Arnold, Nottinghamshire

Founded in 1875 by John Robinson, the Home Brewery[lower-alpha 1] was famous for its trademark Robin Hood logo on beermats.[10] The name of the brewery referred to the Robinson family's Bestwood Home Farm, located on Oxclose Lane.[11]

29 August 1890 saw the incorporation at Companies House of the Home Brewery Company Limited. The company was re-registered as a public limited company named Home Brewery plc on 2 April 1982. The brewery remained independent until 1986, when the family owners sold it[10] (along with 450 pubs the brewery owned in Nottinghamshire) to Scottish & Newcastle for £123 million[12] (equivalent to £298 million in 2019).[13] Scottish & Newcastle gradually ran down production by subcontracting its brewing to Mansfield Brewery,[10] resulting in the eventual closure of the Daybrook building in 1996.[12] The closure of the brewery resulted in the loss of around 400 jobs and around £20 million to the local economy[14] (equivalent to £30.5 million in 2019).[13] On 7 April 2014 the company returned to its original legal status as a private company upon its incorporation as Home Brewery Limited. The company is currently still under the ownership of Heineken UK, with an active but non-trading status at Companies House.[15]

The town's most notable landmark is probably the Home Brewery office building in Daybrook.[11] Dating from 1936, the current building is now officially known as 'Sir John Robinson House', houses more than 30,000 square feet (2,800 square metres) of Nottinghamshire County Council offices and has a total floor area of 41,032 sq ft (3,812.0 m²). The entire site, including its 180-space car park, covers 1.89 acres (0.76 hectares) and is located at the junction between the A60 (Mansfield Road) and Sir John Robinson Way.[16][lower-alpha 2] The three-storey,[lower-alpha 3] Grade II listed building's[19] architect was Thomas Cecil Howitt[16] and the illuminated 'Home of the Best Ales' sign on the tower was altered to replace the word 'Ales' with the 'n' logo of the county council. An unusual frieze by sculptor Charles Doman along the front wall depicts groups of putti involved in the brewing of beer.[20] Three designs are repeated in an ABCABC/CBACBA pattern. The reliefs are in a 2:3 proportion and are white casts. 'A' depicts a drinking table; 'B' shows barrel-making; and 'C' illustrates the stirring of the brew—all allegories of the brewing process. The famed[10][12] decorative ironwork gates and railings are contemporaneous[20] and form part of the historic listing.[19]

In 1950, the Home Brewery Company Ltd. gave the land for Arnold's King George V Park, a permanent memorial to King George V and guaranteed for free public access in perpetuity for recreation. The green space is legally protected with the Fields in Trust charity.[21] The Charity Commission held an enquiry that closed in December 2005 into restricted public access.[22] Due to this ruling, Arnold Town F.C. have relocated away from the town centre to another ground in Arnold, known as Eagle Valley.[23] In July 2014, a skatepark costing £110,000 was opened at the playing field.[24]

The 'Robin Hood and Little John' pub

The Home Ales brand that once was part of the Home Brewery Co., Ltd. was revived in 2015 by entrepreneur Nick Whitehurst (who used to live in Daybrook near the brewery) after he had acquired a licence from Heineken International.[12] The beers are produced by Oldershaw Brewery,[12] which is located in the village of Barkston near Grantham in Lincolnshire.[25]

Lincoln Green Brewery of Hucknall, in association with Everards Brewery of Leicester, purchased the Robin Hood pub on the junction of Church Street and Cross Street in 2014, restoring it to its original name of the "Robin Hood and Little John". The pub's history dates back to 1750, and in 2015 it was named as the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) National Cider Pub of the Year, as well as the Nottingham CAMRA Cider Pub of the Year and Nottingham CAMRA Pub of the Year.[26][27] It contains a shrine to the Home Brewery.[28]

Arnold was a centre of the framework knitting industry in the 19th century. It was the site of the first framebreaking incidents of the Luddite riots, on 11 March 1811, when 63 frames were smashed.[29][30] The Luddite riots were a response by workers to decreasing pay, standard of living and conditions of employment in the industry as a result of changing fashions decreasing demand for their style of hosiery.

Arnot Hill Park was created in c. 1792 to serve as a backdrop to Arnot Hill House.[31]

Arnot Hill House and grounds

Arnot Hill House in Daybrook was the home of the Hawksleys, a prominent Nottingham family. John Hawksley (1765-1815), a mill owner, lived there with his partner Sarah Thompson, who was the mother of his six children, four of whom survived. He had married Sarah Arnold, a doctor's daughter, on 23 February 1799 at St Margaret's Church in Leicester, but the marriage failed and she returned to Leicester where she remained until her death in 1846.[32]

John Hawksley's relationship with Sarah Thompson is clearly demonstrated in his will dated 5 June 1812 when he writes. "I revoke all former wills and this is my last. I give and devise all my property of whatever nature or form the same may be to Mrs Beech and Sarah Thompson whom I appoint joint Executrixes of this my will for the benefit of my children John, Thomas, Francis, Maria, Frances, issue that are and any that may thereafter be born also of the body of Sarah Thompson (who assumes my name from the affection I bear her)". The will was proved on 2 April 1816 by the oaths of Sarah Beech widow (John Hawksley's sister) and Sarah Thompson spinster.

