This is a quick rendering of the content of the Upper Broughton History Site which is currently down for updating. Please come back soon when the work is complete.
Many thanks UB History Group.
December 2024
Welcome to the Upper Broughton History Group The Upper Broughton History Group is a community project set up to research, archive and present the local history of the village and surrounding areas.
!!!! Cross Green and Top Green, taken from an original drawing by Mr. Warbis in the early 1960’s. Reproduced here by kind permission of his family. Recoloured. SC
The Broughton Chest - Discovered here in Upper Broughton We had an exciting find in the village and set up a working party to delve into the contents of an old metal trunk full of papers.
Auntie Annie A well known Upper Broughton character – Auntie Annie ‘Auntie Annie’ was born Annie Elizabeth Birch in Pickwell, Leicestershire in 1871. She married Charles Ecob, 30 years her senior, from Upper Broughton in Nottingham in autumn 1895. He had been married to Ann Fairbrother in 1863 and they had 3 daughters, Mary Ann, Emma and Ellen. Ann died in 1891. They lived in Well Lane.
Annie had no children but became a stepmother to Charles’ 3 grown-up girls and ‘Auntie’ to all the village children.
Auntie Annie A well known Upper Broughton character – Auntie Annie ‘Auntie Annie’ was born Annie Elizabeth Birch in Pickwell, Leicestershire in 1871. She married Charles Ecob, 30 years her senior, from Upper Broughton in Nottingham in autumn 1895. He had been married to Ann Fairbrother in 1863 and they had 3 daughters, Mary Ann, Emma and Ellen. Ann died in 1891. They lived in Well Lane.
Annie had no children but became a stepmother to Charles’ 3 grown-up girls and ‘Auntie’ to all the village children.
Baileys the Butchers This village institution was run by four generations of the Bailey family, starting with Fred Bailey in 1905. Their pork pies were famous, not just in the village and all the surrounding area, but the Test Match Cricket Commentary team were well known devotees when England were playing at Trent Bridge. Sadly Baileys closed their doors in 2017, this history of their pork pie business was written by Pat Bishop and published in 1992.
Bernard Pearson Hayes The existence of the tennis club in Upper Broughton is entirely due to one remarkable man and to an unlikely coming together of circumstances.
Bernard Hayes was born in South Island, New Zealand in 1888 where his father had migrated in the nineteenth century. They were a pioneering family who built their own home and the community that grew up around them pooled their trades and talents to be self-sufficient.
Bernard Pearson Hayes The existence of the tennis club in Upper Broughton is entirely due to one remarkable man and to an unlikely coming together of circumstances.
Bernard Hayes was born in South Island, New Zealand in 1888 where his father had migrated in the nineteenth century. They were a pioneering family who built their own home and the community that grew up around them pooled their trades and talents to be self-sufficient.
The Broughton Chest - Discovered here in Upper Broughton We had an exciting find in the village and set up a working party to delve into the contents of an old metal trunk full of papers. We know that it came out of Broughton House in the mid 1970s and contains 250 documents, some of which are almost 400 years old. We are very pleased to hear that Nottingham University are going to accept these records into their archive, to ensure their future preservation and access for researchers.
Broughton School Broughton School lies on the A606 between the villages of Upper Broughton and Nether Broughton. Unusually the school served two communities which lie in different counties (Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire) and as schools were funded by their counties, this came to produce adminstrative difficulties as time went by.
The 1870 Education Act heralded in compulsory education and obliged local authorities to provide primary education for all children aged 5 to 11.
The Day the Gas Bus set on fire Wednesday 27th May 1942 REPORT FROM A NOTTINGHAM NEWSPAPER:~ BUS ABLAZE
Seven Persons Injured
WOMEN AND CHILDREN RESCUED
‘Seven persons were injured when the fire broke out on the Bartons bus travelling between Melton Mowbray and Nottingham this morning. A gas container on the roof of the vehicle was destroyed.
The bus was the 9:30 AM from Melton and was approaching the turn into Upper Broughton village when passengers saw flames licking the sides of the vehicle.
