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Nottingham St Peter's

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"St. Peter's parish, the smallest of the three parishes of Nottingham, is encompassed by St Mary's and St Nicholas' parishes, and averages about 450 yards in length and 200 in breadth. It extends from Timber Hill, the Poultry and Bottle Lane, to the north bank of the Leen; and is bounded on the east by Sussex Street, Middle Hill, Middle Pavement, and the buildings behind Market Street and Fletchergate; and on the west by Greyfriargate, the Independent Chapel and friends' Meeting House, and the north end of Friar Lane. Its principal streets are Bridlesmithgate, Timber Hill and the Poultry. Its public edifices are the Parish Church and the Assembly Rooms.
St. Peter's Church stands upon the declivity which falls westward from Bridlesmithgate to the foot of Wheelergate, Houndsgate, and the Low Pavement. It is a Gothic structure with a tower at the west end, supporting a spire, and containing a peal of eight bells cast in 1771, and said to be the best attuned and the most melodious of any within many miles."
[WHITE's Directory of Nottinghamshire 1853]

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Archives & Libraries

The Library at Nottingham will prove useful in your research.

Andrew ABBOTT has a photograph of the Garden at Bromley House Library on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2016.

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Cemeteries

The churchyard was closed to new graves in 1856.

Church Cemetery, commonly known as Rock Cemetery, is a burial ground to the north of the City of Nottingham, founded in 1848, designed by Edwin PATCHITT, clerk to the City Magistrates, and opened in 1856, even though it was not finished by then. A church was included in the design, which gave the cemetery its name, however this was never built.

Gallows Hill which is at the entrance, where the gates have been built, was where executions took place; between 1800 and 1827, there were 28 for an assortment of crimes – forgery, burglary, murder of a baby, theft, rape, housebreaking, arson, murder, shooting. The last on this site was on April 2nd 1827, when William WELLS was executed, for the crime of highway robbery.

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Census

  • The parish was in the Castle sub-district of the Nottingham Registration District.
     
  • In 1891 the parish was reassigned to the Nottingham South West sub-district of the Nottingham Registration District.
     
  • The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
     
Census
Year
Piece No.
1841H.O. 107 / 871
1851H.O. 107 / 2133
1861R.G. 9 / 2466 thru 2468
1871R.G. 10 / 3523 thru 3532
1891R.G. 12 / 2683 & 2701
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Church History

  • The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Peter.
     
  • This original Norman church was built here around 1100, but was destroyed by a fire.
     
  • The present church was first constructed in 1180.
     
  • This church tower and spire were completed in 1340.
     
  • The church was occupied by Royalist troops attacking Nottingham Castle during the English Civil War.
     
  • This church was restored during the period of 1876 - 1891.
     
  • In 1624 the parish paid for a new bell for the town crier and made note of the fact that they had paid for it to be cast and that it belonged to the parish.
     
  • There was more church restoration in the 1920s.
     
  • The church seats 800.
     
  • David HALLAM-JONES has a photograph of St. Peter's Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2012.
     
  • Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of St. Peter's Church tower and spire on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2019.
     
  • For more information, see the St. Peter website.
     
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Church Records

The parish register dates from 1570 and is in good condition. The rectors were fined for not keeping the register before 1570.

Rita EFFNERT has kindly provided us with an index of Marriages for 1572 through 1813. The file is a Comma-Separated Value (or .csv) file, suitable for import into MS Excel or Works as a database:

There are some online resources as well:

  • The I.G.I. at the Family History Library includes many marriages for 1837 - 1877 on film 0095044.
     
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Civil Registration

  • Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
     
  • The parish was in the Castle sub-district of the Nottingham Registration District.
     
  • In 1891 the parish was reassigned to the Nottingham South West sub-district of the Nottingham Registration District.
     
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Correctional Institutions

The National Justice Museum is in High Pavement, Nottingham. The museum is open most weekdays at 9am.

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Description & Travel

You can see pictures of Nottingham St Peter's which are provided by:

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Directories

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Gazetteers

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History

Nottingham changed rapidly in the 1820s with a flood of garment workers and frame-work knitters. The Narrow Marsh and the Broad Marsh (the latter in St Peter’s parish) became some of the worst slums in Europe, and suffered badly in the cholera epidemics of 1832 and later. A new burial ground opened in the Broad Marsh (the churchyard had been closed to new graves in 1856, and parts of it had been given up for road-widening), a church hall was built there and a variety of social clubs and other missionary activity was under way by 1900.

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Maps

  • See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK573398 (Lat/Lon: 52.952527, -1.148582), Nottingham St Peter's which are provided by:

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Military History

John SUTTON has a photograph of the Boer War Memorial on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2018.

There is a War Memorial inside the National Justice Museum. Alas, Basher EYRE's photograph of the memorial doesn't illuminate the names well enough for us to read.

John SUTTON has a photograph of the Robin Hood Battalions' war memorial on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2018.

The War Memorial that stands in St. Peter's Church. It was dedicated on 25 June 1922 by Lt.-Col. A. W. BREWILL DSO. It has a stone base and an alabaster tablet bearing the names of the fallen above which, in painted alabaster, is the figure of St George on foot and the dragon surmounted by a canopy of gilded oak. The inscription reads:

'In thanksgiving to God for deliverance and in memory of those of this parish and congregation who laid down their lives'.

