Early history
Although the existence of human and domestic animals remains in
the Beck valley between Maplebeck and Caunton suggests that this
area has long been inhabited, it is likely that the current site
of the village was settled by the Danes moving up from the Humber
and Trent valleys in the 9th century. The name, ‘Maplebeck’,
incorporates the Old Norse word ‘bekkr’ for stream
rather than the Old English word ‘broc’ or brook
which suggest Danish rather than Anglo Saxon origin. Many of
the old field names such as Foxen Wong (the field running on
the right hand side of the road beyond Butt Lane) Meadow Ing,
Hag Ley, Far Brakes are from the Old Norse words for field, meadow,
hillside and clearing.
Doomsday
The first firm evidence of settlement in Maplebeck comes from the
Domesday Book. After 1066 ownership of land was made over to
the Norman Lords and much of the land in Maplebeck, like the
surrounding villages, came under the overlordship of Gilbert
of Gant, a nephew of William the Conqueror. The entry for
Maplebeck in the Domesday survey gives no detail of existing
landowners nor does it make any mention of a church, though that
does not necessarily mean that there was not a religious establishment
in the parish. The survey does not give the population but it
is likely that the village was no bigger than it is today.
The Medieval period
The village of Maplebeck is situated on a belt of a sandstone rock
called Keuper Marl or Skerry and this rock has been mined
since medieval times with the stone being used not only to build
St Radegund’s Church, but
also the bridge over the Trent at Newark. The location of the
mines in the village is suggested not only in the old field names
such as Cliff Close (behind the houses on Church Lane) and Stone
pit close (near Mather Wood) but also because several of the
roads leading out of the village are substantially lower than
the surrounding land. TOP
During the 12th and 13th century considerable outright grants
of land in Maplebeck often at the edge of the Parish, were made
to Rufford Abbey in return for the right of the Lord of the manor
and his family to be buried in the abbey. Grants of land
or a right to the produce of the land were not always made for
money as for example, during the 13th century Alice Burdon was
required to provide a pound of cumin as annual rent for her grant
of land.
In 1404 the lord of the manor, Sir Nicholas Burden was killed
at the battle of Shrewsbury and his daughter and heiress, Elizabeth,
married into the Markham family and so the manor of Maplebeck passed
to that family.
The dissolution of the monasteries, the poor and the Quakers
When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries between 1536 and 1541,
the land in Maplebeck held by Rufford Abbey and the Hospitallers
was granted to different families. The effect of the end of the
monastic orders and the rising population toward the end of the
16th century resulted in increasing desperation of the poor and
those in need. Members of
the Bristowe family and the Burnell family left bequests for
the poor in their wills and John Sudbury gave land in perpetuity,
the rent from which was to be shared between the poor of Maplebeck
and Egmanton. The John Sudbury Trust is still in existence today. TOP
In
1540 Anne Bristowe gave the church various utensils and is
it possible that one of these is the beautiful silver chalice
currently on long term loan by the village to the Victoria
and Albert Museum. Whilst
Anne supported the established church, many in Maplebeck
did not, and in 1680 seven inhabitants were fined for not
attending church. John Camm was repeatedly in trouble for
not paying his tithes, or taxes to the church, and the Constable
and Churchwardens threatened to sell his personal belonging
to meet this debt.
The following website has the history of the Bristowe family
who resided in Maplebeck at Beesthorpe Hall and estate, CIRCA
1547~1935
http://bristowefamilies.com
|
©Victoria and Albert Museum,London |
The Holles family and the end of Great House
According to Thoroton, the 17th century Nottinghamshire Historian,
Sir Robert Markham brought himself close to bankruptcy by his
extravagances at the Elizabethan court. In 1591 he sold the manor
of Maplebeck to Sir John Holles (later the 1st
Earl of Clare)
for £2,000. The Holles family had their home at Haughton
and had no need of the great house that the Markhams had built
in Maplebeck and it was rented out. But during the civil
war, it appears that the hall was 'very ill abused' and that
doors were pulled off their hinges, windows broken and lead from
the roof removed. Following this attack the hall seems to have
fallen into disrepair and in 1666, Thoroton records that he bought
some of the materials to build his own house as did Thomas Bristowe
for use at Beesthorpe Hall. TOP
| Act Books of the Archdeacons of Nottingham
is inserted a set of six leaves of paper stitched together and endorsed "Visitatio Domini Archaediaconi Nott. Anno Domini 1635. D. Newarke." This Visitation was held at Newark on 29th April, 1635, by Edward Mottershed, doctor of laws, the Official of the Archdeacon, Richard Baylie, professor of theology. This set of leaves contains a list of the clergy and laity (populi) who were summoned to attend the Visitation, among which the following names occur :— Maplebecke. Mr. George Jackson, curate. Posted 17 February 2016 |
The Earls of Clare continued to acquire more land in Maplebeck
and in 1636 the Second Earl of Clare acquired the rectory, glebe
lands, tithes and the advowson and right of patronage of the vicarage
from the Burnells of Winkburn. However, clearly this gentleman’s
agreement did not find favour with the King and in 1640 the Earl
of Clare had to pay 100 shillings to obtain a pardon for ‘the
trespass committed when the rectory of Maplebeck, Nottinghamshire
was conveyed without licence’.
