Farnsfield

Farnsfield is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire in Sherwood Forest. It is in the local government district of Newark and Sherwood.

Location

The village is located convert|4|mi|km north west of Southwell. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 it had a population of 2,681 [ [http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=798424&c=Farnsfield&d=16&e=15&g=479357&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1206478231846&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 "Area: Farnsfield CP (Parish)"] ]

History & Amenities

The parish church of St Michael was rebuilt in 1859-60 following a fire.

To the south of the village, along the footpath to Oxton, is a small Roman marching camp, a small Roman fort. One mile south west of the village is a small oval earthwork at Combs Farm. Encircled by a bank and ditch it appears (from excavated material) to be Romano-British in origin. Two ditches in a wood at Camp Hill, 1½ miles north east of Farnsfield are the remaining traces of an Iron Age earthwork, a hillfort, which was estimated in the 18th century to have been 40 acres in area. [Pevsner, Nikolaus. 1979. "The Buildings of England:Nottinghamshire".Harmondsworth, Middx. Penguin.]

There was a tower windmill on Siding Lane (gbmapping|SK644572) shown on a map of 1898 [Ordnance Survey One Inch to Mile, 1898] as an 'old windmill'. It was recorded as a shell in August 1935, with the cap and fantail gone. The mill was owned at some time by a miller called Whitehead, who also milled at Edingley watermill. When in use it was powered by a gas engine.

The Good Intent windmill (gbmapping|SK639571) was a tower mill, built c. 1820 for Holliday, a resident of Farnsfield. Material for building the mill was carted from Fiskerton. The tower was of 6 storeys, brick-built and untarred, with 4 sweeps driving 3 pairs of stones (1 French and 2 grey). The mill was worked by William Shaw, who was succeeded by his son Alec c. 1893. The mill was sold to George Hutchinson who worked it for short periods until the machinery was dismantled and the tower blown up c. 1915.

A post windmill was recorded near the Junction Inn, the property of Bower [Nottinghamshire Archive ref. DDM 98/59 Sale of windmill 13 XII 1847.] .

On 6th July 1944 an RAF Halifax bomber MZ519-LKU crashed on the south side of the village on its return to RAF Burn near York. The Halifax had been on a mission to destroy a V1 flying bomb site in Nazi occupied France. All on board were killed. The site of the crash has a large memorial set before of a copse of English oaks and Canadian maples dedicated to the Canadian and English crewmen.

A "History of Farnsfield" was published in 2000 by the Farnsfield Millennium Trust and an aural History was compiled with recordings and transcripts copies of which were given to the local Schools. A copy is available in the Library.

Farnsfield is twinned with the French village of Andouillé.

External links

* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2601779 www.geograph.co.uk photos of the village and surrounding area]

References