North Wheatley

"North Wheatley is a considerable village and parish on a steep declivity on the Gainsborough Road, five miles north-east from Retford, and five miles south-west from Gainsborough. The parish contains 427 inhabitants and 2,538 acres of land. Lord Middleton is principal owner. John Mee Esq. (Retford), John Nettleship Esq. (Tickhill) and several others have estates, besides several resident owners. Lord Wenlock is lord of the manor, which is mostly on copyhold tenure, paying a fine on the death or change of tenant, equal to one and a half years rent. William Heaton Esq. of Gainsborough is steward of the manor, and courts are held annually in May and November. At The Domesday Survey, part of Wateley was a berne of the Archbishop of York's soke of Laneham, and the rest belonged to the King's soke of Mansfield, and was of the fee of Roger de Busli.
The church, dedicated to St Peter, appears to have been erected in the 16th century. It has a tower with five bells, but the chancel was rebuilt in 1824. Lord Middleton is patron, and has also the impropriation of two-thirds of the great tithes, but the other third belongs to the vicarage, which was valued in the King's books at £3 18s 10½d, now £246, and is enjoyed by the Rev. Charles Walter Hudson. The open fields were enclosed under an act passed in 1837, and the tithe was commuted in 1838 for £620, of which £370 was apportioned to Lord Middleton as impropriator, and £250 to the vicar. The Rector of Clayworth received the tithe from 59 acres of land in the parish. The Methodists have a neat chapel, erected in 1836, and a National School was erected in 1826 by the Rev. F. Hewgill, at that time vicar. A feast and a hiring for servants is held on the second Thursday in November, when the green is crowded with visitors." [WHITE's "Directory of Nottinghamshire." 1853]