Bunny 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 ...

located in the

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 Council 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 tradition ...

, England. The parish has a population of around 600, measured at 689 in the 2011 Census. It is on the A60 south of

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 R ...

, south of Bradmore and north of Costock.

History

The place-name 'Bunny' is first attested 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 manus ...

of 1086, where it appears as ''Bonei''. It appears in Episcopal Registers as ''Buneya'' in 1227. The name means either 'reed island' or 'island on the river Bune'. There has been a settlement on the site since pre-Norman times, perhaps as far back as the days of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medit ...

. The parish Church of St Mary is 14th century. The most significant building in the village is Bunny Hall, probably built in the 1570s and occupied by the Parkyns family for three hundred years.

Sir Thomas Parkyns, 2nd Baronet Sir Thomas Parkyns, 2nd Baronet (1664–1741), known as "Luctator" or the "Wrestling Baronet", was an English country gentleman now known as an architect and enthusiastic patron of wrestling. Life Born in 1664 at Bunny, Nottinghamshire, he was the ...

(1662–1741), known as the Wrestling Baronet, built what is now the north wing to his own design circa 1723–25. He also built the school and almshouses. Thomas Parkyns was a devotee of wrestling and organised an annual wrestling match in Bunny Park (prize a gold-laced hat). These matches continued until 1810. His book on the subject ''The Inn-Play: or, the Cornish Hugg-Wrestler'' was published in 1713 and reprinted many times. The following is an excerpt from a description of Bunny as published in 1813: :Bunny, a straggling village on the high road, containing about sixty houses, and which seems to have been indebted principally for its origin to the ancient seat of Bunny Park Hall, once the property of the family of Parkyns, and now of their descendant Lord Rancliffe. This family have indeed been great benefactors factors to the village, as it contains a good school house and hospital, the former being close to the church yard gate and erected in 1700 for the poor children of Bunny and Bradmore; and the latter having four rooms for four poor widows, and endowed by Dame Anne Parkyns.

20th and 21st century

The Hall was sold circa 1990, but remained unoccupied and had become semi-derelict by 2005. It was occupied and under restoration in 2006. A small section of the grounds now houses a new group of luxury homes.

Gallery

File:Almeshouse Bunny.JPG,

Almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from cer ...

File:St Mary's Bunny.JPG, St Mary's Church, Bunny File:Rancliffe Arms Bunny.JPG, Rancliffe Arms File:Bunny, Nottinghamshire, approach to Hall.JPG, The approach to Bunny Hall

References

External links

Bunny Village History Society
Villages in Nottinghamshire Rushcliffe {{Nottinghamshire-geo-stub