Staff Portal

Cotgrave is a town and civil parish in the borough of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, England. It is 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Nottingham. It perches on the South Nottinghamshire Wolds about 131 feet (40 metres) above sea level. The population of the parish in the 2001 census was 7,373 which then decreased to 7,203 at the 2011 census, though Owthorpe was included. It was estimated at 8,113 in 2019. Statistics from the 2021 census show the population had risen to 8,206.

History

Cotgrave's origins may be in the Iron Age. A 6th-century Anglo-Saxon burial ground has been excavated at Mill Hill to the north of the old village. There was certainly a Saxon church a century before the Norman Conquest. The Roman Fosse Way passes a mile to the east, where it changes direction slightly. The A46 follows its course, and during improvements in 2012–13, excavations uncovered Ice Age flint tools. Evidence of an Iron Age settlement was also found at Owthorpe Junction, just to the east, and a 4,000-year-old Neolithic circular monument with eight Bronze Age burials emerged slightly further north at Stragglethorpe junction.

The place-name Cotgrave seems to contain an Old English personal name, Cotta, + grāf (Old English), grove or copse, to make 'Cotta's grove'.

The present substantial church, All Saints', dates from the 12th century, with several subsequent alterations and additions. An arson attack in 1996 caused considerable damage, but the church has since been restored at great expense. The church has a ring of eight bells, most made by Taylor's. A team of ringers practises regularly on Fridays and Sundays.

An outbreak of plague in 1637 killed 93 of a population of 500, including 46 children. All Saints' was used as a food store for the village during the outbreak. Money to pay for goods was disinfected as it was passed through a hollowed stone filled with vinegar to the men who had locked themselves away in the church. This stone is still in the church. On Scrimshire Lane, near the church, can be found an old wall, dubbed the "Thousand-Year Wall". It is riddled with small holes made by, and providing a home for a large group of solitary bees. Nearby, through a lych gate, is a graveyard that is separated from the church by a road. There can be found there a pillar on three tiers commemorating those of the village lost in service during the world wars. The church has a stained-glass window by J. F. Gascoyne & Son of Nottingham, dedicated in 1920 as a war memorial. There is also a window on the north aisle, east of the north door, depicting the koepe towers and underground workings of Cotgrave Colliery, which was sunk in the 1960s and abandoned in the 1980s. The window was installed after the fire at the church in 1996.

Memorials

Cotgrave has a war memorial sited in the graveyard at Scrimshaw Lane to the west of All Saints. It commemorates the fallen of both world wars. The War Memorials Trust has helped with the upkeep of this.

Twelve men from the First World War are listed above four from the Second World War on two metal panels on the east face of the memorial. The south face (presumably added at a later date as there was no room on the east face), names Walter Henstock, died 1920. An active British Legion group that includes nearby villages marked the four-year centenary of the Great War by researching the men from the villages who gave their lives. Details of the Colston Bassett, Owthorpe and Cotgrave Great War Project, as far as they can be traced so far, appear on its website.

The surnames of those noted lost in the First World War are Lacey, Hind, Middleton, Herapath, Simpson, Henson, Hayes, Harrison, Marshall, Moulds, Carrington, Woolley, Henstock. Those from the Second World War; Cole, Pryor, Pepper, Phillips. The epitaph reads: "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life."

The epitaph is often referred to as the Cotgrave Cross, as is a six-foot-high monument at the east end of the church. With later, partly ashlar construction parts from the 20th century and parts from the 16th, it is somewhat of a mystery, as it is thought of as ancient, yet does not appear on photographs or pictures before the early 20th century. The site is near an important old junction, but there is no surviving medieval stonework evident. There were ideas of moving the war memorial to that site and the Cross moved perhaps to the country park, but these were dismissed as too costly.

There is a further memorial plaque, carved in oak, displayed to the right of the north door in All Saints' and a commemorative stained glass window to the east of the south aisle.

To the north at Cotgrave Place near the golf course is a memorial to a Vickers Wellington bomber that crashed on 8 February 1941. The aircraft from No. 12 Squadron, recently dispersed from RAF Station Binbrook to nearby RAF Station Tollerton, was on a gunnery training flight when the pilot met control problems. The aircraft hit an oak tree just short of the still extant runway, next to where the golf club house stands. A plaque nearby recalls seven of the crew who were killed.

Notable people

In birth order:

• William Upton (1804–1867), county cricketer for Nottinghamshire in 1827–28, was born and died in Cotgrave.

• Elinor Mordaunt (1872–1942), writer and traveller, was born in Cotgrave.

• Ernest Hayes (1898–1938), born in Gripps Cottage, Cotgrave, joined the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in 1916 and received the Military Medal three times for bravery on the Western Front (France) in 1918.

• Frank Robinson (1932 – 4 July 2004) of Cotgrave travelled to Nottingham daily to play a child's five-note glockenspiel round Lister Gate. On his death he received hundreds of tributes from listeners.

• Nathan Robertson (born 1977), Badminton player, was World Badminton Champion (2006 IBF World Championships – mixed doubles), Olympic Silver Medallist (2004), and Commonwealth Games 2010 mixed doubles silver medallist. He grew up in Cotgrave and attended the village school.