Plumtree

Nottinghamshire County Council runs a mobile library service which visits Normanton-on-the-Wolds once a month.

The Library at Nottingham will prove useful in your research.

An anonymous person has a photograph of the Plumtree Churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2018.

Louis R. MILLS of the USA provides this list of Plumtree Burials, 1700 - 1971.

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of some of the Belvoir Angel headstones on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2017.

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

• There was a church here at the time of the 1086 Domesday Book Survey.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary.
   
• Largely Saxon, later work by Normans extended the church structure.
   
• The church was restored in 1875.
   
• The church tower was restored and partially rebuilt in 1906.
   
• The church seats 270.
   
• Ralph MILLS has a photograph of the Anglican church on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2006.
   
• Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of St Mary tower on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1558.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Bingham No. 3.

• The parish was in the Ratcliffe upon Trent sub-district of the Bingham Registration District.
   
• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   

This parish, township and village lies 5.5 miles south-east of Nottingham and 13 miles north-west of Melton Mowbray. The parish covers 4,376 acres and includes the three townships of Plumtree, Normanton-on-the-Wolds and Clipstone-on-the-Wolds.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, take the A606 trunk road, heading south out of Nottingham city for about 6 miles.
   
• Passenger Rail service ceased in 1949.
   
• Kate JEWELL has a photograph of the village centre on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2008.
   
• Richard VINCE has a photograph of a Grand House and the village sign on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2015. The sign is a "new millenium" sign on the road verege.
   
• Alan MURRAY-RUST also has a photograph of the Village sign on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011. The village has a more ornate and welcoming sign on the village green.
   

• Geograph
• Flickr

• An extract from White's 1853 Directory relating to this parish.

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

The parish traditionally held a parish feast on the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday (late May or early June).

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of the Old Forge in Plumtree on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011.

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of the Village Millennium stone on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011.

Geoff PICK has a photograph of the Griffin Inn on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2009.

Here's a list of Station Masters provided by Diane ?:

1. 1881 - 1883, George Thomas Bursnell
2. 1885 - 1887, Joseph Chidgey
3. 1888, William George Nuttall
4. 1889 - 1891, John Walters
5. 1891 - 1919, Edwin Charles Harvey
6. 1921 - 1932, Walter Frank Gardener
7. 1935, John Sydney Thompson
8. 1937 - 1939, Albert Henry Hemmings
9. 194? - 1951, Herbert Wilson (including most of the war)
10. 1952 - 1954, Arthur Nicholson
11. 1954 - 1959, John Ingamells
12. 1960 - 1965, Fred Saunders

The stationmaster resided in the main station building. From an unknown time (during the 1939 - 1945 war) the stationmaster at Plumtree became responsible for Edwalton as well as Plumtree. From 1960, Widmerpool was added to his responsibilities.

Kate JEWELL has a photograph of The old station at Plumtree on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2008.

The old Pinfold has been restored by the Parish and County Councils in 1989. It contains a selection of native wild flowers. Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of the Pinfold on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011.

The manor of Plumtree was held in medieval times by the HASTINGS family, who secured Plumtree as part of their offices as Chief Steward to the Crown.

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of the Manor Farmhouse in Plumtree on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK615331 (Lat/Lon: 52.891843, -1.087343), Plumtree 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.

In the church, to the left of the altar steps a small brass plate, John Gee memorial:

"Hic jacet Corpus Revndi Viri Johannes Gee, AM huiusce Ecclesiae nuper Rectoris et Southwellensis Prebendari Qui obijt 26 Die Decmbri AD 1713 et Aetatis Suae 68"

A memorial on the south sanctuary wall near the altar, with a grim looking skull, is the monument of Vere Harcourt. Dr Harcourt was “a very Godly, able preaching minister” and served both Cromwell and Charles II. It reads:

"Near this place was interred the body of the Reverend and Right worth. Vere Harcourt D.D. Rector of this Parish and Archdeacon of Notts. Son to Robert Harcourt Esq. of Stanton Harcourt in the county of Oxon who departed this life July the 4th 1683 in the 77 yeare of his age having not long before much lamented the losse of his deare wife Lucy daughter to Roger Thornton of Snalewell in the county of Cambridge Knight her likewise interred having left this world on the 9 day of October 1682 in the 62 year of her age."

The Franklin Memorial is a brass to the east of the chancel screen, near the priest’s stall, and is inscribed:

"In loving memory of Emily born 13th June 1820 died 17th Sept 1822 - Of Willingham born 19th Nov 1821 died 2nd Oct 1822 who rest in the Chancel of this church. Children of Sir Willingham and Dame Catherine Elizabeth Franklin. This memorial is erected by their sole surviving sister Catherine Anne Rawnsley 1891."

