Farnsfield

The village of Farnsfield

Farnsfield is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire in Sherwood Forest. It is in the local government district of Newark and Sherwood. The population of the civil parish as at the 2011 Census was 2,731.[1]

In 1944, an RAF Halifax bomber MZ519-LKU crashed on the south side of the village. All on board were killed. The site of the crash has a large memorial.

Location

The village is located 4 miles (6.4 km) north west of Southwell. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 it had a population of 2,681.[2]

History and amenities

The parish church of St Michael

The parish church of St Michael was rebuilt in 1859-60 following a fire.

To the south of the village, along the footpath to Oxton, is a small Roman marching camp, a small Roman fort. One mile south west of the village is a small oval earthwork at Combs Farm. Encircled by a bank and ditch it appears (from excavated material) to be Romano-British in origin. Two ditches in a wood at Camp Hill, 1½ miles north east of Farnsfield are the remaining traces of an Iron Age earthwork, a hillfort, which was estimated in the 18th century to have been 40 acres (160,000 m2) in area.[3]

There was a tower windmill on Siding Lane (grid reference SK644572) shown on a map of 1898[4] as an 'old windmill'. It was recorded as a shell in August 1935, with the cap and fantail gone. The mill was owned at some time by a miller called Whitehead, who also milled at Edingley watermill. When in use, it was powered by a gas engine.

The Good Intent windmill (grid reference SK639571) was a tower mill, built c. 1820 for Holliday, a resident of Farnsfield. Material for building the mill was carted from Fiskerton. The tower was of 6 storeys, brick-built and untarred, with 4 sweeps driving 3 pairs of stones (1 French and 2 grey). The mill was worked by William Shaw, who was succeeded by his son Alec c. 1893. The mill was sold to George Hutchinson who worked it for short periods until the machinery was dismantled and the tower blown up c. 1915.

A post windmill was recorded near the Junction Inn, the property of Bower.[5]

Placard of the Halifax Bomber Memorial, at Farnsfield (expand & zoom in, to read)
The Halifax Bomber Memorial

On 6 July 1944 an RAF Halifax bomber MZ519-LKU crashed on the south side of the village on its return to RAF Burn near York. The Halifax had been on a mission to destroy a V1 flying bomb site in Nazi-occupied France. All on board were killed. The site of the crash has a large memorial set before of a copse of English oaks and Canadian maples dedicated to the Canadian and English crewmen.

A "History of Farnsfield" was published in 2000 by the Farnsfield Millennium Trust and an aural History was compiled with recordings and transcripts, copies of which were given to the local schools. A copy available in the Library is illustrated by local artist Barbara Coulam.

Farnsfield is twinned with the French village of Andouillé.

Notable people

Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, Australian explorer, was born in Farnsfield.[6]

See also

References

  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  2. "Area: Farnsfield CP (Parish)"
  3. Pevsner, Nikolaus. 1979. The Buildings of England:Nottinghamshire.Harmondsworth, Middx. Penguin.
  4. Ordnance Survey One Inch to Mile, 1898
  5. Nottinghamshire Archive ref. DDM 98/59 Sale of windmill 13 XII 1847.
  6. "Augustus Charles Gregory". Farnsfield Local History Society. Retrieved 15 August 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Farnsfield.

Coordinates: 53°06′N 1°02′W / 53.100°N 1.033°W / 53.100; -1.033

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