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| 1840 - shows where the original Leen flowed into a shallower River Trent opposite Wilford village. Below - The 20th century Leen outflows into the Trent just downstream near Wilford bridge. In the 1950's the scene from above looked quite different with the massive Clifton Power Station and Colliery occupying the site. At this time it outflowed miles to the east near Meadow Lane. |
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| Wilford Church and Clifton power station. The outlet of the today's Tottle Brook can be seen opposite the church in roughly the same area as the top painting. The painting's outlet once was the River Leen in pre-Norman times. |
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| Today's Leen outflows a little further downstream near Wilford Bridge |
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| Red - the Leen's original course from Lenton via Kings Meadows to Wilford Dashed red - another contender. Old boundaries follow this river-like channel Green - the Sheriff of Nottingham's Norman channel goes east below the castle c.1067 Purple - engineers diverted it again when it got in the way of canal works c.1865 Orange - today's new concrete reinforced culvert to Wilford bridge c.1960 Thin Blue - the Nottingham Canal built in 1792 Thick Blue at the bottom - the river Trent |
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| 1828 - shows the Nottingham canal and what appears to be the culverted Tinker's Leen to the right |
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| 1849 - train crossing Kings Meadows approaching Nottingham. The line of trees in the middle ground could well be along the river bank of the original course of the Leen. |
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| 1832 - JMW Turner's painting of the canal running under Nottingham Castle. It used the bed of the old River Leen which was diverted north and piped under Canal Street. It is quite allegorical with nods to Lord Byron (the Greek flag on a mast) and the fires burning by the castle (the 1831 Reform Bill riots) |
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| 1806 - engraving from the pages of the book "Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson" a biography of the governor of Nottingham Castle during the Civil War |
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| 1795 - an engraving from an earlier Turner painting |
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| c.1865 this remarkable early photograph of the castle shows the Leen/canal flowing right at the foot of Castle Rock. The castle is a derelict burnt out shell after being torched by rioters in the 1831 Reform Act protests. |
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| 1880 map superimposed with a modern satellite map showing another old course of the Leen flowing around the future location of Notts County's football stadium (built in 1915), directly under the goal posts and straight down Meadow Lane! |
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| 1973 - The point where the Leen joined the River Trent prior to 1967 (after which time it was routed to the new Wilford Bridge outfall). To the rear is the Notts County Football club ground on Meadow Lane. Courtesy of Picture Nottingham/Reg Baker |
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| 2024 - the River Leen nowadays goes down a concrete reinforced culvert to its outfall into the Trent just above Wilford Bridge
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Watnall Hall and the Leen - Bad Blood with the Byrons
Sir John Byron's Bulwell Forge, one of Nottingham's first heavy industries (see "Old Industies on the Leen" below), was built on land rented from Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall Hall under the following agreement from 1st April, 1615...
"Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall-Chaworth to Sir John Byron the Younger of Builwell Parke.
LEASE for 21 years of Broome Hill in Hucknall Torkard at a rent of £6 per annum... and if the forge called Bulwell Forge and now used and imployed for the makinge and fininge of Iron do at anie time hereafter decaie and be laide downe and not used for the makinge of iron it shall be lawful for the said Lancelot Rolleston to re-enter the said close and have the same... "
He was in a dispute with Byron in 1618 over an illegal dam above Sir John's ironworks (probably the forge) for which he was eventually compensated. There had been bad blood between them for a few years and with good cause. In Feb 1604, a dispute was taken to the Star Chamber in London by George Chaworth and Edward Rolleston (Lancelot's brother), against Sir John Byron the elder and Sir John Byron his son who were their neighbours in Oxton. Chaworth & Rolleston claimed that the Byrons and others by force of arms held a church official's house in Oxton and appropriated the tithe crops and other produce, also that Edward Rolleston was assaulted with a long pike being thrust to his stomach. He obviously survived the attack if he was taking legal action. Lancelot 1 died in 1625.
Old Industries on the Leen
Iron working - Bulwell Forge - The geology and rocks of the Leen valley allowed the quarrying of building stone; lime-burning; and the smelting of iron stone. The river was harnessed to give power to Bulwell's mighty Forge Mill, described in the late 17th century by Thomas Baskerville...
