After the Conquest, Todwick was given to the Earl of Mortain’s and in 1086 it was held of the Earl by Richard. There were 11 villeins, 2 freemen and 5 smallholders sharing 5½ half plough teams.
In 1284 the villa of Todwick was held by John de Horbury from Thomas Furnival, John’s father having obtained the estate from the previous lords, the Tortemaynes.
By 1303 Sir Edmund Wasteneys was holding Todwick from Thomas Furnival. Below the Wasteneys in the feudal pyramid, the resident lords of Todwick were the St. Paul family who seem to have taken their name from the dedication of Todwick church. Hardolf Wasteneys of Hedon was created a baronet by James I and his grandson, Sir Edward Wasteneys, sold Todwick to Thomas Osborne, the first Duke of Leeds, in 1677. A remnant of the Westeneys family continued to live in Todwick and in 1743 two families of this name are recorded as living in cottage upon the waste. The line died out with the death of Thomas Wasteneys in 1902.
In 1379 the village society was headed by William de Saint Paul and his wife Katerina. He is described in the 1379 Poll Tax returns as a “fraunkeleyn” (franklin = a class of landowners ranking next below the gentry) and was assessed at 40d. Edmund de Wortelay, beast merchant, and his wife Matilda were assessed at 12d.
The medieval manor house stood to the north of the church. Its site is marked by the remains of a moat. The site of the medieval Abbots House is now occupied by Old Hall Farm which dates from the 17th century. The main road to Worksop (now the A57) bypassed Todwick to the north. This road was turnpiked (as the Attercliffe and Worksop Road) in 1764. There was a toll house at the crossroads near the Red Lion.
Roche Abbey had a grange at Todwick, land having been given to the abbey soon after its foundation by Ralf Tortemaynes. His son William gave the monks a wood at Todwick and confirmed their right to pasture 80 sheep on the common. The abbey also received grants of land at Todwick from Nicholas de St Paul and his son William. At the dissolution of the monasteries the Grange was valued at £5 10s 8d [£5.53] a year.
Todwick Grange and the Abbot’s House were sold to William Ramsden and others who in turn sold the estate to Sir Arthur Darcy of Aston. The Darceys held it until 1776 when the Earl of Holderness sold the Grange to William Fox. The Grange remained in hands of the Colton-Fox family until the Second World War. After the War the house was used for a time as administrative headquarters by the NCB. It was then purchased by Sheffield City Council for use as a care centre for teenagers. The children’s home was closed in 1990 following claims of abuse by a member of staff.
The chancel arch, a blocked north doorway and a slightly later south doorway remain from the Norman Church of SS Peter and Paul. The nave and chancel date from, the 14th century while the tower is 15th century. A chantry chapel of Our Lady of Todwick was founded within the church in 1328 by George Westeneys to pray for the soul of Sir Edmund Wasteneys. The chantry was endowed with lands at Wales.
In 1743 the rector recorded that there were 32 families in the parish. The rector then lived at Treeton because of the poor state of the parsonage house; “a very bad one or no other and little better yn a cottage so that neither my predecessor nor his predecessor lived in it.”
There was no school at Todwick until 1868 when the rector prevailed upon the Duke of Leeds to give ½ acre as the site for a school. The school cost £241 and was administered by a committee consisting of the rector, his curate and three others. A further classroom was erected in 1909. The present school was erected in 1968 and the original became the village hall, which was completely refurbished in 1991. Since 1982 the parish council has published a thrice-yearly newsletter, The Informer.
In 1982 BP obtained permission to sink four test wells in land off Goosecarr Lane, Todwick. In the mid-1980s Todwick was chosen by the Civil Aviation Authority as a possible site for a regional airport. The proposed site lay between Todwick and Hardwick. Despite support from South Yorkshire County Council, nothing came of the proposal.
In 1801 the population of Todwick stood at 177. By the end of the century it had risen to 311 and by 1961 it had reached 398. As a result of the building of new houses in the parish, the population more than quadrupled to 1,557 in 1971 and 1,661 in 1981, but then fell slightly to 1,639 in 1991.
(Extracted from:- R.M.B.C, Patchwork of parishes, 1997)
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