Elton on the Hill
Encyclopedia
For other uses of the name, see Elton (disambiguation).
Elton on the Hill is a small Nottinghamshire
village and civil parish
in the Vale of Belvoir
.
, England
, in the NG13 postcode district. The village straddles the A52
trunk road, from which Station Road runs north towards Orston
and Sutton Lane runs south, Sutton-cum-Granby
being the nearest hamlet in that direction. Elton has a population of about 75 and is in the Rushcliffe
district. The parish has an area of 1037 acres (4.2 km²). It lies at an altitude of 22–37 metres above sea level.
The village contains a pub/restaurant (the Manor Arms and Little India). There is bed-and-breakfast accommodation at The Grange, an early 19th-century farmhouse with parts dating back to 1725. It is owned and run by the ex-Scotland FA footballer Don Masson
and his wife. Elton Camp, near the station, has been used by the Girl Guides
for 80 years. There is commercially owned coarse fishing on a 28 acres (113,312.1 m²) site off Redmile
Lane, which also has a five-berth caravan site. The fish ponds are fed by Moor Dyke, the only watercourse to flow through Elton. The Vale of Belvoir Inn and Hotel (originally Whatton Vale, later The Haven) is a hotel on the border between Elton and Whatton
at the junction of the A52 with Redmile Lane.
The nearest station to the village is Elton and Orston
, but this offers a negligible service of one train in each direction Monday to Friday. The station building (1855, architect Thomas Chambers Hine
) was demolished in the 1970s. There are regular train services to Nottingham, Grantham and Skegness from Aslockton
(4 km). Elton has a bus service that runs between and beyond Bingham
and Bottesford
.
There has never been a school in Elton, although a handful of pupils were taught privately at a house near the station in the 1960s. Children usually attend the primary school in Orston and secondary schools in Bingham, Bottesford or Nottingham.
of St. Michael and All Angels
is partly medieval but the building was heavily restored
with stucco rendering in 1857, when the tower was rebuilt. It belongs to the Wiverton group of parishes.
The church and several tombstones in the churchyard are Grade II listed, including the Launder family tomb just south of the chancel, which is dated 1780, and a group of late 18th-century slate gravestones, including one to Thomas Mann - no relation to the German novelist
. Two smaller slate gravestones, also listed, are dated 1703 and 1720. One of these is an example of a "Belvoir angel", a type of Swithland slate stone found only in the Vale of Belvoir
. The Latin epitaph to Margaret Launder, wife of A. Collin Launder, who died on 22 December 1780, translates as "If it were right for me to indulge in private grief, I should as a husband be justified in weeping for thee taken away. Yet spare your tears, nor let anxiety distract you. No one who has live well dies wretchedly. The honour commonly accorded to you is less than your deserts. So, my wife, thou has gone away to where goodness will be regarded as real honour. O one dear to me, farewell; yet I hope the time will come, when I shall be with thee again if by any means I am worthy." The earliest monument to a lord of the manor is to Langford Collin (1700-2 August 1766), who also owned estates at Beeston
and Chilwell
. There is a modern gravestone just to the west of the church recording the death of one Harry Potter.
There used to be a large, plain, early 19th-century parapeted manor house, with extensive grounds, but this was demolished in 1933 by its last owner, W. Noël Parr, a Nottingham solicitor who lived in the Old Rectory until 1957. All that remain are the 18th-century gateway into Sutton Lane, with the lodge (19th century, extended in the 1950s, once the sub-post office), the red brick walls of the kitchen gardens with a fort-like Grade II listed gazebo
, thought to date from the late 18th or early 19th century, and a grey brick brew house, now converted into a home and enlarged. On the main road towards Bottesford is a small ashlar, Grade II listed gamekeeper's lodge in Tudor
style, built in 1842, but now enlarged. The extensive Old Rectory in Station Road dates from the early 19th century and also has some historicist features.