"From Nottingham to Mansfield is accounted 12 miles: the way leads through Shirwood Forest, by a forge driven by water, where with weighty hammers, bigger than men can handle (which) knock or beat out long bars of iron when they are made red hot in that great forge or fire blown up by those mighty bellows; in these dams or pools of water that forge the iron are great store of trout.".
Charcoal - Baskerville continues his narrative with the forest charcoal industry that the Bulwell Forge would have relied upon... "A gentleman that was in the inn at Mansfield where I lay, told me he had, with angling, taken 50 trout in a day. As we rode through this forest we saw many old decayed oaks of which abundance were cut down by the Duke of Newcastle's order to make charcoal. They told me one Mr. Jennings was the chief master or overseer of these charcoal works.”
This forge appears to have been operating as late as 1751, when "the iron manufacture is shifted from hence."
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| "Weighty hammers"... Joseph Wright of Derby's "An Iron Forge" 1772 |
Willow basket weaving - Many years ago there would have been cracked willow trees all along the canal. All villages used to have willow beds because the wood was used for basket making. It was the only carrying facility of its time - there were no plastic or woven bags to carry your groceries in. The willow was a quick growing tree and a one year old tree could be used for wicker work. This was a key industry right up until World War Two. Nottinghamshire grew some of the finest willow in the country. It was so good that Queen Victoria came to Nottingham for her baskets. William Scaling, a Basford willow crafter, was the man who had the royal seal of approval.
Mills - on the Leen's banks stood a succession of mills, at one time numbering more than 20; for although the fall of the valley is gentle, the volume of the flow is sufficient to turn a 'breast-wheel' or an 'undershot' mill-wheel. Initially these mills were chiefly used for grinding corn. In the 18th century when the linen and cotton industry flourished in this district, many old corn mills were converted into cotton mills, and new mills were established in villages such as Papplewick. The advent of steam-power wrought great changes, in 1785 James Watt set up the first steam engine at Papplewick, built by him for the Robinsons. This was the first steam powered engine in the world to power a cotton mill. As a consequence the mill-ponds and races became neglected; the mill-wheels, save in one or two instances, ceased to revolve, and the buildings were either pulled down or converted to other uses.
Dyeing and bleaching - "the lower half of the Leen skirts the ragged edges of the city of Nottingham, and for many years in the past the stream was polluted and befouled with refuse from numerous bleach-yards and dye-works. Although the stream now has recovered its former clearness". (Harry Gill 1916)
Tanning - in 1395 borough records blame leather tanners for polluting the River Leen by laying their skins in the water “to the great detriment of the whole people aforesaid". The leather tanning process uses some very obnoxious chemicals that have to be applied to then washed out of the animal skins being tanned. The proximity of Sherwood Forest was useful as tree bark is used in tanning too.
Celery - The defeated French general Marshal Tallard (he'd lost at the Battle of Blenheim to the Duke of Marlborough) lived in Nottingham under parole but, far from being a prisoner, he endeared himself to the locals. He allegedly taught women to make white bread and popularised the eating of celery. He loved the vegetable while in France but no one in Britain knew what it was used for. That soon changed when he discovered celery growing in the wild marshes at Lenton.
Sewerage - in the 19th century, before the Nottingham Corporation's water engineer Mr. Marriot Ogle Tarbotton built his Victorian state-of-the-art sewerage treatment works, the Leen was effectively an open sewer. The growing villages along its banks discharged domestic and industrial waste directly and untreated into it¹.
Small River, Big Influence
Village names - One mile from the Leen's source, the stream entered the demesne of a monastery of Royal foundation, the Augustinian Priory of Newstead. Issuing from there, and passing Papplewick on the left bank and Linby (Leen-by) on the right bank, it reaches the ancient Forge mill about midway between Hucknall and Bulwell, when it becomes the northern boundary of the extended city of Nottingham.
