St. Michael's Church is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Sutton Bonington Sutton Bonington () is a village and civil parish lying along the valley of the River Soar in the Borough of Rushcliffe, south-west Nottinghamshire, England. The University of Nottingham has the Sutton Bonington Campus, a site just to the nor ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

. The church is a 13th-century Grade II*

Listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

.Rushcliffe Borough Council
Conservation Areas: Sutton Bonington

History

Sutton Bonington has two

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

churches, a result of the merging of the two original villages (Sutton and Bonington); they are St. Michael's Church (Bonington's church) and St Anne's Church (Sutton's church, located down St Anne's Lane). St Michael's is the larger (and much taller) of the two churches. The two ancient

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es of Sutton and Bonington were united for civil purposes in 1829 and combined in 1923 into one ecclesiastical parish (with one rector appointed from 1950). St. Michael's

Rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

, situated on the other side of the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway ...

, is now used by the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

, who have a large campus just north of the village, to house postgraduate students. Related to the situation of the two original parishes, Sutton and Bonington are separate manors, named after their churches — St. Anne and St. Michael respectively. Register safe

Present day

Regular services continue to be held in both churches. The current

priest in charge A priest in charge or priest-in-charge (previously also curate-in-charge) in the Church of England is a priest in charge of a parish who is not its incumbent; they will normally work on a short-term contract and have less freedom to act within the ...

(for both churches in Sutton Bonington) is Glenn Martin, who is also the priest in charge of the neighbouring parish of Normanton on Soar (with its Grade I Church of St. James).

Bells

The tall church tower has a peal of six bells. Originally the peal consisted of just three bells, cast by Henry Oldfield's foundry in Nottingham, two of which remain; the oldest dates back to 1579 and is the second oldest bell in Nottinghamshire. Two more bells were added in 1849/50 and a sixth bell in 1977 purchased for the sum of £320 from St Andrew’s Church at Watton at Stone in Hertfordshire to commemorate the

Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the Silver jubilee, 25th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was celebrated with large-scale parties and parades throughout the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth ...

. The weights of the bells range from 4cwts 86 lbs ( treble) to 17cwts 97 lbs (

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

). The installation has recently been restored by

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...

, a large bell foundry in nearby

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...

who cast a number of the bells.Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers
Sutton Bonington The bells are rung for Sunday morning services and at fortnightly practice sessions.

References

External links

Church History
Southwell Diocesan Church History Project

By Rev. W E Buckland. (Rector of St. Anne's)

St. Michael's and St. Anne's Churches
Images of England
Photo and Listed building description
Flickr
Photos of the church
Geograph:: Church Of St Michael, Sutton Bonington © Tim Heaton cc-by-sa/2.0Geograph:: Sutton Bonington Church © Andy Jamieson cc-by-sa/2.0
Photos of the church (from Geograph)
Panorama
taken from St. Michael's Church tower, showing almost all the old Bonington village {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton Bonington, St Michael's Church Church of England church buildings in Nottinghamshire Grade II* listed churches in Nottinghamshire

History

Present day

Bells

See also

References

External links