Sutton Bonington () is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
lying along the valley of the
River Soar
The River Soar () is a major tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands and is the principal river of Leicestershire. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth. The river then flows north through Leices ...
in the Borough of
Rushcliffe, south-west
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...
, England. The
University of Nottingham
, mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom
, established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status
, type = Public
, chancellor ...
has a site just to the north of the village:
Sutton Bonington Campus
The University of Nottingham operates from four campuses in Nottinghamshire and from two overseas campuses, one in Ningbo, China and the other in Semenyih, Malaysia. The Ningbo campus was officially opened on 23 February 2005 by the then British ...
.
The parish covers some
[Sutton Bonington Local History Society](_blank)
Remember Sutton Bonington and includes the hamlet of
Zouch
Zouch is a hamlet in south west Nottinghamshire, England. It is located between Hathern and Normanton on Soar and is situated by the River Soar, which marks the county boundary with Leicestershire.Ordnance Survey mapping
Most of the hamlet l ...
. The population at the 2011 census was 2,202, excluding the students at the university campus who bring the total to over 2,200 in term time. The River Soar is the
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
boundary with
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...
and approximately to the north-west, in Leicestershire, is the large village of
Kegworth. The nearest town is
Loughborough, some by road to the south, and the nearest village is
Normanton on Soar
Normanton on Soar (), formerly known as Normanton-upon-Soar and known locally as Normanton, is a village and civil parish in the south of Nottinghamshire in England near the River Soar. This historic village is home to one of the last operati ...
.
History
Originally, Sutton and Bonington were two settlements, probably originating in
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
times (the names likely derive from ''South farm'' and ''Buna's farm''); Sutton was to the south of Bonington. In the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086 the villages were recorded as "Sudtone" and "Bonitone". The two villages gradually grew together along the edge of the flood plain of the River Soar to make one long, narrow village, which by 1340 had come by the name of "Sutton Bonynton".
[Rushcliffe Borough Council](_blank)
Conservation Areas: Sutton Bonington
Today it continues to be a
linear village
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...
, with much of the 20th century housing built along and just off Park Lane, making the Sutton part now larger than the Bonington part. Sutton Bonington Hall's gardens and parkland are set between the two original settlements and create a gap in the built-up area, and each part continues to have its own
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
and parish church. The most recent significant development are houses built on the former rectory gardens near St Anne's Church, again enlarging the Sutton part. The total length of the village is now , not including the university campus.
The
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...
was constructed through the parish in 1840. Sir
Cecil Paget
Sir Cecil Walter Paget (19 October 1874 – 9 December 1936),''Who was who'', 1941 was an English locomotive engineer and railway administrator. Cecil Paget was the son of Sir Ernest Paget, George Ernest Paget, Chairman of the Midland Railway ...
, a notable locomotive engineer and railway administrator, was born in Sutton Bonington and in 1923 succeeded his father (Sir Ernest Paget, who was Chairman of the Midland Railway, 1890—1911) to become the 2nd
Baronet Paget of Sutton Bonington. He died in 1936, without children (the title thereby becoming extinct), and was buried in the family plot at Marlepit Hill cemetery. The Paget family were the main landowners in the parish for much of the 19th century, owning the two ancient manors of St Anne and St Michael. It was under the Pagets that the current St Anne's Manor house and parkland was built, in 1848.
University
![Main Building Sutton Bonington 2011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Main_Building_Sutton_Bonington_2011.jpg)
The university campus was originally the Midland Agricultural and Dairy College, which formed in the first decades of the 20th century. The site was used as a
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
camp during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In 1948 the college became part of the University of Nottingham.
The campus has steadily grown over the decades (the main part is now approximately 20 hectares) and in 2006 the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science opened. The residential aspect of the campus ("Bonington Halls" – it consists of a number of spread out halls and houses) has also grown substantially in recent years and is now managed by Campus Living Villages (CLV). A masterplan was created in 2008 for the campus and envisages its development over the coming years – growth at present is towards Landcroft Lane, whilst in the future a considerable expansion is planned northwards towards Melton Lane. In 2011 two new buildings will have been completed on the campus: the Gateway Building housing veterinary medicine and agricultural and environmental sciences (adjacent to the recently built veterinary sciences building) and the BioEnergy Centre which is a research centre for international brewing company
SAB Miller
SABMiller plc was a South African multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in Woking, England on the outskirts of London until 10 October 2016 when it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Prior to that date, it was the worl ...
.
Features and amenities
The village boasts a number of small shops, a Coffee shop, a post office, a
village hall
A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as:
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...
and
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
, a primary school, a
doctor's surgery
A doctor's office in American English, a doctor's surgery in British English, or a doctor's practice, is a medical facility in which one or more medical doctors, usually general practitioners (GP), receive and treat patients.
Description
Doc ...
and two pubs: The Anchor (in the Bonington part) and The King's Head (in the Sutton part). A small
industrial estate
An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park ...
exists just outside the village on Rempstone Road.
The village also has two
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
churches, a result of the merging of the two original villages (Sutton and Bonington); they are
St Michael's Church (Bonington's
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the 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 community activities, ...