Chapel Burial Records Upper Broughton chapel Burial records No burial register for the chapel has yet been located, this is a list of the gravestones both inside the chapel and in the burial ground. The number in the left hand column relates to the order they are in the chapel yard, starting at the gate onto the lane. The Chapel is now a private house. The Chapel yard is open to the public.
The First Christmas Concert for the Troops in 1915 Review from the Grantahm Journal of December 4th 1915 of the concert held in the school:~ A Grand Concert was held on Friday November November 26th 1915 in the Council School in aid of the men from Nether and Upper Broughton who were serving in World War 1. A poster advertising the event was found on a flea market stall in Melton Mowbray about ten years ago.
The Second Christmas Concert for the Troops 1916 Review of the concert held in the school from the Grantham Journal of 18th November 1916 The second annual concert was given in the Council School on Thursday week in aid of the Upper Broughton Soldiers Christmas Gift Fund and was an unqualified success. The room was filled with a sympathetic and enthusiastic audience, who showed their appreciation in unstinted applause. The concert is registered under the War Charities Act, 1916 the secretary being Mr J M Walker (who also acts as musical director), the treasurer Mr H J Worthington, auditor the Reverend F J Challoner, committee messrs W A Poole, L Richardson, G Whitlock and C J Worthington.
Burial Records 1776-1812 Upper Broughton Church Burial records for 1776-1812 [Church Burial Records 1776-1812| Google Sheet - Opens new page]
Burial Records 1813 - 2007 Upper Broughton Church Burial records for 1813 - 2007
Upper Broughton in the Domesday Book The village as described in the Domesday Book and what it might have looked like. The first written evidence we have about farming in the manor of Broughton is from 1086 in the Domesday Book. The detailed information, reported by men from the village, was recorded by officers of King William, probably at the Hundred meeting place near Bingham.
The entry for Upper Broughton falls under the first heading in the text for Nottinghamshire;
Early history of farming in Upper Broughton. The geology of the parish and its influence on the first farming families to live here. Farming photos (Opens a Dropbox gallery)
The land in Upper Broughton parish is mainly clay with occasional bands of limestone. The hilltops to the west and north are covered in glacial clays which are often sticky and heavy to work, though there are also patches of sand. This land is also the higher part of the parish and has little shelter from the cold north and east winds, it was the last part of the parish to keep some shrubby tree cover and until recently was not ploughed but used as pasture.
Evacuees Children evacuated from Great Yarmouth to Upper Broughton during WW2 In 1940, three teachers and forty children were evacuated from Northgate School in Great Yarmouth to Upper Broughton. Great Yarmouth was potentially a dangerous place. It had a submarine base and during World War II it suffered Luftwaffe bombing as it was the last significant place German bombers could drop bombs before returning home.
The children came by train to Melton Mowbray and then they boarded buses and were transported to various villages.
Upper Broughton History Group Events for 2024 Walking Tour of Keyworth With members of Keyworth Conservation Area Advisory Group May 02, 2024 from 06:30 PM to 08:00 PM
Keyworth is first mentioned in writing in the Domesday Book dated 1086, though recent archaeological finds have discovered Roman artefacts in the parish outskirts suggesting human inhabitation of the area as far back as 800 AD. Keyworth originally developed as an agricultural community with the great majority of its inhabitants being farmers and field labourers.
Frederick Poole and the Boer War The exploits of one Broughton farmer who went to the Boer War and returned with his horse which is buried in the fields behind Church Farm. Frederick Poole who fought in the Boer War in full military uniform on horseback Rectory Lane
One of the most unusual and exceptional village photographs shows a middle aged man in full regimental dress on a horse in Rectory Drive.
Brief History of the Chapel The Baptist chapel operated in Chapel Lane for 200 years, closing in 1995. It served as a centre for a worshipping community which covered a wide area on the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire wolds. Upper Broughton Free Church (Baptist)
The chapel building stands on land first purchased on 12th Jan 1796 from William Grice, a farmer who may have lived at Church Farm, with land adjoining the chapel.