A Transcript from The Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
By E. L. Guilford, M.A.
The interest of this document lies in the fact that this list was drawn up at a time when the religious question was very acute. The Puritan theocracy of the Commonwealth and Protectorate had been followed by a period of rampant Anglicanism. Presbyterianism was crushed out by the Clarendon Code and the English Church found itself faced with a new foe in the secret Catholicism of the Court party. As Charles II's reign drew to its end the country was faced with the prospect of a king who was avowedly Roman Catholic. An exclusionist party grew up, but split on the question of a successor to James. It was evidently of interest to discover what were the religious opinions of the people throughout the country. This list provides us with the information for our own district and at the same time furnishes us with a rough estimate of the adult population at a time when no other evidence exists.
Tanner MSS. 150, fo. 129.
1676. The Enquiries. Decanat. Nottingham.
(1) What number of persons, of age to receive the Communion are within every parish ?
(2) What number of such persons are Popish Recusants or suspected for such in every Parish ?
(3) What number of other dissenters (of what sort soever) which either distinctly refuse, or wholly absent themselves from the Communion of the Church of England at such times as by law they are required to Communicate ?
| The names of the Parishes or Chappelries. |
The names of those who certified their Answers. |
Ans. to 1st Q. |
Ans. to 2nd Q. |
Ans. to 3rd Q. |
| Maplebeck |
Rich Eyre Church- (
Gab. Surgie ) wardens |
87 |
00 |
01 |
Posted 17 February 2016 |
The Dukes of Newcastle
The wealth and prestige of the Earls of Clare grew during the 17th
century and through a series of purchases and marriage settlement
they acquired huge estates. In 1694 the 4th Earl was elevated
to the Duke of Newcastle and in 1707, Queen Anne granted him
land in Sherwood Forest on which to build a new mansion, Clumber. Maplebeck
now became a tiny part of a huge estate. One of the inhabitants
was William Doncaster born circa 1700 a Quaker,
'was the village blacksmith,
his shoeing forge was on the village green, the old family home
a large cottage abutting on to the village green, its oak beams
in the ceilings black with age'. Source
reference:>
The 19th century: TOP
Around the beginning of the 19th century, some of the old ‘stud
and mud’ houses were replaced with brick built houses and
cottages. The Beehive pub was built in 1803 and the cottages at
the top of Church Lane were built by the Key family in 1804. The
Keys were independent landowners in the village. The bricks were
made in several brickyards around the village and receipts still
exist for their sale to other villages.
But although some of the newly built farm houses and the imposing
vicarage built for the Reverend William Turton indicated some wealth
in the village, Maplebeck was a desperately poor place particularly
for agricultural labourers. There is evidence that the poorest
labourers lived in hovels built on the village green itself. Many
of these labourers had to continue working well into their seventies
and William Wombwell, who had run the pub before the Henfrey family,
ended his days in the Southwell Workhouse. His grand-daughter,
who lived with him, had an illegitimate child in 1841 and she too
was sent to the workhouse where the baby died.
The dilapidated church, described in 1820 by William Stretton
as ‘the worst and most disgraceful church I have ever seen’ together
with the deplorable conditions of the village led to the 4th Duke
of Newcastle noting in his diary in March 1849:
‘I am ashamed and annoyed to see the wretched condition
of the village – it would take 5 or 6,000 pounds to put it
in proper order’.
But the Duke had other uses for the money. His newly appointed
clergyman advised him that the existing accommodation was too small
and run down and the Duke recorded how ‘very inconvenient’ it
was to have to build a new vicarage but the expense was necessary
because ‘no village certainly more requires a resident clergyman
than Maplebeck’. So the church remained in its ruinous and
unsafe state. Towards the end of the century, Revd Turton had to
conduct services in a room in the vicarage. It was not until 1898
when the money left by Turton in his Will, together with that provided
by Earl Fitzwilliam (See below) enabled it to be restored.TOP
The sale of the village
As previously reported, Maplebeck was not a wealthy village
and in 1838 the Duke tried to interest his neighbour, the
Earl of Scarborough in an exchange of Maplebeck and Wellow
for Morton. After the 4th Earl’s death, the 5th
Earl discussed the sale of the village with the Burnell family
from Winkburn but he declined saying the village was undesirable.