Notts." The name in Saxon times was "Aylton", but the village was referred to as "Olleton" in the deed by which Roger de Bussi, Busli or Builli and his wife Muriel transferred the manor and its advowson
to "God and the Church of St Mary of Blyth
and the monks there serving God." The name appeared as "Elleton" in an Inquisition (survey) taken in 1283. Buildings belonging to Elton Manor and to the Rectory were whitewashed with black paintwork in the early 20th century, as are a couple to this day. So for a time Elton was nicknamed the "Magpie Village".
to the Dissolution
to the Priory of Blyth, "it then came into the possession of someone by the name of York, who sold it to Sir John Lion, Citizen and Alderman of London, who left it to his nephew, who sold it to a man named More, whose stepson in [the Nottinghamshire historian] Thoroton's
time 'obtained the utmost profit the Lordship was any way able to yield him by the means of the extremest rack rents now paid'." The farmland of Elton and of most surrounding villages was still cultivated by the open field system
in 1790. Some of the fields today are ridged, but it is hard to say for sure whether the ridges follow the lines of medieval strips, or whether they formed part of a later system for draining the land. Even before the enclosure
s, the village and church were described as small, and an account of the tithe
s paid records that apart from the rectory and the "Manor, or Hall-Farm" there were only eight farms and twelve cottages, "so that it seems there is not much above Half so many Farmers as in old Time."
Rev. William Selby, inducted
in 1686, was an unsatisfactory rector. Bingham court records of 25 October 1709 report that "John Trinbury, in justification of his assault upon the Rector of Elton complained that at the funeral of Ellen Ragsdale 3 or 4 years earlier, the said Rector was so drunk that he could not say the usual prayers for the dead but fell asleep at the reading desk and had to be disturbed by the Parish Clerk, and then he went to the grave with the corpse and bid them put her in saying 'God help thee poor Nell' without any other prayers or ceremony and afterwards was led home by the Clerk. On the following day the Rector answered in a similar sworn statement that he was abused by the said John Trinbury in a very scandalous manner being called a knave, a rascal and a 'paultry scrub' and having his clothes pulled off his back by the said John and his wife and daughter." The Rector had already been charged in December 1708 for blasphemy for having given utterance to the following question: "Was God Almighty a drone? If not what was he doing before he made the Earth?"
Turning to a later, more condensed account of Elton's history, "In the Saxon times it was called Ayleton, and was afterwards of the fee
of Roger de Busli, who gave it to the Priory of Blyth
. At the dissolution
it was granted to the family of York, from whom it passed to the Lions, Mores, Collins and Launders, and is now possessed by William Fletcher Norton Norton Esq., who resides in the manor house, a large and handsome mansion. William Fletcher Norton Norton Esq. is patron of the rectory, which is valued in the King's books at £8 0s 5d, now £286, and is enjoyed by the Rev. Robert Weatherell. The church, dedicated to St Michael, is a small humble edifice, which Thoresby describes as being 'dove house topped'. The parish was enclosed
in 1808, when land was allotted in lieu of all tithes. The feast is on Sunday after old Michaelmas
Day [October 10 or 11]....
"In 1780, the parish clerk found, whilst digging a grave in the churchyard, upwards of 200 silver pennies, of the reign of Henry II
and, on taking them to Mrs Collin, then lady of the manor, his honesty was rewarded with a present of £10. In 1784, a blacksmith in Elton purchased a rusty piece of iron, about 2 feet long and 1½ inches in diameter, apparently solid, and which had been used as a pestal
[sic] upwards of 60 years. Having some doubts about its solidity, he put it into his fire, when it exploded with great force, and a musket ball from within it grazed his side, and lodged in some coals behind him. This surprising accident led to further examination and enquiry, when it was discovered to have been a gun barrel, dug up in the year 1723, but so completely filled with earth and rust that no cavity had ever till then been noticed."
The village had 81 inhabitants in 1848, and 91 in 1851.
(1742–1822). He married, first, Ursula Launder, daughter and co-heiress of Cornelius Launder of Elton Manor, in 1807, and secondly Sarah Lushington, previously Mrs William Carmac, in 1847. Other sources say that Ursula and her sister Frances were cousins of Cornelius Launder (c. 1720-1806), the previous lord of the manor, who had founded in about 1800 a charity for the benefit of clergy with livings near Nottingham.
