Papplewick

The well and the old forest crossroads

There's a well inside the restaurant at The Griffin's Head, left where it was dug when the building went up. Nobody has filled it in. You eat under wooden ceilings and exposed beams, three open fires going in winter, a few feet from it.

The pub sits on the crossroads, which in medieval times marked the southern gateway into Sherwood Forest. Its name comes from the griffin on the arms of the Montagu family, who owned the land from the late 18th century. The beer is Black Sheep Best Bitter, Castle Rock Harvest Pale and Timothy Taylor Landlord, Cask Marque accredited at five stars. Dogs are welcome, and the garden hosts beer festivals, classic car shows and dog shows. The menu runs to tomato and mozzarella bruschetta, grilled seabass risotto, a peri-peri grilled chicken burger, and a Cherry Bakewell cheesecake to finish.

A second pub and paths through the parish

The other pub, the Burnt Stump Inn, is a Marston's family dining pub in what was once a Victorian estate house on the Seely family's Sherwood Lodge land. It runs themed nights — burger and a drink for £12.25 on Tuesdays, curry at the same price on Wednesdays, steak and a drink for £13.50 on Thursdays — and looks out over the cricket pitch into Burntstump Country Park. Dogs get treats, blankets and water bowls, and there's a doggy menu. There's no independent shop, butcher or bakery in the village.

For walking, the short option is the Meadows Path to Linby, three-quarters of a mile past Papplewick Lodge, the church and an old stone bridge over the River Leen. The Moors Path is longer, crossing Papplewick Moors — once a WWI airstrip — past Seven Mile Wood, where herons, lapwings and yellowhammers turn up. The Robin Hood Way runs through the parish in two loops, one heading north-west into the Newstead Abbey grounds.

Medieval stones and Victorian engineering

St James' Church is Grade I listed, its tower 14th century, its nave rebuilt in 1795 by the Hon. Frederick Montagu. Inside is a Norman font found in the churchyard and ten medieval grave slabs reused as floor stones — one carved with a hunting horn, bow and arrow, marking a Sherwood forester's grave. One of the five bells, cast in 1620 by the Nottingham founder Henry Oldfield, carries an inscription: "I sweetly tolling men do call, to feaste on meates that feed the soule."

Papplewick Pumping Station, a mile or so away, was built between 1881 and 1884 by Nottingham Corporation, its two James Watt beam engines fed by six Lancashire boilers, at a cost of £55,000. It pumped water from 1884 until 1969. A trust formed in 1974, the site opened to the public as a museum in 1976, and a full restoration saw it formally reopened by the Duke of Gloucester in 2005.

From Domesday waste to modern connections

The Domesday survey recorded Papplewick as worth one pound to its lord in 1066. By 1086 it was down as "Waste" — no value at all.

Hucknall, three or four miles off, has the nearest station and a tram stop. The village sits on the B683 at the crossroads, and Stagecoach buses run through to Nottingham in about 24 minutes.

Cricket since 1805

Papplewick and Linby Cricket Club has been playing since 1805. It now runs four senior teams and a youth section that takes children from the age of four.