White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

Shelford, Newton and Saxondale

Shelford Parish consists of two townships, viz. Shelford-with-Newton and Saxondale, which maintain their poor separately, and contain together 775 inhabitants, and 3,592 acres of land, lying on the south side of the Trent, betwixt Radcliffe and East Bridgford, and is of the rateable value of £6,562 14s 3d.

Shelford, 6½ miles east by north of Nottingham, is a pleasant village, seated on a gentle eminence, which in very great floods is sometimes completely surrounded by the Trent water, as was the case in 1793, though it is distant half a mile from the regular channel of the river, and is backed by a lofty ridge of land to the south.

After the Conquest, it was nearly all of the fee of Goisfred de Halselin, whose descendant, Ralph, founded an Austin Priory here in the reign of Stephen which, at its dissolution in the 29th of Henry VIII, was valued at £116 1s 1d per annum, and was granted to Michael Stanhope Esq., ancestor of the Earl of Chesterfield, who is now sole owner (except half an acre) and lord of the manor of Shelford, which comprises about 2,500 acres. The ancient manor house, which was long occupied by the Stanhope family, was burnt down in the civil wars, when the Parliamentarians took it by storm, after it had long held out for the king, under the command of Colonel Stanhope (son of the first Earl of Chesterfield) who was slain in the conflict. Some years after this, the family rebuilt it partly out of its ruins, and it is now occupied by John Hassall Esq.

Newton hamlet is pleasantly situated upon a declivity, 1½ miles wast by south of Shelford, and 2 miles west-north-west of Bingham. The manor contains 800 acres, and was all of the fee of Goisfred de Halselin, except 50 acres, which were soc to Bingham, and still belong to that parish. The whole is now the property of the Earl of Chesterfield, except 25 acres belonging to the poor of Bunny, and 35 belonging to Mr Edward Popplewell and Mr William Allwood. Here is a small Primitive Methodist chapel. This hamlet contains 109 inhabitants.

Saxondale hamlet and township has 130 inhabitants, and 640 acres of land, and is distant 2½ miles south-east of Shelford, and 1½ miles west of Bingham, being situated at the junction of the Nottingham and Grantham road with the Roman Fosseway. the whole, except about five acres belonging to Mr John Green, is the property of the Earl of Chesterfield. There was formerly a church here, appropriated to Shelford Priory, but after the dissolution, Thoroton says, the family of Stanhope "swore it was but a chapel of ease", and pulled it down to save the expense of a chaplain. In our author's time, some of the inhabitants had taken up stone coffins, and converted them into troughs for swine.

The church, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, is a respectable edifice, containing many monuments of the Stanhope family, one of which is to the memory of the accomplished Earl of Chesterfield, who died in 1752, and whose character and writings are too well known to require any encominus here. The tower is massive and lofty, and has a peal of five bells. The living is a perpetual curacy, certified at £60, and is in the patronage of the Earl of Chesterfield. The Rev. John Rolleston, of Burton Joyce, is the incumbent. The Primitive Methodists have a chapel here, erected in 1840. The Almshouse, near the village, was founded in 1694 by Sir William Stanhope, for six poor men of the parishes of Shelford, Bingham, Carlton-by-Nottingham, Gedling, Burton Joyce or Whatton, each having a garden, 2s per week, and a yearly allowance of coal and clothing. Only three almsmen are now admitted, and the rest of the building is occupied by a schoolmaster, who received £40 a year, from the Earl of Chesterfield, for teaching 30 poor children. The parish feast is on the first Sunday in July.

[Transcribed by Clive Henly]