Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire

Description
Hucknall Torkard, a town and a parish in Notts. The town stands near Hucknall station on the M.B. and G.N.B., 1 mile W of the river Seen, and 8 miles NNW of Nottingham, is a large place, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Nottingham. The parish is governed by a local board, and comprises 3281 acres; population, 13, 094. The manor belongs to the Duke of Portland. There is an extensive colliery, employing about 1500 men, and yielding coal of an excellent quality. Excellent limestone is quarried, and stocking-making, Shetland shawl weaving, and cigar manufacture are carried on. A weekly market is held on Fridays. The chief buildings are-a public hall erected in 1875, a coffee tavern with reading-room and library, assembly-'room, &c., built in 1885, a free library erected in 1888 by the proprietors of the Hucknall Colliery, and a county police station. A cemetery of 8 acres was formed in 1887, and is under the control of a burial board. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value, £460 with residence. Patron, the Duke of Portland. The church is ancient, and was restored in 1872 and enlarged in 1888, and contains the tomb of Lord Byron the poet, and a monument to one of his ancestors. In the floor of the chancel is a marble slab, sent by the King of Greece in 1881 to be placed over the remains of Byron. A second tablet is erected to Ada, daughter of Lord Byron and wife of Earl Lovelace. There are Baptist, Roman Catholic, Congregational, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, Free and New Connexion Methodist chapels, and a chapel of ease erected in 1877, dedicated to St John, and a second erected in 1892, to St Peter. There is a charity of about £170 a year, of which one-third goes to the church.