Netherfield was originally the lower field of the township of Carlton in the Parish of Gedling. The major land owner was the Earl of Chesterfield who died unmarried in 1871 so the land passed to his sister who was the wife of the Earl of Caernarfon. It was formed as a separate parish on 21st August 1885 due to the expanding populations of Netherfield and Carlton.

Netherfield became important in 1846 when the Midland Railway built through Carlton. This railway forms the north-west boundary with the Ouse Dyke in the north-east, Hesgang Pasture in the south-east which is now part of Radcliffe-on-Trent due to the changing course of the River Trent and the Great Northern Railway which runs along the boundary with Colwick.

Netherfield developed rapidly in the late 1870’s as a railway town that had the largest marshalling yard on the whole of the Great Northern Railway system called Colwick Marshalling Yard or Colwick Loco. This closed in 1970 and is now home to Victoria Business Park where many people do their shopping today.

St George’s Church.

St George’s Church was built in 1887 on an acre of land on Victoria Road given by the Earl of Caernarfon. The Hon and Rev Canon Orlando Watkin Weld Forester who became Lord Forester in 1886 took the idea to the Earl of Caernarfon to make the Parishes of Gedling, Carlton and Netherfield from the ever expanding Parish of Gedling.

As a temporary measure a small mission room was built at Colwick Station where a congregation and Sunday School quickly became established as a result the Parish Registers start from 1886. St George’s Church cost £2,500.00 to build and was built by Thomas Fish and Company with a design by Ewan Christian with a capacity to seat 400 people. Although Lord Caernarfon gave the land to build the church he only gave £100.00 towards the costs as he had already paid for the building of St Paul’s, Carlton in 1884. All but £100.00 had been raised before the consecration on 23rd May 1887 by the Archbishop of York Dr W Thomson. Lord Forester endowed the church with £10,000.00 which generated an income of £400.00 per year. The London and North Western and the Great Northern Railway companies contributed £150.00 between them and the rest was raised through railway workers and fundraising.

The first incumbent Rev John Greenlaw and Lord Forester were ‘High Church of England’. As the Parish Church we have kept this gift of ‘catholic’ worship, but we have evolved over the years so that its emphasis on the centrality of the Eucharist and incarnation are relevant to 21st Century Netherfield.