name. White's Directory in 1853 records George Augustus Parkyns, as the principal owner, and lord of the manor of Ruddington. Ruddington Hall was built in 1860, by Thomas Cross from Bolton who was a banker and Justice of the Peace, he owned it until his death in 1879. In 1880 an American merchant, Philo Laos Mills. purchased and resided at the hall. He was appointed High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1897. It was a hospital during the Second World War until 1980, when it was bought and converted into offices, and is in use today as the head office for a local business. The Village Hall was constructed between 1912 and 1913 to the designs of the architect William Herbert Higginbottom. The Misses Paget gave £800 of the £1,100 () construction cost. Sellors' Playing Field was gifted to the village via the parish council in 1947 by Frederick Sellors, the annual Wakes Funfair being held on the site since 1968. Ruddington expanded further between the wars as new housing estates were built at the edge of the village. The Ordnance Supply and Disposal Depot opened at the start of World War II and occupied a large area on the southern outskirts of the village. The depot closed in the 1980s and the site was redeveloped in 1993 into Rushcliffe Country Park and Ruddington Fields Business Park. Ruddington is twinned with Grenay, France. Nearby places Railway station Ruddington railway station was on the former Great Central Railway (later part of the London & North Eastern Railway), the last main line to be built from the north of England to London, opened on 15 March 1899. The station closed on 4 March 1963 but the line remained operational for passenger traffic until 5 May 1969 and for freight until 1974. The line was subsequently dismantled north of Ruddington, but the section south to Loughborough remains in existence as a heritage railway (see Nottingham Heritage Railway Museums entry below). Bus services Museums Ruddington is notable for being the home of three museums. The Ruddington Village Museum features authentic Chemists, Ironmongers and Fish and Chip shops from the Edwardian era, all rebuilt part by part inside the building, which was previously the Ruddington Infant and Girls' School. The Ruddington Framework Knitters' Museum is a unique complex of listed frameshops, cottages, and outbuildings arranged around a garden courtyard, together with a former chapel. The site