Thockrington is a village and former

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 ...

, now in the parish of

Bavington Bavington is a civil parish in Northumberland, England. The parish includes the villages of Great Bavington, Little Bavington and Thockrington. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 99 people. The population taken at the 2011 cens ...

, in

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England. The village lies about north of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

. In 1951 the parish had a population of 18.

Governance

Thockrington is in the

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

constituency of

. The parish was abolished on 1 April 1955 to form Bavington.

Religious sites

Thockrington church, which stands so prominently on a spur of the Great Whin Sill, is one of the oldest churches in the county. The church is dedicated to

St Aidan Aidan of Lindisfarne (; died 31 August 651) was an Irish monk and missionary credited with converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in Northumbria. He founded a ministry cathedral on the island of Lindisfarne, known as Lindisfarne Priory, ser ...

. Here are buried several members of the ancient family of Shafto, the earliest mention of whom is in 1240. The Shaftos lived at nearby

until the eighteenth century when, as a result of their support of the Jacobite cause in 1715, their estates were confiscated by the Crown, and ultimately sold to a

Delaval DeLaval is a producer of dairy and farming machinery, with a head office in Tumba, Sweden, and is part of the Tetra Laval group. The company has 18 factories worldwide, employs over 4,500 people. History From the 1870s Gustaf de Laval (1845–19 ...

. The Shaftos had connections with the county of Durham and lived on their Durham estates until 1953, when Mr R. D. Shafto returned to

Bavington Hall Bavington Hall is a 17th-century privately owned country house at Bavington, Little Bavington in Northumberland. It is a Grade II* listed building. A tower house (Little Bavington Tower) was recorded on the site in 1415, but this was replaced in ...

Landmarks

A little over a mile south-west of the village are the ruins of Little Swinburne Tower, a fifteenth-century

pele tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing ...

Notable people

Lord Beveridge William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician who was a progressive, social reformer, and eugenicist who played a central role in designing the British welfare ...

, founder of the modern welfare state, is buried in the churchyard * The author

Tom Sharpe Thomas Ridley Sharpe (30 March 1928 – 6 June 2013) was an English satire, satirical novelist, best known for his ''Wilt (novel), Wilt'' series, as well as ''Porterhouse Blue'' and ''Blott on the Landscape,'' all three of which were adapted fo ...

's ashes were buried in the churchyard in 2014 by his Spanish partner, witnessed by a Spanish TV crew. Sharpe's father was once vicar of Thockrington."Ashes of writer Tom Sharpe buried at ceremony in remote Northumberland church yard"; ''The Journal'' 3 June 2014
/ref> * The aviator, Connie Leathart (1903–1993), is buried here; her remains are marked by a simple stone bearing the initials "CL".

References

External links

GENUKI
(Accessed: 19 November 2008) {{authority control Villages in Northumberland Former civil parishes in Northumberland