Easy hikes and walks around Southwell

Great food

The former Maythorne Mill, its former workers’ cottages and its ancillary buildings, plus a farm, form the greater part of this small hamlet. It was a cotton mill built in 1785 to supply the framework knitting industry with yarns. The speculator that built Maythorne was a Southwell hop merchant. In the early C19th the mill was adapted to produce silk and lace thread. There was also a Mission Hall, a pub & general store. The mainly female workforce was required to wind silk on bobbins, form it into shanks before it was finally washed and pressed and despatched to Nottingham. However, yarn & thread products were not the only items produced here as osier beds provided willow for basket-making and hops were also grown locally. From 1939-45 the mill was used to billet soldiers and in 1948 the land & buildings were put to agricultural use. the mill building has been converted into residential flats & some workshops in various outbuildings. The mill wheel was powered by the River Greet.

Caudwell's Mill stands on the River Greet on the site of Southwell’s mediaeval Burgage mill. When Charles Caudwell, whose family originated from Derbyshire, bought the mill in 1851 he made changes, thus greatly increasing the mill’s capacity. Wheat was transported to the mill by road, rail and water. Local corn arrived by horse and cart, supplies from further afield came from the R.Trent by barge to a wharf at Fiskerton which still stands. The mill suffered serious fires on three occasions in 1867, 1893 and 1917. On each occasion the opportunity was taken to modernise the plant. Local bakers took their supply of flour from the mill, best known was ‘Mosedale’s’ Bakery and Caudwell’s ‘Greet Lily Flour’ won the Nottinghamshire’s Bakers Cup in 1907, 1908, 1909, 1912 and 1914. The mill was taken over by Associated British Foods, who closed it in 1977 and in 1989 the mill was converted into residential apartments.

The former Palace of the Archbishop of York stands next door to the Minster, adjoining the present official residence of the Bishop of Southwell. The Palace as we see it today dates from the 14th Century and was wrecked during the Civil War. The ruined part can be admired up-close from the Palace Gardens. The surviving built part of the Palace – the Great Hall – was restored in the Edwardian era. The Hall retains its original proportions and the beams of the magnificent vaulted ceiling of the State Chamber are mostly medieval originals.

The earliest church on the site is believed to have been founded in 627 by Paulinus, the first Archbishop of York, when he visited the area while baptising believers in the River Trent. The legend is commemorated in the Minster's baptistry window. In 956 King Eadwig gave land in Southwell to Oskytel, Archbishop of York, on which a minster church was established. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the Southwell manor in great detail. The Norman reconstruction of the church began in 1108, probably as a rebuilding of the Anglo-Saxon church, starting at the east end so that the high altar could be used as soon as possible and the Saxon building was dismantled as work progressed. Many stones from this earlier Anglo-Saxon church were reused in the construction. The church was originally attached to the Archbishop of York's Palace which stood next door and is now ruined.

These are the residences of the clergy who serve Southwell Minster.

The Palace Gardens are a fantastic place to explore and discover our history through living plants. A beautiful landscape set amongst the magnificent ruins of The Archbishop’s Palace is packed with shrubs, flowering plants, mature trees and lawns. Work is underway to develop a new Physic Garden to provide visitors with the opportunity to learn more about the plants that would have been used to treat our medieval ancestors of their various maladies, from a broken heart to the plague. Garden sculptures and literature provide links to the famous ‘Leaves of Southwell’ – the 13th century carved stone leaves in the Minster’s Chapter House. The gardens encourage wildlife through the inclusion of bird boxes, insect hotels and log piles, as well as a several areas of wildflower, ensuring that our beautiful gardens are welcome to humans and wildlife alike.

Excavations, led by Charles Daniels, took place in the summer of 1959. They revealed parts of the Southern and eastern wings of what seemed to be a major villa, constructed around a courtyard. The eastern wing included a substantial bath building of which the cold plunge bath was uncovered. The small section of the south wing that was excavated contained six rooms all decorated with mosaic pavements.