‘Every local historian should study all the buildings of his chosen
territory closely.’
W. G. Hoskins, Local History in England, (3rd ed. 1984)
This is a counsel of perfection, but researching a few of the more prominent
buildings is a start. Hoskins was referring specifically to the architecture,
but I take a wider look and record the houses’ residents and their
place in local society.
Today there is a Woodville Road and Woodville Drive in this Nottingham suburb, the latter leading to Woodville Cottage. All of them take their name from Woodville House, one of the few early 19th century houses in the area, now sadly demolished. At about the time of its construction wealthy Nottingham lace manufacturers had seen the potential of this undeveloped part of the Lings and had built The Cedars and Woodthorpe Lodge on the Mansfield Turnpike Road, about half a mile from Woodville. It is no surprise to find that the first tenant known at Woodville was also a wealthy lace manufacturer, Samuel Burton.
He could well have seen the following advertisement in the Nottingham Journal, June 9th 1837: *
WOODVILLE To be Let. That Beautiful Villa residence called “Woodville”
situate Two Miles from Nottingham on the Mansfield Turnpike Road.
The house comprises Breakfast, Dining, Drawing Rooms, Excellent Kitchens,
Butler's Pantry, Seven or Eight Bedrooms, good cellaring, and every other
Requisite for a genteel family. There is capital Stabling for 6 or 7 Horses,
Coach House, Cow Sheds &c. also delightful Lawns, shrubberies, Kitchen
Gardens, inclosed by Fruit Walls, now in full bearing. Several packs of
Fox Hounds are in the immediate vicinity. The Tenant may be accommodated
with from 15 to 20 acres of land surrounding the house.
For further particular, application must be made at the Office of Mr. Surplice,
Architect &c., Clumber Street.
(This would be William Surplice, who also designed St. John the Evangelist Church in Carrington and the original lay-out of that village.)
There are still plenty of foxes roaming the gardens and streets of Sherwood, but it is strange to think of several packs of foxhounds in the vicinity. 'Fruit Walls in full bearing' suggest that the estate was established well before 1837. Curiously, the house was to be let rather than for sale.
Woodville House was built on a slight rise to the west of the Mansfield Turnpike, where the turning circle in Rufford Road cul-de-sac is today. It was a modest building compared with some being erected at the time, but it sported stone finials and battlements. At the rear were the stables, yard, coach house and harness room. (The only photographs discovered came from a gentleman in South Africa who had lived opposite Woodville before emigrating. Just before it was demolished he took some pictures with his box Brownie.)
In 1838 Samuel Burton had his lace factory, Cavendish Vale Mill, built near to Basford Lane (now Haydn Road). From humble beginnings as framework knitters he and his brother Jonathan rapidly made their fortunes in the lace industry. Like many other successful businessmen of Nottingham at that time, Samuel began to look for a site not only for his factory, but also for an area, which could be developed as a landed estate, complete with a family house. He chose Woodville, now swallowed up by Sherwood, but then a separate place to the west of Mansfield Turnpike Road.
Coaches approaching the house would use the long drive, which ran across the estate from the Mansfield Turnpike. There stood a little house called Woodville Lodge, approximately where the old tram depot now stands. In 1841 the residents were Samuel Pearson, an agricultural labourer, and his wife. There were also two other houses on the estate as Samuel Burton’s will, made in June 1843, reveals. One was occupied by John Bostock the other by John Bingley, but it is not clear where these houses stood in relation to the main Woodville House.
The estate was over eleven acres in extent, reaching as far as Basford Lane. Samuel Burton also owned five acres of land, which were used for gardens, at Loscoe Hill, an old place name referring to the area around where Devon Drive Church now stands. (Loscoe Road in Carrington derives its name from this place.) Before the trees matured the Burton family would have had a clear view across their estate to Loscoe Hill, a view interrupted only by their own lace factory. Much later, in the 20th century, the factory was used for many years by W. J. Simms Sons & Cooke Ltd., building contractors and joinery manufacturers.
Samuel Burton and his wife Isabella had nine children, but when the Census enumerator called in 1841 only the first five mentioned were at home, and the whole family then had just one servant. Ten years later they also had a cook and a chambermaid.
By that time Isabella Burton had been a widow for several years, as Samuel Burton had died on 10th May 1844. She appears to have been involved in the family business, along with her sons William, Jonathan and Walter all of whom were unmarried and still living at Woodville House in 1851. In Kelly’s Directory for 1855 she is listed as one of the gentry and as ‘Mrs Burton & Son, Lace Manufacturers’. A codicil added to Samuel Burton’s will had made his son Robert a partner in the family business.
In his will Samuel made sure that Isabella had personal possessions as well as a regular, comfortable income. He left household furniture, plate, linen and china “to my dear wife Isabella” to the value of £250. She also received an immediate payment of £25 and £100 per annum for life. It is interesting to note that Samuel’s estate amounted to almost £10,000, but fourteen years later Jonathan was worth almost £50,000, a considerable sum for those days. The brothers had climbed a long way up the ladder of success since the 1820s, when they were first noticed making bobbin net on narrow frames in Broad Marsh, Nottingham.
Terry Fry
December 2004
(To be concluded)
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