It didn’t need Morse, Vera, Lewis or even Miss Marple to solve the mysteryo HRC, just the efforts and cooperation of a bunch of Cropwell Bishop people.

In August, John Greenwood revealed that he was puzzled by a plaque on an old barn near his home. It is next to the Creamery on Nottingham Road and the plaque bears the initials and date: H.R.C. 1880.

At first, no one could help but then a chain of discoveries led to a sound explanation for its existence.

It was Jacquee Lacey who started the ball rolling when she discovered that a house in Clifton village had an identical looking plaque but dated 1879.

However, we still didn’t know who HRC was: maybe a local builder?

Then, a few days later, Paul Pickup got in touch to point out that the initials were the same as a Henry Robert Clifton who lived at Clifton Hall in the late 1800s.
He also discovered that Henry had paid for the building of a school in Clifton village.

Further online searches revealed another house in Clifton village with a similar HRC plaque.

This all pointed to HRC being the initials of Henry Robert Clifton. But why were his initials on a barn in Cropwell Bishop – no one could find any connection between him and our village.

Until, that is, Pam Wregg joined the search.

She found that a Gervais Clifton had once owned land around Cropwell Bishop and then recalled seeing his name on an old map.

The 1804 map of the village is well known and contains the names of numerous land owners but it needed Pam to spot the Clifton name.

I have highlighted in yellow the location of The Yews farmhouse and its outbuildings. The fields painted blue are known to have been owned by “Sir G Clifton” – one contains his name and the others are listed in associated documents provided by Anne Terzza.

I think we can safely assume that this Sir G Clifton was indeed the Sir Gervase Clifton that Pam had found. He was one of the hereditary Baronets that successively owned the Clifton estate – but which one?

Here is a list of the Clifton Baronets (with known dates of birth and death):

1. Sir Gervase Clifton (?-1588)
2. Sir Gervase Clifton (1587-1666)
3. Sir Gervase Clifton (1612-1676)
4. Sir William Clifton (1663-1686)
5. Sir Gervase Clifton (? -1731)
6. Sir Robert Clifton (1690-1762)
7. Sir Gervase Clifton (1744-1815)
8. Sir Robert Clifton (1767-1837)
9. Sir Juckes Granville Juckes-Clifton (1769-1852)
10. Sir Robert Juckes Clifton (1826-1869)
11. Henry Robert Clifton (1832-1896)
12. Sir Hervey Juckes Lloyd Bruce (1843-1919)
13. Percy Robert Clifton (1872-1944)
14. Peter Thomas Clifton (1911-1996)

It should be noted that when a family member ‘next in line’ inherited the estate, they often changed their name to a more appropriate one.

This explains the recurrence of the ‘Gervase Clifton’ name, but also makes it impossible to identify the original owner of the ‘blue’ Cropwell Bishop fields. However, it is enough to know that the Clifton family would probably have still owned these fields in 1880 when the barn was built.

But did they also own The Yews farmhouse and its buildings?

Jonathan Good had the answer.

He found original documents relating to the purchase of houses on Mill Lane in 1909 which show that land to its west (ie. The Yews farm) was owned by Sir Hervey Juckes Lloyd Bruce – the Baronet of the Clifton estate at that time. Can we assume that Sir Hervey also owned the buildings as well as the land? Once again, Jonathan had the answer.

He found documents describing the purchase of The Yews farmhouse in 1920 by Matthew Richards from Percy Robert Clifton, the Baronet of the Clifton estate. Apparently, Percy had to sell it to enable him to pay the death duties due on Sir Hervey’s death.

This then, confirmed that the Clifton estate had previously owned, not only the land, but also the buildings associated with The Yews farm.

So, in conclusion, The Yews farm and its buildings were owned by Henry Robert Clifton when the barn was built in 1880 – which explains why his initials, H.R.C., appear on the barn’s wall.

Thanks to John, Jacquee, Paul, Pam, Anne and Jonathan for their searching, inspired guesswork and tenacity which solved this local mystery.

