Chilwell is a village and residential suburb of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, in the borough of Broxtowe of

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, west of

city. Until 1974 it was part of

Beeston and Stapleford Urban District Beeston and Stapleford was an urban district in Nottinghamshire, England, from 1935 to 1974. It was created by a County Review Order. Beeston had previously been part of Beeston Urban District itself, to which was added the entirety of the S ...

, having been in Stapleford Rural District until 1935.

History

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

buildings, pottery and coins have been found in Chilwell. Chilwell was originally a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

on the road from

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire ...

. It is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, but along with

Toton Toton is a large village in the Borough of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, England. The electoral ward of Toton and Chilwell Meadows population of this ward was 7,298 in the 2001 census. It increased to 8,238 at the 2011 census. Until 1974 Toton ...

it became part of the parish of Attenborough. Suburban development spread gradually from Beeston along Chilwell High Road. The area's population grew substantially during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when most of the area of level ground between Chilwell and

was occupied by the National Shell Filling Factory No. 6 and the original direct route between Chilwell and Toton became a gated military road, now known as Chetwynd Road. On 1 July 1918, 134 people were killed in an explosion at the factory, with over 250 people injured in the explosion. This tragedy remains the largest number of deaths caused by a single explosion in Britain. The memorial to the dead can be found in nearby church yard of St Mary's, Attenborough. The

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

continued to dominate the area with the factory becoming a major depot site for the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and more recently for the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

. The Chilwell Bypass Road was constructed in the 1930s to take army traffic out of the village centre. Chilwell had a number of

pubs A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

in its centre on Chilwell High Road. The ''Original Chequers Inn'' is on the border with Beeston and is a turn of the century pub that was once a coaching house, ''The Charlton Arms'' is named after a local landowning family who formerly lived in the now demolished Chilwell Hall. ''The Cadland'' is named after a locally trained racehorse that won The Derby in 1828. There is also a modern pub, ''The Cornmill'', on Nottingham Road. There is a large retail park and hotel (The Village) on the Attenborough border. Chilwell has had a long-standing non-conformist population. The Chilwell Methodist Church was founded in 1798 as the Methodist First Connection Chapel at Hallams Lane. Its Sunday School (provided jointly with local Baptists) provided the first free education for the poor of the area. The chapel moved to land provided by Squire Charlton in 1857. Christ Church, Chilwell was built in 1903 to provide an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church to serve the growing population, although it did not become a separate ecclesiastical parish from Attenborough until 1975.

Since 1900

The ''Inham Nook'' estate (including the Inham Nook pub) was built by Beeston and Stapleford Urban District Council on land to the west of Bramcote Lane from the 1950s and St Barnabas's Church was constructed in 1957 as a "mission church" to serve the new population. For many years, Inham Nook's

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

was in sharp contrast to the surrounding areas of middle class suburban owner-occupation. Since the 1980s right to buy legislation, tenure has been more mixed, but Inham Nook remains relatively deprived compared to other areas in the southern part of Broxtowe borough. However Broxtowe borough council in partnership with NET have recently spent £100,000 on refurbishment works to the Inham Nook sports pavilion to help improve local facilities for the community. The works included updating the changing facilities for local football teams, and improving the bowls facilities and accessibility to the pavilion. The works were carried out by local contractor GPS Construction (Nottingham) Chilwell Manor Golf Club was established in 1906 on land formerly belonging to the Manor. The Manor House and nearby Chilwell Green remained intact until 1965 when the bland Clarkes Lane development of large detached houses started construction.
Chilwell War Memorial Hall and Institute
was opened on 3 May 1924. It was built to commemorate the memory of the gallant men of the village who scarified their lives during the Great War. The Hall and Institute was established to be a place for assembly and recreation for the community and surrounding neighbourhoods, and still offers many activities to meet this aim. Chilwell School is located off Queens Road West adjacent to the golf course. It shares a site and facilities with the Chilwell Olympia Sports Centre. Prior to construction of the school in the 1970s, this area was Kirk's Farm. It had remained undeveloped as the land has a high water table and poor drainage. A hectare of the school grounds was not drained for playing fields and is now the ''Chilwell Meadow'' nature reserve managed by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust as a rare example of a "wet meadow" of unimproved grassland. Parts of the golf course are also sites of importance for nature conservation, and there has been some work in recent years to remove non-native species in the golf-course planting to improve bio-diversity.

Demography

Chilwell population is 14,024 with the average household at 2.30 with the population density per hectare at 44.30 At the 2011 Census Chilwell had 2 wards (East and West). The total population of these two wards was 12,864. There are 90.2%

White British White British is an ethnicity classification used for the native white population identifying as English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, or British in the United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White British population wa ...

and 9.8% with people from 35 different countries including India, Pakistan, France, Germany, Poland, Jamaica, China, Ecuador, Australia, Ireland and the United States.

Transport

Attenborough railway station Attenborough railway station serves Attenborough in Nottinghamshire, England. History Built as a halt known as Attenborough Gate in 1856 on the Midland Counties Railway line from Nottingham to Derby which had opened in 1839, the station ope ...

was for a short period renamed Chilwell, and is the closest National Rail station to Chilwell. Line 1 of the

Nottingham Express Transit Nottingham Express Transit (NET) is a tram system in Nottingham, England. The system opened to the public on 9 March 2004 and a second phase, that more than doubled the size of the total system, opened on 25 August 2015, having been initially ...

tramway passes through Chilwell, and the following stops are in, or close to, Chilwell: * High Road – Central College * Cator Lane * Bramcote Lane * Eskdale Drive * Inham Road * Toton Lane Chilwell is served by the following bus services: * Nottingham City Transport ** 36: Nottingham – Derby Road – QMC – Beeston – Chilwell ** N36: Nottingham – Derby Road – QMC – Beeston – Chilwell * Trentbarton ** Indigo: Nottingham – Beeston – Chilwell – Long Eaton – Derby ** 18: Nottingham – QMC – Beeston – Chilwell – Stapleford ** 20: Nottingham – Beeston – Chilwell – Ilkeston – Heanor * NottsBus (Nottinghamshire County Council) ** 510: Beeston – Chilwell – Attenborough – Toton – Stapleford

References

External links

Chilwell Manor Golf Club
{{authority control Villages in Nottinghamshire Places in the Borough of Broxtowe