Willingham Franklin was named as a legatee in the will of John Elliott of Nottingham made in May 1820, but a codicil was added in 1823 when Willingham Franklin was knighted and appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Madras in the West Indies, and thus not resident in England. John Elliott, who died on 10th June 1823, was the uncle of William Stanford Burnside, of Gedling House, who was the patron of the living at the time William Burnside was appointed Rector.

A memorial to John BURNSIDE is a large brass plate on the south wall of the sanctuary inscribed:

"In memory of John Burnside forty nine years Rector of this Parish died Dec. 23rd A.D. 1864 aged 72 and of Henrietta Anne Julia his wife died Dec. 17th A.D. 1849 aged 53. Also of Katherine their daughter died May 9th A.D. 1845 aged 19. Their remains are interred in the Chancel. This brass was erected in 1875 by their surviving children."

A Memorial to the Reverend James WILLIAMSON is a tablet on the south wall of the chancel, above the priest’s stall, which reads:

"Sacred to the Memory of the Reverend James Williamson BD late of Hertford College Oxford and Rector of Plumptree Nottinghamshire; who spent a long life in the pursuit of literature and science at home, and in other parts of Europe: embracing every opportunity to enrich his mind with various knowledge; but deriving his chief eminence from rare attainments in the higher branches of Mathematicks. He was born in the county of Murray in Scotland in the year of 1740 and died at the Rectory of Plumptree on the third of January 1813."

• Alan MURAY-RUST has a photograph of the War Memorial in the churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011.
   
• This granite cross War Memorial was unveiled by Major T. P. BARBER DSO on Sunday, 9 January 1921. The names of those who died in the Second World War have also been added.

• For a list of names on the War Memorial, see the Nottingham County Council site.

The names on the War Memorial are:

1. Ernest Astill
2. Gerald Walker Barlow
3. Frank Machin Braisby
4. John William Cooper
5. Joseph J. Cooper
6. Frank Costall
7. Bryant Alfred Cutler
8. John Darby
9. Robert Davis
10. John Longley Hallam
11. John Thorpe Hayward
12. Walter Huyton
13. Amos Lawrence Leon
14. Alfred Henry Longden
15. John William Martin
16. Thomas Mitchell
17. Herbert Pendleton
18. Samuel Benjamin Smith
19. George Taylor

For the list of names from World War Two, see the Imperial War Museum website.

World War II:

1. Gareth Bernard BANTING
2. Melville Francis FORTUNE
3. Frederick Henry HOLMES
4. Richard Alfred TERRY

Plumtree is derived from the Old English plum+treow or "plum tree". It appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Pluntre".

A. D. MILLS, "A Dictionary of English Place Names." Oxford Press, 1999.

• The townships of Plumtree and Normanton-on-the-Wolds were in the ancient North Rushcliffe Wapentake (Hundred) in the southern division of the county.
   
• The township of Clipstone-on-the-Wolds was in the southern division of the ancient Bingham Wapentake (Hundred) in the county.
   
• This parish was, at one time, the capital of a hundred or wapentake of its own name.
   
• You may contact the local Plumtree Parish Council regarding civic or political issues, but they are NOT staffed to help with family history lookups.
   
• District governance is provided by the Rushcliffe Borough Council.
   
• Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of Burnside Hall on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011. This place is the Village Hall and you should stop by when they are open and ask to see the schedule of forth-coming events. They often hold talks on local history.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Nottingham petty session hearings.
   
• In 1774, Richard PRITCHETT and another donor now unknown left the interest of £34 for the poor.
   
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, this parish became part of the Bingham Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Plumtree	Normanton	Clipstone
1801	209	102	62
1841	642	~	~
1851	306	210	81
1881	378	~99	50
1901	230	209	47

The school was founded here in 1840 by W. E. ELLIOTT to hold up to 100 children. Average attendance was 68 in 1891.

Geoff PICK has a photograph of Plumtree School on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2009.

Alan MURRAY-RUST also has a photograph of Plumtree School (along with a little history) on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2011.

"Hallowed be the memory of the men of this parish who gave their lives in the Great War 1914-1919"

Also a brass plaque in the church: "In memory of Percival Leathley BROWNE Captain 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment who fell in action in Gallipoli August 9th 1915 aged 32. Younger son of the late Reverend S. B. BROWNE. 'Faithful unto death.'"