Pubs of Cropwell Bishop and Cropwell Butler Nottinghamshire

The sleepy picturesque villages of Cropwell Butler and Cropwell Bishop lie between the Vale of Belvoir and the plain of the River Trent. The name of Cropwell is derived from a round hill between the two villages. It was quite a common practice for the name of a particular hill or natural landmark to be applied to a settlement's name. Hill is the most obvious example but others such as Wardle [a look-out hill] are dotted around the country. Cropwell means "with a crop or hump." Located close to the Fosse Way, the villages were mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086. This is where the second part of the names come into play. Bishop indicates that the village was part of a see. In this case, it formed part of the manors of the Archbishop of York before passing to Southwell Church and Lenton Priory. Unlike many surrounding settlements who depended on agriculture, Cropwell Bishop and Cropwell Butler employed people in the exploitation of the nearby rich sources of gypsum and limestone.

In fact, mineral extraction led to the expansion of the villages so that they are much larger than the neighbouring Owthorpe or Tythby. One of the village's pubs is called the Lime Kiln which serves to remind the visitor of the areas old industry. The church in Cropwell Bishop is dedicated to Saint Giles and features a Perpendicular ashlared tower with two friezes at the top and containing four bells. Renovated in 1842, the building dates from the 13th century although it has many 14th century additions. From this period there is a standing bearded figure in the north aisle's eastern window. A Methodist chapel was constructed in 1842. There was a great temptation to seek out the vicar to see if I could climb up the tower. I reckon it would provide a fabulous view across the surrounding countryside. The oldest secular building in the village is the Grade II-listed Tudor Cottage located on Fern Road. It is one of the few timber-framed buildings in the area.

The opening of the village's Memorial Hall was opened by the Prince of Wales and today remains the focal point of village social and community activities. Cropwell Butler is perhaps the prettiest of the two villages and a good collection of old buildings are clustered around a traditional village green. You'll notice many of the village's old trades in the names of the streets and buildings - The Maltings, The Old Bakehouse and the Old Post Office. A plaque on the post office informs that this Telegraph Office first opened on June 21st 1893 and that in the first year 1190 messages were sent. The Nottingham to Grantham Canal passes within a few hundred yards from Cropwell Bishop's village centre. It was one of the last canals to be dug in this area. The construction of the canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament of 1793. It originates at the River Trent just below Trent Bridge and it was designed to take coal and finished goods to the agricultural centre of Grantham who sent produce back to the urban areas.

The canal is largely a contour navigation which resulted in a rather circuitous route around Rushcliffe. Inevitably, the engineers had to construct 18 locks to negotiate the slopes of the Vale of Belvoir. However, the canal measures some 33 miles for what is a distance of 24 miles as the crow flies. It is hoped to fully re-open the canal and make it navigable once more over the next few years although there are sections which still remain dry. Nonetheless, the old towpath is popular with walkers who wind their way down past the Devil's Elbow and to the basin at Hickling.
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Licensees of the Canal Inn 1871 - Vincent Parker

This pub was located next to the canal bridge on the Nottingham Road, just to the west of Cropwell Bishop. Linking Grantham to the River Trent, the canal was constructed at the end of the 18th century to facilitate a cheaper trade route to and from the Lincolnshire town. The waterway allowed Grantham to transport its agricultural exports to other parts of the country and also import cheaper coal from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. The route was first surveyed by William Jessop in 1791 and, following some re-routing, the canal's Act of Parliament was passed two years later. With Jessop acting as consultant, both William King and James Green were appointed as engineers. Following some technical difficulties overcoming the rock bed around Cropwell Bishop, the canal opened in 1797. Although the primary aim was to facilitate traffic between the Trent and Grantham, the lime and brick industries in and around Cropwell enjoyed great benefits from the new waterway. Before the advent of the railways, the wharf at Cropwell Bishop was an extremely port.

The trade from the waterway resulted in brisk business at the Canal Inn. Locally-born Vincent Parker was the licensee for most of the latter half of the 19th century. He had his finger in many pies for an 1894 trade directory lists him as a lime burner, grinder, brickmaker, coal merchant and victualler at The Wharf. Born in 1820, Vincent Parker kept the Canal Inn with his wife Elizabeth. Eleven years younger, she hailed from the Lincolnshire village of Little Bytham. Employing two people, the couple also farmed some 58 acres of land. Eldest son William worked in the pub but in the 1850's another son, Vincent, brought in another income by working as a draper.

