16th July 2024

Search Rampton & Woodbeck Parish Council

Serving the people of Rampton & Woodbeck

Brief History of Rampton & Woodbeck

Rampton is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. Located in the Trent valley, North Nottinghamshire, in the Bassetlaw district 8 miles east of Retford. The population has risen from 313 at the time of the 1811 census to a population of 1,139 at the 2011 census. Its name is probably derived from Old English Ramm-tūn, meaning "farmstead where rams are kept". The village had an important manor in Norman times. The first manor (Rampton Hall) of the Stanhope and Babington families was built in the reign of Henry VIII and pulled down in 1720. On the eastern boundary of All Saints' churchyard is a mid-16th-century Tudor gateway which once led to Rampton Manor the former home of the Eyre family. It is brick with terracotta panels and is a Grade I listed building ornamented with the armorial bearings of the Stanhope, Babington, and Eyre families. The Eyre manor was demolished in the 19th Century.

The closest railway station used to be at Cottam which operated between 1850 and 1959. The former railway viaduct across the Trent into Lincolnshire was refurbished as a public footpath in 2017, so it is now possible to walk from Rampton to Torksey.

There are two parts to the parish - Rampton village itself and Woodbeck which is about 1.5 miles away. Rampton Primary School is halfway between the two.

Woodbeck is named after the former farm house and its land which was located between a 'wood and a beck'. Woodbeck Farm was bought by the Minister of Prisons in 1907. The farmhouse was sold to the Government when the area was chosen for the building of Rampton Secure Hospital - a high security psychiatric hospital. Initially known as Rampton Criminal Lunatic Asylum, building work began in 1909. Rampton was originally conceived as an annex to Broadmoor with the aim of reducing overcrowding and opened in 1912. When hospital patient numbers increased in the 1920's, a programme of building staff houses commenced. The houses were originally for married staff members with families. Unmarried staff were housed in two residential blocks which opened in 1931. In the 1990's the residence blocks were converted into offices and are now located within the outer perimeter fence of the hospital. An increase in the number of staff saw an expansion of the Staff Club (previously the Woodbeck farmhouse) to include a cricket pavilion (1935) and sports facilities. The Staff Club, Shop, Post Office, Tennis Courts, Bowling Green and cricket pavilion were demolished to make way for the new control room and entry building (2003) on completion of the new perimeter fence. The 1990's saw the sale of many of the houses at Woodbeck to private ownership.

Woodbeck has a childrens playpark with green open spaces and also a skate ramp. The Woodbeck Residents Association is ran by volunteers who work hard to organise social events including a very popular annual Bonfire Night Celebration.

Woodbeck has a Community Centre (known as Woody's Bar) and Rampton Village has a Village Hall.

Rampton village has a church, a pub (The Eyre Arms), a village store, garage and Post Office. Woodbeck has a motor garage.

Further Reading

Below is a selection of historic records relating to the history of Rampton & Woodbeck:

Inclosure Award

From 1801 public general Inclosure acts were passed. These normally specified where awards were to be deposited or enrolled, either by one of the courts of record or with the local clerk of the peace. The General Enclosure Act of 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c.118) appointed permanent enclosure commissioners who were authorised to issue Enclosure Awards without submitting them to Parliament for approval.

Inclosure awards are legal documents recording the ownership and distribution of land. They may detail land owned by churches, schools and charities, as well as roads, rights of way, drainage, land boundaries, different types of land tenure.

Prior to the Inclosures, and was categorized as "common" or "waste" or not in use "Common" land was under the control of the lord of the manor, but a number of rights on the land (such as pasture) were variously held by certain nearby properties, or (occasionally) held in gross by all manorial tenants. "Waste" was land without value as a farm strip – often very narrow areas (typically less than a yard wide) in awkward locations (like cliff edges, or inconveniently shaped manorial borders), but also bare rock, and so forth; "waste" was not officially used by anyone, and thus was often cultivated by landless peasants.

The remainder of the land was organised into a large number of narrow strips, with each tenant possessing a number of disparate strips throughout the manor, as would the manorial lord.

The Rampton Inclosure Award is an amazing snapshot of history, featuring beautifully drawn maps. It shows how the land of the parish was divided to the various owners in 1845. There are two original copies of the document, one is deposited at the Nottinghamshire County Archives, the other version was entrusted to the Parish Council in 1894, in 2000 it was moved for safe keeping to Foys Solicitors strong room in Retford. A digital copy has been made for public access as follows:

Vestry Book

Vestries: Prior to 1894 the Vestry generally held property on behalf of other persons for a parish but had no legal personality. Parish property and land + local charity land before the passing of the 1894 act was held by the vestry as trustees. The most important of these trustees were the Churchwardens, the Overseers and the Guardians. There were also other public employees such as the Surveyor of Highways, Roads and Drains and the Pinder.

The passing of the 1894 Act resulted in the creation of parish councils, consisting of a Chairman, Councillors and Overseers (who were now part of the Parish Council as Overseers of the Precept), this Act transferred all the properties of the parish from the Vestry to the Parish Council. For example, in Rampton this meant the legal ownership by the Council of the fields which had been administered in the parish by the Surveyor of Highways, Roads & Drains (Forest Garden Field on Retford Road, Two fields on Torksey Ferry Road & Rampton Wharf) and the fields of the Pinder (The Pinder field on Torksey Ferry Road and The Pinfold off Retford Road corner).

Prior to the creation of Parish Council's in 1894 the Vestry held the power to appoint trustees (the Churchwardens and Overseers) to a non-ecclesiastical charity. This power transferred to Parish Councils in 1894 under the Passing of the Local Government Act 1894.

The Rampton Parish Meeting/Vestry Book which contains all the minutes of the Parish Meetings from 1834 to 1894 and the Vestry Meetings, is the pre-cursor to the Parish Council and its minute books. According to this book, Rampton Parish had always had 2 Overseers of the Poor (Mr Wheat & Mr Gunthorpe) and 2 Churchwardens (Mr Coulson & Mr Richmond).

Directories

History of the Community

Newspaper Archives

Muriel Baker's Rampton Village Archive

In 1992 former Rampton resident Muriel Barker embarked on a labour of love to make a record of the village, the following documents are the result of Muriel's many hours of work. Muriel has given her permission to share these documents to the Parish Council website. There are 6 Volumes in total.

Whilst the majority of the people mentioned within these files related to historic individuals of the early 20th century, there maybe some living people, we hope if you find yourself in these records that you will be happy to be part of this record history for future generations to enjoy. However, we will be happy to remove any item in this series which relates to a living person, should they not wish the document to be on the website.

Main Street, Rampton

Treswell Road & Greenside

Torksey St, Manor Dr & Rampton Rd

Methodist Chapel

Laneham Street

Village Hall, Clubs & Societies

Last updated: Sun, 18 Nov 2018 09:37