__NOTOC__ Donington 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

South Holland District South Holland is a local government district of Lincolnshire, England. The council is based in Spalding. Other notable towns and villages include Crowland, Sutton Bridge, Donington, Holbeach and Long Sutton. The district is named after the ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. It is north from the market town of Spalding and south of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

on the A152, it is bypassed by the A52, and sits close to the A16 and A17. The parish includes the hamlet of Northorpe, and falls within the drainage area of the Black Sluice

Internal Drainage Board An internal drainage board (IDB) is a type of operating authority which is established in areas of special drainage need in England and Wales with permissive powers to undertake work to secure clean water drainage and water level management wit ...

. Donington is the birthplace of the explorer

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

and where he was reburied in 2024.

History

In Roman times, a road connected Wainfleet from the east coast through the settlement to Grantham. The road, Salters Way, was to carry salt from

The Wash The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...

to the Midlands. 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

(1086) the settlement which then was called Donnicture was a small hamlet with a Lord of the Manor and 16 salt works worth 20/-. It then had a recorded population of 65 households in the hundred of Kirton. Donington was large enough in the 18th century to attract the travelling theatrical companies. In 1784, a surgeon, Matthew Flinders, father of the famous navigator, wrote "in the latter half of October and beginning of November we have a small Company of Comedians with us. I went 3 or 4 times and once or twice was tolerably entertained".

Governance

As well as having its own parish council, Donington is part of the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

of Donington, Quadring and Gosberton within the South Holland district of Lincolnshire. The total population of the ward taken at the 2021 census was 3,196. It also forms part of the Donington Rural electoral division of

Lincolnshire County Council Lincolnshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the latter additionally includes North Lincolnshire and No ...

Parish church

Donington's

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

is dedicated to

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

and the Holy Rood. It is a

Grade I 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 ...

. The church is almost a complete combination of early Decorated and late

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

style. Its

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

, however, is mainly Early English. The church tower and spire rise to .Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' pp. 117, 118; Methuen & Co. Ltd Matthew Flinders' remains were identified in London in January 2019. Permission was granted for him to be re-buried in the north aisle of the Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood where he was baptised. His remains were reburied on 13 July 2024.

Geography

The contract for the A52 bypass was £1.8m in April 1988. Work began in October 1988, with a 45 week contract, to open in September 1989. The bypass opened three months early in May 1989, being built by Lincolnshire county council. In December 2024 it was agreed by Lincolnshire County Council’s planning and regulation committee that the speed limit of section of the A52 at the top of Donington will be reduced from 60mph to 50mph following expressed concerns from residents and reports of several accidents.

Community

Local amenities include a park, a playpark, and a teen

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairw ...

. Donington businesses include The Black Bull

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

Coop Coop or Co-op most often refer to: * Chicken coop or other animal enclosure * Cooperative or co-operative ("co-op"), an association co-operating for mutual social, economic or cultural benefit ** Consumer cooperative ** Food cooperative ** Housin ...

and

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

stores in the Market Place, an independent opticians, a butchers, a hair stylist, a flower shop, and a pets & produce outlet. A timber windows manufacturer, employing approximately 100 people, is one of the main employers, while a fire prevention and security company has its head office in Donington.

Schools

There are two schools: the Donington Cowley Endowed Primary School, and Cowley Academy, a non-selective

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

for pupils aged 11 to 16, and partly Grade II listed.

Travel

The nearest Railway Stations are very close by in Spalding

and Bosto

with regular connected services to Peterborough, Lincoln, Derby, Sheffield, Leicester, Nottingham and London. The village is on an operating passenger rail line with stopping services, but has no station. In 2008

Hull Trains Hull Trains is an open access operator, open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull Paragon Interchange, Hull Paragon / Beverley rai ...

proposed reopening it as a railhead to nearby Boston for a direct Lincoln to London service. Donington is on the regular B9 Bus route between Boston and Spaldin

Sport

Donington has

football teams Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' generally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

for two age groups: Old Doningtonians for over eighteens, and Young Dons (established in 1996) for anyone under that age; Old Dons play in the Saturday

League and Young Dons on a Sunday in the Mid-Lincolnshire Junior League.

References

External links

*
"St Mary and the Holy Rood"
Churches in England. Retrieved 21 July 2011
"Donington"

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

.org.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2011
Thomas Cowley High School
Retrieved 7 July 2013 {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire South Holland, Lincolnshire