Gonalston is a small

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 ...

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 ...

lying just to the north-east of

Lowdham Lowdham is a Village#United Kingdom, village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire between Nottingham and Southwell, Nottinghamshire, Southwell. According to the 2021 United Kingdom c ...

and almost upon the A612 trunk road that runs from

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

to Southwell. Gonalston comprises of arable and pasture land in about equal portions, interspersed with of wood and plantations. It lies on a small river called the Dover Beck which separates the village from

and which flows south-east into the

River Trent The Trent is the third Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands ...

away. Population for the 2021 census was 83 residents.

Toponymy

Gonalston seems to contain the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

personal name, ''Gunnolf'', + ''tun'' (Old English), an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate.., so 'Gunnolf's farm/settlement'.

Historical

According to Francis White's ''Directory of Nottinghamshire'' of 1853, Gonalston

Notable buildings

The parish church of St Laurence dates from the 14th century. It lies outside the village centre, in the grounds of the rectory, close to the manor house and home farm. The village was famed in ancient times for its hospital or spital now lost, and its effigies of

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

. "William de Heris, in the reign of Henry III, founded an hospital here called the Spital, 'to the honour of St. Mary Magdalene;' the successive rectors of the parish were masters, and formerly preached their induction sermon upon its ruins."

Archaeology

Some recent and important archaeological discoveries have been made in the East Midlands and especially in the silts of the Trent Valley area. This includes finds in Gonalston. At Holme Dyke, Gonalston,

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

pottery has been excavated from a ring ditch, and a Late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

domestic site (as a burnt mound) was uncovered by quarry workings.http://www.le.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/eastmidsfw/pdfs/15nottneba.pdf .

Notes

External links