Early history

The red cliffs along the river gave Radcliffe-on-Trent its name. The first specific information about the village comes from the Domesday Book of 1086, some twenty years after the Norman Conquest. This records two manors and fisheries, but there is no mention of a church or mills.  Lamcote, Radcliffe’s neighbouring hamlet, had three manors. Eventually it would be absorbed and administered by Radcliffe, despite being in the ecclesiastical parish of Holme Pierrepont. In medieval times the main landowners were the Deyncourt, Basily, Grey and Strelly families.

            The church of St Mary on Radcliffe’s main street is found in written records by the13th century. A chantry chapel was founded for a priest to say mass there for the soul of Stephen de Redcliffe who died in 1245, having left a pasture to the ‘town’. His wooden effigy in the church was apparently burned on a celebratory bonfire at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a plaque to his memory being placed there instead. In 1379 the value of the living was reduced when lands and rent producing the main tithes were granted to Thurgarton Priory. The incumbent was no longer a rector, but a vicar who could collect only the lesser tithes. (The title of rector has been recently revived.)

Tudor and Stuart times

The end of the Wars of the Roses brought in the Lancastrian Tudor dynasty led by Henry VII. Even after the battle of Bosworth in 1485, the Yorkists remained a threat. In  1487 five ‘good and true men’ of Radcliffe guided Henry VII to East Stoke where the Yorkists were finally defeated. Other Tudor changes came with the dissolution of the monasteries in Henry VIII’s reign. Thurgarton Priory’s former Radcliffe lands came into the hands of lay landowners who still collected the main tithes until the late 18th century. The more extreme Protestantism of Edward VI’s reign put an end to chantries, including Stephen de Redcliffe’s chapel in Radcliffe.

            By this time the main manorial lords were the Rosells who lived at what is now Tudor Grange. From the 1520s their status was increased after Harold Rosell married Dorothy Cranmer of Aslockton, the sister of Thomas, the future Archbishop of Canterbury. With the return of Catholicism in Mary’s reign Cranmer was executed by burning at the stake. There is no evidence of nonconformity to the moderate Protestantism of Queen Elizabeth’s reign which followed.

            In general, the Rosells were regarded as good landlords, and they were loyal to the crown during the Civil Wars of Charles I’s time. Radcliffe itself, situated between Parliamentarians holding Nottingham Castle and Royalists in the Vale of Belvoir, seems to have escaped the conflict. Captain Gervase Rosell, however, is recorded in 1643 as a defender in Royalist Newark against the Roundheads. Two years later, Radcliffe was one of many places that suffered plague, some eight victims being recorded in the parish register.

            By the end of the 17th century the Rosells were on the wane, trapped in financial obligations and with a dwindling male bloodline. From 1711 another Gervase began selling off his Radcliffe and Lamcote lands, and moved to Derbyshire. He was father to six daughters. Today, the only remembrance of the Rosell squires is on a Victorian plaque in the church recording donations to the Jeffrey Dole, a charity founded by wheelwright Jeffrey Limner who died in 1617.

The 18th century

Soon after the departure of the Rosells, the Pierreponts of Holme Pierrepont and Thoresby extended their holdings in Radcliffe and from 1724 were the major landlords until well into the twentieth century. As Earls of Kingston-upon-Hull from 1628, and with a dukedom from 1715, the Pierreponts were absentee landlords with vast estates, using agents to administer their holdings. The dukedom failed when the second Duke of Kingston had no male heir. (His wife was eventually found guilty of bigamy.) The Radcliffe lands then passed to his nephew, Charles Medows, who adopted the name of Pierrepont and was granted the title of Earl Manvers in 1806.

            A major change to the traditional farming pattern took place from 1790. The three open fields (Cliff, Breck and Stony) and three pastures (Sunpit, Trent and Hesgang - the latter Stephen de Redcliffe’s gift, now across the river after a change in the Trent’s course) were enclosed and the old strip system of agriculture and communal grazing rights came to an end.

