Newark Rd in the Victorian Era

Page under construction

Newark Rd in Victorian Times

The Thorpes

and a New Parsonage

Using Sanderson's ~20 Miles Round Mansfield map we can imagine a walk from the Newark end of the road towards the foot of Brownlow's Hill in 1835.

{if possible insert small fragment of Sanderson's Map - if can get permission}

There are a number of buildings on Newark Rd marked on the map. The first is set well back in a field (between Newark Rd and a back lane starting from the first of the two bends). At Catch?em Inn corner a track heads off to Beaconfield Farm with a building before and after the bend. Two buildings face each other by the drive to the Hall (the position of the lodge and the laundry) and further along there is another on the right (the site of Black's Farm). "Lime industry" activity is marked in the field behind the laundry and also near the fish pond where there seems to be a small building. Unfortunately, the transcribed data of the 1841 Coddington census lists households but doesn't allow us to say where in the village they lived not even who was living at Beaconfield.

The Thorpe Family

James Thorpe (a former Mayor of Newark) bought the Beaconfield estate from Thomas Fisher and his son James. At the time of the 1841 Census the house was probably empty, the Spragging-Godfreys having moved on. James Thorpe Snr and his family were living in a large house on Millgate - but a great deal of work was done smartening up Beaconfields before they moved there in 1843. Shortly afterwards he died and his 19 year-old son James Thorpe jnr. inherited the house, lands, property and the malting, flour, coal and wharfinger business along the river Trent. He went into business with his rich uncle John Thorpe, who lived at Elston Hall.

When James married Mary Ann Spence around 1850, he had a dower house built for his mother Anne, near the church which they named Coddington House. He was a churchwarden and probably instrumental in the church reform that led to Coddington becoming a full Parish with its own vicar. In 1865 he met jost of the ?2000 cost of rebuilding the Parish Church, employing Bodley as the architect and through him young William Morris's Firm.

{Insert small image of the Parsonage, to the right of following text}

A new parish needed a suitable family house for its vicar. In 1870 James sold a large plot of land on Newark Rd to the church authorities and a new parsonage was built in 1872 to go with the smart rebuilt church. The Rev John Maximillian Dolphin moved in to the large three-storey brick house with wife Rose and raised a large family. James's first wife died childless and he remarried the young Scottish socialite Annie Macdougall. By the time of the 1871 Census they had a young baby boy, the first of many children (although sadly he was to die in infancy). After James's mother Anne Thorpe died, Coddington House was eventually bought by the Tallents family.

Census data for Newark road from 1861, 1871 and 1881 are available.

On the 1881 census:

James Thorpe was listed as Maltster and Landowner Farmer of 320 acres, employing 9 men and 3 boys.

Also at Coddington Hall was his wife Annie aged 34, and their 6 children aged 8 to 10 months: John S, Harold, William, Gervase, Muriel and Cicely, 3 visiting relatives, a governess and 13 servants.

At the Vicarage were John M Dolphin, wife Rose and their 9 children aged 14 to 1month: Lucy C, Alice M, Cyril, Harold, Margaret L, Arthur R, John B, Rose W and Mabel, with a Governess, 2 Nurses, a Cook and a servant.

{insert links to webpages:}