Old Colwick

The original Church of St. John the Baptist stood by the river Trent at Colwick, though its large parish area extended not only along the Trent valley but also up the hill, on the escarpment overlooking the Vale.

By the early 1900's, population shifts in the area of the growing city of Nottingham left the old Church almost deserted. The family had moved from Colwick Hall (once the home of the Poet Byron's family) and as employment (mostly agricultural) went with them, folk on the estate had left too.

The valley site of Old Colwick is known to have been in use since mediaval times as a church; some believe its Christian history actually spans over a thousand years - plausibly, for that area along the river valley was heavily settled all through Nottinghamshire since Bronze Age times.

Colwick Hall itself remains in use - now an hotel and restaurant. You may still catch a faint sense of its past dignity lingering around the fine site in the Vale close by the river Trent. The old Church building is a 'controlled ruin' long since disused, though recently our original sister parish in the Vale have begun a practice of gathering there for (almost) open-air worship at festivals, to remind folk of its Christian tradition and hallow it as a place of continuing Christian worship.