Strelley is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

Borough of Broxtowe Broxtowe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England, west of the City of Nottingham. The population of the district as taken at the 2011 Census was 109,487. It is part of the Nottingham Urban Area. Broxtowe ...

and

City of Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin ...

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 ...

, England. It is to the west 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 ...

. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 653. It is also the name of the nearby post

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

council housing estate. The village lies within the Broxtowe district, whilst the estate is in the

. The village is separated from the housing estate by the A6002 road.

Village

The village of Strelley was first recorded 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 ...

in 1086, where it appears as ''Straleia''. The name means 'clearing on a street or Roman road', though there is not known to be a Roman road in the area. The village has quite a secluded atmosphere as it is not on a through-road for traffic, although

bridleways A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider r ...

ran from the village to

Cossall Cossall is a village and civil parish east of Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its maj ...

to the west, and to Kimberley to the north. The old Broad Oak

pub 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 ...

remains but has been partially modernised. Strelley is also notable for being the upper terminus of one of the earliest recorded railway lines in the world, the

Wollaton Waggonway The Wollaton Wagonway (or Waggonway), built between October 1603 and 1604 in the East Midlands of England by Huntingdon Beaumont in partnership with Sir Percival Willoughby, has sometimes been credited as the world's first ''overground'' wagonwa ...

. The railway ran to

Wollaton Wollaton is a suburb and former parish in the western part of Nottingham, England. Wollaton has two Wards in the City of Nottingham (''Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey'' and ''Wollaton West'') with a total population as at the 2011 census of 24,69 ...

. Horse-drawn coal wagons travelled to their destination on wooden railway lines. This type of railway is known as a

wagonway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...

and it was completed during 1604. It was built by

Huntingdon Beaumont Huntingdon Beaumont (c.1560–1624) was an English coal mining entrepreneur who built two of the earliest wagonways in England for trans-shipment of coal. He was less successful as a businessman and died having been imprisoned for debt. Beaumon ...

working in partnership with the second occupier of

Wollaton Hall Wollaton Hall is an Elizabethan country house of the 1580s standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England. The house is now Nottingham Natural History Museum, with Nottingham Industrial Museum in the outbuildings ...

, Sir Percival Willoughby. Coal mining was a significant industry in Strelley during

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

and Stuart times. Notable families involved in the early mining of Strelley included the Strelleys and the Byrons; it was a Byron who sub-leased the pits to Huntingdon Beaumont. During the 1960s much of the western part of Strelley parish was dominated by a huge opencast coal mine. After the opencast mine closed, the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

was constructed over the west of the parish. The village church

All Saints' Church, Strelley All Saints' Church, Strelley is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Strelley, Nottinghamshire. History The church dates from the 13th century. It was rebuilt from 1356 by Samson de Strelley. The clerestory was added in the ...

can now easily be seen from the motorway just north of the

Trowell Trowell is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It lies a few miles west of Nottingham, in the borough of Broxtowe on the border with Derbyshire. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,568, falling to 2,378 at ...

services area.

Geography

The main television transmitter for Nottingham is in the parish, which takes signals from Waltham.MB21 Nottingham transmitter
/ref> The transmitter is also known as Swingate as it is east of Swingate Farm. The transmitter is next to the Kimberley parish boundary, and the

Robin Hood Way The Robin Hood Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in the Midlands of England. Length The Robin Hood Way runs for . Route The Robin Hood way commemorates the famous folklore figure Robin Hood and starts from Nottingham Castle running ...

. The transmitter base is at a height of around 130 metres, and near a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

at Windmill Farm.

References

*. Villages in Nottinghamshire Places in the Borough of Broxtowe Civil parishes in Nottinghamshire {{Nottinghamshire-geo-stub