Among many business interests, Norton was a director of the Nottingham Canal Company, which owned the Grantham Canal
, and chairman of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Fire & Life Assurance Company and of the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway
, which opened the Nottingham-Grantham line through Elton
in 1850. His gardens gained renown when the Baron Ward cooking apple "was raised, from Dumelow's Seedling, in 1850, by Mr. Samuel Bradley, at Elton Manor, Nottingham, and first exhibited at the British Pomological Society, May 5th, 1859." The variety is still commercially available. While at Elton, Bradley was also responsible for two strawberry varieties: Sir Joseph Paxton (1862) and Dr. Hogg (1866). Norton died in 1865, leaving the estate to a nephew. Bradley died at Halam, Nottinghamshire
in 1891.
In Black's Guide to Nottinghamshire, 1876, it is noted, "The Hall, a spacious modern mansion, is now the occasional seat of Count De Pully, who inherited the estate from the late William Fletcher Norton Norton, Esq. The villagers have a tradition, that during the civil wars
of the seventeenth century a battle was fought in the fields near Elton, and in confirmation of this report, several weapons and human remains have been found. In 1780, a large number of silver coins, principally of the reign of Henry II., were discovered in the churchyard."
De Pully, according to The Nobilities of Europe, 1910, by Melville H. Ruvigny, was "William Enguerrand DE PULLY, of Elton, co. Notts, b. 1823, eldest son of the Count de Pully of Belabre
, France, by Mary, sister of William Fletcher Norton of Elton, [who] suc[ceeded] his uncle in that estate 1866, and was naturalized in the United Kingdom as 'Enguerrand, Compte de Pully,' 14 May 1867. He sold Elton in 19-- to Lord Grantley
."
According to a list of large estates sold by auction in 1900-1901, Elton Manor estate covered 1075 acres and fetched £27,000. The purchaser would have been Grantley, who as lord of the manor presented the living of Elton to Rev. E. Nelson in 1907. Grantley never lived at Elton Manor and failed to recognize it as his own when he saw it from the train. He had almost certainly sold it again before the Great War, probably before 1913, when he bought the estate of Red Rice, Hampshire
. The next owner was Walter Black (born 1850, the son of Thomas Black of Beeston, Nottinghamshire
and his wife Anne, née Cooper, and possibly connected with the Nottingham printing firm) and his wife Eunice, née Stubley, who presented the living to C. R. Storr in 1917. Their successor at the manor was Lt. Col. Sir Henry Dennis Readett-Bayley (1878–1940), whose parents had lived at Langar
Hall and left him a mining fortune. He was knighted in 1918 for his war work of providing ambulances, through the million-pound Dennis Bayley Fund for the Transport of the Wounded. Readett-Bayley was the lord of the manor, probably from 1921, who appointed Rev. W. H. Jenkins in 1927, but he soon sold on to W. N. Parr. (See above under Buildings.) Parr in 1941 presented the living to Rev. Gerald Marson, who arrived from the mining parish of Greasley
. Marson had at some time visited the Holy Land
and often described Biblical places graphically in his sermons. He, his wife and his predecessor are all buried on the east side of the churchyard.
Many of the old parish registers of Elton on the Hill are available online.
Elton on the Hill is a small Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
village and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
in the Vale of Belvoir
Vale of Belvoir
The Vale of Belvoir is an area of natural beauty on the borders of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire in England. Indeed, the name itself derives from the Norman-French for beautiful view.-Extent and geology:...
.
Situation and facilities
Elton lies about 14 miles (22.5 km) east of NottinghamNottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, in the NG13 postcode district. The village straddles the A52
A52 road
The A52 is a major road in the East Midlands, England. It runs east from the junction with the A53 at Newcastle-under-Lyme near Stoke-on-Trent via Ashbourne, Derby, Stapleford, Nottingham, West Bridgford, Bingham, Grantham, Boston and Skegness before terminating on the east Lincolnshire coast at...
trunk road, from which Station Road runs north towards Orston
Orston
Orston is a small village in Nottinghamshire, England nearby to Thoroton, Elton on the Hill and Bottesford.The name Orston is thought to originate from the Old English Ordricestune which means 'the farmstead of Ordric" Ordric was the leader of the small settlement...
