Kelham

The Library at Newark-on-Trent will prove useful in your research.

The Library at Bingham is also an excellent resource.

Kelham Hall has a Monastic graveyard for burials between 1903 and 1973, separate from the churchyard.

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of the Graveyard on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2012.

• The parish was in the Southwell sub-district of the Southwell Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Wilfred (spelling variations abound!).
   
• The church was renovated in 1844.
   
• The church was not in good condition in 1853.
   
• The church was restored and reseated in 1873.
   
• The church is a Grade I structure with English Heritage.
   
• Christine HASMAN has a photograph of the Church of St. Wilfrid on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2004.
   
• J. HANNAH-BRIGGS also has a photograph of the Church of St. Wilfrid on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2016.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1670 and is in fair condition.
   
• The church was in the rural #2 deanery of Newark.
   

• The parish was in the Southwell sub-district of the Southwell Registration District.
   
• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   

Kelham is a village and a parish on the west bank of the River Trent on the Worksop road. It is about 117 miles north of London and 2 miles north-west of Newark-on-Trent. The parish covers 1,689 acres and includes the hamlet of Debdale Hill 1 mile north-west of the village.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, take the A617 trunk road west out of Newark. As you cross the River Trent, you will enter Kelham village.
   

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Kelham to another place.

John MANNERS was born here in January 1721. He was the firstborn son of 3rd Duke of Rutland and Bridget Manners (née Sutton). In 1745 he assisted his father set up a volunteer regiment in Rutland to assist in quelling the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. John Manners received a commission as colonel of the regiment. He was present at the Battle of Culloden. He was promoted major-general on 18 March 1755, and was at last made Colonel of the Horse Guard (Blues) on 27 May 1758. He became Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance on 15 September 1759. He was also made Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire on 21 February 1764. On 9 January 1770, he resigned as commander-in-chief and Master-General of the Ordnance, retaining only the colonelcy of the Blues. He died at Scarborough, Yorkshire, in 1770.

He is probably best known today for being supposed to have more pubs named after him than any other person - due, it is said, to his practice of setting up old soldiers of his regiment as publicans when they were too old to serve any longer.

• On 5 May, 1647, King Charles I surrendered at the end of the English Civil War at nearby Southwell and was held at Kelham Hall for several days.
   
• For several centuries there was a small wooden bridge over the Trent River. This was replaced by an iron bridge.
   
• A lovely and large bridge built of brick with stone dressings and consisting of five arches crossed the Trent to Newark; erected in 1854-57. An earlier iron bridge was swept away by ice in a flood in February, 1854.
   
• Richard CROFT has a photograph of the Kelham Bridge on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2012.
   

• Lord LEXINGTON had a long history with this parish as lords of the manor. Their surname was SUTTON.
   
• Kelham Hall was destroyed by fire on 27 November, 1857.
   
• A new Kelham Hall was built on the same site. It stands in a small wooded park of about 25 acres. In 1869 it was the residence and seat of John Henry Manners SUTTON, Esq.
   
• Kelham Hall was bought by the Society for the Sacred Mission in 1903 and run as a Theological College. The military used it in World War I. The Great Chapel was dedicated in 1928 and was a masterpiece. It was almost square with a great central dome, (62 feet across and 68 feet high) the second largest concrete dome in England. The Hall was again commandered by the military in World War II.
   
• The college closed in 1972. Since 1973 the Hall has been the head office of the Newark and Sherwwod District Council.
   
• David BEVIS has a photograph of Kelham Hall on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2009.
   

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK774554 (Lat/Lon: 53.090211, -0.845731), Kelham which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

There may have been a grass airstrip at Kelham for World War One. The Great War Bulletin for August 10, 1914 tells us that three Army airmen crash- landed their aeroplanes at Kelham.

The Great War Bulletin for December 7, 1914 tells us that one man of Kelham, F. BRITTAIN a woodman, had been appointed as "Special Constables" to assist the police force in the event of a German invasion.

St. WiIfred's Church has a Book of Remembrance that honors those from both World Wars.

These are the villagers listed in the Book of Remembrance:

• William Edward ANSELL
• William Curtis BOLTON
• William James COLLYER
• John Whitworth CORBETT
• Frederick Johnson DICKINSON
• Charles Alfred Stanley EVERETT
• Albert Edward GEAREY
• John Henry GENT
• Frank Brooks GILL
• Stanley Percival HUGGINS
• Harry Lawford HUNT
• Reuben INGAMELLS
• Herbert Peter LEDBITTER
• Edwin John MEEDY
• Arthur James NASH
• John NELSON
• Stanley PIERCE
• Samuel Irving PREECE
• Andrew David SHORT
• George William SMITH
• Harold Andrew SMITH
• Bernard Charles VICK
• Archibald John WADE
• Frederick Royden WARING
• Aubrey Charles Nixon WHISTON
• John Alfred WILLIAMS
• Harold Godwin WILLIAMSON
• John WILLIAMSON
• Frederick Laurence WILSON
• Ernest Edwin WILSON

The Great War Bulletin for June 7th, 1915 tells us that Edward MARSHALL's son private Fred MARSHALL with the Lincolnshire Territorials was in hospital suffering from gas poisoning for the second time.

• This place was an ancient parish in Nottingham county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the north division of the ancient Thurgarton Wapentake (Hundred) in the northern division of the county.
   
• In April, 1899, the parish was enlarged when Park Leys Civil Parish was abolished and amalgamated with Kelham.
   
• In April, 1935, the parish was reduced by 405 acres ceded to Newark opon Trent Civil Parish.
   
• You may contact the joint Parish Council for Averham, Kelham and Staythorpe regarding civic or political matters, but they are NOT funded to help you with family history searches.
   
• District governance is provided by the Newark and Sherwood District Council.
   

• The poor of this parish shared the interest from £25 in 1912, left by an unknown donor.
   
• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Newark petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reforms, this parish became part of the Southwell Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Population
1801	227
1821	199
1851	167
1861	178
1871	157
1881	151
1891	224
1901	242
1911	333
1921	414