Screveton

Driving through the corn fields towards Screveton you get a bit of a surprise .... these strange green giants dominate the skyline. They are wonderfully lifelike in a strange sort of way!  They may be made of green plastic leaves but looking up at this enormous topiary woman made me remember my grandmother's apron and her headscarf covering the curlers. Brilliant and well worth a look.

Topiary figure Screveton

They were made by Pirate Technics and first displayed at the Festival of Neighbourhood at the Southbank Centre, near Waterloo Bridge then they were moved to the Olympic Park for a time.  Now they are in the middle of a Notts field .... can't imagine the logistics involved in moving them ... let alone the looks of motorists if they came here by road!

Topiary figures by Pirate Technics

They are certainly causing a stir which is good news for Farmeco.  This is a community care farm that is working to reconnect people to food and farming. David Rose and his team are doing a fabulous job.  Farmeco is exactly what it says ... they are looking after the environment; working with the community and running a productive farm.  They organise a community yoga group; a bread-making group; an allotment group; they have a community care farm; every autumn people bring their own fruit to the farm presses; they sell pigs, hens, ducks and goats and they run a Saturday café ... there is no end to the work they do! What a great addition to the community. You can read more about David Rose's work here.
In the meantime here is another giant that has appeared on the farm.  This one was at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show a few weeks ago.

Giant pilot made for RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2015

He is rather aptly dressed for these parts because, sadly, another reason people visit this village is the war memorial to eleven young men who lost their lives here in 1944.

Screveton War Memorial

At 3.35pm on the 14th April, 1944, a young trainee pilot, 21 year old B H Dennis took off  from Wymeswold accompanied by his instructor, 22 year old J A Hawkins.  Fifteen minutes later a second plane, a Lancaster, took off from Syerston. There were two trainee pilots, an instructor and six other crew members on board (their ages ranged from 28 to just 19 years).  Both planes were on routine training flights.  At 4.30pm both were at 1000ft over Screveton as they collided in mid-air.  J A Hawkins was thrown from the plane by the collision and managed to parachute to the ground. Everyone else died on impact as the two planes fell to earth. According to eyewitnesses both young pilots had guided their planes away from the village before crashing. Hawkins was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries a few hours later. 

Screveton War Memorial

Another very impressive memorial can be found inside the Church of St Wilfrid.

Sir Richard Whalley (1499 - 1583)

Second wife ... Ursula .... + 13 kids

This is Richard Whalley who was married three times and lived in Kirketon Hall, which stood next to the Church, with his twenty five children!  The poor second wife, Ursula ... thirteen kids ....  must have been pregnant most of her married life. 

The Whalley family were very influential in Tudor times.  Richard's father was physician to Henry VII and Richard was a member of Henry VIII's  court.  He assisted Wolsey and Cromwell in the dissolution of the monasteries.  He was given Welbeck Abbey as a reward for his services.  After Henry VIII's death (1547) Richard became steward to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (Lord Protector of England during the minority rule of King Edward VI). In 1552 Somerset was executed and Whalley was in trouble.  He had escaped the same fate as his boss by giving evidence against him but he didn't escape completely.  He had to sell Welbeck Abbey to pay the heavy fines for siding with the Duke.  It is surprising to report that despite the heavy debts; a decline in his social standing and twenty five children to keep in the state to which they were accustomed to live Richard still managed to die a very rich man in 1583 at the grand old age of 84.  His third wife Barbara obviously liked him .... she had the monument made.  It is very similar to the alabaster tomb of Archbishop Sandys in Southwell Minister who died in 1588, five years after Richard Whalley. I think the one at Screveton is the better of the two .... shame it is out of sight in a dark spidery place at the back of the church.

First wife

Third wife ... Barbara

Richard's eldest son and heir, Thomas, died in 1582 (a year before Richard) so Thomas's son - another Richard -  inherited the estate. This Richard was to become the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1595.  He married Frances Cromwell, daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell making her sister to Oliver.  They had seven children: one of whom was Major-General Edward Whalley.  During the Civil War Edward sided with his uncle, Oliver Cromwell, and took a leading role for the Parliamentarians (the only member of his family to do so). He was a zealous supporter of social reform: he tried to introduce a Parliamentary Bill to prevent land enclosure as he saw this as a major cause of unemployment. When Charles I was captured he was entrusted to Edward and his men at Hampton Court Palace. Before his execution Charles wrote a letter of thanks to Edward for the courteous manner in which he had imprisoned him! Edward's was the fourth signature on the King's death warrant.  After the Restoration of the Monarchy Edward, as a Regicide, was forced to flee to New England.  He arrived in Boston in 1660 and spent the next fourteen years hiding from Royalist agents sent to hunt for him.  He probably died in Hadley, Massachusetts, around 1674.

