Chilwell was originally a hamlet on the road from Nottingham to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book, but along with Toton it became part of the parish of Attenborough. Suburban development spread gradually from Beeston along Chilwell High Road.
The area's population grew substantially during World War I when most of the area of level ground between Chilwell and Toton was occupied by the National Shell Filling Factory No. 6 and the original direct route between Chilwell and Toton became a gated military road, now known as Chetwynd Road.
On 1 July 1918, 134 people were killed in an explosion at the factory, with over 250 people injured in the explosion. This tragedy remains the largest number of deaths caused by a single explosion in Britain. The memorial to the dead can be found in nearby church yard of St Mary's, Attenborough.
The army continued to dominate the area with the factory becoming a major depot site for the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and more recently for the Royal Engineers. The Chilwell Bypass Road was constructed in the 1930s to take army traffic out of the village centre.
Chilwell has three pubs in its centre on Chilwell High Road. The Original Chequers Inn is on the border with Beeston and is a turn of the century pub that was once a coaching house, The Charlton Arms is named after a local landowning family who formerly lived in the now demolished Chilwell Hall. The Cadland is named after a locally trained racehorse that won The Derby in 1828. There is also a modern pub, The Cornmill, on Nottingham Road. There is a large retail park and hotel (The Village) on the Attenborough border.
Chilwell has had a long-standing non-conformist population. The Chilwell Methodist Church was founded in 1798 as the Methodist First Connection Chapel at Hallams Lane. Its Sunday School (provided jointly with local Baptists) provided the first free education for the poor of the area. The chapel moved to land provided by Squire Charlton in 1857. Christ Church, Chilwell was built in 1903 to provide an Anglican church to serve the growing population, although it did not become a separate ecclesiastical parish from Attenborough until 1975.
The Inham Nook estate was built by Beeston and Stapleford Urban District Council on land to the west of Bramcote Lane from the 1950s and St Barnabas's Church was constructed in 1957 as a "mission church" to serve the new population. For many years, Inham Nook's council housing was in sharp contrast to the surrounding areas of middle class suburban owner-occupation. Since the 1980s right to buy legislation, tenure has been more mixed, but Inham Nook remains relatively deprived compared to other areas in the southern part of Broxtowe borough.
Chilwell Manor Golf Club was established in 1906 on land formerly belonging to the Manor. The Manor House and nearby Chilwell Green remained intact until 1965 when the bland Clarkes Lane development of large detached houses started construction.
Chilwell School is located off Queens Road West adjacent to the golf course. It shares a site and facilities with the Chilwell Olympia Sports Centre. Prior to construction of the school in the 1970s, this area was Kirk's Farm. It had remained undeveloped as the land has a high water table and poor drainage. A hectare of the school grounds was not drained for playing fields and is now the Chilwell Meadow nature reserve managed by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust as a rare example of a "wet meadow" of unimproved grassland.
Parts of the golf course are also sites of importance for nature conservation, and there has been some work in recent years to remove non-native species in the golf-course planting to improve bio-diversity.
The obvious advantage of visiting this particular suburb is that, not only are all of the pubs relatively close together but they are close enough to home to enable to walk once my exploration is done. This made the idea all the more attractive on this particular weekend. Not entirely sure what to expect from the establishments on this itinerary, my journey began at The Charlton Arms.
This John Barras-operated venue is named after a local 19th century farming family and the family crest is displayed on a sign at the roadside. The standard, manor house like exterior is complimented internally by a spacious arrangement with lots of seating, made up primarily of round tables and leather sofas. The main room is essentially split level with a small raised area containing a pool table and a lower section towards the back that is reserved for dining and accessible down a small flight of stairs. There is a dart board in one corner of the pub and the walls are decorated with photographs of local landmarks, both from Chilwell and the neighbouring settlements of Attenborough and Toton. The reverse J-shaped bar includes 3 hand pumps, one of which (supplying Black Sheep Bitter), is off. The other 2 options are Adnams Broadside and a beer from Hook Norton which, due to this particular area of the bar being busy I was unable to get close enough to identify in either name or ABV. I went for a pint of the Hook Norton beer anyway and it was a wise choice with which to begin the evening. Bronze in colour, the beer had a nutty aroma and a spicy hop flavour, supported by a rich, malty bitterness. It certainly went down nice and easily.
My next location stood conveniently close by, being literally across the road. Named after a locally trained racehorse that won the Derby back in 1828, and operated by Ember Inns, I next visited The Cadland.