A retrospective glance at education in Upper Broughton Education for the children in our Village today is taken as a given. It has not always been so. Historical Perspective Going much further back to earlier centuries, some education took place in informal Parish schools, or perhaps using an odd corner or porch of the church, where religion was taught from the Bible. Children were taught to read, some in Latin.
History of St Luke’s Church The church was originally dedicated to St Oswald and there is a stone carving in the church porch, reputedly said to be of Oswald. The parish is called Broughton Sulney which was a previous name for the village. The word Sulney relates to the family that owned the manor in the thirteenth century. Southwell and Nottingham Diocesan Church History Project
Broughton Sulney, St Luke The village was called Broughton Sulney in the thirteenth century and that has remained as the ecclesiastical name of the parish.
The Home Guard Formerly known as the LDV (Local Devence Volunteers) War time Photos Opens DropBox Gallery
Britain’s Home Guard (originally called the Local Defence Volunteers - or LDV) was born on 14th May 1940. It was particularly aimed at those who were too old to fight or were working in a reserved occupation.
The government had wanted to rely on the Army and the Police; however reports began reaching the War Office concerning the appearance up and down the country of ‘bands of civilians.
Kindertransport Did any Jewish Children stay in Upper Broughton? During the 9 months before the outbreak of WWII, 10,000 Jewish children were transported to Britain from mainland Europe. These were known as the Kindertransports, or children transports.
Our village’s surprising and fascinating link to Kindertransport emerged during the interviews with current and former villagers for the Oral History Project.
Memories were shared of a young Jewish boy, of about 7, who’d travelled to this country, and our village, from either Austria or Germany.
Land Girls Employed to work on farms during WW2 The Women’s Land Army In both the World Wars there was a real danger of Britain running out of food. As well as the German attacks on ships bringing food in, there were fewer men at home to work the land as many of the labourers were fighting in the army.
So the Women’s Land Army was set up and thousands of women and girls volunteered to become farm workers.
Historical Maps Recent copies of two historical maps Two significant historical maps exist of Upper Broughton. One drawn by Brett in 1833 and primarily intended as a reference to the land holdings of the Brett family. Currently the original is held by the family in New Zealand.
The second map pre-dates this and was drawn by Harding in approximately 1820 this exquisite map is drawn on paper from J. Whatman from their Turkey Mills and dated 1818.
Previous Events Kings, Castles and Battles — Upper Broughton Village Hall Feb 07, 2024 from 07:30 PM to 09:00 PM
Join Peter Liddle as he aims to put the Richard III discoveries into context: looking more widely at the archaeology and history of the Wars of the Roses in Leicestershire. The talk will cover the Wars of the Roses in the local area, the influence of William, Lord Hastings and the culmination at the Battle of Bosworth.
Village characters Early Photographs of village life opens in DropBox Gallery
Prisoners of War Prisoners who worked on the farms during the war Richard Ball lived at Folly Hall with his parents and grandparents, his father went away to war. He remembers:
‘We did at the end of the war have a German prisoner that helped out on the farm…
It’s amazing, he lived in, but in the evening even in the winter on the coldest of nights we would sort of peer out of the kitchen window down the yard and he had a mirror and four nails banged in a wall to see and he stripped to the waist middle of winter and washed in cold water and shaved and he was like a beetroot when he had done.
Sad Fatality on the Railway Line in 1907 Report by The Railway Department of the Board of Trade into the fatality at Upper Broughton on March 20th 1907 when Arthur Marriott was fatally injured on the Midland Railway. Marriott was one of a gang of seven men who were engaged in packing up the down line at the south end of Upper Broughton Station. Owing to the curvature of the line, approaching trains on both lines could only be seen for a distance of about 200 yards.
Food Rationing ‘Everybody had a pig’ Before the Second World War Britain imported about 2/3rds of our food. After war was declared in September 1939, the British government had to cut down on the amount of food it brought in from abroad as German submarines started attacking British supply ships. There was a worry that this would lead to shortages of food supplies in the shops so the British government decided to introduce a system of rationing.
