'Cropwell Bishop Street Stories' is now on sale at the Cropwell Bishop Creamery Shop on Nottingham Road. Price, £20 (cash only).

For details of the book, see the article that appeared last week.

Tony Jarrow

"Cropwell Bishop Street Stories" tells the history of the places and people of Cropwell Bishop through 44 stories based on every one of the streets in the village.

It is an A4, high-quality hardback with 344 pages and over 1500 photos, diagrams and maps. The text is based on sound, detailed research but written in an entertaining style.

Because Cropwell Bishop Parish Council and Cropwell Bishop Creamery have given their financial support, it is priced at just £20 cash.

This is ‘at cost’ – meaning, no profit.

You will be able to see and buy the book at the Saturday Café on 30th May and, later next week, it should become available at the Creamery’s Shop on Nottingham Road.

Alternatively, you can buy direct from me, either by visiting my house, or I can deliver a copy (only in the village). Just contact me first:
email: amjarrow@mac.com
mobile: 07542 392574

Discover the history of all that surrounds you!

Tony Jarrow

The 'Belt and Braces Band' got everyone into swinging 60s (and 70s) mood at their performance at the Old School last night. A fun evening for all - as the photos show!

Photos by Mel Stanley

Last Saturday morning the farmers'f fields were quiet because all their tractors were trooping through local villages. They started and finished in Cropwell Bishop.

Photos by Mel Stanley

A very big thank you to Hilary and her assistant Tony.

The 4th Anniversary of their, ever popular Book and Jigsaw exchange at Saturday Cafe this morning. All their takings are used to support village groups.

It’s an absolutely wonderful service to the village.

Our community is fortunate to have them.

Mel Stanley

Cropwell Young Farmers Charity Tractor Run:
Saturday 25 April 2026

The annual tractor run will take place on Saturday, starting at 10:30 am from Quarry Farm. Possible traffic delays ....

Expected route and timings:

Tractors will travel down Nottingham Road, heading towards Colston Bassett via Kinoulton Road.
The return journey is expected at approximately 12:35 pm, coming from Langar along Fern Road and back up Nottingham Road to Quarry Farm.

Traffic notice: There may be temporary delays along these routes and in the Vale.

Spectators welcome:
A great viewing spot is outside Cropwell Bishop Memorial Hall, where the kitchen will also be open for refreshments.

Great fun for the children ⚽ Football training will be starting early to allow the children to watch the parade.

Pam Wregg
Cropwell Bishop Memorial Hall

The organisation, British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS), promotes events and races for students all over Britain.

This coming Sunday (26th April) BUCS Cycling will hold their 10 mile time-trial championship on a course that starts and finishes in Cropwell Bishop. Over 180 riders will be taking part.

This is the 5th consecutive year that the event has taken place in Cropwell Bishop and the Race Headquarters (and parking) will be on the Memorial Hall Playing Field.

If you are out and about on Sunday, please keep a lookout for cyclists on village roads. No racing will take place within the village but competitors will be riding from the Memorial Hall to the start on Colston Road (near the Small People Nursery).

The finish will be just beyond the top of Fern Road, near the Cropwell Bishop village sign, this side of the Allotments.

Riders will not pause at the finish, they will just pedal slowly to the Memorial Hall Field.

The first rider will start at 10am and the last one will finish at about 1.30pm.

If you are driving along any of the roads on the 10 mile route (see map below) please keep a lookout for these young cyclists.

Keep in mind the new rules applying to the overtaking of cyclists which were introduced in The Highway Code in 2022. Also, be aware that these cyclists will be travelling as fast as any you have seen on roads – up to 35 mph.

And, please avoid travelling in front of them at a similar speed: this would be seen as pacing and could lead to their disqualification.

Once again, the Memorial Hall Committee and Village volunteers will be working hard to leave our visitors with a good impression of Cropwell Bishop – their supply of bacon/sausage/veggie cobs, tea, coffee & cakes should do the trick!

Tony Jarrow

Here are some riders in last year's event.

William Parkin, the first headmaster of Cropwell Bishop School, sat in the corner of his new schoolroom in 1910 and penned his notes.

In that same spot, over a century later, we see jigsaws stacked. I can't think of anything profound to say about this but I can tell you that this coming weekend you will see Hilary with her jigsaws and books and lots of people enjoying Saturday Cafe.

See the poster on the Events page for full details.

There will be a new stock of Books and Jigsaws, thanks to the generous donations of our villagers.
Have a Coffee and Cake and enjoy browsing the shelves.

See you there.

Tony Jarrow

What an amazing facility we have right under our noses here in Cropwell Bishop.

At this evening's presentation at The Old School, Lesley Davies of "Belvoir Vale Riding for the Disabled", showed us what takes place at the new site on Colston Bassett Road.

The facilities and conditions for horses, disabled riders, and volunteer helpers are probably the best in the country. And this has all come about in just 7 years.

Read the article in this month's Cropwell Bishop News (page 22) to find out more.

Tony Jarrow

Thanks to Pam Wregg for photo.

Had to do a bit of a search but managed to find it: my fuel ration book.

With all the talk of petrol being in short supply I thought I better be prepared.

None of the coupons have been used and there are enough for 6 months: 4 coupons per month.

The only problem is that they may be out of date!

Can't remember precisely when they were issued to me but, at a guess, 1974; 52 years ago!

Not the kind of thing you throw away; you never know if it will be needed.

Tony Jarrow

There is the Book/Jigsaw Exchange at the Café in The Old School on Saturday morning, and once again all the books are fresh stock. So are many of the jigsaws.

Nevertheless, Hilary, as ever, is feeling relaxed about the challenge of another busy morning.

