Some History

Introduction to Caythorpe

Caythorpe is the smallest of three parishes with a population of around 250. It is a linear village, with no specific centre or green, which stretches for one and a half miles along the road from Lowdham to Hoveringham.

There has been minor habitation here since Saxon times and a watermill since the middle ages when Caythorpe was part of medieval Sherwood Forest. The Dover Beck runs through the village on its way to the River Trent. A small farming community for centuries the framework-knitting boom at the end of the eighteenth century transformed the village. There was a rapid increase in population to a peak of 315 and the building of many of the redbrick and pantiled cottages typical of Caythorpe today.

The framework-knitting boom was over before the end of the nineteenth century although some production continued into the 1930s. The era was followed by a decline in prosperity and population (now increasing again) together with changing work patterns and demographics.

Most residents now work outside the village but Caythorpe still retains a strong sense of identity. The following images give an insight into the community, past and present, and the village in which they live. We start on the Caythorpe Road nearest to Lowdham and wend our way through to Brackenhill.