Now, what else requires the skills of our History Investigators?

Tony Jarrow

The building of Hoe View Road began in 1952 (see Street Story: Hoe View Road 1st Build).

Bingham Rural District Council was responsible for the building of council houses in those days. Houses were built up to number 63 on the south side and 140 on the north side.

The planners left a wide gap at the top of the street — between the end houses, numbers 63 and 140. This suggests that, whilst not aware of future housing plans for the village, they were at least making provision for extending the road. They also left gaps in two places on the left-hand side, wide enough for a new road if needed.

Sixteen years later, the decision to enlarge Cropwell Bishop was made and the end of Hoe View Road was opened up and Parkin Close built (see Street Story — Parkin Close).

At this stage, the planners would have had sight of proposed plans for a new housing estate in the Village and known that Hoe View Road would eventually stretch to Nottingham Road.

They would also have appreciated that new access roads to the estate would necessitate a number of homes being demolished. The people living in them would need re-housing. So would another section of the community — those living in old, substandard houses.

Consequently, the Council not only built the homes on Parkin Close, but also a variety of homes on the extension of Hoe View Road up to Parkin Close. They included houses, flats and bungalows.

Being merely an extension of the existing Hoe View Road, there was no need for a new street name. House numbering simply continued on from the 1st Build houses.

After the homes were completed, there existed a fence across the end of the road. There it would remain until the completion of the third, and final, build of Hoe View Road — one which would finally make it a true road, instead of a cul-de-sac, with access to Nottingham Road. But that is another story.

Tony Jarrow

Note: Thanks to Anne Terzza, Pam Barlow and Linda Field for their help with this article.

The recent story about the "HRC" plaque on an old barn next to the Creamery (28-8-20) has become a little less of a mystery.

Jacqui Lacey, in the village, somehow discovered that an old house in Clifton had a very similar plaque.

The outline shape and initials are the same but the year is 1879 in place of 1880. I have been unable to find any other examples of the plaque on local buildings.

Jaqui's discover suggests, to me, that HRC are the initials of the builder. I doubt modern builders would get away with such a permanent advert on their property, but I may be wrong: does anyone have a "Built by Wimpey" plaque on their house?

Maybe it was the fashion in those days. Maybe the builder offered a discount for adding it – now that would interest modern home owners!

Will someone discover an 1881 example?

Tony Jarrow

Ask someone who lives at the top end of Hoe View Road what they can see from their back window and they will likely tell you, “a view of Hoe Hill”. So that explains how Hoe View Road got its name.

The naming of the road is straight forward but the history of the building of Hoe View Road is not so obvious and a lot more interesting.

Before the 1950s none of Hoe View Road existed: by the early 1970s it was all there. But the road wasn’t built in one go, it took 20 years from start to finish.

The first question that comes to mind is, why was it built?

Before it, the village road plan was very basic, so much so that census reports usually list only “Main Street” (the Nottingham Road - Church Street continuum), Fern Road and Stockwell Lane (or one of its earlier names) – little else existed. Maps showed the layout hardly changed for 100 years.

What brought about the building of Hoe View Road – was it the mining of gypsum or maybe the making of cheese? Neither; it was aircraft.

Not seen the village air strip – that’s because it is 5 miles away, at Langar.

It was during the Second World War in 1942 that the airfield at Langar was constructed. By 1944 the Royal Airforce Bomber Command was flying from it, 32 Lancaster Bombers or, I should say, 32 AVRO Lancaster Bombers.

The AVRO company was founded by Alliott Verdon Roe in 1910 and was eventually merged into the Hawker Siddeley Company in 1963.

During the war over 7000 of the highly successful Lancaster Bombers were built at AVRO's factories in Manchester.

But aircraft damaged in the War needed repairing and that is what AVRO workers did in the giant sheds at Langar. They were able to quickly rebuild wrecked planes so that they could go into action again.

