Orston
| Orston | |
| Nottinghamshire | |
|---|---|
 St Mary's Church, Orston | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK769410 |
| Location: | 52°57’40"N, -0°51’13"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 454 (2011) |
| Post town: | Nottingham |
| Postcode: | NG13 |
| Dialling code: | 01949 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Rushcliffe |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Newark |
Orston is a village in Nottinghamshire, 15 miles to the east of Nottingham, in the Vale of Belvoir close to the border of a northern spur Leicestershire to the south-east and Lincolnshire just beyond. Close by are such villages as Aslockton, Thoroton, Flawborough, Elton on the Hill and Bottesford, the latter across the county border. The population at the 2011 census was 454.
The name 'Orston' seems to contain an Old English personal name, Osica; thus 'Osica's people's farmstead'.[1][2] Some early spellings are Oschintone in 1086 (the Domesday Book); Orskinton, 1242; Orston, 1284 and Horston in 1428.
History
Orston farming showed a variant of the open-field system with four fields instead of three. An Inclosure Act was passed in 1793. A survey of Orston's present appearance and history as a conservation area was made in 2010.[3]
The population of Orston was 351 in 1801, 391 in 1821, and 439 in 1831.[4][5]
In 1870–1872, John Marius Wilson wrote:
- ORSTON, a village and a parish in Bingham district, Notts. The village stands near the river Smite, ¾ of a mile N of Elton r. station, 1½ W of the boundary with Leicestershire, and 4¼ E by N of Bingham; and has a post-office under Nottingham. The parish comprises 1, 940 acres.
- Real property, £2, 897. Pop., 424. Houses, 105. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to Earl Manvers. A mineral spring is near the village. Gypsum abounds and is manufactured into plaster.
- The living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Thoroton, in the diocese of Lincoln.value, £200. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln. The church presents a mixture of Norman and pointed architecture, and has a low tower. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school.[6]
Gypsum, brickworks and spa
There are still gypsum quarries in the area. Indeed, Orston in earlier centuries was once primarily a mining village, and probably the most important source of gypsum in the Midlands. Gypsum at Orston was reckoned the "finest in the Kingdom". The remains of several brickworks have also been identified. Mining subsidence has been a problem in some parts of the village, affecting also the church.
The village had a brief 18th-century period as a medicinal spring for "hydrochondriac melancholy, scurvy, want of appetite, indigestion, stoppage of urine, obstruction of the bowels, ulcers in the lungs, and for spitting of blood", but there does not appear to have been appreciable commercial development of the spring.[7]
Churches
The village contains two churches: St Mary's Anglican Church and Orston Methodist Church.
St Mary's is a Grade I Listed Building[8]
The parish today forms part of the 'Cranmer Group' of parishes, along with St Thomas's, Aslockton; St Mary and All Saints, Hawksworth; St John of Beverley, Scarrington; St Helena's Thoroton; and St John of Beverley, Whatton.[9] The North Aisle displays a restored military drum beaten at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Methodist church is part of the Grantham and Vale of Belvoir Circuit.
About the village
The village pub, the Durham Ox,[10] doubles as a traditional restaurant from Tuesday to Sunday.[5][11] A delicatessen and café called The Limehaus previously occupied the former post office, which now serves as a day spa. [12]
The slow-running River Smite, which bounds the village on the western side, is twenty miles long. It is paralleled at Orston by the Northing and Bon Moor Drains. The Smite has its source at Holwell, Leicestershire and flows into the River Devon at Shelton.
Sport and recreation
Orston Millennium Green, created for 2001 beside the Smite on donated land, has a mown area for recreation and other sections with various nature and wildlife preservation areas. It is surrounded by a footpath.[5] There are playing fields off Spa Lane.
There are various sports teams, clubs and institutes active in the village.[5] Many indoor events and meetings are held at the Village Hall. There is a clay shooting ground in Bottesford Lane.[13]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Orston) |
- Orston Parish Council
- Orston in 1960 - YouTube
- Barnes, Paul: 'Orston – A Nottinghamshire Village through the Ages' (1995)
- A 1552 terrier (inventory) of vestments, books and other possessions of Orston Church[14]
References
- ↑ Gover, J. E. B.; Mawer, A. & Stenton, F.M.: 'Place-Names of Nottinghamshire , Part' (English Place-Names Society, 1940), page 227
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. 351 ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ Rushcliffe Borough Council. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ↑ William White: 'History, Gazetteer and Directory of Nottinghamshire' (1832), p. 479
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Orston Village
- ↑ Wilson, John Marius: Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (A. Fullerton & Co., 1870)
- ↑ The mineral springs and spas of Nottinghamshire: Our Nottinghamshire
- ↑ National Heritage List 101272710: Church of St Mary (Grade I listing)
- ↑ The Cranmer Group
- ↑ The Durham Ox is a relatively common pub name in the East Midlands, derived from a famously large Shorthorn bullock of the early 19th century.
- ↑ Durham Ox Retrieved 7 January 2016.
- ↑ The Limehaus. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ↑ Orston Shooting Ground. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ↑ Old Nottinghamshire, ed. J. P. Briscoe (London: British Library Historical Print Editions, 2011 [1881], print on demand), pp. 41–42.