Wednesday 1st October 1997 - Clive Henly]

© Copyright C.R.G. Henly 1997