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A History of Nottinghamshire

1896; Oxford University Press; Volume: s8-X; Issue: 259 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/nq/s8-x.259.487c

1471-6941

Cornelius Brown,

Historical Economic and Social Studies

Gilbert of Sempringham, lived and laboured in a Lincoln- shire village a few miles away, made a home amid the green fields of Mattersey.While the county thus became possessed of an abundant share of abbeys and churches, and formidable castles, it grew rich also in the large houses of powerful and pro- minent families.The Everinghams, stalwart warriors in their day, had a home at Laxton or Lexington, where also resided a distinguished family taking their surname from the place ; the Molyneuxs had a mansion at Hawton, and subsequently at Kneveton ; while the Markhams were located at Cotham, the Whalleys at Screveton, the Canti- lupe family at Greasley Castle, the Bysets at East Bridge- ford, the Lowdhams at Lowdham, the Heriz family at Gonalston, the Goushills at Hoveringham, the Sacheverells at Barton and Radcliffe-on-Soar, the Babingtons at Kingston and Chilwell, the Binghams at Bingham, the Rempstones at Rempstone, the Hutchinsons at Owthorpe, the Stanhopes at Rampton and Shelford, the Tibetots and Scropes at Langar, the Cranmers at Aslockton, the Joyces and Stapletons at Burton Joyce, the Strelleys at Strelley, the Cuckneys at Cuckney, the Lovetots and Furnivals at Worksop, the Deincourts at Granby, the D'Eivills at Egmanton, the Bartons and subsequently the Lords Bellasis at Holme near Newark, the Holies family at Haughton, the Wastneys at Headon, the Hercys at Grove, the Cressys at Oldcotes, and the Fentons at Fenton.While these families (mostly unfamiliar names here now), and many more of equal dignity, had dwellings in the viii Preface.county, there were others intimately associated with it in whom and whose life-work deep interest would be felt.As at Lambley, within the sacred walls of the ancient church, lay the remains of the Cromwell kindredthe Cromwells who derive a name which will live for ever in English history from a little Nottinghamshire villagecould the county do otherwise than watch with pleasure the proud position attained by Lord Treasurer Cromwell, himself the owner of many of its broad acres ?Then there were the Bassets, the great lords who have left the impress of their name on one of our villages, and the Bardolphs' who will ever remain linked by name to the county through the village of Stoke Bardolph on the banks of the silvery Trentthe Bardolphs, who once occupied a prominent place in the front ranks of English nobility, as all readers of Shakespeare's ' Henry IV.' will well remember.The Nottinghamshire of these early days, with its abbeys, fortresses, county seats, and powerful families, was pre-eminently an interesting and prominent county, and it possessed an almost unrivalled source of attraction to sport-loving kings in its noble Forest of Sherwood, then in the heyday of its glory, well stocked with deer and sur- rounded by the halo of tradition and romance attending the exploits of Robin Hood and his merry men.As time rolled on in its resistless course the changes and transformations with which every locality is familiar fol- lowed in its train.Old families died outsufficient in number and in merit to deserve a chapter to themselves did space permitand the mansions which had known them for generations crumbled and fell.'Over the site the green grass grows,' and in some cases -Preface.ix ' Mighty trees rise high and fair, As if it had aye been woodland there.'But the continuity of our history has been well pre- served in the noble and ancient families which still remain, in the many stately and lovely homes which have since arisen, and by those who, taking up their abode here from other scenes, have worthily and manfully upheld the best and fairest traditions of the county.To ecclesiastical architecture many beautiful additions have been made within the last two centuries, and happily continue to be made ; while the mansions of the county have never been more numerous or substantial than now.Those who take an interest in ' the stately homes of England/ will find in the great houses of ' the Dukeries ' and other seats of the nobility and gentry, and most of all in wondrous Welbeck, palatial abodes that can vie in beauty and magnificence with any in the land.Nor must the ' worthies ' of the county since the close of the Middle Ages, and a century after, remain unnoticed, seeing that they include an unusually long list of dis- tinguished names.The county of Byron, Kirke White,