Hodthorpe is an urban village in the parish of

Hodthorpe and Belph Hodthorpe and Belph is a civil parish within the Bolsover district, of the county of Derbyshire, England. The parish includes the village of Hodthorpe and the hamlet of Belph. In 2011 the parish had a population of 663. It is 132 miles north west ...

Bolsover Bolsover is a market town and the administrative centre of the Bolsover District, Derbyshire, England. It is from London, from Sheffield, from Nottingham and from Derby. It is the main town in the Bolsover district. The civil parish for th ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

, lying close to the

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

border and on the edge of

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood. The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cores ...

. The village has two principal streets, Queens Road (the main road running through the village) and Kings Street. It has one shop, a village

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

, and a

Working Men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class m ...

. There are two parks. The heritage site of

Creswell Crags Creswell Crags is an enclosed limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England, near the villages of Creswell and Whitwell. The cliffs in the ravine contain several caves that were occupied during the last ice ag ...

, famous for its prehistoric cave art, lies close to the village.

Etymology and history

The village gets its name from John Hoddings, who planned the village, "Hod" coming from "Hoddings", and "thorpe"

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

for village. The village was founded in 1804, following the first sinking of

mine shafts Shaft mining or shaft sinking is the action of excavating a mine shaft from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects, differ greatly in execution method from ...

at neighbouring Whitwell. There was great resentment in Whitwell at this time to the influx of coal miners, and so the

Welbeck Abbey Welbeck Abbey in the Dukeries in North Nottinghamshire was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order in England and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house residence of the Dukes of Portland. It is on ...

estate agreed to Hodthorpe's foundation. The village was on the local branch railway line, with its own (now disused) halt. Until the 1890s the

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminianism, Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a Christian theology, theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the Christian ministry, ministry of the 18th-century eva ...

(

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

) chapel (1834) was the only place of worship in the village. Eventually the local miners raised money to build the Anglican chapel of St. Martin in 1897, known as the ‘Tin Chapel’. These have both since closed. The Methodist chapel, closed circa 1960, has since become a metal-works, while the Anglican chapel and its village hall were demolished in 1995, the land sold off and redeveloped as apartments. The C.of.E. Junior & Infants School was built on Queens Road, the official opening being carried out by the 6th

Duke of Portland Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

on Tuesday, January 17, 1905. The

Cheshire Horse Artillery Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county to ...

had stables on the south side of Queens Road, the location being chosen because of the nearby stud farm at Welbeck Abbey. These stables were bombed during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

References

External links

District of Bolsover website
Villages in Derbyshire Bolsover District Sherwood Forest {{Derbyshire-geo-stub