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Basford

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"Basford Parish lies principally in the vale of the Leen, where that river is augmented by two small streams called the Day Brook and White Moor Spring; but its eastern extremity rises to the lofty hills of Mapperley. It extends from one and a half to three miles north of Nottingham, and comprises 2270 acres of land, of which 1158 acres were enclosed in 1792, and several large tracts have since been covered with thriving plantations. It has geneally a rich sandy soil, and lets for upwards of 30s per acre; but some small allotments are let for more than double that amount. It was anciently divided into several manors, and held of the fee of William Peverel, whose Honour Court was formerly held here.
The Duke of Newcastle is lord of the manor, and owner of a large portion of the land. At Scottom, near the Leen, are three covered springs and a large reservoir, formed in 1827, for the purpose of supplying the Nottingham Old Water Works. It is to the lace and hosiery manufacturers and its contiguity to Nottingham, that Basford Parish owes its present wealth and consequence; and from which causes its population has increased during the last fifty years, from 2,124 to 10,093 souls in 1851; in consequence of which, several new villages have been built in the parish, which now contains eight bleaching establishments, a great number of stocking frames, and bobbin net machines."
[WHITE's "Directory of Nottinghamshire," 1853]

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Archives & Libraries

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of one of the Libraries on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2008.

Visit the Basford City Library. It is normally open 4 days per week.

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of The Basford Library on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2022.

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Cemeteries

  • The Basford Cemetery in the Nottingham Road was opened in the year 1674, covering 6 acres with two mortuary chapels.
     
  • The Basford Cemetery was under the control of the Burial Committee of the Nottingham Corporation.
     
  • Rick HALL has a photograph of the Cemetery on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2006.
     
  • Betty Charlotte CARNALL died of diptheria in Jan 1929 at age 2. She is buried in Basford Cemetery in the same plot as her grandfather Charles CARNALL (1867-1922).
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Census

  • The parish was in the Basford sub-district of the Basford Registration District.
     
  • The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
     
Census
Year
Piece No.
1841H.O. 107 / 856
1851H.O. 107 / 2127
1861R.G. 9 / 2438, 2439 and 2440
1871R.G. 10 / 3485 & 3486
1891R.G. 12 / 2668
1901R.G. 13 / 3161 & 3189
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Church History

  • The 1086 Domesday Book records a priest at Basford, so there may have been a Christian church here also.
     
  • St. Leodegarius Church has Saxon stones hidden in the chancel.
     
  • Saint Leodegarius Church dates from the 1180s (one source gives 1126) but has been heavily restored and rebuilt between 1858 and 1859 by Arthur WILSON. The tower collapsed in 1859.
     
  • The tower was rebuilt in the Early English style.
     
  • In 1900 the roofs had almost been renewed when a fire ruined the chancel and it had to be repaired.
     
  • In 1974 a vandal set fire to the organ and organ screen.
     
  • The church seats 600.
     
  • St. Leodegarius Church is a Grade II listed building with British Heritage.
     
  • Richard VINCE has a photograph of St. Leodegarius Church on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2012.
     
  • St. Aidan's Church was built in 1905 by Robert Evans and Sons as a chapel of ease to St. Leodegarius Church. The church was consecrated on 21 February 1905.

Alan MURRAY-RUST has a photograph of St. Aiden's Church on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2022.

