Flintham Hall Conservatory (413077 Dec9773e By Richard Croft)
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Flintham is a
village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
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
Rushcliffe Rushcliffe is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south Nottinghamshire, England. Its council is based in West Bridgford. The borough also includes the towns of Bingh ...
district in
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
, 7 miles (11 km) from
Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
and opposite RAF Syerston on the A46. It had a population of 597 at the 2011 census, estimated at 586 in 2019, and a fall to 563 at the 2021 census. The village name was taken by the
Ham class minesweeper The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers (IMS), known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. All of the ships in the class are named for British place na ...
HMS Flintham.


Amenities

The Grade I listed Anglican church is dedicated to St
Augustine of Canterbury Augustine of Canterbury (early 6th century in England, 6th century – most likely 26 May 604) was a Christian monk who became the first archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English". Augustine ...
and has "a
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
nave attached to a
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...
tower and chancel." It now belongs to the Fosse Group of parishes, with St Peter's Church, East Bridgford, St Helen's Church, Kneeton, St Wilfrid's Church, Screveton, and St Mary's Church, Car Colston. A service is held about once a month. The village has a primary school, currently closed, a village hall (the old school building), and a cricket pavilion. Its one pub, the ''Boot and Shoe Inn'', is in Main Street. There is also a voluntarily run Flintham Community Shop and a museum of rural life. Several gardens are normally open to the public for a summer weekend each year. Flintham Football Club was founded in 1969, however, it was rebranded 3BFC in 2011 and moved out of the village.


Etymology

The place-name Flintham seems to contain an
Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
personal name, ''Flinta'', + '' hām '' (Old English), a village, a manor, an estate or a homestead, so probably, "Flinta's homestead or village". The hard grey rock,
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
, does not exist in the neighbourhood.


Heritage

White's ''Directory of Nottinghamshire'' described Flintham in 1853 as:
"a pleasant and well-built village, 6½ miles south-west by south of Newark, including within its parish 637 inhabitants and of rich loamy land, at a rateable value of £3,324, which was enclosed about the year 1780, when were allotted to the vicar, and about to
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
, in lieu of tithes, exclusive of which had previously belonged to the said college. The greater part of the parish belongs to Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard Esq., but Francis Fryer Esq., Richard Hall Esq. and John Clark Esq. have also estates here. The
Duke of Newcastle Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Willi ...
is lord of the manor, which he holds in fee of the King's
Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is an estate of the British sovereign. The estate has its origins in the lands held by the medieval Dukes of Lancaster, which came under the direct control of the monarch when Henry Bolingbroke, the then duke of Lancast ...
, together with several others in this neighbourhood. His Grace has no land here except allotted to him at the enclosure. Flintham Hall, which has been successively the seat of the Husseys, Hackers, Woodhouses, Disneys, Fytches and Thorotons, is now the residence of Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard Esq. It is a handsome modern edifice, erected on the site of the ancient mansion. It owes many of its present beauties to the late Col. Hildyard."


Hildyard family

Col. Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard (1752–1814), was MP for
Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...
. As a colonel in the Coldstream Guards, Thoroton Hildyard served with British forces in the
American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
. Some Account of the Military, Political and Social Life of the Right Hon. John Manners, Marquis of Granby, Walter Evelyn Manners, Macmillan and Co. Limited, London, 1899
He was also a longstanding friend and advisor to
John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland KG PC (21 October 1696 – 29 May 1779) was an English nobleman, the eldest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland and Catherine Russell. Styled Marquess of Granby from 1711, he succeeded to the title in 17 ...
, to whom he was related. His grandson Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard (1821–1888), son of Thomas Blackborne Hildyard (1788–1830), also lived at Flintham Hall and was educated at Eton and Oxford. In 1846 Hildyard entered political life as the Conservative Member of Parliament for the southern division of Nottinghamshire. It was a toughly contested election. Hildyard was supported, according to the University of Nottingham, by the 4th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme "in spite of the fact that Newcastle's son, the Earl of Lincoln, was his opponent. Lincoln attacked Hildyard's youth and inexperience, but the 'young squire' still defeated him by a majority of almost 700. Hildyard held South Nottinghamshire from 1846 until 1852. He was re-elected in 1866. He then continued to represent the South Nottinghamshire constituency until his retirement in 1885." The name of the Hildyard family of Flintham was initially Thoroton. Col. Hildyard, father of MP Hildyard, was formerly called Thomas Blackborne Thoroton. The second son of Thomas Hildyard, formerly Thomas Thoroton, took holy orders and became a rector. In 1816 the Rev. Levett Thoroton married in London the daughter of
Sir Alexander Cray Grant, 8th Baronet Sir Alexander Cray Grant, 8th Baronet (13 November 1782 – 29 November 1854) was a British politician and plantation owner in the West Indies. Life He was born in 1782 in West Alvington, Devon, the eldest son of Sir Alexander Grant, 7th Baron ...
of Dalvey, Elgin, Scotland, and MP. Rev. Levett Thoroton later became a rector in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where his family owned land, but changed his name to Hildyard in 1815 on marrying a Hildyard heiress, the niece of Sir Robert d'Arcy Hildyard, 4th and last Baronet, who died without issue leaving his estate to his niece. Col. Thoroton Hildyard was descended from Mary (
Levett Levett is a surname of Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from eLivet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories. Origins This surname comes from the village of ...
) Blackborne, who was the daughter of Sir
Richard Levett Sir Richard Levett (1629 – 20 January 1711) was an English merchant and politician who was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1699. Born in Ashwell, Rutland, he moved to London and established a pioneering mercantile career, becoming involved w ...
,
Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...
and the widow of merchant Abraham Blackborne, and her second husband Robert Thoroton of Screveton Hall, Nottinghamshire. (Robert Thoroton and his wife Mary became parties to a contentious lawsuit with the Blackborne family heirs — Thoroton vs. Blackborne — over an enormous estate left by
William Hewer William Hewer (1642 – 3 December 1715), sometimes known as Will Hewer, was one of Samuel Pepys' manservants, and later Pepys's clerk, before embarking on an administrative career of his own. Hewer is mentioned several times in Pepys' diary an ...
, longtime friend of diarist and Secretary of the
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Tra ...
Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...
.)


