During the period 770 to 780 AD, the Danes arrived and took over much of north and east England, including Nottinghamshire - the "Danelaw". Danish place names with endings like "-by", "-toft" and "-thorpe" remain abundant. "Gade" was the word for street or road, such as "Hrisegade" (Risegate) meaning the road to the woods.

An early view of Risegate showing the wall of the Old Manor House...

The English Saxons later resumed control of the area and built the first church in Cotgrave, some hundred years before the Norman Conquest in 1066. The first written record of Cotgrave appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. This records that King William had thrown out the English landlords and granted the estates (called manors) to two Norman nobles, Roger de Poitou and Ralf de Barun (ancestor of the Byron family). The church seems to have been shared between the two manors, and Cotgrave had the unusual distinction of having two rectors in one parish right up to 1659. By the mid 13th century, most of the Parish was owned by various monasteries, notably Lenton and Swineshead. Lenton Priory had jurisdiction over the church, which was rebuilt in stone and rededicated on All Saints Day,1246.

At the dissolution of the monasteries (1536), the Pierrepont and Scrimshire families purchased land in the Parish. The Priory Manor of Cotgrave (formerly belonging to Lenton Priory) was granted to Thomas and Agnes White by the Catholic Queen Mary in 1556. The high wall along Risegate dates from this time, although the current Manor House behind it is a later building.

Eventually, the whole parish came into the hands of the Pierreponts, forming what was later named the Manvers Estate. This remained in the Pierrepont family (heirs of Earl Manvers) until sold in 1941 to pay off death duties.

Throughout the Middle Ages and up to the l8th century, the typical poor labourer and his family were growing their crops of wheat, barley and peas on the strip system within open fields, and would probably own a pig that would be grazed on the Common Land (such as Woulds Field). However, the Enclosure of the Commons put an end to all that. In Cotgrave's case, the process was more or less a fait accompli by the time the Cotgrave Inclosure Act of 1790 was passed. The open fields and common pastures were divided up into fields, divided by enclosing hawthorn hedges to mark out who owned what. The few hedges that remain in the fields around Cotgrave today date from this time. This change must have been a great upheaval for the population, with changes in farming practices, steep rises in rents for the tenant farmers, and the loss of grazing rights for the poor labourers.

The Nottingham to Grantham Canal opened in 1797, and a brisk traffic soon built up, carrying various raw materials, including coal from Nottingham and ironstone and agricultural produce from the Vale of Belvoir. However, this traffic was largely taken over by the Nottingham to Grantham Railway which opened in 1850. The canal finally closed in 1929, although there are plans to reopen it early next century.

In 1759, the Pierrepont Estate paid a certain Mr. Burden 1 pound and 5 shillings "for coming over and viewing Cotgrave Woulds for coal". He stood no chance of discovering any, but between 1949 and 1951, exploratory boring for coal began in earnest. This marked the beginning of the modern era for Cotgrave, bringing about a rapid increase in the population, with the building of 1000 Coal Board houses, starting in 1962. The village has developed over the last few decades and has now established itself as a town. Following the pit closure of 1993 the community has been undergoing a time of regeneration. The parish church of All Saint's was maliciously destroyed by fire on Thursday 9th May 1996  and has at great cost been since restored and reordered to a design by the Derbyshire architect John Cunnington.

If you would like to know more about the history of Cotgrave:

• 1881 Census for Cotgrave now on this site.
• A more detailed account of the history of Cotgrave, with special emphasis on the l7th and l8th centuries, is provided in the publication Cotgrave: Aspects of Life in the l7th and l8th Centuries produced by the Cotgrave Local History Society and on sale at Cotgrave Library, price £3.50.
• The Society also publishes a Guided Historical Walk through the village, price 20p.
• A history of All Saints Church and a guided tour of the building are provided in the Church Trail booklet available at the back of the church, price 40p.
• A brief history of the Grantham Canal is provided in the guided walks book Discover the Grantham Canal, also on sale at Cotgrave Library, price £3.75.