Edwalton is over twelve centuries old. The Saxon Aedwald had set up his tun or homestead in the ninth century on a hill above the valley of the River Trent on land which was wooded and boggy. The small village, Edwoultun, was mentioned in the Domesday Book and the small church since dedicated to the Holy Rood was built in about 1167. In the 13th century the village came into the ownership of the Chaworth family and the family remained Lords of the Manor until the 1950s. Over many centuries the village was a small farming community, never with more than 20 or so families and about 100 or so inhabitants. Some years were good, many more were bad and the several farms strung out along the lane - now Village Street- which ran from the road from Nottingham to Melton often faced many difficulties. Edwalton in these times has been described as ‘an unremarkable village’.
In 1879, the Midland Railway came and the village began a transformation. The line south from Nottingham to Melton Mowbray and beyond with a passenger station and goods yard in the village began to bring greater prosperity and more people. Several large houses were built along the Melton road near to the Manor House, owned by the Chaworth Musters family. Edwalton Hall, built for the Wright family of Nottingham on nearly 3 acres of land was finished in 1899; it was sold in 1905 for £6000 to the Hind family whose head was Jesse Hind, a Nottingham solicitor and Clerk to the new County Council of Nottinghamshire.
At this time the land was being farmed by tenant families, paying their dues to the Lord of the Manor, in Firs Farm, Hollies Farm, Hill Farm and Lodge Farm. Village Street was lined with farm workers’ cottages and Wellin Lane was merely a farm road leading down to the pastureland and the Meadow Covert.
In the last hundred years the community of Edwalton has continued to grow in size to its present population of nearly 4000. Despite this constant growth Edwalton retains a distinct village character. In December 2005, Rushcliffe Borough Council designated the Edwalton Conservation Area.
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