A SHORT HISTORY OF SOUTH NORMANTON

Written by Norman Taylor on behalf of the Pinxton and South Normanton Local History Society

It has been said that the original settlers of South Normanton were Celtic. The Celts populated the country when the Romans first invaded  in 54 BCE. If this had been the case the inhabitants would have been part of the Cornovii tribe.

The earliest survivng name for South Normanton which appears in several old documents and maps, is Winci-Bak. This is probably derived from two Celtic words.

In the Dark Ages, Derbyshire was part of the great central kingdom of Mercia. In the sixth century the Angles and Saxons had sailed up the rivers Ouse and Trent making their raides infand from their river settlements. The Celts were pushed backwards.     Their legacy, however, endured and Celtic names like ‘thwaite’ survived (as in Carlingthwaite – the original name for Carnfield,  and Huthwaite). It is possible that the earliest settlement was in the area of the former Wincobank Colliery, just to the east of Berristow Lane.

What is far more evident is that the village had been setttled well before the coming of the Normans. It is now well established that the vast majority of places which appear in the Domesday Survey of 1086 were established prior to the year 1000 A.D.

The following entry appeared in the Domesday Book:

• In Normantyne, Wilfric had two carucates of taxable land.   Land for two ploughs. Now one plough in demesne and six villeins and one bardar with one plough.

• There are five acres of meadow (pasture) Wood land for pannage  one mile and a half inlength and two furlongs in breadth.    In King Edwards (Edward the Confessor) it was worth twenty shillings now it is worth ten shillings.

• Edwin holds the land.

After the Norman conquest South Normanton became one of the manors granted to William Peverill, William to Conquerors bastard son.    Soon after 1086   South Normanton (and Pinxton)  came into the possession of the de Aufertune (Alfreton) family.

The first mention of the Parish Church is in 1137.    At that date is was granted to Beauchief Abbey ‘Be it know that six homesteads, the Church, Church land, Pannage land and woodland in the manor of Southy Northmumton are the lawful property by the King’s consent to this Abbey’.

In 1220 Lorde de Alfreton presented Adam Apellanus-de-Northmanton to the living.    Just after this date manor was granted by the de Alfreton family to Ralph le Poher (Poer).   In 1291 Dionysius Le Wynn presented Richard-de-Hereford to the South Normanton living.     Dionysius’ successor Robert, inducted William Barnard to the living  in 1321.   William was the last Rector who served both Parishes of South Normanton and Pinxton until the Reverend D’Ewes Coke in 1771.

Robert Le Wynn held the manor for the Grey family of Codnor Castle in the time of Edward II (1307 – 1326).    It was the le Wynn family who started to build the castle adjacent to the East Midlands Designer Outlet, referred to as ‘Wynn’s Castle’ or ‘Pinxton Castle’ (although it is actually in the Parish of South Normanton) and from which the modern name of ‘Castlewood’ has derived.    It is believed the le Wynn family lived in a fortified house which formerly stood on the site of Pinxton Parish Church and that they moved to the ‘Castlewood’ site in 1299 when the former manor house was converted into Pinxton’s Parish Church.

William le Wynn became possessed of the manor of  in 1342.   He immediately sold it, together with the advowson of both Churches to Sir Alured de Solney (Sulney) for two hundred marks (about £130).     Sir Alured presented Richard de Craven to the living in 1346.

Sir Alred’s heir John died young, leaving two sisters Margery and Alice.    During the minority of these co-heiresses, the manors of Newton Solney, Pinxton and South Normanton were held in trust by William Taillo and Adam Torold, Chaplain of Newton Solney.    Margery married Sir Nicholas Longford and Alicce married Sir Thomas Stafford, both, it is believed in 1391.    Sir Nicholas Longford became possessed with the Manor of South Normanton.

Sir Nicholas appointed Thomas de Chelaston (from Pinxton) as Rector in 1405.    Sir Ralph Longford presented the living to John le Mason in 1432.     The Staffords sold their moiety (right to appoint the Rector) to Sir William Babyngton.  He presented Richard Bollynton to the living in 1476.    The Patron who presented Thomas Power to the living in 1491 is not recorded.   When Henry Horneby was inducted in 1493 the Patrons were listed as Beauchief Abbey.    Three Rectors resigned in  succession ‘due to the poverty of the living’.     Henry Horneby, Hugo Assheton  (1495) and Miles Huddleston (1505).

In 1536 John Aston was presented to the living by non other than King Henry VIII.   This was due to the real Patron being under the age of majority (probably one of the Longfords).    Again in 1550 the King,by this time Edward VI , is recorded as Patron.

