Whatton-in-the-Vale is an English village in the Nottinghamshire borough of Rushcliffe. It lies in the
Vale of Belvoir
The Vale of Belvoir ( ) covers adjacent areas of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, England. The name derives from the Norman-French for "beautiful view" and dates back to Norman times.
Extent and geology
The vale is a tract ...
, with the River Smite to the west and the River Whipling to the east, mainly north of the trunk A52 road, 12 miles (19 km) east of Nottingham. It had a population of 843 at the 2011 census.
Etymology
The place name seems to contain the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
word ''hwǣte'' for wheat, + ''tūn'' (Old English) meaning an enclosure, a farmstead, a village, an estate, ''etc''., so "Farm where wheat is grown." "In the Vale," ''i. e.'' the Vale of Belvoir. The place appears as ''Watone'' in the
Domesday
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 ...
survey of 1086.
Heritage
Whatton Mill was a five-storey brick tower windmill built in 1820. It had four patent sails (sails with shutters instead of cloth), two of which were double. Milling ceased in about 1916. The capless tower is now a listed building.
The Anglican Church of St. John of Beverley is a
Grade II* listed
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 ...
building dating from the 14th century, but extensively restored and rebuilt in the 19th century. It belongs to the Cranmer Group of parishes, with the churches at Aslockton, Hawksworth, Orston, Scarrington and Thoroton. A service is held in Whatton once a month.
The population of Whatton was 306 in 1801, 399 in 1821, and 388 in 1831.
Whatton Manor estate, to the south of the village, was inherited in 1840 by Thomas Dickinson Hall (1808–1879), who built a substantial manor house there in "Elizabethan style". The family financed charitable and church-building work in the district. The manor house and its grounds were sold in 1919 to Samuel Ernest Chesterman, who in turn sold them to William Goodacre Player, son of John Player of the cigarette manufacturers John Player & Sons). The manor building, by then in poor condition, was demolished in the mid-1960s, but the original stables can still be seen from Manor Lane. They now house a stud farm.
The village pub, the ''Griffin's Head'', was closed in the mid-1990s and replaced by private housing.
Whatton was once a named telephone exchange for many villages, but the name gave way to a dialling code (01949).
Governance
Whatton has a parish council and belongs under
Rushcliffe Borough Council
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 CouncilRobert Jenrick, a former Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Whatton (HM Prison)
HM Prison Whatton is a Category C men's prison, located in the village of Whatton, near Bingham in Nottinghamshire, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and houses males convicted of sexual offences.
Prison stru ...
opened at the west end of the village in 1960 as a detention centre. Since 1990 it has been a Category C closed male prison for sex offenders.BBC report, 30 March 201 Retrieved 3 June 2016. /ref>