Clarborough and Welham is a civil parish in the Bassetlaw district, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. The parish includes the village of Clarborough and the hamlet of Welham. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1088. It is 130 miles north of London, 28 miles north east of the city of Nottingham, and 2 miles north east of the market town of Retford. The parish touches Hayton, North and South Wheatley, North Leverton with Habblesthorpe and Sturton Le Steeple. There are 14 listed buildings in Clarborough and Welham.
Geography
Location
Clarborough and Welham is surrounded by the following local areas:
Hayton to the north
Little Gringley to the south
Christone, North Leverton, South Leverton, South Wheatley, Sturton Le Steeple and Westholme to the east Bolham, Retford and Tiln to the west.
Settlements
The two settlements within the parish are:
Clarborough
Welham
Clarborough
The larger village of the two areas, it is a linear settlement along the A620 Retford to Beckingham road. It lies along the north boundary of the parish, and its urban area merges into the village and parish of Hayton. It maintains key amenities such as post office, church, village hall, and shop.
Welham
This is south of Clarborough, separated by greenfield land, Primarily residential, it too is a linear village along the A620, lying to the south west of the parish. It which gets its name from a once celebrated spring (St Johns Well) near the place, which was formed into a large bath. The spring is still located in a private house. Welham is listed in Domesday as "Wellun" (meaning 'at the spring'). Welham Grange, an intact house dating from 1667 which listed as a Grade II building by the English Heritage on 1 February 1967. Also in Welham is the early 19th-century Welham Hall.
Welham Bridge, although spanning the canal along the A620 road close to the village, is outside the boundary. It was formerly within the larger Clarborough parish.
Landscape
Woods
Primarily farmland throughout the parish outside the villages, there is some small forestry east of Welham:
Clarborough Nature Reserve alongside the railway line. Caddow's Wood and Hutchinson's Holt are wooded areas in the far south east.
Water features
The Chesterfield Canal runs from the south west to the north of the parish, west of the two villages.
The Guns Beck stream forms part of the western parish boundary, before feeding into the canal.
Land elevation
At its western extremity, the land level is low-lying and flat, varying little between .
The villages rise to around .
To the east of the parish it is more hilly, in the north east by Clarborough Hill there is an elevation of .
In the south east the parish peak is near Schrog Hill of .
History
Clarborough
Clarborough was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Claueburch or Claureburg, and later Clareborough. It has primarily been an agricultural settlement for hundreds of years. It nestles in the flat plains before the land rises up to Clarborough Hill where a windmill stood in 1753 (which burnt down in 1896).
St John the Baptist Church is located to the east of the village and was built in the 13th century although it is likely that a church was on the site before this time. Beside the church is the Victorian School House which was built in 1870s, and the Old Vicarage.
The Chesterfield Canal in 1777 was opened to transport minerals and iron from Derbyshire to the River Trent. This enters the parish from the south west and exits to the northwest. A number of locks and bridges intersect this throughout.
In the 18th century there were workhouses in Clarborough.
Until the late 1800s Clarborough was a larger parish, taking in additional areas to the west and south such as Bolham, Little Gringley, and the Spital Hill and Moorgate portions of the Retford area. The chapel of ease of St Saviour's in Retford was built in 1827-9 to accommodate worshippers in those distant parts of Clarborough nearest to Retford to attend services as it would be nearer than St John's, and they were regularly instead using St Swithun's Church in central Retford. A major benefactor of the new church was Henry Clark Hutchinson of Welham Hall, providing some of the money to purchase the advowson of Clarborough, and gave a sum towards the building work. He also provided the land on which the chapel was built, and the land nearby on which the vicarage, and afterwards a school, were constructed.