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Church Records

  • The Anglican church was in the No. 1 deanery of Nottingham
Church/Denomination/FoundedRegisterStart
St. Leodegarius (Anglican)Baptisms
Banns
Marriages
Burials
B.T.s
1561
1757
1568
1561
1627
St. Aidan (Anglican) c.1905--
St. Augustine, New Basford (Anglican) c.1877Baptisms
Banns
Marriages
1849
1877
1877
St. John, Carrington (Anglican) 1843Baptisms
Marriages
Burials
1843
1847
1843
Pepper Street, New Basford (Anglican) 1848--
Methodist New Connexion, Basford--
General Baptist, Basford pre-1800Births1801
High Street Wesleyan Methodist, Old Basford 1805Marriages1900
Rawson Street Primitive Methodist, Old BasfordMarriages1934
Chapel Street General Baptist, New Basford, 1827--
Basford Road Wesleyan Methodist, Basford 1839Baptisms
Marriages
1869
1923
General Baptist, Carrington 1849--
Chapel Street Wesleyan Methodist, CarringtonBaptisms1839
Wesleyan Methodist, Sherwood pre-1840--
Pepper Street Scotch Baptist, Basford. 1826Membership1877
Mount Street Primitive Methodist, New Basford 1848--
Mount Street Wesleyan Methodist, New Basford 1825Baptisms1830
Wesleyan Methodist, New Basford 1835--
Park Lane United Methodist Reform, BasfordBaptisms
Marriages
1888
1939
Percy Street Methodist, BasfordBaptisms1936
St. John's Methodist, BasfordBaptisms1914
High Street General Baptist, Old Basford c.1857--
Nottingham Road General Baptist, Basford c.1861Membership1861
Arnold Street Baptist, Old BasfordMarriages1966

There is a photograph of the Queensberry Street Baptist Church on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2008.

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Civil Registration

  • The parish was in the Basford sub-district of the Basford Registration District.
     
  • Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
     
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Description & Travel

This village and parish lie in a valley of the River Leen about 1.5 miles northwest from Nottingham city centre. The parish covers 1,158 acres.

If you are planning a visit:

  • By automobile, the village is just off of the A611 trunk road, heading north out of Nottingham city.
     
  • Local bus service is available from Nottingham town centre.
     
  • Basford has three passenger train stations. Plan ahead if you arrive by train!
     

John SUTTON has a photograph of the Basford Tram Stop on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2004.

You can see pictures of Basford which are provided by:

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Directories

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Gazetteers

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History

  • Basford was a major centre for frameowrk knitting in the 1800s and early 1900s.
     
  • Several Framework Knitter families moved to Calai in the early 1800s.
     
  • Basford used to be a major soap manufacturing town. A factory was established in the 1890s by Gerard Bros., which in 1955 was acquired by Cussons Sons & Co, manufacturer of Cussons Imperial Leather soap. In 2005 the factory was closed.
     
  • You might want to get a subscription to the Basford Bystander and keep track of what is happening in the area. The site offers copies of the newsletter in Portable Document File format for Adobe Acrobat Reader by e-mail.
     
  • J. THOMAS has a photograph of The Vernon public house on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2017.

The London Gazette, October 1841, carried this notice:

"A David TRUEMAN, formerly of King Street, New Basford Nottingham, residing at Edmund's Place, Aldergate St., London, Lace Dealer, Commission Agent for the Sale of Lace, and Manchester Warehouseman, afterwards of No. 9. Wallbrook Buildings, New Road, Hoxton, Middx, in business first at No. 98 Wood St. Cheapside and afterwards of No. 18 Maiden Lane, Cheapside, Lace Dealer, Commission Agent, and Manchester warehouseman, then of Shand's place, New Peckham, then of No. 35 Gainsford St., Horsleydown, then of No 8. Salisbury Place, Walworth, then of Rodney Buildings, New Kent Rd. Surrey, in business at No. 71 Lower Thames St. afterwards at No 98 Lower Thames St. aforesaid, as a Foreign Merchant and General Dealer and Dealer in Lace and Manchester Warehouseman at No 4 Skinner Place, Sise Lane, London, occasionally residing at Ostend, in Belgium, and Rotterdam, in Holland, as Merchant, then of Green Mount Place, Beeston Hill Near Leeds, Wharfinger, then of same place, then of No 31 Bedford Place, Park Lane, Leeds, and late of Brewer's Place, Hunset, near Leeds, Wharfinger and Coal Merchant, at Bishop-Wharf Leeds, also at Kingston upon Hull, Coal Merchant, under the style or firm of David Trueman and Company."
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Manors

  • Mapperley Hall, was started in 1792 by Ichabod WRIGHT. The parkland around it took on the Mapperley name.
     
