Welbeck

The Library at Worksop will prove useful in your research.

Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham holds a number of collections relating to the Portland family of Welbeck Abbey, the two most significant being the Portland (Welbeck) Collection (Pw) and the Portland (London) Collection (Pl).

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

• Welbeck Abbey was a monestery of Premonstration canons. The Abbey was founded in 1140.
   
• The Abbey was converted to a country house after the Dissolution (1539) and became a seat of the CAVENDISH family in the 17th century.
   
• If you visit the Abbey, ask about the tunnels.
   
• David PICKERSGILL has a photograph of Welbeck Abbey on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2012.
   
• The webpage author could find no record of an Anglican parish church here.
   

• This parish is not included on the International Genealogical Index (IGI).
   
• People from this parish attended, married, baptised, etc. at St. Mary's Church, Cuckney.
   

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

Welbeck is a village and a parish about 3.5 miles south-west of Worksop. The parish covers about 2,400 acres.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, take the A60 between Mansfield and Worksop.
   
• There is a caravan park near "Great Lake".
   

• Geograph
• Flickr

• We have an extract from White's 1853 Directory relating to this parish.

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

You can see the administrative areas in which Welbeck has been placed at times in the past. Select one to see a link to a map of that particular area.

David PICKERSGILL has a photograph of Wellbeck Abbey on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2012. The Abbey is a privately owned property by descendants of the Duke of Portland. Home of the School of Artisan Foods and the Welbeck Abbey Brewery.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire visited Welbeck Abbey just months before his assassination. He had been out shooting game with his host, the Duke of Portland. The Archduke and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, had spent the week with King George V and Queen Mary at Windsor. Accepting an invitation from the Duke of Portland to stay at the palatial Welbeck Abbey, the couple arrived by train at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on 22 November 1913. They were met that evening by limousines to take them to Welbeck Abbey. Waiting for them was an illustrious guest list; the Austro-Hungarian ambassador, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, Lord Curzon, the Marquis of Titchfield, Lord and Lady Salisbury and ex-Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. During his stay the Archduke had a brush with death which could have turned these later events on their head. As recalled in his memoirs Men, Women and Things, the Duke of Portland was out shooting pheasants with Franz Ferdinand when:

"One of the loaders fell down. This caused both barrels of the gun he was carrying to be discharged, the shot passing within a few feet of the archduke and myself. I have often wondered whether the Great War might not have been averted, or at least postponed, had the archduke met his death then and not at Sarajevo the following year."

Despite the narrow escape, the couple stayed for a week before continuing their travels.

• Welbeck Abbey was the seat of the Duke of Portland.  Much of the structure is below ground level.
   

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK564742 (Lat/Lon: 53.261811, -1.155945), Welbeck which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• OldMaps (Old Ordnance Survey maps.)
• Old Maps Online (Other old maps.)
• 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.

• After the Second World War, Welbeck House was leased to the Ministry of Defense and operated as "Welbeck College," an army training college until 2005.
   
• There is a Roll of Honor framed and mounted in the Welbeck Club of the Welbeck Estate.

The names on the Welbeck Estate Roll of Honour (these appear to be the men who died) are:

1. Frank Adams
2. William Beaumont
3. John Everett
4. Harold Fenwick
5. Francis William Fletcher
6. Reginald Forster
7. Cyril Rupert Hancock
8. Lester Staples Holloway
9. Alfred Jennings
10. William Johnson
11. William Herbert Keel
12. George Marples
13. Sydney Albert Millar
14. Joe Maxwell Moore
15. Charles Osborne
16. John Payne
17. Arthur Acquila Williams
18. Arthur Charles Willies
19. Joseph Henry Willies

• This place was an ancient extra-parochial area in Nottinghamshire and became a modern Civil Parish around 1862.
   
• This place was a part of the ancient parish of Cuckney.
   
• The parish was in the Hatfield division of the ancient Bassetlaw Wapentake or Hundred in the northern section of the county.
   
• District governance is provided by the Bassetlaw District Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Worksop petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parish became part of the Worksop Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	66
1841	86
1861	12
1871	49
1881	72
1891	71
1901	97
1911	104
1921	77
1931	120