Strelley is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the

Borough of Broxtowe Broxtowe is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Nottinghamshire, England, west of the City of Nottingham. The population of the district as taken at the 2011 Censu ...

and

City of Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin H ...

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 ...

, England. It is to the west of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 653. It is also the name of the nearby post

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

council housing estate. The village lies within the Broxtowe district, whilst the estate is in the

. The village is separated from the housing estate by the A6002 road.

Village

The village of Strelley was first recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

in 1086, where it appears as ''Straleia''. The name means 'clearing on a street or Roman road', though there is not known to be a Roman road in the area. The village has quite a secluded atmosphere as it is not on a through-road for traffic, although

bridleways A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider r ...

ran from the village to

Cossall Cossall is a village and civil parish east of Ilkeston in Nottinghamshire, England. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 612, reducing slightly to 606 at the 2011 Census. There is also a ward of Broxtowe Council called Cossall a ...

to the west, and to Kimberley to the north. The old Broad Oak

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

remains but has been partially modernised. Strelley is also notable for being the upper terminus of one of the earliest recorded railway lines in the world, the Wollaton Waggonway. The railway ran to

Wollaton Wollaton is a suburb and former parish in the western part of Nottingham, England. Wollaton has two Wards in the City of Nottingham (''Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey'' and ''Wollaton West'') with a total population as at the 2011 census of 24,69 ...

. Horse-drawn coal wagons travelled to their destination on wooden railway lines. This type of railway is known as a

wagonway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramw ...

and it was completed during 1604. It was built by

Huntingdon Beaumont Huntingdon Beaumont (c.1560–1624) was an English coal mining entrepreneur who built two of the earliest wagonways in England for trans-shipment of coal. He was less successful as a businessman and died having been imprisoned for debt. Beaumon ...

working in partnership with the second occupier of

Wollaton Hall Wollaton Hall is an Elizabethan country house of the 1580s standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England. The house is now Nottingham Natural History Museum, with Nottingham Industrial Museum in the outbuildi ...

, Sir Percival Willoughby. Coal mining was a significant industry in Strelley during

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personif ...

and

Stuart Stuart may refer to: Names * Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Northe ...

times. Notable families involved in the early mining of Strelley included the Strelleys and the Byrons; it was a Byron who sub-leased the pits to Huntingdon Beaumont. During the 1960s much of the western part of Strelley parish was dominated by a huge opencast coal mine. After the opencast mine closed, the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, whic ...

was constructed over the west of the parish. The village church All Saints' Church, Strelley can now easily be seen from the motorway just north of the Trowell services area.

Geography

The main television transmitter for Nottingham is in the parish, which takes signals from Waltham.MB21 Nottingham transmitter
/ref> The transmitter is also known as Swingate as it is east of Swingate Farm. The transmitter is next to the Kimberley parish boundary, and the Robin Hood Way. The transmitter base is at a height of around 130 metres, and near a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they ...

at Windmill Farm.

References

*. Villages in Nottinghamshire Places in the Borough of Broxtowe Civil parishes in Nottinghamshire {{Nottinghamshire-geo-stub