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White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

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Clarborough

Clarborough. This extensive parish is intersected by the Chesterfield Canal, and is skirted on the west by the River Idle, and extends from Retford to Hayton and Leverton. It contains 2,504 inhabitants and 3,410 acres of land, of the rateable value of £6,500. It is divided into the five hamlets of Clarborough, Bolham, Little Gringley, Moorgate and Welham, which repair their own roads separately, but maintain their poor conjointly. At the enclosure of Clarborough and Welham commons in 1777, two allotments, consisting of 197a 2r 37p in the former, and 133a 2r 13p in the latter, were awarded to the lay impropriator (now the Duke of Devonshire) in lieu of the great tithes, and they have since been sold to various freeholders. At the same time, 43a 2r 12p in Clarborough, and 43a 0r 25p in Welham, were alloted to the vicar, as a commutation of the small tithes of those hamlets. The impropriation of Little Gringley was sold about twenty years ago to A.H. Eyre Esq., and that of Bolham and Moorgate to the late Hon. J.B. Simpson of Babworth.

The charities belonging to this parish are a yearly rent charge of £3 6s 8d out of the rectory farm to the poor; £4 per annum left by William Broadhead to the poor of Moorgate and Spittal Hill, out of a house and land at Moorgate; 9s yearly to the poor of Clarborough, left by Mr Fisher, out of land at Welham; an annuity of 14s left by George Mower, to the poor of Clarborough; and an annuity of 10s paid out of the poor rates as the interest of £12, left by Mr Andrew.

Clarborough is a straggling village on the Retford and Gainsborough Road, 2½ miles north-east by east of the former town. It contains about 1,200 acres of land, principally owned by G.S. Foljambe, Henry Bridgeman Simpson, William Fisher and Henry Clark Hutchinson Esqrs., Rev. C. Hodge, Mr Bingham and Mr Bartlett, the former of whom is lord of the manor. The church, dedicated to St John, is a venerable structure with a nave, chancel, side aisles and tower, in which are three bells. It was founded, endowed and consecrated in 1258 by Sewal, Archbishop of York, who gave it to his newly founded chapel of St Sepulchre of York, but reserved for the vicar a toft and croft lying near the church yard, the tithes of the enclosed crofts of the town, and of the mills at Bolham, and also the altarage, on condition that he should support two chaplains to serve at Gringley, Welham and Bolham. The vicarage, which is discharged from the payment of first fruits, is valued in the King's books at £9 15s 4d, now at £331, and is in the incumbency of the Rev. Charles Hodge M.A., and patronage of the Rev. C. Simeon and others. After the dissolution, the impropriation was vested in the Crown, until James I granted it to Lord Cavendish, whose descendant, the Duke of Devonshire, sold it as before stated, except the advowson, which was purchased by Richard Woodhouse Esq. of London, by whose heirs it is now possessed. In 1393, Clarborough had a prebendary in York Cathedral, but by whom the office was created, or when it was discontinued, is unknown.

Bolham, or Bollam, is a romantic village one mile north of Retford, on the east side of the River Idle. It contains about 223 acres of land. Here is an extensive mill used for grinding corn, glazing paper, and sawing wood. The village formerly had numerous rock-houses formed by excavations in the shelving rock of red sandstone, but few of these troglodyte dwellings are now inhabited. There was anciently a chapel here, and the site is still called the chapel yard. Half a mile east of the hamlet are a few cottages called Bolham Lane Houses, and about one mile west of Retford is Bolham Hall, a neat farm house with 150 acres of land, now the property of Henry Clark Hutchinson Esq. of Welham. This manor, together with the mills, was granted to Henry VIII to Sir Robert Swift, with whose heirs it remained till 1651, when it was conveyed to Francis Wortley Esq.

Little Gringley is a hamlet of scattered houses generally of a humble description, occupying a pleasant situation on the declivity of a hill, 1½ miles east of Retford. It contains 650 acres of land, all the property of G.H. Vernon Esq. of Grove Hall. At the Domesday Survey it belonged to the soke of Dunham, and some time afterwards it had a chapel, of which no traces now remain, though some time ago a stone coffin and several human bones were dug up near its supposed site.

Moorgate hamlet, which includes Spittal Hill, forms a populous and handsome suburb of East Retford. It was ornamented with a beautiful new church about twenty-eight years ago.

Welham is a neat village, 1½ miles north by east of Retford on the Gainsborough Road. Its name is derived from St John's Well, which was long famed for its medicinal virtues in scorbutic and rheumatic complaints. It is now a commodious bath, though it has lost much of its former celebrity. The village contains several handsome villas, one of which is an elegant stone mansion, built in 1831 by H.C. Hutchinson Esq. A great portion of the land here was given by Matilda, the last of the Lovetots, to Radford Abbey, and was afterwards the property of the Duke of Devonshire, who sold it in 1813 to various proprietors, the principal of whom are H.C. Hutchinson and Charles Thorold, Esquires.

[Transcribed by Clive Henly]