Licensees of the Chequers Inn 1871 - Matthew Cooper 1881 - Thomas Taylor 1894 - William Tinsley 1901 - Francis Wakley

Displaying an historic signboard, the Chequers Inn stands in Church Street on the southern corner of Stockwell Lane. In the early 1870's the pub was run by Matthew and Elizabeth Cooper who, in addition to their innkeeping duties farmed some forty acres of land. They employed two people to help with the agricultural side of the business and also hired villager Fanny Black as a general servant. Elizabeth Cooper was born in Cropwell Bishop in 1828 but her husband, some six years younger, hailed from Thurgarton, between Nottingham and Newark. Born in Langford, a village to the north of Newark, Thomas Taylor was also a farmer-publican who, along with his Coddington-born wife Elizabeth, kept the Chequers Inn during the 1880's. They had previously kept a farm at Sutton-on-Trent and, after their spell in Cropwell Bishop, moved their family to farm land in Thurlby, Lincolnshire. The Chequers Inn was taken on by William and Mary Ann Tinsley. Born in the village in 1833, William also worked as a castrator.

Five years younger, Mary Ann Tinsley hailed from Melton Mowbray. They employed a general servant to help with duties around the Chequers Inn. They moved to the pub from Ivy Cottage where they were neighbours to former Chequers gaffers Matthew and Elizabeth Cooper. Anyone visiting Cropwell Bishop will notice that the Co-op isn't too far from the Chequers Inn. This is no new addition to the village - in the census of 1881 the store was being run by baker and grocer George Squires. William Tinsley died before the Edwardian period and the next publican was Francis Wakley, a former drayman who lived on Nottingham's Mansfield Road. Already in his 60's, he brought some experience with him for his son Frank, a former solicitor's clerk, had previously kept a pub.
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Licensees of the Lime Kiln Inn 1844 - William Smith 1891 - Jane Down 1901 - Henry Stevenson 1998 - Ashley and Helena Mould

The Lime Kiln Inn is an early 19th century pub located just outside the village of Cropwell Bishop. Standing in splendid isolation on a crossroads, it remains something of a secret even to those who live relatively close to this neck of the woods where the Wolds meets the Vale of Belvoir. The Nottingham to Grantham Canal passes within a few hundred yards of the Lime Kiln Inn which, as its name suggests, was a drinking house for those who worked in the nearby lime quarries, a boom industry of the 19th century. Indeed, the building was the home of those who worked in an adjacent lime kiln - the lime pit was in the next field to the south. There is a date on the side of the building which tells us that it was built in 1840. The first recorded licensee of the Lime Kiln Inn was Cropwell Bishop-born William Smith. In addition to running the pub with his wife Alice, he was recorded as a victualler, lime burner and farmer of 50 acres. It was common in those days for publicans to have more than one job in order to make a decent living.

I have seen other examples of this particular combination of occupations. For example, there is a Lime Kiln pub in Breedon-on-the-Hill in North Leicestershire. William Smith would have spent long days burning the locally-quarried limestone in his kilns to produce lime, manage the farm and then join his wife in the pub in the evenings. I guess there would have been some serious sessions - imagine the thirst you'd have after working with lime all day! More than half the village were once employed in either the lime or gypsum quarries. The development of the Grantham Canal would have enabled the quarry owners to distribute their lime to other markets.

Gaining inn status for the Lime Kiln was an astute move given the amount of traffic that passed along the nearby Fosse Way. This would have allowed the Lime Kiln Inn to remain open as long as a bed was available and the pub offered basic victuals and stabling to the lawful traveller. Subsequently, the licensing hours could prove something of an endurance test for the publican. In the 1850's William Smith's father was living on the premises. In his eighties he would have had many grandchildren sitting on his knee - his son and daughter-in-law had seven children. By the 1860's many of the children had grown up and were working in the pub or on the land which had increased in size over the years. William and Alice Smith seemed to be doing nicely. William employed three men on the farm and two servants in the Lime Kiln Inn. The Smith family were succeeded by Samuel and Jane Down who had moved up the road from Starbuck's House where Samuel had worked as an agricultural labourer.