I'm generally a big fan of Ember Inns and was a regular visitor to The Punchbowl in Mapperley when I lived that way. I did have one bad experience whilst dining there but I've taken that to be a one off. Anyway, The Cadland has a decidedly similar layout, despite the interesting blue and white exterior décor. Inside, the interior is large and plush with a U shaped central bar and lots of seating of both the velvet and leather variety and of varying heights. The main area is nicely divided into smaller individual alcoves by careful placement of pillars and one of these areas has a roaring coal fire which really keeps out the winter chill. The bar is stocked with 9 hand pulls, 6 of which are doubled up with Abbot Ale, Broadside again and Everard's Tiger. The remaining 3 include Frosted Jack from the Devon Brewing Company, 41 Degrees South from Roosters Brewery and an empty pump that is in the process of being cleaned an flushed. I decided that the Frosted Jack was worth a try and I was proven correct. At a refreshing 4.3%, this chestnut coloured beer packs a hoppy aroma with top notes of fruit zest. The flavour is smooth with a hoppy finish accompanied by undertones of malt. A winter warmer indeed.
The longest part of my journey, apart from the walk home, was next to come, a I ventured out of Chilwell proper and wandered back towards the main Nottingham road. My next destination sits by the roadside, although set back slightly from the pavement.
With the familiar orange and black frontage overlaying the grey and cream façade, it's no surprise to learn that The Bluebell is a Flaming Grill venue. Inside, the bar is central and has a large amount of plush seating arranged nicely around it. Only 2 hand pumps are present and they feature the kind of beers you would expect for such a food-oriented venue, namely Doom Bar and Harvest Pale. This is no bad thing as the pub boasts Cask Marque accreditation and the Harvest Pale is very well kept and in excellent condition. I sat and drank my pint at a more leisurely pace, enjoying the warmth and the comfort of the furnishings, spoiled only slightly when one of the Year 8 kids I teach realised he knew me and pointed in my direction. I did my best to be polite.
Chilwell is not a big place by any stretch of the imagination and I only had one place left on my list for the day. Making my way further down Nottingham Road and back in the direction of home brought me to The Corn Mill.
Run by Greene King under its Eating Inn brand, The Corn Mill lies directly opposite the local retail park and is named after a structure that is believed to have once stood nearby. The building is roughly square in layout and cream in colour with an oddly rectangular interior that makes it look narrower on the inside than it appears from without, like a reverse TARDIS. The black and white styled bar is central to the room which has separate designated entrances for drinkers and diners. There are 10 hand pulls on the bar, all of which are doubled up and the selection consists of Abbot Ale, GK IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Nottingham Brewery Centurion ND and Rock Bitter. The Rock Bitter was in excellent condition and thoroughly enjoyable. It wasn't enough to make me stay for a second though and soon it was time to wend my way back home, which from this point, is literally just down the road. My search and explore around Chilwell had been a mild success and I can honestly say that no pub disappointed me. They all had ale for one thing and that ale was in good condition al all venues. This, to me, just goes to show that places don't necessarily need any kind of preceding reputation in order to offer good things to the perceptive drinker.
During my travels around Chilwell, I came across a story that I had heard snippets of in the past and I decided that this particular tale needed further investigation. The story in question is that of the Chilwell ghost. As the story goes, back in the 19th century, a pedlar disappeared after telling one of his customers that he would be spending the night at a farmhouse in the Chilwell area. This house was a particularly lonely cottage and the family that lived there were regarded with suspicion by those that lived locally. Upon the pedlar's disappearance, this particular family suddenly experienced an inexplicable bout of prosperity, which led to rumours and theories amongst the folk of what was at the time a small village. After a few years, as one of the family lay dying, they confessed to the murder of the pedlar and rumours began to circulate the ghost of the unfortunate haunted the cottage in which he met his premature demise. It certainly seemed that many people had reported knocking sounds, screaming, thumping and dragging noises from what, by this point was a derelict property. The story of the Chilwell Ghost became so well known that people would regularly travel to the area in the hope of glimpsing the fearsome apparition of the murdered man. Over the years, as those who knew the truth died off, the story became somewhat garbled and twisted into the tale of a murdered wife beheaded by her husband. Eventually though, a thorough investigation was launched into the case and, in the 1990s, the story was finally uncovered in full and linked back to the pedlar through local records and folklore. Whether the story is true or not is up to you to decide but it is certainly known that a pedlar disappeared, a murder was confessed too and strange things were witnessed in the house where these events allegedly occurred. Events like this can leave an indelible mark on the community and the same is true in this case. The events in question are commemorated in a plaque on the outside wall of The Charlton Arms and, even more tellingly in the name of Ghost House Lane, a road in the area which apparently is very near the site that the story talks about. It seems that there is more afoot in Chilwell than decent beer! Although the original house no longer stands, a newer building stands on the site. Whether anything still lurks there remains to be seen but, legend or not, the Chilwell Ghost has certainly made its presence felt in this particular corner of Nottinghamshire. No wonder there are so many good pubs nearby!
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