Myles Thoroton Hildyard

In 2005 the family's best-known representative,
Myles Thoroton Hildyard Myles Thoroton Hildyard (1914–2005) was an English landowner, diarist and historian. He won the Military Cross for his escape from a prisoner-of-war camp after the Battle of Crete. Life He was the eldest son of the barrister Gerald Moresby Thor ...
, landowner and historian, died at Flintham. Hildyard, a Cambridge-educated landowner and historian, won the Military Cross for a daring escape from a prisoner-of-war camp after the Battle of Crete. He also became known for his work at Flintham Hall, a Grade I listed house, which ''The Independent'' noted in its obituary of Hildyard, has been described as "perhaps the most gloriously romantic Victorian house in England." Hildyard became known in the community for his good fellowship. "Flintham was, for the years Myles Hildyard was its guardian," noted ''The Independent'' in its obituary, "a most remarkable place to visit. Not just because of the beauty and richness of its physical surroundings, but also because he himself was so remarkable a person. 'He was, in a way,' writes
Antony Beevor Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and Civil War. ...
, 'the local equivalent of Nancy Mitford's Lord Merlin.' At Flintham he encouraged and received a stream of visitors young and old, who brought lively conversation, stimulation and enjoyment to a house which, when his father inherited, had been a rather forbidding and lifeless place."


Flintham Hall

Flintham Hall is a Grade I listed country house in the Flintham estate, on the western edge of Flintham village. It was built in 1798 on the site of an earlier house bought from the Disney family by
Thomas Thoroton Thomas Thoroton (c. 1723–1794), was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 25 years between 1757 and 1782. Early life Thoroton was the son of Robert Thoroton of Screveton and his wife Mary Levett, daughter of Sir Richard Le ...
in 1789. It was extended in 1820–1830 by the architect
Lewis Wyatt Lewis William Wyatt (1777–1853) was a British architect, a nephew of both Samuel and James Wyatt of the Wyatt family of architects, who articled with each of his uncles and began practice on his own about 1805. Lewis Wyatt is known primarily f ...
for the British Army Colonel. T. Thoroton and again remodelled in 1853–1859 by
George Thomas Hine George Thomas Hine FRIBA (1842–25 April 1916) was an English architect. His prolific output included new county asylums for Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, East Sussex and Worcestershire, as well as extensive additions to many others. Bi ...
for Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard. It is built on two and three storeys, 11 bays wide and 3 bays deep with an attached glassed Victorian conservatory. The conservatory, influenced by London's Crystal Palace, is the finest of its type left in England. The Thoroton Hildyard family continues to reside at the Hall. Flintham Hall, now the home of Myles's nephew Sir Robert Hildyard and his wife Lucy, was recently chief location for "Easy Virtue," a movie based on the
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...
play. It was also used in ''
And When Did You Last See Your Father? ''And When Did You Last See Your Father?'' is a 2007 drama film directed by Anand Tucker. The screenplay by David Nicholls is based on the 1993 memoir of the same title by Blake Morrison. Plot While Blake Morrison, his mother, and younger sis ...
'', a film starring
Jim Broadbent James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades ...
and
Colin Firth Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Colin Firth, several accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Aw ...
, directed by
Anand Tucker Anand Tucker (born 24 June 1963) is a film director and producer based in London. He began his career directing factual television programming and adverts. He co-owns the production company Seven Stories. Personal life Tucker was born in Thail ...
, The village has a circular brick
pinfold An animal pound is a place where stray livestock were impounded. Animals were kept in a dedicated enclosure, until claimed by their owners, or sold to cover the costs of impounding. Etymology The terms "pinfold" and "pound" are Saxon in origi ...
resembling those at
Screveton Screveton (pronounced locally "Screveeton" or "Screeton") is an English civil parish and village in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, with (including Kneeton) 191 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Screveton singularly reported 164 reside ...
and
Scarrington Scarrington is an English civil parish and small village in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, adjacent to Bingham, Car Colston, Hawksworth, Orston and Aslockton. Its had a population in the 2011 census of 183, falling to 167 at t ...
. A
windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...
stood in Broad Marsh field from 1779 to 1847 ().


Plough Boy's play

Flintham is one of twenty or so places in Nottinghamshire where the local historian Maurice Barley (1909–1991) found evidence of a traditional English Plough Boy's Play being performed. It consists of 151 lines of text and involves seven characters. It was last performed in Flintham in 1925. It was more recently revived by the Foresters Morris Men in September 2014 with schoolboys from Flintham, and performed at Nottingham Castle and around.Photos of Nottingham Castle performance a


See also

* Listed buildings in Flintham


References


Notes


External links


"Papers of the Thoroton and Hildyard families of Screveton and Flintham, Nottinghamshire; 1478–2005"
University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

Hilyard Family of Flintham Hall, 17th–19th Century, National Register of Archives, nationalarchives.gov.ukFlintham Hall today, Flickr.com
{{authority control Civil parishes in Nottinghamshire Villages in Nottinghamshire Newark and Sherwood