Holywell Farm, Winkburn. The farmhouse was originally built c.1780; the outbuildings were rebuilt in the 1850s. |
Structual
Standing Buildings
Farmsteads and buildings survive in many parts of the county, but have often been converted to alternative use, such as domestic accommodation. Particularly significant are the farm buildings in Laxton, where many of the farmers still live in and work from the village. Estate villages in the county include Kingston upon Soar and Budby, both of which still have a fine collection of surviving houses. For help with dating farm buildings see
- Ibbotson, P.J. 'Dating Farm Buildings', Nottinghamshire Countryside (in Nottingham Topic) (August 1980), 12-13
- Severn, J.A. 'The Pleasures and Problems of Farm Buildings', East Midlands Archaeology, no. 3 (1988), 29-33
Other surviving buildings include dovecotes, windmills and pinfolds:
- Baker, P.H.J. and Wailes, R. 'The Windmills of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire', Trans. of the Newcomen Soc., 33 (1960-1961), 113-128; 34 (1961-1962), 89-104.
- Beaumont, G. 'Dovecotes', Heritage: The Nottinghamshire Countryside Newsletter (Spring 1975), 6-8
- Severn, J.A. Dovecotes of Nottinghamshire (Cromwell Press, 1986).
- Morley, D.S. 'Windmills in Nottinghamshire', Nottinghamshire Industrial Archaeology Society Journal, 20, 1 (1995), 4-10,; 20, 2 (1995), 1-6; 21, 1 (1996), 5-12; 21, 2 (1996), 7-12; 22, 1 (1997), 1-11. Continuing.
- Shaw, T. Windmills in Nottinghamshire: A Historical Account of Existing Mills and Mill Remains (Nottinghamshire County Council, Planning & Economic Development, 1995).
- Beaumont, G. 'Village Pinfolds', Heritage: The Nottinghamshire Countryside Newsletter (Summer 1975), 4-5.
- Lyth, P. The Pinfolds of Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council, Planning & Economic Development, 1992).
- Lyth, P. 'Pounds and Pinfolds of Nottinghamshire', Nottinghamshire Countryside (in Nottinghamshire Topic) (April 1990), 78-79.
- 'Nottinghamshire Windmills', Heritage: The Nottinghamshire Countryside Newsletter (Summer 1974), 6-9.
Archaeological remains
The best example of a farming system surviving beyond its natural life is Laxton, where the visitors' centre provides information about the farming system, a guidebook and video, and routes for walks around the village.
Landscape
Gently undulating post-harvest landscape on the outskirts of Hucknall. |
Much of the enclosed landscape of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has been stripped away as hedges have been grubbed up during the last thirty or forty years to make way for intensive farming. Surviving hedgerows can, however, still be seen in many villages. For an example of how these can be used as historical sources:
- J. Rieley and P. Tomlinson, Woods, Hedgerows and Grasslands of the Parish of Laxton, Nottinghamshire (Beeston, 1987)
Much of the county's ridge and furrow has now been ploughed out to enable modern farming methods to take place, but surviving examples can be seen where ploughing has not taken place since the eighteenth century, notably at Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, where the ridges are bisected by an enclosure road.
Studies of enclosure in Nottinghamshire include:
- Brown, M. `Aspects of Parliamentary Enclosure in Nottinghamshire’, (Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, 1994).
- Lyth, P. ed. Farms and Fields of Southwell: The Enclosures of Cotmoor and Radley, Normanton, Farnsfield, Halam and Edingley and Easthorpe, 1774-1844 (University of Nottingham, Centre for Local History, 1984).
- Pickersgill, A.C. 'Men Who Shaped the Landscape: The Enclosure Commissioners in North Nottinghamshire', Nottinghamshire Historian, no. 19 (1977), 7-10.
- Purdum, J.J. 'Profitability and Timing of Parliamentary Land Enclosures', Explorations in Economic History, 15 (1978), 313-326. Five manors, all on the Kingston estates.
- Tate, W.E. 'Opposition to Parliamentary Enclosure in Eighteenth-Century England', Agricultural History, 19 (1945), 137-142.
- Tate, W.E. 'Parliamentary Counter-Petitions During the Enclosures of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', English Historical Review, 59 (1944), 392-403.
- J.D. Chambers, Nottinghamshire in the Eighteenth Century (1966 edn)
- R. Hammond et al, A Village Transformed: Keyworth 1750-1850 (1999)
- P. Barnes, Orston: a Nottinghamshire Village through the Centuries (1995)
- Nottinghamshire Historic Landscape Characterisation Project Nottinghamshire County Council SMR (www.nottscc.gov.uk/environment/TOWNS/Index.htm or telephone 0115 977 2162)