Born in Kinoulton in 1860, Samuel died before the census was conducted in 1891 as Jane was recorded as a widowed licensed victualler. Also living on the premises were daughter Mary and sons Samuel and Arthur. George Smith, son of William and Alice Smith was living nearby in Lime Kiln House where he continued in his dad's footsteps by farming the land. By 1901 Hickling-born Henry Stevenson was the publican of the Lime Kiln Inn. He lived on the premises with his Grantham-born wife Annie and two sons from her previous marriage. During a visit in 2001 I was fortunate to meet Bill Toon who has been drinking here for forty years. He was able to remember some of the more recent licensees of the Lime Kiln Inn. You may find him here when you visit because he generally sits on a stool at the end of the bar along with his Jack Russell. However, he once came in without his canine pal and one of the customers asked where the old bloke with the Jack Russell was? He didn't recognise Bill without his dog!! Bill remembers that Eric Oxby kept the pub in the 1940's though this was before his time. He has memories of Vick Selby running the place in the 1960's. He used to keep a massive alsatian that scared the regulars to death. It would sit just behind the bar and lunge at anyone who reached across for their pint. Vick was followed by Peggy and John Tegadine in the 1970's. However, John left in rather scandalous circumstances leaving Peggy to continue to run the Lime Kiln Inn for another ten years. The Home Brewery eventually closed the place down and it was left to decay and vandalism before Richard John Wool and John Stanley saved the building in the early 1990's. They were responsible for its refurbishment. Ashley and Helena Mould took over the Lime Kiln Inn on October 5th 1998. Although it was their first taste of pub life, they took to it like ducks to water. Ashley had previously worked in the family's business, a motor dealers in St.Annes, Nottingham. Born in the city, he has lived in the Vale of Belvoir for almost 20 years. Helena hails from Poland and came to Britain when she was 19. This was a holiday visit to her aunt and uncle who lived in Nottingham. Staying on to study at college she worked as an au pair and met Ashley. They have been married for more than twenty years.
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Licensees of the Plough Inn 1871 - William Smith 1881 - William Tidey

In the last century, the Plough was the only real drinking den in Cropton Butler, a village not served as well with pubs but then it didn't have the industry of neighbouring Cropton Bishop. However, there were two other boozers in the old days. William and Mary Smith were running the pub between the 1840's and 1870's by which time they were both in their 60's. William Smith formed a branch of the Independent Order of Goodfellows who met here at the Plough. In fact, the lodge became known as "God Speed the Plough Lodge". Following William's death, Mary retired to live in Main Street. In the early 1880's the Plough Inn was kept by William and Sarah Tidey who, in addition to running the pub, farmed some 80 acres of land. William Tidey was born in 1844 at Greyabbey on the banks of Strangford Lough in Ireland. Two years younger, Sarah was a local woman.
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Licensees of the Plough and Harrow 1871 - William Guy 1881 - William Clarke 1891 - Robert Green 1901 - Walter R. Hampson

The Plough and Harrow was between Ivy Cottage and the School House. It was originally called the Plough but the 'Harrow' was added, probably to distinguish the pub from the Plough Inn at neighbouring Cropwell Butler. In the early 1870's the Plough Inn - as it was then known - was kept by William and Ann Guy. William was born in nearby Bingham in 1833. The couple remained in the village when they left the licensed trade. Living at Thraves Yard, William worked a small plot of land. They later moved next to the Wheatsheaf where Ann ran a grocer's shop whilst William, by then in his late 60's, was still working as an agricultural labourer. In the early 1880's the Plough Inn was run by William and Betsy Clarke. William was born in Cropwell Bishop in 1853. Five years younger, Betsy hailed from the Leicestershire village of Harby. This couple were succeeded by Robert and Ann Green. In the census of 1891 Robert is documented as a plumber and publican but a trade directory compiled three years later recorded him as a stud groom and victualler. A man of many talents, he was born in East Bridgford in 1850. Ann was two years older and hailed from the Derbyshire town of Cresswell. One of their sons, Harry, was blind in one eye so may have been involved in an accident at some point.
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Licensees of the Wheatsheaf Inn 1871 - John Shipside 1891 - Henry A. Tinsley 1894 - George Maxfield 1901 - Thomas Hooley

For much of its life in the 20th century, the Wheatsheaf Inn was an outlet for Nottingham's Home Brewery. However, in more recent years it was operated by the Mansfield arm of Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries. The image to the left dates from 1904 and on the corner of the building there is a sign advertising 'Good Stabling'. Some, but not all, of the stables are still standing to the rear of the pub, parts of which are thought to be four hundred years old. In 1871 the Wheatsheaf Inn was run by John and Mary Shipside. Born in Cotgrave in 1838, John was documented as both publican and shoemaker. Business must have been good for in the 1880's he was listed as a cordwainer employing two men. Five years older, his wife Mary hailed from Willoughby. At the turn of the 20th century, the Wheatsheaf Inn was kept by Thomas and Clara Hooley, a couple from Basford where Thomas had previously worked as a pork butcher.
Copyright. All images from Digital Photographic Images and reproduced with kind permission.