After the war, they used their skills to rebuild, repair and maintain the peacetime version of the Lancaster, the AVRO Shackleton which was used for maritime reconnaissance.

Workers need somewhere to live and the local council, Bingham Rural District Council in those days, chose Cropwell Bishop as the best place to build them homes.

The first stretch of Hoe View Road was built in 1952 and about half of the 102 new homes were occupied by AVRO workers and their families. Two families that moved in then, are still living there.

At its peak, over 800 people were working at AVRO in Langar. In 1965 it was still fully operational but in 1968 it was finally closed.

Why was Cropwell Bishop chosen for the needed homes rather than Langar or Barnstone or Harby? I don’t know: does anyone?

The houses built in this first phase of building are numbers 1 to 63 and 2 to 140. All the other homes on Hoe View Road were built many years later: but that is another Street Story.

Tony Jarrow

Note: Thanks to Anne Terzza, Pam Barlow and Linda Field for their help with this article.

Many thanks to Tony Jarrow, the Heritage group and local residents for putting together the fascinating accounts and historical origins of our Street Names.

I Refer to the Richards Close article, and the unknown father of Eliza Richards’ son, born 1854, named ‘Robert Smith Richards’.

I suspect from the similarity of names that the father was Robert Smith, born 1826, who was son of John Smith and Anne Hall who were married in 1824 and lived in The Yews! (reference Chronicles of Cropwell Bishop).

It is interesting that ‘The Yews’ farmhouse (opposite the Methodist Chapel) features from time to time in the village family histories. However, there is one mystery to solve.

There are some initials and a date (HRC 1880) which can be seen if you stand on Nottingham Road with your back to the newly built attractive house just by the corner of Richards Close.

The initials are on the gable end of the Long Barn which used to be part of ‘The Yews’ farm yard.

From Tony’s account it seemed that Matthew Cooper (married to Eliza Richards) inhabited The Yews from 1890 to 1898 when it passed to his step son Robert Smith Richards.

John Parr (from Barnstone) apparently lived in The Yews from 1844 but we have not found any records of a person with the initials HRC.

Does anybody have any ideas who they might relate to?

We look forward to having more of our village history revealed by its street names.

Cllr John Greenwood

A new trial online booking system for the Household Waste and Recycling Centre in West Bridgford is to launch on September 1st 2020, Nottinghamshire County Council have announced.

The centre on Rugby Road will only be accepting pre booked vehicles from next month, with 15-minute time slots available between 8.15am and 7.45pm every day during the summer opening hours. Up to five vehicles will be allowed on site at any one time.

Residents must already be registered to use Nottinghamshire County Council's recycling centres before booking their time slot easily through the authority's website. Click: Book to Recycle

Sessions can be booked up to two weeks in advance but must me booked at least 24 hours before visiting the site as no same day slots will be available.

Visitors to the site will not be permitted entry without an electronic or paper copy of their emailed booking receipt.

Residents are requested not to make multiple bookings and use other sites where the need to visit more than once in any two week period.

Only the West Bridgford recycling centre will need to be pre-booked, and residents can carry on using any of the Council's 11 other sites around the County without appointment.

Those who would like more information or to book their recycling visit over the phone should telephone N.C. customer service centre on 0300 500 8080 between 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday

Janice Towndrow
Parish Clerk

Well, Billie got to his target and beyond.

Grand total £1,126.
👏👏👏

A huge THANK YOU to everyone, who has supported raising money for the NHS, due to the activities of a much loved ‘Billie the Brownhill Bear’.

After reaching £937 on Friday, donations for the raffle came flooding in and tickets went flying out.

This 3 months has made me very happy, entertaining the children ( and adults, may I add)!!

There is a lovely community spirit in Cropwell Bishop and I have made numerous friends.

I taught at Toothill, Bingham in the 70’s and often when out shopping, children would say “Hello Miss” or ‘Ey up Miss’. Now I am called ‘The Bear lady’ or ‘Billie’s mum!!!!! Wonderful. 😃

Pam Wakefield