In this series of short articles, we would like to introduce you to some of the highlights of living in Newark on Trent.
This article focuses on another of the historic buildings which surrounds our town's market square. Newark is a town steeped in history and in the market square everywhere you look is an interesting building with an interesting history.
On the south side of the market place is the impressive Grade II Listed post medieval property known as The Clinton Arms since 1823. Previously been known at The Talbot, the Cardinals House and The Kingston Arms. This is where Lord Byron stayed in 1806-08 (then the Kingston Arms) whilst he oversaw the printing of his first volumes of poetry and it is where Mr. Gladstone, who went on to be a 4 time prime minister, addressed the electors making his first ever political speech from one of the windows in 1832. Gladstone stayed at the hotel on many occasions having business to attend to as Trustee of the Duke of Newcastle.
This impressive 3 storey brick and stone building has a 7 bay arcade with Tuscan columns and a central carriage opening. The first and second floors each have a 7 window range, the first floor windows have Gibbs surrounds and multiple keystones. The attractive central windows in each bay have a pseudo balustrade and pediment which add to the grandeur of the building.
However, before this stylish coaching ear rebuild and change of name, The Talbot was the headquarters for John Nevison and other Highway Robbers who met at The Talbot to divide their spoils. (Depositions from York Castle, pp. 259–262). Nevison based himself at The Talbot and hired a room by the year from which he targeted those travelling along the Great North Road between Huntingdon and York.
John Nevison was one of Britain’s most notorious highwaymen who developed a reputation as a gentleman rogue. A tall and charming man of gentlemanly appearance who was always polite and it is claimed never used violence against his victims who were mainly rich. It is a measure of his fame that he is the only highwayman except Claude Du Vall mentioned (albeit briefly) by name in Lord Macaulay’s History of England.
Supposedly nicknamed Swift Nick by King Charles II after a renowned 200 mile dash in 1676 from Kent to York to establish an alibi after he had robbed a traveller at Gad's Hill, near Rochester, Kent. Nevison made his escape on a bay mare, used a ferry to cross the Thames and galloped to Chelmsford. Then on to Cambridge and Huntingdon, then on reaching the Great North Road he turned North to York. A stunning achievement for man and horse being a journey of some 200 miles from the scene of the crime. He arrived in York at sunset, stabled his horse, washed and changed his clothes and strolled to a bowling green where he met the city's Lord Mayor and entered into a wager on a bowls match. When he was arrested and tried for the Gad's Hill robbery, he produced the Lord Mayor to support his alibi and was found not guilty of that crime and emerged as a folk hero, even impressing the king of England.
This story inspired William Harrison Ainsworth to include a modified version in his novel Rookwood in which he attributed the feat to Dick Turpin.
While sleeping at the Magpie Inn (later to become the original Three Houses) in Sandal Magna, near Wakefield, Nevison was arrested on 1 March 1684–5 by Captain Hardcastle. The chair in which Nevison was sleeping when arrested is said to have been given to St Helen’s Church in Sandal Magna by the Hardcastle family. Hardcastle conveyed him to York, where he was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death "for he was a terrour to the country". Nevison was hanged at the Knavesmire on 4th May 1684 and buried in an unmarked grave in St Mary's Church, Castlegate.
