Clayworth

Clayworth is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. At the time of the 2001 census it had a population of 319, increasing to 419 (which included Wiseton) at the 2011 Census. In the Census 2021 Clayworth alone was reported to be 311 residents. The village is 6 miles (9.7 km) north-east of Retford, on the River Idle. Clayworth appears as Clavord in Domesday Book, where 37 households were registered in the parish, which in the context of Domesday Book was considered to be a large population. At that time Clayworth paid low amounts of tax at 2 geld units. By 1769 Clayworth appears as Cloworth. Clayworth was described in John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles of 1887 as having a population of 439, with 2,076 acres of land.

Heinrich Mutschmann, writing in 1913, thought that the place-name Clayworth referred to the clay soil of the township. More modern scholarship however inclines to the view that the name seems to contain the Old English word, clawu, a claw + worð (Old English), an enclosure, so 'Claw of land enclosure', and suggests that the claw-shaped feature may be the low, curving hill here.

Clayworth has two public houses, one called the Brewer's Arms and one called The Blacksmiths. The majority of Clayworth's local amenities are located 10 minutes away in the local market town of Retford, which has a Morrison's and Asda supermarket, as well as all major shops and pharmacies and local rail links connecting with other major towns and cities. A stagecoach bus link, number 97, runs through Clayworth on its Retford to Gainsborough service every 2 hours. Monday to Saturday .

Peter Laslett undertook a study of Clayworth monitoring migration and population changes during the 12 years from 1676 to 1688. Laslett aimed to study how far people moved in relation to their parish of birth. The purpose of the study was to collect detailed data on the residents of Clayworth, it was undertaken by people who lived in the parish itself, the church wardens. The findings from this study showed how 61% of Clayworth's population had migrated away from the village over the 12-year study period, a variety of reasons were suggested including people choosing to move parish to remarry and spinsters who were not socially tied to the village, although the real reasons are unknown.

The highest level reached by Clayworth’s population, according to census statistics, was in 1841 when 627 residents were recorded as living in the village. The number of households were highest in the year 1851 where there were a total of 151 households in the village, with the population registered as 601 with an average of 3.9 persons per household, this is in contrast with 1921 where only a number of 96 houses were registered in Clayworth and a population of 407 people, with an average of 4.2 people per household. At the time of the 1881 census the biggest family in Clayworth were the Taylors, with 26 people sharing this surname.

Overall, as shown on the line graph pictured left population change has decreased rapidly since 1901 where, in the period from 1901 to 1961, a total of 168 residents left the village. This was the period after the Industrial Revolution in Britain when people from small towns and villages internally migrated to developing towns and cities where employment of both men and women was in demand.

A total of 138 residential households are in Clayworth with an average household size of 2.31 persons per household, with 6.55 rooms per household, this shows an older population with independent children who have moved out of the family household as 112 of the houses are owner occupied tenure. Clayworth's population is ageing, of the 319 recorded residents in the 2001 census, only 55 were aged 0–15, the median age of residents was also recorded at 46 years of age, with the mean age of residents being 42.70 years of age, the modal resident age group were aged 45–64 with 114 of the residents at this age. The majority, 200 residents, in Clayworth were living in a couple, 173 of those residents were married, this follows the general trend of the population with people choosing to marry later in life, 53 were registered as single and 38 divorced/widowed at the time of the census lived in Clayworth. In the 2011 census, the count included Wiseton for a total of 419. In the census of 2021, Clayworth singularly was reported to contain 311 residents.

Due to its rural location the main industry in Clayworth has been agriculture. The 1831 census recorded 74 male residents in this industry, with 44 of these being agricultural labourers, 13 of the 74 agricultural farmers employing labourers and the remaining 17 not employing labourers, people who lived in the village would work close to home as infrastructure was just being introduced in major cities, people often kept jobs for most of their lives as they would often be harder to find than in towns and cities. No manufacturing was recorded in Clayworth at all during 1831 but 32 men were working in the retail and handicraft industry, this included those working in retail trade or men working as masters or workmen in handicraft.