Eventually on 11th February 1857 a buyer for the estate
was found and Maplebeck passed to the estates of the Earls
Fitzwilliam whose magnificent house in Wentworth Woodhouse,
South Yorkshire, was evidence of their considerable wealth. |
 |
A Thankful Village
Maplebeck is only one of about 52 villages that lost no men in
either of the world wars. As such it was referred to as a ‘thankful
village’ by Arthur Mee in the 1930s. Men from the village
did serve in both wars and Percy Whitworth was badly injured
in World War 1. In Maplebeck Churchyard there is the war grave
of Arthur William who served in the Veterinary Corps and died
in 1917. He married Ada White whose parents lived at Maplebeck
House. But there were different casualties. Albert Elvidge from
Caunton served in the war, came back, like many, a shattered
man. He worked as a labourer for Jim Wombell at Red Hill Farm
and was often teased by the children who found him ‘weird’.
In the Second World War Fred Broughton, Cyril Wood and the sons
of Percy
Whitworth went off to serve and the older men formed the
Home Guard. Newark, with its engineering works, was a target for
German bombing and so a searchlight battery was installed in Mill
Hill Field behind Ricketts Cottages and some 40 soldiers were stationed
there. For the children of the village the war seemed a great adventure
and they would follow the home guard on exercise, cycle to Ossington
Aerodrome and best of all, collect souvenirs from the sites of
plane crashes. The crash site of a Lancaster bomber in a
field near Hagleys Dumble which killed a number of Polish Airmen
was a particular treasure trove.
Post War Modernisation: TOP
Although piped water was introduced in 1936, sinks and flushing
toilets were slow to make an appearance. Electricity was introduced
in 1947 into the village but the supply remained very erratic
and even up until the early 1990s the village continued to experience
many power cuts.
In 1947 a number of the tiny cottages in the
village were condemned as unfit for human habitation but it
was another ten years before these completely disappeared.
RIGHT:- The remaining end of terrace cottage
from a row of four on Church Lane, which has been in continues
occupation and is now part of a much larger property. |
 |
1947 was the year in which Maplebeck Farm, part of the Beesthorpe
Estate, was sold. This was also the year that Winkburn School stopped
taking children of all ages and the older children started attending
secondary school in Bilsthorpe. Buses were also introduced in the
1950s and, although agriculture continued to be the dominant occupation,
some of the men went to work at Bilsthorpe pit, others at the oil
wells in Eakring and at Trent Concrete.
The end of an estate village: TOP
In 1979 the 10th Earl Fitzwilliam died and it came as no surprise
that the village was to be sold piecemeal, if the tenant farmers
did not want to continue. Three of the farms did continue for
some years. The considerable land and buildings of Brecks
Farm were bought by C A Strawson Ltd, a farming company based
in Bilsthorpe. Over the next few years the other farms were sold
to individuals and developers and in the 1980s seven new households
were created out of the barns of former farms and cottages that
had been derelict. The four fields next to the Beck, 'Penny Pastures',
in the North East of the Parish were eventually bought by
the Nottinghamshire
Wildlife Trust to preserve these wetlands
and which in 1975 were designated in as a Site of Special Scientific
Interest.
 |
The photograph is inscribed 'A
mornings catch' on the 16th February 1920, Arthur
Henfrey (right) and a member of the Burrell, family where
in the allotments at the top of the village, mole catching..
|
Modernisation of agricultural practices
In order to derive economies of scale in early 1982, the small
fields with their hedges and trees were cleared to make huge
fields suitable for modern machinery. In addition, the village
saw the disappearance of old ponds and the byway referred to
as Moor Lane or Cherry Lane which ran along the boundary between
of Maplebeck and Winkburn in the South West of the parish. The
work to do this was carried out in a very short space of time.
Older villagers who had lived in Maplebeck most of their lives
described how the trees that had been cut down were ‘lined
up like corpses’ to
be removed and another said that the changes ‘broke my
heart’. The opposition to these changes and the barn conversions
was, at times, considerable and the villagers successfully campaigned
to have Maplebeck made a conservation area in 1982.
With the retirement of the last remaining farmer, further housing
development has taken place, consequently Maplebeck, like many
villages, has largely become a village of commuters and retired
people. However there are some 12 children including a Christmas
2010 baby.
This information is largely taken from ‘Maplebeck, continuity
and change’ by © Rachel Gardner which is available from the
author.
Source reference:-
http://youle.info/history/fh_material/Making_of_Sheffield/13-LIVES.TXT
http://southwellchurches.history.nottingham.ac.uk/maplebeck/hintro.php
There is an interesting extract for the Mediaeval history of Maplebeck and surrounding area in the Nottinghamshire Archives...Link
Posted Oct 2010