            Two years later, after years of neglect, St Mary’s church steeple fell onto the main roof and the south aisle of the church. Following disputes about the rebuilding, the modified church was completed about 1799 with a castellated tower, and eventually a sundial instead of a clock (the latter first mentioned as early as 1580). The whole was described as a ‘mean, though neat, building’. Many of the 18th century slate headstones have survived in the churchyard, those by George and James Sparrow being of particular note.

            By this time the Anglican Church was being challenged by the preaching of John Wesley. The first Wesleyan meetings were held before 1791 in Baker Beeson’s house on Mount Pleasant, and the first chapel built on an adjoining site in 1796. Other branches of Methodism - the Primitive and the Independent Primitive - were also established in Radcliffe during the early 19th century.

Victorian Radcliffe

The village had to wait over 40 years for the replacement of the church clock. A visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1843 was commemorated by the purchase of a two-dialed chiming clock for £85 in 1844. It was to outlast the building it was put in. The chancel was rebuilt in 1858, and the rest of the church enlarged by 1879 and given a distinctive high tower with a saddle-back roof. Two new bells supplemented the existing four, and provision was made for another two, which were hung in 1946. A brass from 1626 is now the only item in the church to pre-date the Victorian era. The clock is still working in the new tower. A nearby cemetery was opened in 1870 to supplement the overcrowded churchyard.

            One reason for the expansion of the church was the increase in population - from 761 in 1801 to 1704 in 1881. (Today the population is around 8,000.) The coming of the railway in 1851 encouraged Nottingham people to move out to Radcliffe. New housing began to appear along the Bingham, Cropwell and Shelford Roads, away from the old centre. As well as new residents, the railway brought trippers who enjoyed the river, the cliffs and the public houses. Radcliffe became known as ‘Little Scarborough’, but the crowds led to disorder and in 1874 it was decided that a Police Station should be built. (Today the building is mainly used as a solicitor’s office.)

            Further changes included improvements in sanitation and water supplies. A widespread scarlet fever epidemic in 1881-2 led to the deaths of 26 Radcliffe children. Although no link with the open drain running through the village centre was established, it was permanently culverted. A new Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on Shelford Road in 1893. Other chapels eventually closed, but the Shelford Road premises remain as the only Methodist chapel in the village. In 1894 a Parish Council replaced the old Vestry meetings. A recreation ground on Wharf Lane was opened in 1897. Radcliffe also became synonymous with cricket with George Parr (the England captain) and Richard Daft living in the village. Schools, both private and public, flourished in Victorian times. The school opposite the church had its roots in a foundation by the Dowager Countess Manvers in 1825. It moved to new premises on Bingham Road in 1909 (now demolished.)

Modern times

The 20th century saw the addition of the War Memorial to the churchyard, recording the deaths of 52 Radcliffe men killed in the First World War, and another nine who died as a result of illness on active service. The gift of the Rockley Memorial Park, and the adjacent walk along the cliffs, by Lisle Rockley in memory of his son killed in the war has been a permanent and attractive asset to the village. Another nineteen names were added to the War Memorial after the Second World War.

            The ownership of Radcliffe lands by Lord Manvers largely came to an end in 1920, with final sales in 1941. The 1920s, however, were enlivened by the frequent presence of the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, when visiting Lamcote House and Brick House on Water Lane. (Both houses have since been demolished.) The increasing use of the motor car accelerated the dormitory nature of Radcliffe - a bypass was constructed by 1930. After the Second World War a housing estate for Canadian airmen at Langar was built in Radcliffe, the property coming into private hands after their departure in 1963. Other new estates have been developed off Shelford Road, St Anne's Catholic Church on New Road opened in 1962, and three schools - Primary, Junior and Comprehensive - now cater for children from the village and beyond.

            Today, Radcliffe remains a pleasant place to live with numerous amenities, including a good shopping centre, library, medical centre, bus and train services, three centrally located churches, sports facilities. In October 2004 the Parish Council achieved it's long planned goal to provide a multipurpose community hall in the village incorporating the Parish Council office.

For fuller information about the history of Radcliffe-on-Trent, look on the Ashbracken website for details of books on the village:

www.ashbracken.com