Widmerpool 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 ...

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 trad ...

, about 10 miles south-south-east 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 Robi ...

and some 7.5 miles north-east of Loughborough. It is one of Nottinghamshire's oldest settlements and is just over a mile west of the A46 (the Fosse Way). Extensive dual carriageway road works along the A46 have now been completed. At the time of the 2001 census it had a population of 262, increasing to 339 at the 2011 census. Until the 1960s there had not been any building in the village for 100 years. Widmerpool is also the surname of a disreputable character in

Anthony Powell Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English. Powell' ...

's twelve-volume sequence of novels ''

A Dance to the Music of Time ''A Dance to the Music of Time'' is a 12-volume ''roman-fleuve'' by English writer Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in Eng ...

''. The connexion between the village and the character can be explored at

Kenneth Widmerpool Kenneth Widmerpool is a fictional character in Anthony Powell's novel sequence ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', a 12-volume account of upper-class and bohemian life in Britain between 1920 and 1970. Regarded by critics as one of the more memora ...

History

The history of the village is intrinsically linked to that of the family of the manor. A manor house is thought to have been present since Henricus de Diddisworth adopted the name of Widmerpoole to gain the estate for his family in 1216. A "Widmerpoole" family is recorded in 1283 in the village and a John de Widmerpoole attended a parliament in York in 1333. Since that time ownership of parts of the estate was, in the 17th and 18th centuries, contested by the Heriz, Pierrepont and Cromwell families it remained in Widmerpoole ownership until the early 19th century. The estate was then acquired by the Robertson (sometimes spelt Robinson) family. The Robertsons, famous for their jam, then embarked upon rebuilding of much of the estate including some of the oldest surviving buildings such as Gardener's Cottage, the Coach House, Home Farm and the Old School House. Widmerpool Hall on the north side of the village was built in 1872 for Major George Coke Robertson to the designs of Henry Clutton (designer of

Lille Cathedral Lille Cathedral, the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille (french: Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille de Lille), is a Roman Catholic church and basilica in Lille, France, and the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Lille. An example of G ...

). This neo Gothic manor house was constructed of Bath and Clipsham stone and has an Italianate, gargoyle adorned clock-tower without a clock. The space for the clock was left blank out of respect for Robertson's recently deceased wife. It remained a private residence until the break-up of the estate in the 1950s then, for several decades at the end of the twentieth century, it was the HQ of the AA Patrol Service Training School, popularly known as 'The AA Academy'. Between 2008 and 2010 it underwent extensive renovation for residential purposes; and this has provided 9 apartments, 11 mews style houses and 4 detached houses. The hall is grade 2 listed.

The Church

See

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Widmerpool St. Peter's Church, Widmerpool is a parish church in the Church of England in Widmerpool. History It is uncertain how long there has stood a church on this site but "The Buildings of England, Nottinghamshire" makes reference to the later chur ...

A Baptist chapel and a Wesleyan Methodist chapel were built in the village by 1853.

Now

During the 20th century employment of the villages by the estate gradually diminished and ceased with the advent of easier transport and machinery. The village residents, once consisting of farm workers, teachers, smiths, gardeners, grooms and the like almost entirely centred on agriculture and concerns of the estate largely, today, travel to work. The village no longer has its own school, nor a shop or a post office. The public house has shut and the village hall was sold in 1975. In 2007, Widmerpool received the 'Best Kept Village' award for Nottinghamshire."Wonderful Widmerpool is champion of champions", Rushcliffe Borough Council, November 2007
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Gallery

File:Widmerpool St Peters and St Pauls SE aspect.JPG, St Peters and St Pauls SE aspect File:Widmerpool Church Winged Bull.JPG, Widmerpool Church Winged Bull Corbel in porch File:Widmwerpool Church Winged Lion.JPG, Widmerpool Church Winged Lion corbel

Sources

There is a very detailed history of the village entitled ''Widmerpool: a Century of Change 1900 to 2000'', produced by Geoff Brooks of New Manor Farm, Widmerpool. ''Nottinghamshire: A Shell Guide'' by Henry Thorold, Faber and Faber, 1984 ''The Nottinghamshire Village Book'', Nottinghamshire Federation of Women's Institutes, 1989

References

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article2543236.ece – Sunday Times article about Widmerpool Hall conversion into flats.

External links

* http://www.widmerpoolhall.co.uk/ – Widmerpool Hall {{authority control Villages in Nottinghamshire Rushcliffe