Creswell, Derbyshire
Encyclopedia
Creswell is a village
located in Bolsover
, near Worksop
, Derbyshire
, England
, United Kingdom
. It is best known for Creswell Crags
and Creswell Model Village
.
Local Government
services are provided by Elmton-with-Creswell
Parish Council, Bolsover District Council and Derbyshire County Council.
is mentioned in the Domesday Book
, Creswell remained a nearby collection of farming houses until the construction of a turnpike road along the present A616
brought added importance. The arrival of the coal mining
industry in the last decade of the 19th century had a dramatic effect on the area and Creswell became the larger community.
in the area and Creswell Colliery came into being. The Bolsover Colliery Company owned the pit until it was nationalised in 1947. Creswell Colliery was often regarded as one of the most efficient pits in the East Midlands
coalfield. The colliery was also well known for its sporting and social activities and Creswell Colliery Band was for a long time one of the country’s leading brass band
s and had been broadcast
several times on BBC Radio
.
Creswell Model Village
was built in 1895 to house the coal mining families. Expansion of housing continued throughout the 20th century. Officially Creswell is in Derbyshire but very close to the borders of Nottinghamshire
and Yorkshire
. Creswell has a Nottinghamshire postal address with a Yorkshire postcode. Creswell Colliery was in the North Nottinghamshire coalfield but miners holidayed at the Derbyshire Miner’s Holiday Camp.
Word of the disaster spread quickly around the village and many of the off duty minors and upwardly mobile residents of the village rushed to offer any type of assistance they could, one miner, who had broken his back several months before, went down the stricken pit with a back brace on to rescue his fellow workers.
, opened by the LD&ECR
in 1897 The second Elmton and Creswell
(known as bottom station) was one stop on the Midland Railway
line running between Worksop
and Mansfield
. It was closed by the Beeching axe
in the early 1960s but was reopened in the 1990s as the Robin Hood Line
.
The local landscape had been very beautiful but during the 20th century it was scarred by a century of mining with the black, spoil tips of unwanted debris from miles underground, with the air-born pollution from the pit chimneys always belching out smoke, scarred by poor architecture
and housing.
Beyond the village, the landscape has two very unusual features: Creswell Crags
and Markland Grips, both are dolomitic limestone
gorges but the former is much more important as it has been identified as the home to prehistoric man and Creswell Crags
hosts many famous cave
s.
During World War 2 children used to play in the caves at the Craggs and in the woods behind the Craggs there is a quarry the woods were a great place for sweet chesnuts and Markland Grips popular for fishing, Hazlenuts and Blackberries.
Creswell in the mid 20th Century supported facilities not to be found in other villages such as a cinema
on King Street burned down in the 1930s but was replaced (on Elmton Road) by a stylish art deco
cinema called the Regors after being built by the Rogers family in the 1930s, becoming like many others, a bingo hall in the late 1960s. The second facility the village had to offer was the ‘baths
’ built in 1919. This was not only a council facility for swimming, it also included slipper baths for the many homes that didn’t have their own bathrooms at this date.
By the mid 20th century the village had one main Church of England
parish church
and both a Methodist and Baptist
chapel
. A third chapel had been closed down and was then used as part of the Infant School
. A Roman Catholic church was built in the late 1950s.
Creswell Colliery closed in the early 1990s, after the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). Creswell like many other communities throughout the UK had to look for a new direction. A significant drop in population
took place.
The Creswell Social Centre(previously called The Drill Hall)has always been the hub of the village; hosting parties and weddings along with sports and entertainment such as wrestling and boxing, both of which have given the Creswell people an event to watch and in many cases the competitors have been from Creswell and the surrounding areas such as Whitwell and Worksop.
The centre has also had something for the ladies with male strippers being the feature of a 'Ladies Only' night in August 2009.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
located in Bolsover
Bolsover (district)
Bolsover is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. Its main town is Bolsover.There are fourteen town and parish councils within the district.In addition to the town councils of Old Bolsover and Shirebrook, there are the parish councils of:...
, near Worksop
Worksop
Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated to be 39,800...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It is best known for Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England near the villages of Creswell, Whitwell and Elmton...
and Creswell Model Village
Creswell Model Village
Creswell Model Village is an arts and crafts style model village built in the English town of Creswell, Derbyshire in 1895 by the Bolsover Colliery Company, designed by architect Percy B. Houfton to accommodate the workers and families of the newly founded Creswell Colliery...
.
Local Government
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
services are provided by Elmton-with-Creswell
Elmton-with-Creswell
Elmton-with-Creswell is a civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire.Forming part of Bolsover district its main settlements are Elmton, Creswell and Creswell Model Village.- External links :*...
Parish Council, Bolsover District Council and Derbyshire County Council.
History
Whilst ElmtonElmton
Elmton is a linear village. It is located in the parish of Elmton-with-Creswell in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire approximately equidistant between Bolsover Castle and Creswell Crags.- History :...
is mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, Creswell remained a nearby collection of farming houses until the construction of a turnpike road along the present A616
A616 road
The A616 is a road which links Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, to the M1 motorway at Junction 30, then reappears at Junction 35A and goes on to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire....
brought added importance. The arrival of the coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
industry in the last decade of the 19th century had a dramatic effect on the area and Creswell became the larger community.