, located on Main Street) and
St Anne's Church (Sutton's church, located down St Anne's Lane).
The village has a large
conservation area at its heart, with 25
Listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s contained within it. Sutton Bonington Hall and St Anne's Church are Grade II* (the remainder being Grade II).
Sutton Bonington Hall is a
country house largely erected in the
Queen Anne period and is locally known as "The Hall". In 1825 it came into the ownership of the Paget family and remained a residence until 2000; it has since gone into commercial use as a location for weddings, conferences and parties. There is a
Methodist church and a
Baptist church in the Sutton part of the village.
![Sutton Bonington St Michael Main Street](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Sutton_Bonington_St_Michael_Main_Street.jpg)
Aside from the main village, the parish contains a number of outlying areas of settlement, including the university campus and the hamlet of Zouch. There are also two adjacent clusters of housing towards West Leake, at the junctions of Landcroft Lane/Melton Lane and Melton Lane/Pithouse Lane/Trowell Lane. Within the latter cluster is a 200-year-old public house called the ''Star Inn'' known locally as ''Pit House'', the
Victoria County History
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...
for Sutton Bonington states that "
was also known as Pit House because it was used by miners from the gypsum ‘pits’." Between 1982 and 2004 specialist car manufacturer
GTM Cars
GTM Cars were a component kit car manufacturer located in Kingswinford, UK.
History
The company was founded in 1967 when Bernard Cox and his friend Jack Hosker created the Cox GTM (Grand Touring Mini), a mid engined sports car based on Mini ...
used buildings in Trowel Lane as their factory and offices. Since their departure to Coventry these were been used by Talon Sportscars until July 2008.
In Zouch is the ''Rose and Crown'' pub. The ''Station Hotel'' was located adjacent to the former
Kegworth railway station
Kegworth railway station located in Nottinghamshire was a station serving the villages of Kegworth, Leicestershire, Sutton Bonington, and Kingston on Soar, Nottinghamshire.
History
It was opened in 1840 for the Midland Counties Railway, whic ...
, lying just outwith the parish, but closed in 2011. Opposite the Hotel on Station Road are two further Listed buildings within the parish (in addition to the 25 in the village) at Sutton Fields – the House and its Lodge. The Kegworth Old Lock, replaced by the Kegworth Deep Lock in the mid-1980s, on the Soar navigation, also lies within Sutton Bonington parish, and became Grade II Listed on 12 October 1987.
The
Kingston Brook runs to the northeast of the parish, forming part of the boundary with West Leake parish. The boundary with Leicestershire is the River Soar and runs along the centre of the river. In places the river has more than one channel, and the boundary then runs at the centre of the widest channel of water, resulting in a number of islands falling within the parish, especially near Kegworth and at Zouch.
Adjacent to the main university campus is the
University Farm, a 400 hectare (4 km²) commercial research farm, and an associated high-technology dairy centre; the farm partly lies in the neighbouring parish of Kingston on Soar, as does the dairy. Between the university campus and the railway line are offices (formerly a residence called "The Elms") and a laboratory belonging to the
Veterinary Laboratories Agency
The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) was an executive agency of the UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It carried out animal disease surveillance, diagnostic services and veterinary scientific research ...
, and a new sports hall and associated pitches.
Sport
Sutton Bonington Cricket Club was founded in 1824. There is a
lawn bowls
Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
club and a tennis club, both situated at the junction of Marle Pit Hill and Landcroft Lane. Two
football teams, Sutton Bonington F.C. and Sutton Bonington Academicals F.C., are based at the Recreation Ground on Main Street, and both play in the
North Leicestershire Football League
The North Leicestershire League is a football competition based in Leicestershire, England. This league was established in 1931 and was formerly known as the Loughborough and District Amateur Football Alliance. It has a total of four divisions, ...
.
Transport
There were two railway stations close to the village:
Kegworth station (closed in 1968) to the north and
Hathern station (closed in 1960) to the south-east. In 2008,
East Midlands Parkway station opened at
Ratcliffe on Soar, approximately to the north, providing good links on the
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands ...
which passes through the parish and on the eastern edge of the village in a
cutting
Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force.
Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the scal ...
.
Junction 24 of the
M1 motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...
is only away, near Kegworth, and the
East Midlands Airport
East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is () to the south and Lincoln () ...
is also nearby to the west. The A6006 ''Rempstone Road'' runs along the south-east boundary of the parish, and through Zouch, and leads to the
A6.
The ''Skylink'' bus route serves the village and the university campus, with regular buses running between
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
city centre and Loughborough, including stops at Kegworth, the Airport,
Long Eaton
Long Eaton is a town in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and some 8½ miles (13.7 km) south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has ...
and
Beeston. Another, less regular, bus service operates between Nottingham city centre and Normanton on Soar, via
Clifton.
The long-distance footpath, the
Midshires Way
The Midshires Way is a long-distance footpath and bridleway that runs for from the Chiltern Hills from near Bledlow in Buckinghamshire, through the Midlands counties of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, to Sto ...
, passes through the parish, running from West Leake to Kegworth along Melton Lane and Station Road. Two of the
country lane
A country lane is a narrow road in the countryside.
