Nuncargate - Larwood's Village
||The village lies just to the south of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, on the hillside and plain below Kirkby Woodhouse to the West and Annesley Woodhouse to the south. Nuncargate, or Nuncar Gate as it is originally recorded, is speculatively said to derive from a gate on Nuncar Hill that kept deer from wandering out of the forest into the cultivated fields of Kirkby Woodhouse. Nuncar Hill itself perhaps gets its name from a solitary female religious recluse who lived in a cave there, now known as Robin Hood's cave.
Nuncar Gate started to grow during the nineteenth century with the need to house workers for the nearby collieries that were being sunk at the time. Harold Larwood lived in one of the purpose-built red-brick terrace houses, and started his education at Kirkby Woodhouse Primary School. At the age of fourteen he began work at Annesley Colliery as a pony pit-boy, driving the ponies that hauled the tubs of coal underground. Above ground, he began playing for the Nuncargate second team taking 76 wickets in his first season.
Below is a map showing a few of the places in Nuncargate associated with Harold Larwood.

The first place is the Kirkby Woodhouse Primary School on Main Road which Larwood attended. This school has had seven pupils that have gone on to play cricket for Nottinghamshire, and five of them for England. (According to the official Harold Larwood Cricket Website the five are William Whysall 1887-1930, Sam Staples 1892-1950, Harold Larwood 1904-1995, Bill Voce 1909-? and Joe Hardstaff 1911-?. Bill Voce was Larwood's fast bowling partner both at Nottinghamshire and on the Bodyline tour of Australia.)
The four sporting houses at the school are named after Whysall, Larwood, Voce and Hardstaff.

At 17 Chapel Street is the house that Harold Larwood grew up in.
To find the house, turn down Shoulder Of Mutton Hill at nearly the highest point on the Kirkby to Annesley road (the A611), then left into Nuncargate Road a few metres on. After Grainger Avenue, Chapel Street is the sixth turning on the left. The house is towards the top of the street, on your left, at number 17.
This is a private residence, so please don't do anything to disturb the occupants.
There is a plaque on the wall of this terraced house depicting a bowler's hand gripping a cricket ball and the inscription
"HAROLD LARWOOD Nottinghamshire and England Cricketer, lived here from 1904 to 1927".
The Cricketers Arms has a similar plaque inside as a memorial of Harold Larwood. The inscription says:"In memory of Harold Larwood, Nottinghamshire and England cricketer, who spent his early life and started his cricketing career in this locality."
Larwood's birth and marriage certificates are also displayed on the walls of the Lounge Bar.
Just beside the Cricketers Arms is the cricket ground where Larwood first began playing cricket. It is now the home ground of the Kirkby Portland Cricket Club. The club itself was formed in 1878 but led a nomadic life before finally settling and buying the ground from Scottish and Newcastle breweries in 1986. The previous year they had enjoyed a visit to the ground from Harold Larwood and Bill Voce.
On 3rd June 2002 Larwood's daughter Enid Todd flew from her home in Australia to formally open The Harold Larwood Pavilion, created with a grant of 120,000 pounds from the Sporting Lottery Fund.

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