On the banks of this lower half of the stream, situated about equidistance from each other, were four 'villages' which are now merged into the suburbs of Greater Nottingham. Each of these villages derived its name from its contiguity to the stream. Bulwell: from the 'bulling' or 'bubbling' well which issues from the Bunter Sandstone on the 'forest waste' to join the waters of Leen. Basford: either the ford near the home of Bassa (Bassa's ford) or 'le bas ford' the lower ford. Radford or (Rede ford): from the fact of the red sandstone in the banks; and Lenton: (Leen-ton).
Beyond Lenton the original course ran through the meadows southward to its confluence with the Trent at Wilford, until in due time the first artificial channel was made for it to turn eastward in order to bring a supply of water to the Town and Castle of Nottingham. In the loop possibly formed by this deviation, and within view of the Castle, a great Priory of the Cluniac Order, Lenton Priory was built by William Peverel (c.1105.) the Norman lord of the district and as we saw above, the first Sheriff of Nottingham.
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| Lenton Priory - once Nottingham's most powerful monastery, it was as large as Southwell Minster and stood on the banks of the old River Leen opposite today's Queen's Medical Centre. |
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| The River Leen flowing in front of Basford's St Leodegarius Church. The same view today (below) has railways, tram tracks and road bridges in the picture. The river Leen is tucked away in a culvert on the other side of the tracks. |
Sources
River Leen Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Leen
Lenton Times - https://www.lentontimes.co.uk/images/gallery/river_leen/river_leen_listener_50.htm
Notts History - http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/mellorsarticles/wilford7.htm
https://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/lenton-priory/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham_Canal
Harry Gill, Notes on the Leen and the buildings on its banks, including the churches of Lenton, Radford, Old Basford and Bulwell, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 20 (1916)
Tarbolton's sewerage report to the Nottingham Corporation 1875 - https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=s7Fh55IKMtEC&pg=GBS.PA37&hl=en_GB
History and antiquities of Nottingham, Volume 1 By James Orange 1840 - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=--kHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA223&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q=leen&f=false
This 1880 map reveals several old routes of the Leen in blue from Lenton to Wilford and via Castle Rock to East Croft and Meadow Lane... https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.4&lat=52.93940&lon=-1.13962&layers=257&b=ESRIWorld&o=88
Leen Health, Springs and Syphon - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/602668f58fa8f5037cb29b87/_Leen_Syphon.pdf
http://www.urbanfloodresilience.ac.uk/documents/the-health-of-the-river-leen.pdf
http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/mellorsarticles/basford4.htm
Castle - https://operatives-nmco.co.uk/assemblages/ntc/nottingham-castle-from-1068/
Turner in Nottingham - https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/digitaldialogues/2017/08/11/inspiring-slides-j-m-w-turners-nottingham-1832-marina-phelps/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/dec/20/artsfeatures2
Notes
1 - Sewerage and the Leen - The population in Nottingham increased rapidly in the 19th century. Large numbers of terraced houses and tenement courts were built with shared privies or outdoor closets, the contents of which were removed by ‘night-soil’ men. When water closets were introduced after about 1850, these effectively drained effluents into the river Leen, already contaminated by discharges from tanning works and from local dyeing and bleaching factories. To control the situation, the Leen Valley Sewage Board was established in 1872 and Marriott Ogle Tarbotton was appointed to devise a scheme to dispose of sewage. In 1874 the Nottingham Corporation leased land at Stoke Bardolph for use as a ‘sewage farm’. Open channels were dug from the city and in 1880 raw sewage started to flow, to be spread on the land at Stoke Bardolph. The liquid percolated through the soil and gravel into pre-dug drains, finding its way into the river Trent. Solid matter that remained on the surface was left to dry and later ploughed-in, creating fertile land on which a wide variety of crops were grown.
Workers’ cottages were built at the sewage farm in the 1880s, together with stabling for the horses working on the farm. Cowsheds, a dairy, pigsties, cart sheds, granaries and hay lofts were added, and a school was built in the village. By 1900, so much land was being flooded with sewage that it was decided to extend the farm. Additional land was leased, and a new ‘model’ farm was built at Bulcote, together with additional cottages.
