Greasley

The Library at Nottingham will prove useful in your research.

• The Kimberley Cemetery on Broomhill Road has its own mortuary chapel, but it may no longer be in use. It is managed by the Kimberley town council.
   
• The Kimberley Cemetery mortuary chapel is a listed building under the 1990 Act as enacted by Historic England.
   
• Lynne KIRTON has a photograph of Kimberley cemetery on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2010.
   
• The parish church graveyard contains the tomb of Benjamin DRAWATER who was ship’s surgeon on one of Captain Cook’s voyages. Dr. DRAWATER died in June, 1815. His wife Dorothy, who died one month before him, is in the same tomb.
   
• Chris ? has a photograph of the Drawwater Tomb in the churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2014.
   

• The parish was in the Greasley sub-district of the Basford Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• Beauvale Abbey and the Priory, stood just over a mile north of this village, on the edge of High Park Wood. The priory was founded in 1343 by Nicholas de CANTELUPE in honour of the Blessed Trinity.
   
• The 1086 Domesday Book mentions a church and a priest at Greasley.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary.
   
• The church chancel was built in the 11th century and is the oldest part of the church.
   
• The church tower was added in the 15th century.
   
• The church was restored in 1881-82 and restored again in 1896. In 1896, the church chancel and nave were rebuilt.
   
• The church seats 355 people.
   
• The church has suffered considerable damage from subsidence caused by local coal mining.
   
• David HALLAM-JONES has a photograph of St. Mary's Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2013.
   
• Neil PACKWOOD has a photograph of St. Mary's Church tower on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2010.
   
• The townships of Kimberley and Brinsley formed their own ecclesiastical districts, each with a separate church and parsonage.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from May, 1600, for baptisms and burials and from April, 1660, for marriages. These early records are often undecipherable and are in poor condition. The period from 1710 to 1730 is missing altogether.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Mansfield.
   
• The Primitive Methodists, the Baptists and the Reformers each had a chapel in Newthorpe before 1881.
   
• The Congregationalists had a chapel in Moorgreen founded in 1662.
   
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel in Watnall before 1881.
   
• There is a photograph of the United Methodist Free Church on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2008.
   

• The parish was in the Greasley sub-district of the Basford Registration District.
   
• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   

Greasley is both a township and a parish. The parish contains the hamlets of; Moor Green, Brinsley, Kimberley, Newthorpe, Watnall Chaworth and Watnall Cantelupe. The parish lies 137 miles north of London and 7 miles north-west of Nottingham. The parish covers just under 5,200 acres.

There was once a village called Greasley, but the Earl of Rutland had it pulled down so that he could have a better view.

The 58 acre Moorgreen Reservoir was built in 1794.

Moor Green is a hamlet 2.5 miles from Langley Mill station. It was formerly called "Greasley Moor Green", partly because the parish church was located here.

Newthorpe is a hamlet on the Erewash River. It is 1 mile south-west of Greasley church.

Watnall Chaworth and Watnall Cantelupe form one village in the parish.

Kimberley was split off as a separate parish in 1896.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, take the M1 motorway to the A610 trunk road at roundabout 26 and turn west. At the second roundabout, just past Eastwood, turn north. You should be on the A608. Turn right on to Nottingham Road and follow that down into Greasley.
   
• Alternatively, by automobile, you can take the A6008 from the heart of Nottingham and follow it northwest to Greasley. You will have to turn on to the Derby Road (A610) for the last part of your journey.
   

• Geograph
• Flickr

• We have an extract from White's 1853 Directory relating to this parish.
   

Read about Greasley in John Marius WILSON's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870-72."

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Greasley to another place.

On 5 October, 1785, Benjamin DRAWWATER married Dorothy TOPLIS in this parish. Benjamin had been one of the Surgeon's mates on Captain COOK's voyages of the 1770s. Benjamin died and was buried in Greasley churchyard in June, 1815.

Their first child, Augustus Benjamin Charles DRAWWATER was baptized on 07 Aug 1786 in the chapel at Eastwood, Notts.

Their daughter Mary DRAWWATER was baptized on 1 April 1789 in Greasley.

On 1 August 1841, Edmund WARDLE married Sarah MELLOWS, daughter of James and Maria.

• Read about the Lost Village of Greasley online.
   
• Lancelot ROLLESTON of Watnall who died in 1685 had been the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1682.
   