Photograph of Thomas Hawksley

John Hawksley and his business partner, the former hosier Robert Davison, had been operating a worsted mill they had built in 1788 on the north bank of the River Leen in Nottingham. After this mill had been destroyed by fire in January 1791, the two men decided to erect a new mill adjacent to Arnot Hill House. The new factory was operational before the end of 1791, but – despite its large scale and 60 horsepower (45,000 W) engine – was not a success. Davison's death in 1807, followed by extensive losses in 1809, led to the closure and subsequent demolition of the mill. On 5 February 1810 in Nottingham, John Hawksley laid the foundations of another mill, whose engine had a power of 20 horsepower (15,000 W), and he relocated with his family to Sneinton that year. He died on 27 January 1815 in Cheshunt in Hertfordshire and he appears on the family plaque in St Nicholas Church on Maid Marian Way, Nottingham.

One of John Hawksley and Sarah Thompson's children was Thomas Hawksley, born 12 July 1807, who attended Nottingham High School and was articled in 1822 by the architect and surveyor Edward Staveley, going on to become a partner in Staveley's business. Thomas Hawksley eventually became a prominent civil engineer in the 19th century. Thomas Hawksley and his son Charles Hawksley, grandson Kenneth Phipson Hawksley, and great-grandson, Thomas Edwin Hawksley (died 1972) were civil engineers specialising in public water supplies.[33] In the early 1830s, Thomas Hawksley used a filtration system and other improvements to the water supply to greatly reduce the death rate from cholera in Nottingham.[33]

There is a common misconception that John Hawksley the manufacturer married Mary Whittle. This is a mistake; there is a marriage between a John Hawksley and Mary Whittle on 25 October 1803 but he was a barber/hairdresser. It was in 1803 that Sarah Thompson gave birth to Maria Hawksley on 19 March. John the manufacturer died in 1815 and John the barber was still alive living with Mary a fact recorded in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. The mistake is rooted in an erroneous family tree produced in 1896 by Ida Hawksley, the wife of Charles Hawksley. The details of Ida's tree were made available by a living descendant of the Hawksley family and the corrections detailed above, including the differences in generation, are based on parish records, John Hawksley's will and the Hawksley family plaque in St Nicholas' Church in Nottingham.[34]

This confusion regarding the two men named John Hawksley living in Nottingham is added to by the birth of sons to both men, in the same year, 1807. John Hawksley, the hairdresser, had a son named Edward John Hawskley (1808-1875). The son was a Unitarian who converted to Roman Catholicism and later rose to acclaim as a political radical in New South Wales, Australia. After fighting in Spain with the British Auxiliary Legion in the Carlist Wars, Edward John Hawksley was encouraged to emigrate to New South Wales. Once there he was employed as a teacher, became warden of the Sydney Holy Catholic Guild (1848), and wrote religious pamphlets. He edited and published The Sydney Chronicle (1846-7) and the short-lived Daily News with Charles St Julian before working with Francis Cunninghame as editor of The People's Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator. From 1863 to 1870 Hawksley was employed at the Australian Government Printing Office before retiring to Fiji, where he died in 1875.[35]

The headquarters of Gedling Borough Council are located in the Civic Centre at Arnot Hill Park.[5]

Postcard of Daybrook railway station, 1908

Arnold was served by a railway station known as 'Daybrook and Arnold' or simply 'Daybrook'. The station was an important junction on the Nottingham Suburban Railway, Leen Valley Line and Friar Gate Line. It was closed along with the rest of the lines between 1916 and 1964. The station was located on Mansfield Road (A60) on what is now a retail park. There is still evidence of the line in the form of remnants of the embankments on Arnot Hill Park (just behind GO Outdoors). In Peggy's Park (next to Edwards Lane Community Centre), decorative markings commemorate the existence of the line by showing the place where it ran.

The nearest active railway station to Arnold is now in Bulwell. With the nearest tram stop being in Basford.

The line was the Great Northern Main Line (later nicknamed 'the back route'), with trains to Gedling and Netherfield with the terminus being Nottingham Victoria. Just after those embankments a later built railway—the Nottingham Suburban Railway—joined it and ran over Thackerays Lane on a bridge on its way to Woodthorpe Park and beyond.[36]

1968 saw the opening of Arnold Market in the town centre. Market days are on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays,[2][3] with a flea market being held on Wednesdays.[63] A farmers' market is held on the first Tuesday of each month.[64][65] It was a private market[66] managed by Janet Surgey (whose deputy was Nigel Wilford)[64][65] until July 2018, when Gedling Borough Council purchased it from Thurland Estates Ltd.[67]