It was recorded in 1910 the estate was home to 777 cattle, 724 sheep and 649 pigs, 141 horses and 100 men. Steam tractors and ploughing engines were in use and crops were grown for animal feed, with additional amounts brought in by river and train. The large labour force, together with their families, formed close-knit communities, very much involved in social functions such as dances and major events like Harvest Home.
As the years passed, the growth of Nottingham increased the volume of sewage arriving at the site, necessitating improvements in sewage processing. In the 1930s screens were installed to remove solids, with pumping facilities distributing the sludge to prepared lagoons through buried pipes. Sludge digesters were incorporated by 1960 and the resulting sludge gas was used to generate electricity. In 1974 responsibility for sewage disposal was transferred from local authorities to the newly formed Severn Trent Water Authority.
Major changes were introduced and in 1983 the lagoon system was replaced by the injection of the sludge directly into the ground, thus releasing more land for growing crops. The legacy of more than a hundred years of depositing sewage and effluents on the land meant that the ground was contaminated and rendered unsuitable for growing crops intended for human consumption. Wheat was sent to be converted into biofuel, and rapeseed was sent to be made into plastic bags. The maize grown could be processed for fodder for the dairy herd as the milk was not affected by any contamination. In 2012 the dairy herd was sold, and all the land has since been devoted to energy crops such as maize, rye and energy beet. The processed crops are fed into a digester which generates methane gas. This, together with the gas from the sludge digester, is either burnt to produce electricity or fed into the gas-grid. Together with the electricity produced from the wind turbine built in 2015, more than enough energy is generated to run the entire plant, the excess being fed into the electricity grid.
Nowadays, few workers are directly employed on the farms as work is carried out by contractors. The sewage works is an impressive modern plant, the farm buildings are reminders of a bygone age.
http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/books/gedling1908/stokebardolph.htm
The Mystery of William Peverell - The Dubious Origins of Lenton's Norman Knight Explored
The keep of Peveril Castle, Castleton. Photograph by Darren Copley from Wikipedia.org
William Peverell, the first Norman lord of Lenton and founder of ill-fated Lenton Priory - is an interesting and controversial character. Everything about him, from his presence on the field at Hastings to his allegedly illustrious yet illegitimate parentage is shrouded in mystery and mediaeval propaganda. Unpicking the truth from the fictions this long after his death is a difficult task - but the stories told about him reveal much about the mind-set prevalent in England in general and Lenton in particular in the turbulent years following the Norman Conquest.
Son of a Saxon Princess
Peverell was born in around 1040, although the exact date of his birth (like so much about his life) remains a mystery. His mother was an Anglo-Saxon princess of some prominence named Althelida Ingelric - a name later Normanised to 'Maud Ingelrica'. Her own father - William's grandfather - was Prince Ingelric, the Earl of Essex, who may have been a son of King Æthelred the Unready. At some point in her youth she travelled to Normandy, before returning to Essex around 1072 to marry a Norman nobleman named Ranulph Peverell. Keen observers will have noted that by the time she thus bestowed the surname 'Peverell' upon her family, William Peverell was undoubtedly already a grown man. Who, therefore, was his father? This is just one of the juicy mysteries surrounding Peverell, and one which would give his later tenants in Lenton much illicit speculative joy.
Alleged Role at the Battle of Hastings
Given his mother's ancestry, William was clearly as much an Englishman as he was a Norman - yet he fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. Or, at least, it is assumed that he did. Certainly he is listed in the Battle Abbey Roll, in which Peverell (or 'Peuerell') is given a newly built castle "on the site of the old Danish fort that had previously crested 'the dolorous rock' overhanging the River Lean". However, the Roll itself is of dubious authenticity. The original was supposed to have been a list of those knights who had fought with Duke William, kept in the Abbey at Battle. However, the original has been lost for around five hundred years, and modern historians are reliant on somewhat untrustworthy 'copies'. It is asserted that monks copying the document may have inserted the names of their own patrons in order to lend their monastic houses a grander mythos. E.A. Freeman dismissed the entire Roll as "transparent fiction", and other historian have agreed with his assessment. Nonetheless, the Roll and empirical evidence remain all we have to go on regarding Peverell's involvement in the Norman Conquest. Certainly he would have been of an age to join William the Conqueror's knights in their 1066 assault upon England, and William's later generosity to Peverell does perhaps indicate the kind of land-gift based gratitude which was commonly received by Conquest knights in recognition of deeds wrought on the battlefield.