• The "Cricket Players' Arms" was an 18th century public house in Kimberley township. It originally stood on the main road between Eastwood and Kimberley, across from the village green. But eventually a church was built on the green and the railway caused the main road to be re-aligned, which placed the pub behind an embankment. It was finally torn down in the 1950s. [Thank you Bob Armstrong, NZ]
   
• William WARBURTON, who later became the Bishop of Gloucester, was the vicar at Greasley from 1723 to 1725.
   
• Local author D. H. Lawrence used Moorgreen Reservoir as a setting in two of his books, calling it Willey Water in Women in Love and Nethermere in The White Peacock.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.
   

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK491471 (Lat/Lon: 53.018954, -1.269515), Greasley which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• In the township of Kimberley stands this War Memorial, as found on Geo-graph, photo taken in August, 2008.
   
• There are eight Commonwealth War Graves in St. Mary's Churchyard.
   

There are 6 Commonwealth War Grave burials of the 1914-1918 war and 2 of the 1939-1945 war in St. Mary's churchyard:

• Private Thomas BARRETT, West Yorks. Regt., died 21 April 1940
• Trumpeter W. H. BURROWS, So. Notts. Hussars, died 15 Nov. 1918
• Sergeant Kenneth Wilson COATES, RAFVR, died 18 May 1941
• Private Cecil Albert DANIELS, Seaforth H., died 24 March 1919
• Clerk Lilian Cecilia HOLMES, WRAF, died 4 Nov. 1918
• Rifleman Dominic RODDY, KRRC, died 21 Dec 1918
• Lance Corporal George TAYLOR, Lincs. Regt., died 26 March 1918
• Bombardier George WEBBERLEY, R.F.A., died 16 April 1919

There are 9 Commonwealth War Grave burials in the Kimberley Cemetery:

• Captain Basil Ridley JILLINGS, Royal Artillery, died 15 Feb. 1947
• Stoker Harold PARKIN, H.M.S. Victory, died 6 January 1944
• R. ELLIOTT, R.F.A., died 28 February 1915
• Private T. A. BOOTH, Notts. Yeomanry, died 27 February 1919
• Private William James BROMWICH, Sherwood Foresters, died 16 April 1919
• Private Alfred BURTON, Training Reserve, died 20 August 1918
• Lce. Cprl. Stanley Cecil CARRIER, Northumb. Fus., died 11 Dec 1918
• Private Albert CLIFTON, Sherwood Foresters, died 20 May 1921
• Gunner Ernest LILLY, R.G.A., died 10 August 1916

For another look at the war memorial and to see the list of names associated with it, see the Roll of Honour website.

In the 1086 Domesday Book the name is rendered as "Griseleia".

• This place was an ancient parish of county Nottingham and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• This parish was in the Broxtowe Hundred or Wapentake in the northern division of the county.
   
• On 9 October, 1877, this parish gave up the Hempshill area to Nuthall Civil Parish in return for two parts, Giltbrook and Gilthill, which it received. This reduced Greasley Civil Parish by about 790 acres.
   
• On 1 April, 1896, this parish was reduced in size to help create the Brinsley Civil Parish and the Kimberley Civil Parish.
   
• On 1 April, 1935, this parish was reduced by 226 acres to enlarge Eastwood Civil Parish.
   
• You may contact the local Greasley Parish Council regarding civic or political issues, but they are NOT staffed to provide family history searches for you.
   
• Chris ? has a photograph of the Greasley Village Hall on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2014. Stop by when they are open and ask to see the schedule of forth-coming events. You may find lectures on local history and famous individuals.
   
• District governance is provided by the Broxtowe Burrough Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Nottingham petty session hearings.
   
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish became a part of the Basford Poor Law Union.
   
• The hamlet of Newthorpe was entitled to send one poor person to Ilkeston Almshouses in Derbyshire.
   

Note: The parish was greatly reduced in size in 1896 and 1935.

Year	Inhabitants
1801	2,968
1831	4,583
1851	5,284
1861	6,280
1871	7,113
1881	8,867
1891	11,143
1901	5,694
1911	5,970
1921	6,279

• An endowed School was built at Newthorpe in 1878 to hold 400 children and 150 infants. This school was enlarged in 1891.
   
• A Board School was built at Watnall in 1752 by the widow of Lancelot ROLLESTON.
   
• The Kimberley School is a mainstream, state-funded senior school (mixed).