South Normanton was no different to thousands of rural villages at this date.    Every member of the community was, directly or indirectly, dependant upon agriculture.     Things were about to change.    In 1568 Richard and John Coke of Kirkby Old Hall, Pinxton, mortgaged  land in South Normanton to Richard Lyname with the right to extract coal.  South Normanton residents began to make a living from the extraction of coal.

In 1586/7 Francis Revell leased a mine in the Upper Storth (just south of The Common) to two husbandmen for a rent of £15 a year.    The tools used in this operation were valued at £1/18/-/   They included picks, hammers, shovels, wedges, corves (for transporting the coal), two oxen, ropes, etc.    This would tend to indicate the venture was a quite sizeable operation.

The next Rector was James Stevenson (1604).

The first Rector presented by the Revells of Carnfield Hall was Peter Posts.   This was in 1615.

In 1671 a dispute arose between the Lords of the Manor of South Normanton and ‘The Honour of Peverill’ – a throwback to the time when William Peverill was overload of the Manor just after the Norman Conquest.   As a result of this dispute, dispositions (evidence) was gathered relating to mining operations on Normanton Moor.    Thomas Thorpe, who was 79 years old and who hace been a servant at Carnfield Hall, stated that he had mined coal ‘at open worke’ (probably where the coal outcropped on the surface) in Hill Top Lane (most probably in an area just south of Cater Lane East where the Top Hard coal seam ‘basitted’ (outcropped).     He stated that when Mr George Revell got to know about it, he became very angry and said that he would not have his soil broken up without his consent.    Other witnesses giving evidence stated that Edward Revell had sent his bailiff to Normanton Moor to stop coal mining operations.     He also testified that, of  late (1670′s?) Francis Revell had cut up turfs and made charcoal pits upon the Moor and he was not disturbed, i.e.  no-one had objected to the operation, presumably because people assumed he had the right to do so.

In 1678 Robert Coke leased to Godfrey Hazelhurst of Carter Lane House, land which was adjacent to the highway between Pinxton and South Normanton (a length of thirty-five perches) and twelve acres to the south, to extract hard coal (coal from the Top Hard coal seam).    When he died eleven years later he left his coal mining operations to his father and brothers.    Hazlehurst also had interests in lead mining operations.

The next two Rectors were John Dixon (1689) and Rager Smith (1692)

Following the death of Robert  Revell, his estate was surveyed in 1699 by John Halton.     This is the oldest extant map of the whole Parish.

Thomas Elcocke became Rector in 1706. He was replaced by Francis Revell (probably related to the Lord of the Manor) became Rector in 1708.He was replaced by Edward Meymott in 1729.    When he died he was buried with his brother under the Chancel of the Church. Anthony Shipston was his replacement;  but only for one year. In 1771 D’ Ewes Coke of Kirkby Old Hall, Pinxton (and heir to the Pinxton part of the Coke estate) was inducted as Rector. He also became Rector of Pinxton. He became Lord of the Manor of Pinxton in 1780, inheriting much of his family’s forming property, from Miss Sarah Lillyman. The Patron of South Normanton at that date was Lt. Colonel Tristram Revell.

The eighteenth century was the period of The Industrial Revolution. It was the time of Jedediah Strutt, South Normanton’s most famous son who was directly responsible with Richard Arkwright in the construction of the world’s first factory.

Frederick Doveton became Rector in 1819. Doveton was a great land-owner in Derbyshire and was, reputedly, a generous man.   He founded the Doveton Charity. He was Rector for 21 years. He was replaced by Richard Frizell in 1838.    He was presented to the living by John Wilmot.

By 1841 as many South Normanton residents were  engaged in framework knitting as were working in coal mining. The big change was, however, being made a few miles to the west, in Belper, Cromford and Duffield. The use of water and later steam power meant an inevitable decline in the cottage industry as the eighteenth century progressed.

The invention of the reciptrocal steam engine led to the development of railways. Railways came to South Normanton in the 1860′s with the opening of the Alfreton and South Normanton Station. It also increased the demand for coal. Technological develops, again based on steam power, meant that water could be pumped from deeper depths and air could be sucking through the workings over greater distances, ensuring that coal faces could be worked further and further from pit shafts without having to abandon the pit and sink another one.

By the time John Cooke Massey’s period of incumbancy as Rector had terminated (1871 – 1892), two new generation pits had been sunk  ‘A’ Winning and South Normanton.

The expansion of coal mining during the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century ensured that the Parish thrived and grew.    Up until the 1960′s the majority of the Parish’s inhabitants relied on the mining industry.

With the decline of the mining industry the Parish’s population had no alternative but to diversify and re-train.   This it has done successfully.    Since the 1990′s the Parish has grown considerably.    It now has the second largest population in Bolsover (it was fourth largest after Bolsover, Shirebrook and Clowne in the 1970′s and 80′s).     Underpinning its community spirit lies a plethera of community groups and organisations.