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Maps

  • See our Maps page for additional resources.
     

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK550434 (Lat/Lon: 52.985125, -1.182201), Basford which are provided by:

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Medical Records

  • The Basford Rural District Sanatorium was built in 1896 to hold 28 patients.
     
  • Patient records were not required to be archived, although hospital financial and staff records may be found in the Archives.
     
  • During World War One, the Bagthorpe Hospital became the Bagthorpe Military Hospital. The Nottingham Evening Post, for 15th February 1915 reported that the hospital will be operated by the Royal Army Medical Corps after the existing patients had been re-located. "The military authorities will supply the beds, bedding, and other articles required for the wounded."
     
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Military History

  • Anthony Clarke BOOTH, born in the Carrington district of Basford on 21 April 1846, was awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions in 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War when he covered the retreat of 50 soldiers and others for a distance of three miles. He was a sergeant in the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers) at the time. He died in 1899 in Staffordshire.
     
  • There was a World War One Memorial in the Basford Social Club, but at last report this had been stolen. Fortunately, a photograph of the memorial remains (see below).
     
  • There was a World War One Memorial in the Chelsea Street Baptist Church, presumably of Baptist church members. But that church has since closed and the memorial has bounced around, finally landing in the Whitemoor Baptist Church. See the next section for a photograph and list of names.
     
  • On the front of the Queensberry Street Baptist Church there is War Memorial to WWI members. See the next section for a photograph and list of names.
     
  • One war memorial is a glass-topped wooden desk in carved dark oak in St. Loedegarius Church containing The Book of Remembrance. There are 210 names on the Roll of Honour of men from Basford who died in the First World War. No names are included for those who fell in the Second World War.
     
  • Also in the church, eight bells were hung in 1921 as a memorial to the fallen of the parish.
     
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Military Records

  1. William Burton
  2. William Castles
  3. William Stanley Frisby
  4. Wallace Powell
  5. John Edward Rigley
  6. Frank Marshall Rigley
  7. William Arthur Spencer
  8. L. Spencer
  9. Percy Arthur Vickers
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Names, Geographical

The name appears as Baseford in the 1086 Domesday Book. Basford contains the Old English personal name Basa, + ford (Old English), 'a ford', so 'Basa's ford'.

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Newspapers

In the SHEFFIELD-AND-ROTHERHAM-INDEPENDENT for 8 May 1841:

"On Tuesday last, at Basford, Mr. H. TAYLOR, surgeon, Nottingham, to Harriet, eldest daughter of Mr. John HALL, of Mapperley."
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Politics & Government

  • Basford was an ancient parish in Nottingham county and it became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
     
  • This parish was in the north division of the Broxtowe Hundred or Wapentake.
     
  • New Basford was created as an ecclesiastical parish in March, 1847, from that of Basford. It appears that New Basford became a new Civil Parish in 1899.
     
  • Basford parish was absorbed into Nottingham city in 1877 and became one of the northern suburbs of the city.
     
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Poor Houses, Poor Law

  • Bastardy cases would be heard in the Nottingham petty session hearings.
     
  • There was a parish workhouse in Basford in 1777. It served several nearby parishes and housed up to 44 inmates.
     
  • The Common Land was enclosed here in 1792.
     
  • After the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, this parish became the center of the Basford Poor Law Union.
     
  • The old workhouse from 1777 became a maternity hospital and then a psychiatric hospital.
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Population

 YearInhabitants
18012,124
18112.940
18213,599
18316.325
18418,688
185110,093
186112,185
187113,038
188118,137
189122,781
190127,119
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Schools

Children in the Basford area usually attend Southwark Primary and Infants School, Heathfield Primary School, Whitemoor Primary School or Old Basford School. The only secondary school in the area is the Ellis Guilford School and Sports College in Bar Lane.

David HALLAM-JONES has a photograph of the old Southwell Junior School on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2012.