A Hucknall History

NAME OF THE PARISH.

The place-name Hokenhale and Hokenale are two of the oldest renderings of the fore-name of the parish, and may be taken to mean Oakenhall, the hall in the oakwood.   In the ancient Saxon language the oak was variously called hack, hick, heck, and ock; so it is readily seen how easily the fore-name could be changed from Oakenhall to Hucknall in days when printing was unknown in this land, and education limited to the few. In Domesday Book (A.D. 1086) the name appears as Hochenale. This is only one of many instances hereabouts where the botanical features of the district give the place a name; thus we have Nuthall, the hall in the nut wood; Birchenall, the hall in the birch wood; Farnsfield—from the ferns; Elmton—from the Elms; Sutton in the Ashfield; and even Bestwood, from its varied spelling in the middle ages, indicates that it was derived from beechwood.

Another origin of the name is suggested by Flavell Edmunds in his Traces of History in the Names of Places. He says, Huck, Hucken, Eng, is derived from Hucc, the owner's name, and incga, descendants. Example: Hucken-hall (Notts.) now Hucknall. As there is no record of Hucc being a landowner here, the Oakenhall origin appears the more likely.

The suffix Torkard is clearly traceable to the family of that name resident here 600 years ago, and was probably added in order to distinguish the parish from Hucknall-under-Huthwaite (called derty Hucknal in the 18th century), and also from Ault Hucknall in Derbyshire.

SAXON PERIOD.

King Canute often hunted in Sherwood, and must have passed Hucknall occasionally.   He issued (A.D. 1017) a Charter of Forest, in which the following clause appears:— Every freeman shall enjoy the benefit of his own hunting on his own lands, woods, and fields, and to take his own vert (pasture) and venison upon his own grounds, without let or hindrance, so that he should refrain from hunting the King's wild beast (deer) in his own forest.

Whether Hucknall was within the forest boundary in Saxon times is not certain, but in 1231 the forest boundaries were perambulated and the line of demarcation ran through Kirkby and Nun Carre, along Annesley Park Road, ...

Next to the Bible and Shakespeare there is no more valuable book in England than Domesday Book, which was compiled A.D. 1086, by order of King William the Conqueror. This book, in two parchment volumes, is in careful keeping at Westminster, in an iron-bound box, thrice locked. The monkish writer of the Peterborough Chronicle, who knew the Conqueror, describes in the following lines how Domesday Book was compiled:— The King had a great council and very deep speech. Then sent he men all over England unto every shire, and caused to be ascertained how many inhabited houses were in the shire, and cattle within the land; so he caused it to be traced out that there was not a single hide, nor one yard of land, nor even—it is shame to utter, though it seemed no shame to do—was there an ox, or a cow, or a pig passed by that was not set down in the accounts, and then all these writings were brought to him.

Domesday Book was so called because it was to be held as a supreme authority in case of doom or judgement between disputing parties.

BROXTOWE WAPENTAKE

WILLIAM PEVERAL'S LAND (Manor).—In Hochenale (Hucknall Torkard) two brothers had 4 bovates of land (assessed) to the geld. There is land for half a plough. There 3 villeins have 1 plough.—In King Edward's time it was worth 8 shillings; now (it is worth) 4 shillings.

RALPH DE BURUN'S LAND (Manor).—In Hochenale (Hucknall Torkard) Ulchet had 12 bovates of land (assessed) to the geld. There is land for 2 ploughs. There Osmund, Ralf's man, has 1 plough, and 5 villeins have 3½ ploughs. Wood (land) for pannage 1 league in length and half in breadth.—In King Edward's time it was worth 30 shillings; now it is worth 15 shillings.

From this we learn that Two Brothers and Ulchet held land here in the time of King Edward the Confessor (A.D. 1042-1066) and had to pay laud tax for protection against invaders. The Saxon owner of one Hucknall manor had limited powers and privileges of judging causes, levying fines, and executing laws at Bulwell and Hempshill.

William Peveril was said to be the natural son of William the Conqueror: he held many manors besides his Hucknall possessions. The manor did not long remain in his family, for another William Peveril—probably grandson—tried to take away the life of Ranulphe Earl of Chester, which was by poison done. After hearing of Henry the Second's fewry he fled the Realme, leaving all his castles and lordshipp to the King's disposal. The Manor of Hucknall passed first to the Greys of Sandiacre, and afterwards in succession to the Greenhills, Winkeburns, Gonaldstones, and Crumwells, the latter settling it (or a portion thereof) on the Prior of Beauvale. The Torre MSS. (kept in York Minster) states that Peveril's manor passed to the Fitzcostes (falconers at Hucknall), then to Greys of Sandiacre, who were holding the manor in the reign of Henry VI. (A.D. 1422-1460). Torre states that the Leeks afterwards held the property by doing Knights' service, and carrying one falcon from Michaelmas to Lent. Thoroton and Torre agree that Lancelot Curtis afterwards inherited these lands, consequently the present-day owners of the estate are Miss Jackson, of Broomhill House, and her sister, Mrs. Story, of Birtles Old Hall, Cheshire, daughters of the late Rev. Curtis Jackson.