The Whalley family seemed to be very good at choosing the wrong side .... move  forwards to the reign of James I and The Gunpowder Plot.  One of those accused and executed was Henry Garnet ... otherwise known as WHALLEY! 

Their large house stood on land right next to St Wilfrid's Church.  Originally named Kirketon Hall .... it no longer exists.  The old building dated back to Medieval and Tudor times and was owned by the Kirketon family; the Leeks and then the Whalley family. In 1685 Thomas Thoroton (1636-1695) bought Kirketon Hall and the manor of Screveton from Peniston Whalley. (Yes, we have come across the Thorotons before in our post on Car Colston.). Early in the 18th century one wing of the building was demolished and replaced by a set of rooms; the name was changed to Screveton Hall and it became the Thoroton family's principal seat until they bought Flintham House in 1789. Colonel Thomas Blackborne Hildyard (son of Colonel Thomas Thoroton) had the house demolished in the 1820s and gave the land to the church in exchange for some land that belonged to the rector of Screveton.

Norman font

The quiet Church of St Wilfrid mainly dates back to the 13th century but there are traces of a church on the site at an earlier time.  The font dates back to 1170.

Above the font is a wooden carving of the Arms of Charles II. Displaying the Royal Coat of Arms was common practice in churches after the Restoration.  This was a time when your religious beliefs were a matter of importance.  Displaying the Royal Arms showed you were loyal to the King and the Church of England.

Arms of Charles II

 These are not the only treasures hidden away here.  The windows add to the charm.

Burlison & Grylls window



Amazingly, this is a Burlison & Grylls window right here in Screveton!  Burlison & Grylls were one of the most successful stained glass companies in Britain.  Their work includes the fabulous West Window, Exeter Cathedral and a number of windows in Bath Abbey.  The company began in 1868 when the architect G F Bodley wanted a window in keeping with his Gothic church design.  Morris & Co (see William Morris window at Whatton) designs were too modern for Bodley's taste so he encouraged two young artists - Burlison & Grylls - to start the company and they never looked back.  The company went out of business in 1945 when a bomb demolished their Oxford Street offices and all their records.



The stone masons decorated the inside ......

......and the outside:



St Wilfrid Church

There are some excellent examples of 18th century slate grave stones engraved by Brown, Sparrow and Wood.

A slate headstone by James Sparrow

I have seen quite a few by Sparrow ... then I looked him up and found there was James AND his son George working in this area.  At one time James worked with one of England's finest landscape engravers William Byrne so he must have been highly regarded. Apparently apprentice engravers used school children's calligraphy books to find fonts to copy for their work. 

The stone that I liked best sits just outside the main door and is ....

Engraved headstone by "Wood of Bingham".

.... an engraving of the church!  It even has the tree and a few of the other gravestones on ... in fact, isn't the one under the middle window this one?!

St Wilfrid Church (headstone mentioned above is the large one on the right under the window)

The Old Priest House sits just outside the church yard.

A 16th century timber framed house with lovely patterned brickwork.  It is now a smallholding with cute pigs in the garden, hens running about the place and three friendly alpacas out the back

Screveton is a lovely peaceful place, yet so far its residents have taken us to the heart of the Tudor court; into the battles of the Civil War; the intrigue of The Gunpowder Plot and the Second World War ..... but we don't stop there.  Meet the Sutton family from Screveton!.

 Sir Charles Manners Sutton (1780 - 1845) was Speaker of the House of Commons for 18 years.  His father was the Most Reverend Charles Manners Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury who in his turn was the grandson of the 3rd Duke of Rutland. 

An illegitimate son of the 3rd Duke was Captain Evelyn Sutton, a naval officer during the Napoleonic wars who was court marshalled by his commanding officer for supposedly delaying his ship's entry into a sea battle.  This accusation cost Captain Sutton his reputation as well as his battle prize money.  The court marshal proved him innocent of the charge so he sued his commanding officer for £5,000 (ten times his yearly salary!). It took years to settle the case: Captain Sutton lost. Evelyn Sutton was married to Roosila Thoroton (yep, yet another Thoroton .... Roosila's sister Mary was married to Evelyn's legitimate brother, Charles Manners Sutton ....see above!).



The old village pinfold (where stray animals were impounded until their owners paid a fine for their recovery) has been restored and turned into a garden.

Pinfold

No picture of a pint this time.  There used to be a public house in the village ...  The Royal Oak (just like Car Colston) but this is now a private house called The Oaks.

Cheers anyway!


Map of Screveton: click here.

