Cuckney CofE Primary School

Children in grades 4- to 11 attend the modest, rural Cuckney C of E Primary School.
Students are drawn from the surrounding villages, Welbeck and Clumber Estates, as well as Worksop, Warsop, and even into Derbyshire, in addition to the hamlet and its catchment region.
75 percent of our students come to our school from outside of the catchment region on purpose.
The Doomsday Book is the earliest known written account of the community and mentions Cuckney as having a church, a priest, and a mill at the west end of the community.
Up until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Norton and Cuckney relied nearly entirely on agriculture for their livelihood. This would have been a corn mill.
The Sitwell family of Renishaw relocated their iron forge from Carburton to the village's western boundary, although William Toplis of Wirksworth was responsible for the main development.
Just 15 years after Richard Arkwright constructed the first water-powered cotton mill in England, Toplis recognised an opportunity to advance cotton spinning in the region.
He rented 18 acres of property from Earl Bathurst in 1785. (whose secondary home was Langwith Lodge, two miles west of Cuckney).
By converting the "Furnace," previously of the Sitwell Iron Forge, and utilising it to manufacture part of the machinery they needed for the mill, William and his son built the mill.
The school that we know today was only a portion of the mill.
Other structures in the community are connected to the mill.
The Apprentices' House (now School Cottages), which housed orphan boys and girls, is located directly across from the school.
The old apprentices register, which listed every youngster who had worked in the mill, was discovered in the ceiling of the school after it had been rewired for electricity in the 1950s.
These kids were the origins of many families in the village.
Up to 780 foundling children worked there between 1786 and 1805, according to the apprentice's register.
The Worsted Mill was up for sale in 1805.
On July 12, 1844, the mill was forced to cease, the equipment was sold, and the region was left with a large number of unemployed people.
Then, the school as we know it today was created.
Earl Bathurst sold much of Cuckney to the then Marquis of Titchfield, subsequently the 5th Duke of Portland.
The Marquis turned the mill into a school because he was determined to give both boys and girls access to education.
It began operations in 1846, serving about 200 students.
It was initially a C of E Voluntary Aided institution.