Publications
Over a number of years the Society has published a range of books about historic Southwell and some of the people who have helped to make it the interesting place it is today. The following details our publications that are still in print. Copies are available direct from the Society and at the Cathedral Shop, Church Street, Southwell, or The Book Case Lowdham. The History of Southwell is also available at Southwell Library. If you are finding it difficult to obtain a copy of a book please contact:
mike.kirton@southwellhistorysociety.co.uk
All prices quoted below exclude the cost of postage and packaging, and books may cost more at the book shops.
Some publications can be ordered from the Cathedral Shop website: https://www.southwellminster.org/shopfront/ or the BookCase, Lowdham: https://www.thebookcase.co.uk
Roman Southwell and Environs
By Matthew Beresford
Published 2019
This book summarises what we know about the Romans in Southwell and is the result of several years work by Dr Matthew Beresford, the Roman Southwell Community Project and various archaeologists over the years. The book has ben sponsored by this Society and the proceeds of the first print run are going directly to the project.
Price £7.50
Letters From The Cardinal
By David Turner
Published 2017
Thomas Wolsey spent five months living in Southwell, between April and September 1530. He had paused in the town on his way from London to York, where he planned to be installed as the Archbishop of York. He had been appointed to the post in 1514, but had never taken it up. Wolsey entered Royal service with Henry VII in 1507, but his real rise to power began in 1509 under the eighteen-year-old Henry VIII. He began to acquire many and various posts, both ecclesiastical and secular. In 1515 he was elected Cardinal and the following year was appointed Lord Chancellor.
All proceeds of the first 200 copies of this historical novel book will go to the ‘Leaves of Southwell’ project.
Price £6
A Brief Guide to The History of Southwell
Edited by J Michael Wilkinson
Published 2017
This book has been written by 11 different local historians and covers the main historic buildings of the the town.
The subjects covered are: Southwell Through the Ages; Roman and Saxon Southwell; The Minster and the Archbishop’s Palace; The Minster School; The Prebendal Houses; The Methodist, Baptist and Holy Trinity Churches; The Burgage; The House of Correction; The Workhouse; Southwell’s Inns and Alehouses; Southwell’s Industries; In and Around the Town (Easthorpe, Westhorpe and other interesting buildings).
140 pages, 88 illustrations.
Price £7.50
Southwell & District at War 1939-45
Volume 2
‘We’ll Meet Again’
By Roger Dobson
Published 2016
This is the second volume of Roger Dobson’s extensive research into the Second World War and how Southwell was affected. The book is the result of over four years work that involved many interviews of local people and further research into the exploits of men from the district who served in the armed forces. It contains over 300 pages with many illustrations and photographs from the period.
Price £12.50 (includes a 50p donation to the Royal British Legion).
Southwell Settlers
By Doris Stirk
A History of the Town of Southwell in South Africa
This edition published: 2015
With a foreword by Rob Smith of Southwell & District Local History Society
This is a fascinating story of the founding of the town of Southwell in South Africa.
Price £6.50
Nottinghamshire House of Correction Southwell, (1611-1880)
A Model Institution
Essential History & Architectural Notes
By Rob Smith
Published 2015
This volume has been extensively researched by Rob Smith and is a most interesting summary of the history of the House of Correction. It also contains details of the design of the prison, which was copied throughout the country and in other parts of the world.
The book includes a detailed history of the establishment of the prison on the site at the bottom of The Burgage and also some detail of the first prison that was higher up Burgage Green.
Price £5
Southwell & District at War 1939-45
Volume 1
‘Keep Smiling Through’
By Roger Dobson
Published 2015
Roger Dobson spent 3 years recording the memories of people who were in Southwell and District during the Second World War. This is an impressive record of social history from the people of Southwell during the last war. It also includes memories from the many children who were evacuated to the town in the early years of the war. Price £12.00
Southwell at War, 1914-1919
By Michael Austin, Michael J Kirton and Lance Wright
Published 2014
Soft Back £7.50
Hard Back £10.00
Michael Austin, Lance Wright and Mike Kirton have researched and edited a substantial account of the town in the war. Approximately 650 men served in the armed forces and 16% of them died in the conflict. The names and biographical details of the majority of the men are published in the book.
News stories for the 5 year period have been extracted from the Newark Advertiser, which chronicle life in the town during the period and include letters from men serving at the front.
Further chapters describe life on the ‘Home Front’ and in the schools in Southwell. There is also a chapter of individual stories of heroism and tragedy of individuals who served. The progress of the local territorials who served in the 8th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters has also been extracted from the regiment’s war diary.
This is a substantial volume containing nearly 350 pages and 136 illustrations.
Georgian Diary 1780: George Hodgkinson Junior
Apprentice Attorney of
Southwell, Nottinghamshire
Edited by Michael J Kirton
Published 2014
Pages: 236, Illustrations: 46
Price £5
In 1780 Britain was at war in a far-off land; the economy was in recession; there were riots on the streets of London; and the government, led by Lord North, was heading for an election. All of this, together with a record of his daily life as an eighteen-year-old apprentice attorney, is meticulously recorded by George Hodgkinson Junior who worked for his father, also George, in a busy legal practice in Southwell.
Minster People
Edited by Stanley Chapman & Derek Walker
Published in 2009.
A gift of a Nottinghamshire estate in 956 by the king of Wessex to Ocytel, later Archbishop of York, eventually led to the major rebuilding, nine hundred years ago, of a small church at Southwell. The building which resulted became the magnificent Minster church that we see today.
This book is about just a few of the people who have been involved with the Minster from medieval days to recent days.
Price: £5
Southwell, The Town And Its People
Volume II
Edited by Stanley Chapman & Derek Walker
Published in 2006.
Volume I of this series was published in 1992, written by a team of members, and was a great success.
Volume II looks at a number of important themes in depth and has been equally as well received.
Price: £2.50
Georgian Diary: Southwell 1781
Transcribed by Robert Hardstaff
Published in 2000
This is the 1781 diary of George Hodgkinson Junior, an apprentice attorney who worked with his father, also George, in their busy legal practice in Southwell. George Junior was nineteen at the time and his mature writing presents an interesting insight into their business and professional lives. They had some important clients, including the Archbishop of York, Sir Richard Sutton, a senior member of the government and estate owner, and his father was registrar to the Minster Chapter and steward of the courts in the Peculiar of Southwell.
Price: £4
Southwell Inns & Alehouses
By Roger Dobson
Published 2008
Available from the Chairman at the reduced price of £2.00
In the Middle Ages, Southwell was the focus for pilgrimages, and it appears that several inns were built to accommodate the devout visitors, many of whom would have walked long distances. The little town seems to have had a large number of public houses in relation to the size of the population, than other places of comparable size. From a wide range of sources, Roger has teased out the diverse roles of hotels, inns and alehouses, and the part they played in the long history of the town.
It’s Not What You Know…
Patronage in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Nottinghamshire
Edited by Richard Gaunt
Published 2012
Price Now £3.50 from the Chairman
It is a collection of four essays based on talks given by the authors at the Nottinghamshire Local History Association in Spring 2011.
Introduction by Richard Gaunt
Patronage and power in eighteenth-century Newark. By Stanley Chapman
The eighteenth-century country attorney: Professionalism and Patronage. The Hodgkinsons of Southwell.
By Michael J Kirton
Church class and patronage in Nottinghamshire in the nineteenth-century. By Michael Austin
Keeping it in the family: political patronage in early nineteenth-century Nottinghamshire.
By Richard Gaunt