Thoroton

Thoroton is a small linear village that lies along the west bank of the River Smite. Around 140 people currently live in the village which is surrounded by typical south Notts agricultural scenery. Large arable fields, hedgerows and streams with a few small copses predominate. It is reasonable walking country , none too arduous, but none too inspiring!
Like Scarrington and Hawksworth, two neighbouring villages, there are no shops and more depressingly there are no pubs.
The village was granted conservation status in 1974. The Rushcliffe Borough website describes the village as: '...a traditional Nottinghamshire village in character, with the predominant building materials being red brick and pantiles. The buildings themselves closely define the street but wide grass verges edge the lanes on the main approaches."
The village is well known for its dovecote, one of only three circular ones in the county. Apparently it is 500 years old and was showing its age until it was restored at a cost of £24 000 in 2012.

500 year old dovecote

The restoration work was funded by Nottinghamshie County Council's Local Improvement Scheme. The work included rethatching, re-pointing and the erection of an interpretation panel detailing the history of the dovecote. It is now the only surviving thatched dovecote in Notts. It belonged to Thoroton Hall and stood in the stackyard of Ransom's farm and still had pigeons using the nest boxes as late as the 1960's

Restored dovecote

Approximately 600 nest boxes were built into the walls and the young pigeons, called squibs, were eaten before they fledged at about six weeks old and weighed around 12 ounces before their flight muscles developed. Pigeons can and often do breed all year round so there was a pretty consistent food supply...if you like that sort of thing!

Thoroton Hall stands just along the main road north of the dovecote. This was the village manor and is now a Grade II listed building.The Labour peer Baron Falconer of Thoroton used to live here.

Thoroton Hall. The front facade from the main street.

It dates from the early 18th century with some early 19th century alterations and extensions. In these pictures you can see the blue brick diaperwork (chequer-board pattern) which was a style particularly popular in the preceeding century... for those who could afford it. According to the interpretation panel back at the dovecote "The graduated slate roofs are probably local Swithland slate from Leicestershire, finished with high quality (This is where architect speak kicks in in earnest) stone coped gables and kneelers. It has a double range plan, a single flight return staircase some fielded panelling including window shutters, doors and fireplace and fine late 18th century fire grates."

Thoroton Hall...with gates.

Of course no village is complete without its church and Thoroton is no exception. The church is dedicated to Helen, the mother of the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine. She is reputed to have discovered the true cross when she visited the Holy Land in AD 326. Now called St. Helena, the church was earlier dedicated to the saint in the form St. Helen.

St. Helena church.

Domesday book mentions Thoroton as Torretune and says that it was one of five Nottinghamshire places to have a priest although there was no mention of a church. In 1093 William II Rufus gave the church to the See of Lincoln so it is possible that the original church was built between 1086 and 1093.. The earliest extant feature is the late 12th/early 13th century round-headed north aisle arcade so it must remain conjecture as to whether there was a building prior to this date.
I don't know the correct architectural term but half way up the steeple there is a balustrade type of affair and along the bottom edge are stone carvings of a variety of heads. They must have some significance but why they are all so grotesque or loopy is beyond me. Let's hope they were not modelled on local residents.

Loopy, grotesque and plain wierd head carvings around the spire.

Inside the church there are five stained glass windows with some fine and intricate details.

Stained Glass window St Helena's Thoroton

Stained Glass window St Helena's Thoroton



Stained Glass window St Helena's Thoroton

   

Details of one of the windows.

Ethel Gordon Fenwick was the most famous resident of Thoroton Hall. Ethel was a Scot, born on 26th January 1857. Ethel's doctor father died when she was young and her mother remarried to the MP George Storer and then moved to Thoroton Hall. In 1881, aged 24, Ethel was appointed Matron of St Bartholomew's Hospital after working in other hospitals Manchester and London. Ethel campaigned vigorously for the State Registration of Nurses (SRN) and became the first nurse to become SRN in 1921. Ethel died in 1947and there is an impressive monument to her in the churchyard. as well as an old newspaper clipping in the doorway of the church.

Ethel's monument in the churchyard.

There is an interpretation board in the church which gives some interesting historical information about Saint Helena. Born in 250 AD, she died aged 80 of natural causes. She was born of humble parents in the Roman province of Moesia on the western shore of the Black Sea. Constantin'e father, Constantius Chlorus, who had risen to the throne by military success, was also a native of that region and he had spotted Helena when she was working as an inn-keeper and he whisked her off to become his consort. Their son, Constantine, became emperor on the death of his father and in 312 AD, on the eve of battle, he dreamt of a flaming cross in the sky beneath which were the words 'In this sign conquer.'. He thereupon embraced Christianity, won his battle, got control of the Western Empire and converted his mother to Christianity. She built many churches and restored shrines and when aged 80 she helped clear the mound that covered the holy Sepulchre she, supposedly, uncovered the true cross.
Her patronage is given to Difficult Marriages, Archaeologists and Divorced People! Not much help to the first group then.


Link to Google map:  Thoroton