See the Events poster for full details.

Oh, and on Saturday night the clocks go forward an hour. Some of your clocks may need assistance with that. Don't forget the heating clock.

Tony Jarrow

Bric a Brac needed for ongoing fundraising effort for New Build Hall.

Storage limited, so no Children's toys, plastic or books please.

Thank you, village community, for your continuing support.

Please txt for drop-off details:
07984 960638

Mel Stanley

The Street Stories pdf is now available to download.

Points to be aware of:

- It could take several minutes; it is a big file.
- It will appear in your browser, but you should then save the pdf file to your device.
- When you then double click that file, it will open in a ‘pdf reader’.
- Acrobat Reader is the most common one, but on Apple devices, you can use Apple's ‘Preview’ which is equally good.
- pdf readers allow you to search the pdf, click to particular streets, and print any page.

To download Street Stories click: Street Stories pdf.

I welcome all comments and suggestions.

Enjoy.

Tony Jarrow

It has taken over a year, working a dozen, or so, hours every week, but I have finally completed the task.

All of the Street Stories that exist on this website are in a special format for websites (html markup language and cs stylesheets, if you must ask) but that is not the right format for publishing a book, so, I have converted them all into pdf files, which is perfect.

At the same time, I have added new streets, new information, new photos, and corrected small errors.

The book has 330, A4 size, pages. You can view it on a computer screen, tablet or even a phone. The file is large, over 0.6GB, so it takes a few minutes to download. If you then save it to your device, you can access it any time you like - even offline.

The most important reason for releasing this version of Street Stories is to ensure its long-term survival as a record of Cropwell Bishop history.

Hundreds of people have, in some way, contributed to its content over the last 5 years and it would have been tragic if, one day, it had suddenly become inaccessible.

Tomorrow, I will make available here, for you to save.

Thank you.

Tony Jarrow

What do we know about our village, Cropwell Bishop?

Well, we know the church, in some form, has been here since 1215.

And before that, in 956, this area was referred to as Crophille, a name that appears again the Domesday Book of 1086. In that book it says that 24 men were working here; we can think of them as smallholders.

Assuming they lived here with their wife and, say, 2 children, that makes the population of Cropwell Bishop about 100.

So roughly speaking, a thousand years ago, about 100 people lived here Cropwell Bishop. But we know nothing about them, and never will.

But we do know a great deal about the history of our village over the last 300 years or so. There are old maps and family records we can examine and so piece together the history of the people who lived here. Just as importantly, we have our surroundings to look to.

The high hills of Cropwell Wolds, which you see on your left when you drive towards Cotgrave on the Colston Bassett Road, were there 1000 years ago. So was the hill we call Fern Hill going out of the village towards Langar.

What about the rocks and minerals under the ground?

Some of the stones in the walls of St Giles were there 800 years ago. And the oldest buildings in the village have stood there for centuries, and if you want a precise date for some old stones, take a look at the churchyard graves. They go back to 1720; that’s over 50 years before America declared its independence from Britain.

As many of you are aware, you can delve into the recent history of Cropwell Bishop by clicking on the website’s Heritage tab. Its history is told through 38 ‘Street Stories’.

However, we now have 42 streets, so the stories are not complete.
Also, having to go online to read the stories is not always convenient.
And you can't read it like a book.
Nor is it possible to search for items of interest, gypsum for example.
Nor can you easily print a page of it.
And, most worryingly, what will happen to the stories if, one day, the website goes offline: permanently!

However, I think there is a way of overcoming these problems and fears.

I'll let you know how, tomorrow.

Tony Jarrow

Not to be missed.... the first Gardening Club talk in 2026 is on Monday at the Old School 7.30pm.

Back by popular demand is Joe Whitehead the Head Gardener from Burghley House.

This time he will be presenting, 'My Favourite Blunders'.

Come along to the Old School and a warm welcome awaits you, visitors £4.50 includes tea/coffee. No need to book, pay at the door from 7pm onwards.

There is also be the opportunity to win some great prizes by joining in with the raffle (cash only).

And there will be a selection of gardening books to buy for a small donation.

Pam Wregg

(see poster on Events page)

We were advised before Christmas that sadly our evening and Sunday ‘90A’ service to Bingham and Nottingham is to be discontinued from February 1st 2026.

The 90 route between Nottingham and Newark (and Fernwood) is being taken over by Nottingham City Transport (NCT) and none of the ‘90’ buses will serve Cropwell Bishop.

This is disappointing as the service provided an attractive direct bus (25 minutes) into town as compared with a journey of about 55 minutes through the villages and estates on our daytime NCT ‘11’ service (see * below).

I and others in the village have already expressed our disappointment to the County and our local MP and Councillors and requested that consideration be given to a replacement evening and Sunday service.

The responsibility for our buses is being transferred from the County Council to The East Midlands Combined County Authority (from April 2026) and the Mayor of the East Midlands is currently consulting on public transport around the region in advance of the forthcoming Transport Strategy for the region.

It would be helpful to make your views known to help Cropwell Bishop get a satisfactory, useful bus service. You can find more information here:
The Mayor's Big Transport Conversation - East Midlands Combined County Authority.

In my response to the survey, in addition to a replacement evening and Sunday service, I requested more direct commuter and shopper services to Nottingham and Bingham.

*Incidentally there is a faster route to West Bridgford and Town (about 40 minutes) if you take the ‘747’ at 25 minutes past the hour from Church St to Radcliffe and change there to the Mainline service.
However, this means paying twice unless you are fortunate to have a bus pass.
(More details of our village bus services can be found by clicking on the "Travel" tab of this website.)

Reminder - the 90A is not available from February 1st.

John Greenwood