and Sutton Lane runs south, Sutton-cum-Granby
Sutton-cum-Granby
Sutton-cum-Granby is a small Nottinghamshire hamlet in the Vale of Belvoir.-Location and facilities:Sutton is approximately midway between Elton on the Hill and Granby, 14 miles from Nottingham, 14 miles from Melton Mowbray, 12 miles from Grantham, and 118 miles from London. It lies in the parish...
being the nearest hamlet in that direction. Elton has a population of about 75 and is in the Rushcliffe
Rushcliffe
Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. Its council is based in West Bridgford. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by merging the West Bridgford Urban District, the Bingham Rural District and part of Basford Rural District.-Political representation:The...
district. The parish has an area of 1037 acres (4.2 km²). It lies at an altitude of 22–37 metres above sea level.
The village contains a pub/restaurant (the Manor Arms and Little India). There is bed-and-breakfast accommodation at The Grange, an early 19th-century farmhouse with parts dating back to 1725. It is owned and run by the ex-Scotland FA footballer Don Masson
Don Masson
Donald "Don" Sandison Masson is a Scottish former footballer.-Club career:Masson began his career with Middlesbrough in 1964 before going on to Notts County in 1968...
and his wife. Elton Camp, near the station, has been used by the Girl Guides
Girlguiding UK
Girlguiding UK is the national Guiding organisation of the United Kingdom. Guiding began in the UK in 1910 after Robert Baden-Powell asked his sister Agnes to start a group especially for girls that would be run along similar lines to Scouting for Boys. The Guide Association was a founder member of...
for 80 years. There is commercially owned coarse fishing on a 28 acres (113,312.1 m²) site off Redmile
Redmile
Redmile is a village and civil parish in the Melton district of Leicestershire, England, about north of Melton Mowbray and west of Grantham, in the Vale of Belvoir....
Lane, which also has a five-berth caravan site. The fish ponds are fed by Moor Dyke, the only watercourse to flow through Elton. The Vale of Belvoir Inn and Hotel (originally Whatton Vale, later The Haven) is a hotel on the border between Elton and Whatton
Whatton
Whatton is a village in the English county of Nottinghamshire.Whatton lies in the Vale of Belvoir on the south bank of the River Smite just to the north of the major A52 road twelve miles east of Nottingham. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 781...
at the junction of the A52 with Redmile Lane.
The nearest station to the village is Elton and Orston
Elton and Orston railway station
Elton and Orston railway station serves the villages of Elton and Orston in Nottinghamshire.- History :It is located on the line first opened by the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway in 1850 and taken over by the Great Northern RailwayThe station itself was opened by the...
, but this offers a negligible service of one train in each direction Monday to Friday. The station building (1855, architect Thomas Chambers Hine
Thomas Chambers Hine
Thomas Chambers Hine 1814 - 1899 was an architect based in Nottingham.He was born in Covent Garden into a prosperous middle class family, the eldest son of a hosiery manufacturer. He was articled to the London architect Matthew Habershorn. In 1837 he arrived in Nottingham and formed a partnership...
) was demolished in the 1970s. There are regular train services to Nottingham, Grantham and Skegness from Aslockton
Aslockton railway station
Aslockton railway station serves the villages of Aslockton and Whatton in Nottinghamshire. The station is 17 km east of Nottingham on the Nottingham-Skegness Line.-History:...
(4 km). Elton has a bus service that runs between and beyond Bingham
Bingham, Nottinghamshire
Bingham is a market town in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, England.-Geography:With a population of around 9,000 people it lies about nine miles east of Nottingham, a similar distance south-west of Newark-on-Trent and west of Grantham. It is situated where the A46 intersects the A52...
and Bottesford
Bottesford, Leicestershire
This page is about the English village of Bottesford near Grantham. For the Bottesford near Scunthorpe, see Bottesford, LincolnshireBottesford is a village and civil parish within the Melton district of Leicestershire, England....
.
There has never been a school in Elton, although a handful of pupils were taught privately at a house near the station in the 1960s. Children usually attend the primary school in Orston and secondary schools in Bingham, Bottesford or Nottingham.
