Population 395 (2001) Region East Midlands Sovereign state United Kingdom Local time Thursday 8:55 PM District Newark and Sherwood UK parliament constituency Sherwood | OS grid reference SK673623 Country England Post town NEWARK Shire county Nottinghamshire Dialling code 01623 | |
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Weather 7°C, Wind S at 6 km/h, 72% Humidity | ||
Eakring is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire. The population of the civil parish was 395 at the 2011 Census, increasing to 419 at the 2011 Census.
Contents
Map of Eakring, Newark, UK
Eakring films
Geography
It is situated between the A617 and the A616 roads between Ollerton and Southwell. Dukes Wood to the south is situated on the top of an escarpment, giving good views over the Trent valley to the east and towards Southwell to the south. Clouds formed by the Cottam Power Station are often seen on clear days to the north-east. A steep hill descends into the village from the south, on which the road passes a large residential training centre for National Grid plc.
History
The village pub is the Savile Arms on Bilsthorpe Road. The Robin Hood Way passes through the village.
Eakring Mill was a five-storey brick tower windmill, built some time after 1840 (grid reference SK673628). The sails were removed in 1912 and the mill was derelict by 1936. It was converted to a house in about 1995. A windmill was shown on a map of 1832, located in Mill Hill Field, where two footpaths cross, (grid reference SK668616) and another windmill shown north of Eakring Brail Wood (grid reference SK662614).
The Reverend William Mompesson, the vicar of Eyam during the Plague in 1666, moved to the village in 1670, living there for 39 years, and is buried in the churchyard. The parish church is dedicated to St. Andrew. The grade II* listed structure was constructed in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and restored in the early 1880s, when the seating was replaced. It contains a font bearing the date 1674, and a plaque commemorating the installation of the tower clock in 1887.
The village was home to the children's writer Helen Cresswell. She died there on 26 September 2005.
Geological survey
In the late 1930s oil exploration was undertaken by the D'Arcy Exploration Co Ltd, part of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Ltd. Using geological data from colliery workings, geologists calculated that an anticline was situated under Eakring. A nearby borehole at Kelham had produced oil. Drilling to levels between 7463 ft and 7468 ft had found significant quantities of oil – which turned to be particularly significant when the Second World War and the U-Boat campaign started.
Drilling
Wells also produced oil at Caunton and Kelham Hills. The oil had a specific gravity of 0.86 – which is high grade oil. The UK typically had oil reserves of 5 million barrels (790,000 m3), which were under strength. In March 1943, production began at around 100 wells, being coordinated by Philip Southwell, a petroleum engineer from the D'Arcy Oil Company who had liaised with Lloyd Noble, president of Noble Drilling Corporation in Oklahoma. Throughout the operation, the location of the oil field was kept secret. American oil workers lived in the Anglican monastery at Kelham Hall. In total, the oil field produced around 3.5 million barrels (560,000 m3) of oil throughout the war. In contrast, the Germans had to rely on synthetic oil, manufacture of which largely ceased during 1944 as a result of Allied bombing raids leading to the rapid capitulation of the Luftwaffe. By 1964, the wells had produced 47 million barrels (7,500,000 m3).