Bulwell
 | This article needs more citations. (June 2009) |
| Bulwell | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Main Street | |
  Bulwell Location within Nottinghamshire | |
| Population | 29,771 (Bulwell and Bulwell Forest wards, 2011) |
| OS grid reference | SK 53882 45189 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NOTTINGHAM |
| Postcode district | NG6 |
| Dialling code | 0115 |
| Police | Nottinghamshire |
| Fire | Nottinghamshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Bulwell [needs IPA] is a market town and former civil parish in the City of Nottingham district of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies 3.5 miles (6 km) south-west of Hucknall and 4.8 miles (8 km) to the north-west of Nottingham city centre. The 2011 census recorded its population at 29,771, which amounted to over 10% of the city's population; 16,157 was recorded for the Bulwell ward of Nottingham City Council.[1] The adjacent ward, Bulwell Forest, which includes Highbury Vale, Rise Park and the west of Top Valley, had a population of 13,614 at the same census.[2]
Toponymy
[edit]The name is thought to derive from the spring called "Bull Well", which runs out of the Bunter sandstone over a bed of clay, near the north end of the forest. The Place Names of Notts suggests that the first part of the name may stand for an Anglo Saxon person called Bulla or describe the bubbling sound produced by the flowing water of the spring.[3]
One legend has it that the town was named after a bull struck a sandstone rock, causing it to seep water; a now sealed well-housing in the nature reserve off Bestwood Road, is said to be the original. Both Bulwell St Mary's School and the Seventh-day Adventist church next door have illustrations of the tale relief carved into sandstone blocks. Generations of Bulwell's children have grown up with the legend and the city council has erected a statue of a bull goring a well in the market place.
History
[edit]Early settlers
[edit]The earliest documented settlements in Bulwell appeared around 800 AD and were most likely built around the same time as the first local bridge across the River Leen. The river was significantly narrower, shallower and slower-moving in Bulwell than in other potential locations along its length, and the threat of highwaymen was a danger on existing cross-country routes; thus a toll bridge was constructed at Bulwell, to allow bona fide travellers a quicker and safer passage from north to south, while impeding others.
The bridge created a rare direct road to Nottingham from the north-west, so introducing regular traffic from across the country to the area for the first time. A gatehouse was built for the toll-collectors; it also gave protection for travellers, and led to the founding of the new settlement. The travellers were an almost captive market, and the abundance of sandstone made it easy to build dwellings. As the volume of traffic using the road increased, so did the size and population of Bulwell.
Bulwell is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) as "Buleuuelle" and classified as a village. Bulwell was by this time established as a small trading post for all kinds of goods and services, for those living and working in the surrounding area and for those travelling further afield, and this encouraged many others to settle in the wider area.
Local people, particularly the poorer new settlers, often offered space in their homes to travellers requiring overnight stops. For them it was a safer and perhaps more sociable arrangement than continuing to Nottingham. Using the river water, beer was produced locally; this may have led some guests to stay overnight unintentionally.
By around 1200, Bulwell had grown to provide all the facilities to accommodate animals and their drovers, offering full service on what was fast becoming a relatively major road. Trade thrived, and a steady stream of newcomers took advantage of the living that Bulwell could offer them.
However, although the trade was good for the local economy, the many new salesmen and tradesmen split the town in two: the established business owners, who had paid heavily to build and maintain their premises, complained of a growing number of roaming competitors undercutting their prices and taking their trade. Since they were also paying rates[clarification needed] to the local landowner, they considered they had a right to a monopoly. In response to the complaints, a local law was enacted (around 1320) forbidding anyone without "fixed... and at least part-covered premises" to sell goods or services close to the original businesses.[4][full citation needed]
The statute was ill-worded; salesmen simply fixed posts in the ground, creating market stalls similar to their modern counterparts. These were covered while in use and uncovered in situ when not, so abiding by the law and forming a permanent sales venue. Customers of these fought also against the richer businessmen and defended the right of marketeers to operate. The location of the Market Place remains almost unchanged. It still bustles on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.[5]
1100–1600
[edit]The population grew steadily throughout the period, but the town itself did not grow much in area; opportunities for betterment and the desire of many to live further from the presumed unhealthy town centres ensured a relatively even flow of traffic in and out of Bulwell.
At some point, the magnesium limestone and the Bulwell sandstone, on which the town lies, began to be quarried. The strong, easily worked and durable rock, a dull yellow-orange magnesium limestone similar to the Bunter sandstone under Nottingham Castle, offered a building material easy to quarry. Many houses, schools, churches and garden walls of Bulwell sandstone stand to this day for miles around the town.
An early example can be found in sections of the wall surrounding Wollaton Hall, which was built using Bulwell stone in the late 16th century. The sheer quantities used there and elsewhere in the city suggest some kind of professional mining operation must already have been in operation by this time. Bulwell stone was later also used to repair the damage caused to the palaces of Westminster during the Second World War.
Coal is also found in abundance close to Bulwell. Running as part of much larger seams criss-crossing the region, the coal lies underneath the layers of sandstone and is in places only a few feet beneath the surface. Coal mines in the area around Bulwell were therefore among the first in the county to operate on a commercial basis, with large-scale mining from around 1500 onward.[6]
Men like of Sir Francis Willoughby made fortunes from the extraction of coal. This allowed Willoughby to build the extravagant Wollaton Hall. One of the world's first railway lines, completed in 1604 between nearby Strelley and Wollaton, was built by Willoughby's heir, to aid transportation of the coal from his mines. Horses and other beasts of burden would pull the rows of trucks filled with coal, with the rails acting as a guide and a smoother surface than the roads of the time.
The church on the hill overlooking Bulwell, built in 1849–1850, stands on the site of an original church dating back to the 13th century or earlier. Towering over most of north-east Nottingham, Bulwell Saint Mary the Virgin and All Souls can be seen from afar and its bells ring across the area each weekend.
1600–1900
[edit]In 1667, George Strelley "built a school for the educating and teaching [of] young children of the Inhabitants of the said Parish", a building that survives to this day, along with many other houses built at the time. It is now a private home, but retains many original features.[7] An 1852 act of Parliament allowed a gas pipeline from Basford and the south to be extended and provide street lighting and commercial and domestic service that revolutionised life in the town.
The earliest supply of mains water did not arrive until 1877, to replace many local springs, wells and the river providing for the needs of business and domestic use. Before 1877, water-borne diseases were rife and the river water highly polluted by industry and sewage, leading to high rates of infant mortality in the region. The proportion of children dying before their fifth birthday decreased by over 75 percentage points in Bulwell between 1870 and 1890, although this brought overcrowding and further demand for overstretched services like housing. Health care again suffered through insanitary living conditions, but the population continued to grow fast.
In 1843, bad weather did irreparable damage to the earlier St Mary's Church. The architect of the present one was Henry Isaac Stevens. In 1885, a further church of St John the Divine in Quarry Road was consecrated.