In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales described Ruddington like this:
RUDDINGTON, a parish, with a village, in Basford district, Notts; 3½ miles S E of Beeston r. station, and 4¼ S of Nottingham. It has a post-office‡ under Nottingham. Acres, 2, 190. Real property, £7, 791. Pop. in 1851, 2, 181; in 1861, 2, 283. Houses, 498. The property is much subdivided. The manor belongs to Sir T. G. A. Parkyns. The Grange is the seat ofPaget, Esq. A college was founded here, in the time of Henry VI., by W. Babyngton. Stocking-weaving is carried on. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £135.* Patrons, Simeon’s Trustees. The church is good. A Norman church, with many old monuments, stood at Flawford, and was taken down in 1773. There are chapels for Baptists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists, an endowed school with £86 a year, a national school, and charities £20.
(Researched by Faye Stenson)