Nottinghamshire Contents

Worksop Parish

Worksop Parish. This is the largest and one of the most interesting parishes in the county, and has several objects worthy of attention of the antiquary. It includes Worksop Manor and Clumber Park, the princely seat of the Duke of Newcastle, and extends eastwards from Shireoaks (at the junction of the three counties of York, Derby and Nottingham), to Osberton and Rushey Inn, near Babworth, a distance of seven miles. Its population, which is thinly scattered, except in the handsome market town of Worksop, amounted in 1851 only to 7,330 souls. Its territorial extent amounts to 18,220 acres of land, a large portion of which is in woods and plantations, and in the two noble parks just mentioned, and the remainder is in a high state of fertility from superior cultivation. The commons and forest wastes were all enclosed under an act passed in 1803, but the award was not executed until 1817, when the tithes were commuted for a yearly corn-rent fixed by the Commissioners, according to the average of good marketable wheat in the county during the preceding 21 years, but subject to be altered either by the vicar or the land owners, so as to be on an equitable scale with the average price of wheat in every succeeding 14 years. This modus is charged on about 9,300 acres of arable land, which has generally a fine, deep sandy soil and, with the rest of the parish, was anciently part of the great Forest of Sherwood. The annual value of the parish is £25,500, and in the year 1842 £1,770 was collected for the poor and county rates In 1843 £2,400 was levied, which included about £400 for the cost of the land added to the church yard.

The parish is divided into six constablewicks, viz. Worksop, Radford, Gateford, Hagginfields, Shireoaks and Osberton-with-Scofton, all of which maintain their poor conjointly, and also their roads, except Osberton and Scofton, which make and repair their roads separately from the rest of the parish. These divisions comprise several manors, and hamlets, belonging mostly to the Duke of Newcastle, and to G.S. Foljambe Esq., as will be seen in the following description of each:- The Chesterfield and Trent Canal, and the small River Ryton, cross the parish from west to east, close by the town of Worksop, in which, and in the neighbourhood, there are upwards of 30 maltsters. Excellent barley and other grain is produced in the parish, but liquorice, for which Worksop was once famed, has long since ceased to be cultivated. The turnpike from Worksop to Retford and Mansfield was made under an act passed in 1822.

© Copyright C.R.G. Henly 1998