Another War Memorial is the Dakeyne Street Lads' Club (2nd Nottingham Company Boys' Brigade) memorial. The Boys' Brigade was started as an Anglican 'army' of young orphans who needed structure and life-skills training. Oliver HIND was the founder and captain of 2nd Nottingham Company Boys' Brigade. The inscription read:

'For King and Country. August 1914-November 1918. Remember before God the gallant men who fell in the Great War for the freedom of the world. Their Name Liveth for Evermore. This memorial was erected by Oliver Hind, captain of the club, to the glorious and imperishable memory of the old boys who made the supreme sacrifice at the call of duty. Think upon them with reverence and forget not they died for their country and for you'.

 

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Military Records

Basher EYRE has a photograph of the memorial to 2nd Lt. Cecil Davey COOPER, A.C.A., who died in January 1918, on Geo-graph, taken in December, 2018.

These are the men listed on St. Peter's tablet:

  1. Thomas Attenborough
  2. Thomas Bray
  3. Charles Brett
  4. Albert Chapman
  5. William Cockayne
  6. Joseph Connelly
  7. Herbert Victor Cooper
  8. Thomas Henry Newton
  9. Annie Freeman
  10. Ernest Gay
  11. John William Godrich
  12. Reginald Horace Grundy
  13. Arthur Percival Hatfield
  14. Walter Hemsley
  15. Arthur Holderness
  16. John Hornibrook
  17. Charles William Jenkins
  18. George Henry Leeson
  19. Alonzo Frederick Mantle
  20. Edward Marriott
  21. George William Marshall
  22. William Murden
  23. Ernest Pape
  24. Herbert Parkes
  25. Percy Parkes
  26. Arthur Parkin
  27. Stanley Richard Robinson
  28. Albert Scothern
  29. John Simmons
  30. Edward Simpson
  31. Percy Smith
  32. Ernest Frederick Snow
  33. John Edwin Snow
  34. Joseph Taylor
  35. Albert Edward Victor Tyers
  36. Ernest Waldram
  37. Roland Wallis
  38. Thomas Bradley Widdowson
  39. Frederick Alfred Wood
  40. William Henry Wright

Thomas Henry NEWTON is listed on the Memorial as "TH NEWTON", but his birth name was DALLEY. Annie FREEMAN was killed in the Chilwell Shell Filling explosion in July 1918.

The names on the Boys' Brigade Memorial are:

  1. Edward Anderson
  2. Cornelius Baker
  3. William Alfred Burton
  4. Ernest Carter
  5. Christopher Charles Christmas
  6. Edgar Clark
  7. Samuel Edward Clark
  8. Richard Clarke
  9. Charles Colgrave
  10. George Cook
  11. William George Cooke
  12. Arthur Edward Cumberpatch
  13. Frank Barratt Daniels
  14. Alfred Goddard Elliott
  15. George William Else
  16. H. Frost
  17. Alonzo Gent
  18. James George
  19. Edward Greenberry
  20. Norman Glass Guy
  21. Henry Maurice Hallam
  22. William Hallam
  23. Robert William Hamilton
  24. Henry Chambers Hammond
  25. Herbert Hampson
  26. Robert William Hardy
  27. Arthur Harrison
  28. George Ernest Manlove Higgs
  29. George Hill
  30. Lawrence Arthur Hind
  31. Jesse Francis Montague Hind
  32. Oliver Ashover Hind
  33. Harold Hodges
  34. George Gordon Hodson
  35. Frank William Hudson
  36. Horace Hurt
  37. Percival Hutchinson
  38. Herbert Alfred Ickes
  39. Albert Keward
  40. Charles Ernest King
  41. H. Lee
  42. Alonzo Frederick Mantle
  43. John William Marriott
  44. Walter Marshall
  45. Bernard McGreavy
  46. James McGreavy
  47. Arthur Mitchell
  48. Herbert Murfet
  49. William Murphy
  50. Joseph Albert Musson
  51. Charles William Newman
  52. William John Parker
  53. Herbert Parkes
  54. Percy Parkes
  55. George Prior
  56. John William Roberts
  57. Frederick Henry Robinson
  58. Henry Russell
  59. Horace Russell
  60. John Harold Sanders
  61. William Lawrence Savidge
  62. George Sharpe
  63. Alfred Shepherd
  64. Ernest Owen Smith
  65. Percy Smith
  66. Albert Snowden
  67. William Soles
  68. G. Spencer
  69. Jesse Watts Spinks
  70. Thomas Stones
  71. Arthur William Swain
  72. Frank Tomlinson
  73. W. Whitehead
  74. George Williams
  75. Albert Ernest Wilson
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Politics & Government

  • This place was an ancient parish in Nottingham county but did not became a modern Civil Parish until December, 1877.
     
  • This parish was incorporated as part of Nottingham City in late 1897 when the town received its charter as a city that same year as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
     
  • You may contact the Nottingham City Council regarding political or civic matters, but they will NOT help you with family history searches. They are not funded for that.
     
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Poor Houses, Poor Law

  • St Peter's parish originally had a workhouse situated near St. Peter's church at the east end of Houndsgate. After this building was demolished, a new workhouse was built on the south side of Broad Marsh.
     
  • After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish became a part of the Nottingham Poor Law Union.
     
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Population

 YearInhabitants
18012,732
18415,605
18714,906
18814,387
18913,362