What became of the Burun (Byron) manor described in Domesday Book is not easily traced. Some of it was given to Newstead Priory and after the time of the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII. the priory lands and the manor of Hucknall passed to Sir John Byron, the grant being made by King James I. by Letters Patent under the Great Seal bearing date 30th June, A.D. 1615.   The Duke of Portland's Librarian courteously furnishes (through Mr. T. Warner Turner) the further information that Lord Byron's estates were sold in February, 1774, to the Duke of Devonshire's Trustees, and the land in Hucknall Torkard so purchased by the Duke of Devonshire became the property of the Duke of Portland's family by virtue of an exchange in May, A.D. 1814.

A writer stated that the Osmund mentioned in Domesday Book was tenant to Ralph de Burun, and was succeeded by Geoffrey Torkard, but the latter could hardly be Osmund's direct successor, because Geoffrey was living A.D. 1180.

The clearance in the forest in Domesday times, as far as can be conjectured, would stretch from Spring Bank to the Yew Tree Inn. The arable land in those times was not fenced with hedges or walls, but was broken up into half-acre strips a furrow long (furlong), and these were divided from each other by green balks of unploughed turf. A glance at the map of Hucknall to-day indicates the system of land tillage in Saxon and Norman times. The long narrow strips of land occupied by West Terrace and Vine Terrace, Wollaton Street, and those bordering on West Street, High Street, and Portland Road must have been set out by Saxons and Normans. The plots belonging to different occupiers were all intermingled; thus every fifth strip might be the lord's, and every tenth strip the parson's. The villagers had rights of pasture over all these scattered strips after the crops were gathered, as well as on the green commons of the manor.

The villeins (yeomen) paid little or no rent for their holdings to their lord, but each had to provide one or two oxen towards the four yoke usually required for each manorial team to draw the wooden plough, and give service on the manor farm two or three days a week. As years rolled on the surrounding forest was felled and a larger area of land cultivated on the three-field system. Evidence of this system exists to-day at Hucknall in the North Field, which stretched from the thoroughfare now called Spring Street to Dobb Park Farm; South Field, nowadays occupied by the Buildings; and the East Field, which was approached from Wigwam Lane and extended eastwards to the river Leen. Once a villein always a villein, was a common saying, his chief hope of escape from serfdom being ordination at the hands of a bishop. His children were born into villeinage, and his daughters had to obtain their lord's consent before marriage. The villein sat in his lord's court of justice, and followed him to war.

The population of the hamlet at the time of Domesday Survey may be set down at about sixty.

A.D. 1105. William Peveril founded the important priory of Lenton, and gave to it some of his Papplewick land and the Church at Linby; also a husbandman to gather in tithes for the prior and monks.

A.D. 1135. King Henry I. died. This monarch granted two cart-loads of wood daily from his forest at Bestwood to feed the Priory fires at Lenton.

A.D. 1138. Great distress was caused in Notts, during the Civil War which took place between rival claimants for the crown. Nottingham people suffered terribly, and a writer of that time says: Thou mightest go a whole day's journey and not find a man sitting peaceably in a town, or an acre of land in cultivation. The poorer classes perished in vast numbers through famine and distress, consequent on extreme privation, and even the wealthier classes were with difficulty enabled to obtain a subsistence for their families. This widespread distress would leave its mark on the little hamlet, and the men would be called, hence to do battle in the ranks of the rivals.

A.D. 1170. Newstead Priory was this year founded in Sherwood Forest by Henry II. as a token of his sorrow for the murder of his old friend and counsellor, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was done to death before the high altar in the Cathedral by some young hotbloods, who thought they were thereby rendering the King a service.

Hugh Fitze-coste had a considerable area of land at Hucknall in return for carrying a goss-hawk at the King's cost. His son William held a similar appointment, having to keep and train his falcon at his own house. This circumstance gives us an interesting glimpse of life here in the 13th century, for the training of falcons would be a great attraction to the few villagers then resident in the parish. None but well-to-do people were allowed to keep falcons, and if one of the birds were lost a heavy penalty was inflicted on the finder if he failed to restore it to the Sheriff, the latter having to advertise the find and keep the bird three months before he could regard it as his own, the law requiring him to suitably recompense the man who found it. John Leek, of Hucknall, was also a King's falconer. The mews where the falcons were kept would not be far removed from the Green. Hugh received £6 13s. 4d. per annum, and ninepence per day extra when attending the King in his hunts in Sherwood Forest.