Church and Chapel Records & History
Rev. Harvey Staunton. As part of the commemorations to mark the centenary of WW1, the History Group published biographies of the eight men on our War Memorial. One man whose name is not there is Harvey Staunton. And we only learnt about him when Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club unveiled a new memorial to the six men who had played for Nottinghamshire and who died in the war. One of them was Harvey Staunton who had been the Rector of Upper Broughton between 1907 and 1911.
The Connection between Upper Broughton, Masham and Beckley Rev Joseph Burrill was a busy man. Until 1835 he lived in Masham in North Yorkshire where he was a curate, ran a Grammar School and a Boarding School and had a farm. From 1808 until his death in 1853 he was the Rector of Upper Broughton and received the rent from the glebe lands and church properties in this village which came to about £400 per year.
Samuel Wright Samuel Wright is one of the latest people we are researching. New information has come to hand recently as we have been contacted by Charles Wright a relative of Samuel’s and also Father Edward Martin who has Samuel’s prayer book in his collection. We have also discovered two large slabs behind the Church which we believe lead to a vault where Samuel is buried.
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Wright 1754-1839
Samuel Wright Samuel Wright is one of the latest people we are researching. New information has come to hand recently as we have been contacted by Charles Wright a relative of Samuel’s and also Father Edward Martin who has Samuel’s prayer book in his collection. We have also discovered two large slabs behind the Church which we believe lead to a vault where Samuel is buried.
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Wright 1754-1839
Rev ARCHIBALD SELWYN PRYOR Rector of Broughton Sulney 1933-1944 The Rector of Upper Broughton (often referred to as Broughton Sulney in ecclesiastical documents) was the only villager to be killed in the Second World War and his name is on the War Memoral in the churchyard. Archibald Selwyn Pryor was born in London on 7th December 1902.he did his theological training at Westcott House and after he was ordained in 1927 he worked as a curate in Hackney.
This should be the tiles of the People folder with 3 members
Village Buildings tour A brief description of some of the various styles and ages of village buildings The oldest part of the village lies between Church Lane and the Village Hall, it is thought that with the exception of the church and the lower part of Yew Tree House there is little of any antiquity to be seen. Numerous houses have been removed from this area over the last century, partially due to the road widening circa 1927.
Walking Tour of the Village Do you want to know Upper Broughton better? Then follow the walk below that takes you round the village and provides lots of interesting information about it. Catherine Jones has designed and written this walk which starts at the Church and follows a circular route round the village.
Download a Pdf Map & route here
Starting at St Lukeʼs Church, notice how the land drops away to the south and east but climbs to the west.
War Damage The village was unscathed, but Nottingham was badly damaged on May 8th 1941 ‘We were very lucky really, the only local attack was in Hickling where they had the incendiary bombs’
Audrey Jones
Nottingham
Nottingham was badly hit on the night of May 8th 1941, with many deaths and very severe damage. Yet the Nottingham Evening Post the next day painted an upbeat picture and also avoided mentioning which town it was that had been attacked, merely referring to an ‘East Midlands town’.
The Upper Broughton War Memorial Inscriptions from WW1 and WW2
Upper Broughton Churchyard
The names below all appear on the Upper Broughton War Memorial. sadly the first two names are of two brothers, William and Leonard Brooks. The picture above was taken on the day the memorial was dedicated. Neither the large tree in the churchyard on the right hand side or the light over the church gate are there now.
War Memorial Names Stories of the 8 men on the Upper Broughton War Memorial John Edward Keys Six generations of the Keys family lived in Upper Broughton starting with John Keays (born 1787) who settled here after fighting in the Peninsular War. Click on the pdf file below to read more about John Edward Keys.
John_Edward-Keys — PDF document
William James Brooks
Son of William and Julia Brooks of Corner House Farm.
Wartime in Upper Broughton WW I & WW II
Service of Commemoration for the WW1 War Memorial Men On Sunday October 28th 2018 we held a service in St Luke’s Church, Upper Broughton to celebrate the lives of the eight men on the War Memorial who died in WW1. And also to commemorate the centenary of the end of the war. This address was given at the service. In 1920 the Bishop of Southwell came to Upper Broughton to bless the War Memorial and at every Armistice Day since then the eight names have been read out.