User:Chzz/eastwood/hist

History

It seems that "Eastwood" is a hybrid place-name, formed from Old English "Est", for "East", and Old Norse "Þveit" (/θveɪt/), for "meadow", "cleared meadow", or "clearing in a wood": this is a common element in English place-names, often found as "Thwaite". Therefore "Eastwood" might mean "eastern clearing", the place possibly beginning as a Viking Age clearing in Sherwood Forest.

Eastwood is one of the few places where the distinctive dialect of East Midlands English is extensively spoken, in which the name is /ˈeɪswʊd/.

Evidence suggests that the land was occupied in the Middle and Late Palaeolithic period. Signs of later settlements are even more positive, with fragments of characteristic Bronze Age pottery, weapons and dug-out canoes now preserved at Nottingham Castle and University.

From John Chapan's map of Nottinghamshire, published in 1774.

It remained a small village until the 18th century, when, in 1779, the Trent Navigation Company opened the Erewash Canal This was one of the first man-made waterways in England, with locks at Beeston linking Eastwood to the River Trent, and Nottingham, and its arrival led to a rapid expansion of the coal mining industry. Other industries soon followed, including framework knitting, corn milling, pottery, brewing, rope making and brick making.

The Enclosure Act, where the ownership of agricultural land became more rigorously defined, did not come into effect in Nottinghamshire until the early 19th century. Consequently, newly-evolving factories were built around, rather than in, Nottingham as land became available for development, and population moved to urban areas.

The marchers of the Pentrich Revolution (1817) passed through the town, and faced soldiers at Giltbrook. The residents of Eastwood boarded up their houses and hid in the woods.

In 1832, an historic meeting took place at in the Sun Inn (built 1750), which resulted in the creation of the Midland Counties Railway, and the construction of a line from Pinxton to Leicester.

The Moorgreen Colliery on Engine Lane was sunk in 1868. By 1875, the demand for coal resulted in a further rail link, via the Great Northern Railway line to Nottingham. The town expanded rapidly during the Industrial Revolution, and in the 19th century it experienced the greatest increase in population density of any parish in Nottinghamshire. By 1880 the population had increased to 4,500.

D.H. Lawrence was born in 1885, and the local area is mentioned in many of his novels, especially The White Peacock, against a backdrop of industrialisation. His birthplace is now a museum. There were ten pits within easy walking distance, and a massive majority of the male population were colliers.

As Lawrence grew up, the coal boom was ending. Eastwood continued to expand, but there were few jobs outside the coal industry. Few women worked, and boys were mostly desperate to reach the age of fourteen, when they could become colliers.

In the 20th century, trams provided a new means of transport between Nottingham, Ripley and Heanor. Lawrence lived next to the line, and described it as the most dangerous tram-service in England. Shops became established along Nottingham Road and the feeder streets and, in 1908, the local Urban District Council opened its offices.

During the two world wars, Eastwood coal, metal castings, rope, wire and agricultural products made valuable contributions. During the Second World War, Eastwood supplied soldiers to the Sherwood Foresters Regiment. The Memorial on Nottingham Road commemorates the names of Eastwood residents who gave their lives in both world wars.

In 1946, the coal industry was nationalised, and the new National Coal Board acquired Eastwood Hall as their Area Office. This later became their National Office, and was the location for several crisis meetings during the national Miners' Strike of the 1980s.

At the height of its production in 1963, Moorgreen Colliery produced one million tons of coal. The last coal mine in the area closed in 1985.

In recent years, tourism has become increasingly important; Lawrence's birthplace is a museum. A painted line on the pavement, called the ‘blue line trail’, guides visitors around eleven sites of local interest including three of Lawrence's homes. The trail was the first of its kind in England; the concept is based on the Freedom Trail in Boston, USA.