Hodthorpe is an urban village in the parish of

Hodthorpe and Belph Hodthorpe and Belph is a civil parish within the Bolsover District, Bolsover district, of the county of Derbyshire, England. The parish includes the village of Hodthorpe and the Hamlet (place), hamlet of Belph. In 2011 the parish had a population ...

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

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, lying close to the

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

border and on the edge of

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is the remnants of an ancient royal forest, Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, within the East Midlands region in England. It has association with the legend of Robin Hood. The forest was proclaimed by William the Conqueror and ...

. 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, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, and a Working Men's club. There are three 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 age ...

, 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, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

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 Whitwell may refer to: Places UK * Whitwell, Derbyshire, Whitwell, Derbyshire ** Whitwell Common, Derbyshire * Whitwell, Hertfordshire, Whitwell, Hertfordshire * Whitwell, Isle of Wight, Whitwell, Isle of Wight * Whitwell and Reepham railway statio ...

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

Welbeck Abbey Welbeck Abbey is an English country house near the village of Welbeck in the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire. It was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order, and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries a residen ...

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–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

(

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

) chapel (1834) was the only place of worship in the village. Eventually the local miners raised money to build the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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 above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ...

on Tuesday, January 17, 1905. The Cheshire Horse Artillery 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

External links

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