Powerflush nearby to Eastwood
Eastwood is a former coal mining town in the Broxtowe district of Nottinghamshire, England, 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Nottingham and 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Derby on the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution. D. H. Lawrence was born here, and the Midland Railway was founded here. The distinctive East Midlands English dialect is widely spoken, and the town’s name is pronounced /eswd/.
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HISTORY
“Eastwood” is a mash-up of the Old English Est for “East” and the Old Norse veit /wet/ for “meadow,” “cleared meadow,” or “clearing in a wood.” This is a common element in English place names, and it is frequently found as “Thwaite.” “Eastwood” could refer to an eastern clearing, possibly originating in Sherwood Forest during the Viking era.
There is some evidence that the area around Eastwood was inhabited during the Middle and Late Paleolithic periods. Fragments of typical Bronze Age pottery, weapons, and dug-out canoes, which are now preserved at Nottingham Castle and the University of Nottingham, are stronger indicators of later settlement.
The settlement’s location is primarily due to the availability of fertile agricultural land, the proximity of the River Erewash, and, most importantly, the extensive and easily mined coal deposits. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Estewic, part of William Peverel’s fee.
During The Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between Stephen of Blois and supporters of Matilde, Henry II’s mother, Peveral’s son, William Peverel the Younger, forfeited these to the Crown in 1155. The estate, known as the Peverel Honour, was eventually divided, and the Greys of Codnor Castle were granted much of the land around Eastwood.
Throughout the Middle Ages, tenant farming predominated, with common pasture primarily used for grazing.
Eastwood had a population of about 170 when King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, and it remained a small village until the 18th century, when the Trent Navigation Company opened the Erewash Canal in 1779. With locks at Beeston connecting Eastwood to the River Trent and Nottingham, this was one of the first man-made waterways in England, and its arrival resulted in a rapid expansion of the local coal mining industry. Other industries, such as framework knitting, corn milling, pottery, brewing, rope making, and brick making, quickly followed.
During the Industrial Revolution, the town grew rapidly, and in the nineteenth century, it experienced the greatest increase in population density of any parish in Nottinghamshire. By 1880, the population had grown to 4,500 people. Factories were built to house the new industries, as land became available as the rural population moved to cities. This industrialisation of the countryside was only halted in the early nineteenth century, when the effects of the Enclosures began to be felt in Nottinghamshire, albeit somewhat belatedly. In a local manifestation of this period of upheaval, marchers of the Pentrich Revolution of 1817 passed through the town and were met by soldiers at nearby Giltbrook: Eastwood residents boarded up their homes and hid in the woods.
A historic meeting at the Sun Inn (built 1750) in 1832 resulted in the formation of the Midland Counties Railway and the construction of a line from Pinxton to Leicester. The opening of Moorgreen Colliery in 1868 continued industrialisation, and in 1875, the demand for coal resulted in the establishment of a railway station in Eastwood, with Great Northern Railway services to Nottingham.
In 1885, D. H. Lawrence was born in Eastwood. Although the setting is mentioned in many of his novels, it is especially prominent in The White Peacock, set against the backdrop of industrialization. There were ten coal mines, or “pits,” within easy walking distance of Lawrence’s house, and colliers made up the vast majority of the local male population. Although the coal boom ended during Lawrence’s childhood, Eastwood continued to grow, Nottingham Road and its feeder streets became a shopping district, and the local Urban District Council opened its doors in 1908. However, outside of what remained of the coal industry, few jobs remained. The majority of women were housewives, and boys were eager to reach the age of fourteen, when they could begin working in mines. Trams introduced a new mode of transportation between Nottingham, Ripley, and Heanor in the early twentieth century. Lawrence lived near the line and called it “the most dangerous tram service in England.”
During the two world wars, Eastwood coal, metal castings, rope, wire, and agricultural products made significant contributions to Britain’s war effort. Eastwood supplied soldiers to the Sherwood Foresters Regiment during WWII. A memorial on Nottingham Road honours Eastwood residents who died in both World Wars.
The coal industry was nationalised in 1946, and Eastwood Hall became the new National Coal Board’s Area Office. This later became their National Office and was the site of several crisis meetings during the 1980s national miners’ strike; it is now a hotel. Moorgreen Colliery alone produced one million tonnes of coal at its peak in 1963, but the last coal mine in the area closed in 1985.
Tourism has grown in importance in recent years. Lawrence’s birthplace is now a museum, and the “Blue Line Trail,” a painted line on the pavement, guides visitors around eleven sites of local interest, including three of Lawrence’s homes. The trail was the first of its kind in England, and it was inspired by the Freedom Trail in Boston, Massachusetts.
GEOGRAPHY
Eastwood, which is surrounded by gently rolling countryside, is located 8 miles northwest of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, close to the county boundary with Derbyshire.
