White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

Bulwell

Bulwell, situated in the vale of the Leen, four miles N.N.W. of Nottingham, is a scattered populous village and parish, containing 3,785 inhabitants, and 1,210 acres of land, including 140 acres of unenclosed forest. The Rev. Alfred Padley is the principal owner and lord of the manor, who resides at Bulwell Hall, and pleasant mansion embowered in trees, about a mile N.W. of the village, and five files from Nottingham. This estate was purchased by the worthly owner in 1827, of the assignees of Godfrey Wentworth Esq. Bulwell lime is considered to be the best in the county for all purposes. The church was an ancient edifice, dedicated to St Mary, and stood upon a steep declivity. The rectory, valued in the King's Books at £5 5s 10d, now at £238, is in the gift of the Rev. Alfred Padley. The Rev. J.W. Armytage is the incumbent, and the Rev. Samuel Rogers is the curate, and resides at the rectory, an old edifice near the church. A handsome new edifice with a tower was erected of stone at a cost of £3,000, near the site of the old one, in 1850, by subscription, aided by a grant of £400 from the London and Nottingham Church Building Societies. The Rev. A. Padley gave £600, and Mrs Bolton of Bulwell Hall gave £300. The same lady has (May 1852) furnished the church with a spledid organ which cost £600. The Wesleyan, New Connexion and Primitive Methodists, the Baptists and the New Testament Disciples, have each a chapel in the village. Here is a neat station on the Nottingham and Mansfield Railway. The Free-school was erected in 1668 by George Strelley Esq., who endowed it with land and buildings now worth £30 per annum, for which the master teached eight free scholars. John Dams, in 1788, left seven acres now worth ten guineas per annum, for the preaching of nine lectures yearly in the church, viz: on the last Tuesday in every month, except July, August and November. These lectures have not been given since 1817. The interest of £50, vested in the Nottingham Flood Road, and left by George Robinson in 1798, is distributed amongst the poor at Christmas.

[Transcribed by Clive Henly]