In North America and Australia, the term "lane" also may refer to rear access roads which act as a secondary vehicular network in cities and towns. Some towns and cities in the United Kingdom, i ...
s in the parish (Landcroft Lane and Hungary Lane) were designated as ''quiet lanes'' in 2004, giving equal priority between vehicular traffic and pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. The River Soar, which runs through Zouch and then along the western boundary of the parish, is
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
ised and is well used by small watercraft.
Local government and elections
![Rushcliffe Parish map Sutton Bonington](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Rushcliffe_Parish_map_Sutton_Bonington.png)
The parish comes within the
Soar Valley
The Soar Valley in Leicester- and Nottinghamshire, England is the basin of the River Soar, which rises south of Leicester and flows north through Charnwood before meeting the River Trent at Trent Lock.
Soar Valley embraces the large villages ...
electoral district for purposes of electing a councillor to Nottinghamshire County Council. The most recent election was in 2009 when Linda Sykes, of the Conservative party, won the seat. For the election of a councillor to Rushcliffe Borough Council, the parish forms part of the Soar Valley
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
, which covers a smaller area than the electoral district of the same name, and consists of the three parishes of Sutton Bonington, Kingston on Soar and Ratcliffe on Soar. The most recent election was in 2007 when Terry Holt, of the Liberal Democrats, won the seat. The next Borough election will be
held in 2011.
The
parish council has 11 councillors; there was an uncontested election for these seats in 2007.
The Member of Parliament for the
parliamentary
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
constituency of
Rushcliffe
Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 111,129. Its councilRushcliffe Borough CouncilRuth Edwards
Ruth Rosamond Edwards (née Davis, 11 May 1984) is a British politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rushcliffe in the 2019 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, she worked in cybersecurity policy prio ...
, of the Conservative party, who has held the seat since 2019.
Historic local government
The parish fell within the ancient
Rushcliffe
Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 111,129. Its councilRushcliffe Borough Councilwapentake
A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...
of Nottinghamshire. The two ancient
ecclesiastical parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
es of Sutton and Bonington were also separate
townships
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
; they were united for
civil purposes in 1829 and combined in 1923 into one ecclesiastical parish.
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. From 1894 the parish was part of the
Leake Rural District, until its abolition in 1935, when the parish was transferred to the
Basford Rural District. In 1974 Basford
Rural District was abolished and the
non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shi ...
of
Rushcliffe was created, granted with
borough status immediately, with Sutton Bonington becoming a part of it.
People from Sutton Bonington
*Sir (George) Ernest Paget, 1st Baronet (1841–1923) Chairman of the Midland Railway Company (MR) 1890–1911.
*Sir
Cecil Paget
Sir Cecil Walter Paget (19 October 1874 – 9 December 1936),''Who was who'', 1941 was an English locomotive engineer and railway administrator. Cecil Paget was the son of Sir Ernest Paget, George Ernest Paget, Chairman of the Midland Railway ...
CMG,
DSO, 2nd Baronet (19 October 1874 – 9 December 1936) British locomotive engineer and railway administrator.
*
Godfrey Elton, 1st Baron Elton
Godfrey Elton, 1st Baron Elton (29 March 1892 – 18 April 1973), was a British historian, academic and Labour Party politician. Having served in the British Army during the First World War, he was elected a fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford ...
, (29 March 1892 – 18 April 1973) British historian.
*
Rodney Elton, 2nd Baron Elton
Rodney Elton, 2nd Baron Elton (born 2 March 1930), is a British Conservative politician and former member of the House of Lords.
Biography
Elton is the son of Godfrey Elton, 1st Baron Elton. He was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxfor ...
, (born 2 March 1930) British politician and Conservative member of the House of Lords.
*
Thomas Pierrepoint
Thomas William Pierrepoint (6 October 1870 – 11 February 1954) was an English executioner from 1906 until 1946. He was the brother of Henry Pierrepoint and uncle of Albert Pierrepoint.
Personal life
Pierrepoint was born in Sutton Bonington, ...
, executioner.
Weather station
Since 1908 Sutton Bonington has had an official (
Met Office listed)
automatic weather monitoring station situated on the university campus.
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions
page 2406 The station is at 48m ASL just off Landcroft Lane at .
Gallery
File:River Soar Sutton Bonington 2011.jpg, Boats navigating the River Soar near Sutton Bonington - the left hand bank is Nottinghamshire.
File:Old House, Sutton Bonington - geograph.org.uk - 10404.jpg, The entrance to Buck's Lane.
File:St Anne Sutton 1.jpg, St Anne's Church at the end of St Anne's Lane.
File:St Michael Bonington 1.jpg, St Michael's Church, viewed from Main Street.
File:Houses at Sutton Bonington - geograph.org.uk - 10407.jpg, At the corner of Main Street and Hungary Lane.
File:Sutton Bonington campus 2011.JPG, The university campus viewed from the south.
Geographic locale
References
External links
Parish of Sutton Bonington
{{authority control
Villages in Nottinghamshire
Civil parishes in Nottinghamshire
Rushcliffe