The English Civil War In Wilford

Nottingham was the location of a number of skirmishes and battles between 1643 and 1645.   Despite King Charles ceremonial raising of the Kings standard in Nottingham on the 22nd Of August 1642, the town became the domain of Cromwell's roundheads.  The Cavalier forces frequently attempted to take the town.   Trent Bridge was the main route into Nottingham from the south and since Wilford lies directly before the bridge, it was inevitable that sooner or later Cavalier forces would try to break into Nottingham via Wilford.   On the 20th of April 1645, a disorganized Roundhead defense were unable to prevent the Cavaliers from ransacking Wilford and the nearby West Bridgeford.  The Royalists didn't achieve a breakthrough and were never to successfully take the town.   Sir Gervase Clifton owned the manor of Wilford and Clifton in the Civil War and chose to support the Cavaliers.  He supplied King Charles with pistols, saddles, pikes and muskets.  After the Cavaliers were defeated, Sir Gervase was fined heavily for opposing the Parliament forces.  

Iron cannon balls and a sword were found on Wilford Hill ( see below for for details ) in 1804.  They are believed to have originated from a battery of cannons positioned on the hill to bombard Nottingham Castle.

Great Central Railway Cutting In Wilford

A disused railway cutting runs through the entire length of Wilford from the Trent in the North to beyond the Silverdale Estate in the South.   It was originally part of the Great Central Railway and was constructed between 1896 and 1899.  The Great Central was the last mainline railway to be built in Britain and connected the Metropolitan Railway to Marlebone Station in London.  The line was used to carry passengers, steel and fish as well as locally mined coal and gypsum   It also carried military trains in both world wars.  The famous 'South Yorkshireman' and 'Master Cutler' express trains ran the route.  The first coal train to London ran through the cutting in 1898 with passenger trains strting to use the route in 1899.  The line was closed in 1974, the track removed and the land split into two nature reserves.  The land is much wider than is usual for a railway cutting because the land on either side was purchased for excavations of earth to be used as embarkments elsewhere along the route.  The digging left the cutting well below the surrounding farmland with a sharp bank rising on each side

The Cutting As A Nature Reserve
( Wilwell Farm Cutting )

The land was once considered for use as a rubbish dump to be filled in with earth when full of refuse. This was the fate of the cutting to the North of the reserve which has since been filled in and now serves as farm land.

The southern half was aquired and maintained by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. It is about a kilometre in length and up to about 30 meters in width covering an area of 20 acres.  The reserve is classified as a Site Of Special Scientific Interest. The N.W.T. has planted birch trees along each side of the line and cut a long winding pathway into the surrounding scrub and woodland.   The reserve was leased for 99 years by the trust in 1981.  Although relativley small, the land is quite varied with grasslands, marsh land and wooded areas.  A survey of the land in 1978 identified 169 different flowering plants and ferns of which 12 were rare for Nottinghamshire and 7 were in danger of extinction.  The reserve is frequented by owls, thrushes, kestrels, sparrowhawks, woodcock, snipe, foxes and 19 species of butterfly including ringlet, comma and common blue.  Orchids cowslip, yellow-wort, adders tongue fern, various sphagnum moss species, star sedge and cotton grasses populate the site.

Unfortunately only members of the trust are allowed into the area.  Access from the Northern half of the line is barred by a high chain link fence making a considerable diversion necessary for a anybody who wants to walk the full length of the cutting.   The fence is supposed to keep vandals out but probably serves just to keep everybody out as the main entrance is difficult to identify and get too - there isn't even a foot path on the busy road side of the B680 that passes it.  On the positive side, the land is a quiet, attractive and unspoiled; a pleasant alternative to the housing estates popping up all around Wilford in the North.  

The North half of the cutting runs for over two kilometers and is open to everybody.  One of its key attractions is the level pathway that once supported the railway track.  Its lack of gradient makes it ideal for older or infirm walkers to navigate.  The land is considered a very important plant and wildlife link between the country side and Nottingham's built up areas.  It is sliced neatly in two by Wilford Lane.   A bridge used to carry the trains over the road but it was dismantled when the railway closed.  The southern half of  the route has suffered badly from the development of the large Compton Acres housing estate and is impossible to ignore.  Its downheartning to walk the southern half which once passed through incredibly green and picturesque meadows to now see row upon row of  houses built to within inches of the line and to be shielded by a pathetic line of small shrubs.  Across Wilford Lane the route has faired better and overlooks a sports ground, playing fields, a small fishing lake and ultimately leads to just short of the River Trent.

Wilford Hill Nature Reserve

The hill to the east of Wilford is the highest location in Wilford and today functions as a well populated cemetery and a 7 acre nature reserve. On its West side the road leads to the main crossing over the River Trent, Trent Bridge. Along this route Richard III led his army on a white horse to the Battle Of Bosworth, the decisive battle in the War Of The Roses. Henry VII also camped by the hill when his army marched from Nottingham Castle to defeat Lambert Simnel at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487.  A sword and a number of cannon balls were excavated on the hill in 1804 that date back to the English Civil War when the hill was used by a gun battery to bombard Nottingham Castle.

Part of Wilford Hill became a Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust maintained nature reserve in 1985. It covers just under 8 acres and has been recently replanted with oak, ash, beech and birch trees to replace the original elms lost to Dutch Elm Disease. It is inhabited by many small mammels including foxes.

Other Wilford Nature Reserves
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                              Fairham Brook, May 1997
Wilford has two more nature reserves, both maintained by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

The Fairham Brook reserve runs along the length of the brook that joins the Trent at Clifton Bridge. The reserve itself begins next to the Fairham College fields and covers the west bank of the brook.  It occupies 26 acres of land made up of meadow, scrub land and lowland fen bog.  The reserve was originally established for educational purposes for the Fairham College.  The reserve is open to the public.

The Wilford Claypit reserve used to be a source of clay for making bricks. The site was bought by the Wilford Brick Company in 1895 and remained with the company for 72 years.  The site is quite small, and has the appearance of a vegetation covered crator.  Due to the site's unpolluted pools, streams and dykes, the reserve has been classed as a Site Of Special Scientific Interest and as such has the same access restrictions as the Willwell Farm Cutting.  The land supports a number of small mammels and plants but is most notable for its importance as a habitat for freshwater invertebrates and amphibians.   

For further information on the nature reserves, the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has produced a fact sheet for each of the sites.