Creswell in the 20th century
Creswell expanded throughout the 20th century after a lease was obtained from the Duke of Portland in 1889 for the top hard seam of coalCoal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
in the area and Creswell Colliery came into being. The Bolsover Colliery Company owned the pit until it was nationalised in 1947. Creswell Colliery was often regarded as one of the most efficient pits in the East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...
coalfield. The colliery was also well known for its sporting and social activities and Creswell Colliery Band was for a long time one of the country’s leading brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s and had been broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
several times on BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
.
Creswell Model Village
Creswell Model Village
Creswell Model Village is an arts and crafts style model village built in the English town of Creswell, Derbyshire in 1895 by the Bolsover Colliery Company, designed by architect Percy B. Houfton to accommodate the workers and families of the newly founded Creswell Colliery...
was built in 1895 to house the coal mining families. Expansion of housing continued throughout the 20th century. Officially Creswell is in Derbyshire but very close to the borders of Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
and Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. Creswell has a Nottinghamshire postal address with a Yorkshire postcode. Creswell Colliery was in the North Nottinghamshire coalfield but miners holidayed at the Derbyshire Miner’s Holiday Camp.
Creswell Colliery mining disaster, 1950
On the night of 26 September 1950, 80 men were overcome by smoke and fumes and perished underground at Creswell Colliery, with 23 bodies remaining underground for a year until it was safe to remove them.Word of the disaster spread quickly around the village and many of the off duty minors and upwardly mobile residents of the village rushed to offer any type of assistance they could, one miner, who had broken his back several months before, went down the stricken pit with a back brace on to rescue his fellow workers.
Amenities
Creswell had two railway stations with the first one (known as Top station locally), later to be closed in the 1940s was Creswell & WelbeckCreswell and Wellbeck railway station
Creswell and Welbeck railway station was a railway station in Creswell, Derbyshire, England. It was opened by the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway in March 1897 and closed in 1939...
, opened by the LD&ECR
Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway
The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway was a British railway company built toward the end of the era of British railway construction. It opened its line from Chesterfield to Lincoln in 1897....
in 1897 The second Elmton and Creswell
Creswell railway station
Creswell railway station serves the village Creswell in Derbyshire, England. The station is on the Robin Hood Line between Nottingham and Worksop. It is also the nearest station to the larger village of Clowne....
(known as bottom station) was one stop on the Midland Railway
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
line running between Worksop
Worksop
Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated to be 39,800...
and Mansfield
Mansfield
Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the main town in the Mansfield local government district. Mansfield is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area....
. It was closed by the Beeching axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
in the early 1960s but was reopened in the 1990s as the Robin Hood Line
Robin Hood Line
The Robin Hood Line is a railway line running from Nottingham to Worksop, Nottinghamshire. The stations between Shirebrook and Whitwell are in Derbyshire.The towns and villages served by the route are listed below:*Nottingham*Bulwell*Hucknall...
.
The local landscape had been very beautiful but during the 20th century it was scarred by a century of mining with the black, spoil tips of unwanted debris from miles underground, with the air-born pollution from the pit chimneys always belching out smoke, scarred by poor architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and housing.
Beyond the village, the landscape has two very unusual features: Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England near the villages of Creswell, Whitwell and Elmton...
and Markland Grips, both are dolomitic limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
gorges but the former is much more important as it has been identified as the home to prehistoric man and Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England near the villages of Creswell, Whitwell and Elmton...
hosts many famous cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
s.
During World War 2 children used to play in the caves at the Craggs and in the woods behind the Craggs there is a quarry the woods were a great place for sweet chesnuts and Markland Grips popular for fishing, Hazlenuts and Blackberries.
Creswell in the mid 20th Century supported facilities not to be found in other villages such as a cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
on King Street burned down in the 1930s but was replaced (on Elmton Road) by a stylish art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
cinema called the Regors after being built by the Rogers family in the 1930s, becoming like many others, a bingo hall in the late 1960s. The second facility the village had to offer was the ‘baths
Bathing
Bathing is the washing or cleansing of the body in a fluid, usually water or an aqueous solution. It may be practised for personal hygiene, religious ritual or therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity....
’ built in 1919. This was not only a council facility for swimming, it also included slipper baths for the many homes that didn’t have their own bathrooms at this date.
By the mid 20th century the village had one main Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
and both a Methodist and Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
. A third chapel had been closed down and was then used as part of the Infant School
Infant school
An Infant school is a term used primarily in the United Kingdom for school for children between the ages of four and seven years. It is usually a small school serving a particular locality....
. A Roman Catholic church was built in the late 1950s.
Creswell Colliery closed in the early 1990s, after the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). Creswell like many other communities throughout the UK had to look for a new direction. A significant drop in population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
took place.
The Creswell Social Centre(previously called The Drill Hall)has always been the hub of the village; hosting parties and weddings along with sports and entertainment such as wrestling and boxing, both of which have given the Creswell people an event to watch and in many cases the competitors have been from Creswell and the surrounding areas such as Whitwell and Worksop.
The centre has also had something for the ladies with male strippers being the feature of a 'Ladies Only' night in August 2009.