Unprecedented Ducal Generosity
However, Duke William does seem to have been uncommonly generous to Peverell. The 1086 Domesday Book records him as holding a staggering 162 English manors - although he was resident largely at Lenton. The 1086 Domesday entry for Lenton describes him both as Lord and 'Tenant in chief', making him undoubtedly the lynchpin around which life in Lenton at that point would have revolved. Effectively, Peverell owned the village - and many more besides. Anyone with the resources to do so can easily find evidence of his manorial influence over England. The number of location names involving 'Peverell' in Britain is testament to the vast swathes of the nation which he and his descendants took hold of. Sampford Peverell, Hatfield Peverell, or just plain old Peverell are but a few examples which take their names directly from the illustrious William. This generosity did not go unnoticed. It was not long before subversive tongues began to wag. The discrepancy in years between his birth and his mother's marriage to Ranulph, Althelida's sojourn in Normandy, Duke William's generosity towards Peverell...to the peasants of Lenton, it all began to add up to one salacious conclusion: William Peverell was the illegitimate son of William the Conqueror.
Salacious Speculation
This is not a conclusion which can be supported by any historical evidence whatsoever. That William was illegitimate seems likely, given that he took on the surname of a man who was obviously his stepfather. It is also true that sons were often given the same first name as their fathers. However, it was common practice in Anglo-Norman culture (to which Peverell most affirmably belonged) to give the illegitimate offspring of royal princes their father's name with the prefix 'Fitz' as a surname - which would have rendered William Peverell William Fitzwilliam instead. Royal illegitimacy was not something to be particularly ashamed of - the Conqueror himself was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert of Normandy and a tanner's daughter. He was frequently mocked for being the grandson of a tanner, and would brook no mention of this fact. Indeed, during the siege of Alencon, citizens of the city taunted him by waving skins over the city walls to remind him of his humble origins. Upon capturing the city, William's vengeance was characteristically ferocious - "...when William took the fortress, he had all those who had mocked him brought before him, and then he had their hands and feet cut off". However, his illegitimacy appears to have had little impact upon his career - he was known to his contemporaries as 'William the Bastard' which, while it may have rankled a little, never cost anyone their extremities.
Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire. Photograph courtesy of CastleUK.net
Interesting Times
William Peverell's parentage thus remains one of the great unknowns about him. While Duke William certainly showed him a disproportionate amount of favour, there is little evidence to suggest that the rumours about his parentage were true. It is entirely possible that the Conqueror had other motives for his generosity - some claim that Althelida was his cousin, and family ties drew the two Williams together. Certainly Duke William was also quite generous towards Althelida's legitimate son, Ranulph. Whatever the truth of the matter, gleeful speculation into the illegitimacy or otherwise of their overlords would have allowed the people of Lenton an outlet for the frustrations and uncertainty they must have felt during those turbulent, changeable, and scary times following the Conquest - during which their entire world changed forever.
A Lasting Legacy
Peverell was an inveterate castle builder - perhaps fearing rebellion from the peoples whose lands he had been granted. Many of his castles - or remnants thereof - can still be seen today. Nottingham Castle, although largely now a 17th century rebuild of Peverell's original, still retains many aspects of the mediaeval castle (which would, of course, have been the very castle around which many of Robin Hood's adventures purportedly took place). Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire eventually came the family seat of the Peverell family. Once this was a mighty and intimidating fortress - although it has long since softened into a respectable lordly home. Peveril Castle in the Peak District - named for its founder - is a haunting and atmospheric ruin worth visiting by all with a yen for a romantic ruin. And these are just a few of Peverell's castles. He was also responsible for Codnor Castle and Langar Hall. Those wishing to get close to this enigmatic man and his legacy to the modern world are, therefore, somewhat spoiled for choice!
Article written by Emma Bell - 2014
https://www.lentontimes.co.uk/related_history/william_peverell.htm
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