IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
The Gables, NEWARK, NG22 8RS

Church Hill, a cul-de-sac, is seen here joining/leaving Kirklington Road.

Heading north.

Seen from Kirklington Road.

Church Hill leading to The Church of St Margaret is to the right of picture.

The steps, trodden by thousands of people over the centuries, are at the top of the quite steep Church Hill. Possibly the highest point in Bilsthorpe?

A view of this 'C' road from the car park of the village's only public house. The Copper Beech pub is named after the specimen towering over the gateway. The pub was a former farm house built c.1812 but it converted to a pub in 1985. An extension for a dining area - nearest to the photographer - was added later. The white van is travelling away from the village's centre.

Steps leading up to the church. St Margaret's Church is situated at the summit of Church Hill. The Rev. William Mompesson (of Eyam, the plague village) was the rector of both Wellow + Bilsthorpe & Eakring in the mid-1600s. The practice of “a living” being held in plurality, usually within that of the more populous parish, was apparently a common occurrence until this time. Later on in the same decade, Mompesson made his ill-fated move with his young family to Eyam, Derbyshire. From 1671 Mompesson held the parishes of Bilsthorpe and Eakring in plurality whilst residing most of the time at Eakring. He resigned the Bilsthorpe rectory in 1688 and at the end of July in that year Rev John Raworth was instituted as his successor. Raworth had been curate here for five years and less than a year after becoming rector, he married Elizabeth Mompesson, who had been sent away from Eyam as a 3 year old to escape the 1666 plague. At the time of her dispatch, the Rev. John Raworth was the ten year old son of the Eyam schoolmaster.

A view of the summit of Church Hill, a cul-de-sac, from the steps of St Margaret's Church. A path within the Church's 'overspill' cemetery is visible in the background.