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1792 Enclosure of Basford
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1797: Map of the Basford Enclosure Award
Enclosure was the process by which local landowners could apply for an Act of Parliament which enabled them to create enclosed fields for farming or building plots from common land. This is what happened in the 1790’s with the enclosure of Basford which then included what we now know as Sherwood. Up to that time the area was a grassy moor or common, a large part of which was call the Lings, on which heather and gorse. Even in 1825 the area between Mansfield Road and Hucknall Road was still known as Gloke Hill. Sherwood was in the Parish of Basford and all the latter’s house or land owners were entitled to Rights of Common on the Lings, such as pasture for animals.
That changed after the Basford Enclosure Act of 1792. The author of the Nottingham date Book quite rightly complained that “The Duke of Newcastle, The Earl of Chesterfield and other land owners obtained by it (the Act) large accessions to their property but not a single acre of land was reserved for the use of the public though nearly 1500 cares had been enjoyed in common… The Crown got just £9 sterling as one-fortieth share of the value of the land on which Mapperley Place (Private Road), Sherwood, Carrington and Cavendish villas now stand; while the other claimants received their proportions in solid acres.” Up to this period the Forest lands were visited in summer by great numbers of Nottingham tradesmen and mechanics and their wives and sweethearts in “nutting parties” which were picnics with liquor, music and dancing, but “these happy sports were speedily brought to a close by the rapid march of inclosure.”
The main beneficiaries of the enclosure in Sherwood can be seen on the the above map which shows that Henry Cavendish Esquire gained most, followed by the Duke of Newcastle who was Lord of the Manor. The Land Tax Assessments for Basford show that in 1790 Henry Cavendish owned no land in the parish but by 1795 he paid £10 -6s - 0d. On four tenancies. Other tenants in the area were Mr Dams, Francis Burton and Mr. Hooley. This was James Hooley, a hosier and lace manufacturer with premises on High Pavement, Nottingham. By 1815 he was living in Woodthorpe (next to Sherwood), helping to start a trend of lace manufacturers and other businessmen who lived in the country but worked in the town.
History of Sherwood: A Nottingham Suburb
Terry Fry, 1989, Pages 2, 3