Gedling is a village in the Gedling district, in Nottinghamshire, England, four miles northeast of Nottingham city centre. The population at the 2011 census of the ward was 6,817 and 111,787 for the district. Gedling was once a distinct settlement, having been recorded in the Domesday Book, although nowadays—due to the growth of Nottingham—it is difficult to separate it from the neighbouring town of Carlton.
History
Gedling was first settled around Saxon times, when the Saxon chief Gedl sailed up the River Trent, and then up the Little Ouse dyke, until he could get no further upstream. He landed at the spot which is thought to be the present-day site of All Saints' Church. Gedling has had several versions of its name including Ghellinge, Gedlinga, Geddlings, and Gettang. Despite being a fairly small place, Gedling gives its name to the local borough council which has its offices in nearby Arnold, and also to the localparliamentary constituency, which covers the suburbs to the east of Nottingham, including Arnold and Carlton. Village pubs are the Gedling Inn and The Willowbrook on Main Road.
Church
In the older part of Gedling is All Hallows' Anglican Church. It dates from the 11th century, with the oldest part of the church dating back to 1089 – although there have been four other churches on this site, the oldest dating back to the year 678AD.
Colliery
Gedling Colliery, which was the life-blood of Gedling and many of the surrounding villages, opened in 1899 and was closed in 1991. 128 men died at the colliery, which produced over a million tonnes of coal per year in the 1960s. It developed a reputation as the "pit of all nations" because of the diversity of foreign miners who worked there: in the 1960s, ten per cent of the colliery's workforce of 1,400 were originally from the Caribbean. The site was opened as Gedling Country Park on 28 March 2015.
Country park
Opened in March 2015 on the site of the former Gedling Colliery, the site has views of Gedling, and from its highest point there are views across Nottinghamshire and into neighbouring Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. On a clear day it is possible to see as far as Belvoir Castle and Lincoln Cathedral. There are a number of paths that weave their way through the woodlands and grasslands that make up the flora and fauna within the country park.
Railway station
There are plans to either reopen the railway line from Nottingham railway station and to reopen Gedling railway station which was closed on 4 April 1960, or to open the old line as a part of the Mineral Line cycleway. The original station building is now owned by a youth group. The line itself officially closed in 1995 when the line to the colliery eventually was classed as redundant.
