Wellow Village | Nottinghamshire
Wellow
is
said
to
be
the
only
village
in
the
country
with
a
green,
as
distinct
from
a
grassed
over
market
place.
Most
English
villages
are
mentioned
in
the
Doomsday
Book
(1086),
but
not
Wellow
because
it
did
not
exist
then.
The
nearest
villages
were
Grimston
(perpetuated
in
Grimston
Hill,
less
than
1m
E)
and
Rufford
to
the
SW.
When
Cistercian
monks
came
to
Rufford
in
1145
they
created
the
kind
of
rural
seclusion
they
desired
by
buying
out
the
villagers
of
Rufford.
The
displaced
peasants
planned
a
new
fortified
village
for
themselves
-
Wellow,
with
a
bank
and
ditch
(called
George
Dyke)
,
all
round
and
a
triangular
green
in
the
centre,
now
dominated
by
the
maypole.
On
the
S
and
W
the
defence
is
natural,
a
stream
cutting
its
course
deep
in
the
Keuper
marl,
like
a
dumble.
You
can
walk
some
way
along
it
at
the
S
end
of
the
village.
The
rest
of
the
circuit
is
a
man-made
bank
and
ditch.
It
crosses
the
road
to
Newark
(A616)
at
the
E
end
of
the
village,
opposite
the
pinfold.
The
green
has
remained
intact
except
that
the
Primitive
Methodists
were
allowed
in
1847
to
build
their
chapel
on
it.
Houses
surround
the
green
in
a
pleasantly
unselfconscious
way.
All
are
brick,
except
for
one
with
exposed
timbers,
and
facing
the
N
end
of
the
green
is
another,
evidently
timber-framed
under
its
white
rendering,
for
it
has
a
jetty
or
overhang;
Wellow
Hall,
on
the
left
as
you
come
in
from
Ollerton,
has
been
restored,
and
its
Georgian
wing
lies
longside
the
road.
Towards
Newark
there
are
three
simple
farmhouse
of
the
kind
fashionable
here
in
Georgian
times:
central
doorway,
one
window
either
side,
three
windows
upstairs.
chimneys
at
the
gable
end.
The
church,
off
the
green
to
the
E,
is
small,
and
was started in the12th century by the villagers themselves.
The
track
going
N
from
the
pinfold
leads
to
Jordan
Castle
Farm.
It
takes
its
name
from
an
earthwork
in
the
field
beyond,
nearly
ploughed
out
now;
archaeologists
recognize
it
as
a
ring
work,
which
must
have
belonged
to
a
13th
century
Jordan
Foliot, lord of Grimston.
The Wellow Village History Website