Trowell 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 authorit ...

in Nottinghamshire, England. It lies a few miles west 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 R ...

, in the borough of Broxtowe on the border with

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nort ...

. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,568, falling to 2,378 at the 2011 census. The village is believed to have Saxon origins. The parish had a population of around 50, with four manors and a church, by 1066. Coal was extracted nearby from the 13th century until 1928. The main road through the village is the A609 between Nottingham and

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 major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/text ...

and A6007 from nearby Stapleford. 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 l ...

also passes through the village, and the Trowell Motorway Services lie just to the north. Most of the village lies between the

River Erewash The River Erewash is a river in England, a tributary of the River Trent that flows roughly southwards through Derbyshire, close to its eastern border with Nottinghamshire. Etymology The approximate meaning of the name is not in doubt, but t ...

(

boundary) and

Nottingham Canal The Nottingham Canal is a canal in the English counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. As built, it comprised a long main line between the River Trent just downstream of Trent Bridge in Nottingham and Langley Mill in Derbyshire. At the sa ...

Herbert Morrison Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, (3 January 1888 – 6 March 1965) was a British politician who held a variety of senior positions in the UK Cabinet as member of the Labour Party. During the inter-war period, he was Mini ...

selected Trowell as the "Festival Village" for the 1951

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

, as a typical example of British rural life. Conveniently close to the geographical centre of England, the village was found to be far from the a

chocolate box Chocolate box art originally referred literally to decorations on chocolate boxes. Over the years, however, the terminology has changed; it is now applied broadly as an often pejorative term to describe paintings and designs that are overly idea ...

idyll: there was no

village green A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle t ...

, and its three

public house 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 ...

s had closed. The belching chimneys and slag heaps of an ironworks to the west dominated the village. Morrison responded to hostile questions in the House of Commons that Trowell was "the type of English village where the old rural life is passing away and where an industrial community has been superimposed", " was chosen merely as an example of modern social problems in a village", and its selection would "encourage places which are not conventionally beautiful ... to have a go at improving their amenities". Trowell celebrated its selection with several events: a cricket match played in Victorian dress, awards for the best back and front gardens, a performance of Sir

Edward German Sir Edward German (17 February 1862 – 11 November 1936) was an English musician and composer of Welsh descent, best remembered for his extensive output of incidental music for the stage and as a successor to Arthur Sullivan in the field of En ...

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

'' Merrie England'', and cleaning the church clock. Trowell village's main attraction and largest employer is Trowell Garden Centre & Coffee Shop which is located on the

, Erewash Valley Trail and Broxtowe Nature Reserve where you can still see the original lock keepers cottages and grade 2 listed Swansea Bridge built in 1794–96 The parish church is St Helen. The village pub is The Festival Inn on Ilkeston Road (A609).Trowell Parish Council
/ref>

References

External links

Trowell Parish Council

St Helen's church

{{authority control Villages in Nottinghamshire Places in the Borough of Broxtowe Civil parishes in Nottinghamshire