Buildings
The fabric of the small Anglican churchSt. Michael and All Angels' Church, Elton on the Hill
St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Elton on the Hill is a parish church in the Church of England in Elton on the Hill, Nottinghamshire, Grade II listed by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport as a building of special architectural interest....
of St. Michael and All Angels
St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Elton on the Hill
St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Elton on the Hill is a parish church in the Church of England in Elton on the Hill, Nottinghamshire, Grade II listed by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport as a building of special architectural interest....
is partly medieval but the building was heavily restored
Victorian restoration
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...
with stucco rendering in 1857, when the tower was rebuilt. It belongs to the Wiverton group of parishes.
The church and several tombstones in the churchyard are Grade II listed, including the Launder family tomb just south of the chancel, which is dated 1780, and a group of late 18th-century slate gravestones, including one to Thomas Mann - no relation to the German novelist
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
. Two smaller slate gravestones, also listed, are dated 1703 and 1720. One of these is an example of a "Belvoir angel", a type of Swithland slate stone found only in the Vale of Belvoir
Vale of Belvoir
The Vale of Belvoir is an area of natural beauty on the borders of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire in England. Indeed, the name itself derives from the Norman-French for beautiful view.-Extent and geology:...
. The Latin epitaph to Margaret Launder, wife of A. Collin Launder, who died on 22 December 1780, translates as "If it were right for me to indulge in private grief, I should as a husband be justified in weeping for thee taken away. Yet spare your tears, nor let anxiety distract you. No one who has live well dies wretchedly. The honour commonly accorded to you is less than your deserts. So, my wife, thou has gone away to where goodness will be regarded as real honour. O one dear to me, farewell; yet I hope the time will come, when I shall be with thee again if by any means I am worthy." The earliest monument to a lord of the manor is to Langford Collin (1700-2 August 1766), who also owned estates at Beeston
Beeston, Nottinghamshire
Beeston is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is southwest of Nottingham city centre. Although typically regarded as a suburb of the City of Nottingham, and officially designated as part of the Nottingham Urban Area, for local government purposes it is in the borough of Broxtowe, lying outside...
and Chilwell
Chilwell
Chilwell is a residential suburb of Greater Nottingham, in the Borough of Broxtowe of Nottinghamshire, west of Nottingham city. Until 1974 it was part of Beeston and Stapleford Urban District, having been in Stapleford Rural District until 1935.-History:...
. There is a modern gravestone just to the west of the church recording the death of one Harry Potter.
There used to be a large, plain, early 19th-century parapeted manor house, with extensive grounds, but this was demolished in 1933 by its last owner, W. Noël Parr, a Nottingham solicitor who lived in the Old Rectory until 1957. All that remain are the 18th-century gateway into Sutton Lane, with the lodge (19th century, extended in the 1950s, once the sub-post office), the red brick walls of the kitchen gardens with a fort-like Grade II listed gazebo
Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...
, thought to date from the late 18th or early 19th century, and a grey brick brew house, now converted into a home and enlarged. On the main road towards Bottesford is a small ashlar, Grade II listed gamekeeper's lodge in Tudor
Tudor architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
style, built in 1842, but now enlarged. The extensive Old Rectory in Station Road dates from the early 19th century and also has some historicist features.
Names
Until recent years, "Elton-on-the-Hill" (hyphenated) was the name of the ecclesiastical parish and "Elton" the name of the contiguous civil parish. However, Capper's A Topographical Dictionary of the United Kingdom... (London, 1825) lists "Elton-super-montem, a parish in Bingham hund[red].Bingham (wapentake)
Bingham was a wapentake of the historic county of Nottinghamshire, England. It was in the south east of the county, to the south of the River Trent, covering the parishes of Adbolton, Aslockton, Bingham, Car Colston, Clipston on the Wolds, Colston Bassett, Cotgrave, Cropwell Bishop, Cropwell...
Notts." The name in Saxon times was "Aylton", but the village was referred to as "Olleton" in the deed by which Roger de Bussi, Busli or Builli and his wife Muriel transferred the manor and its advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
to "God and the Church of St Mary of Blyth
Blyth, Nottinghamshire
Blyth is a village in the Bassetlaw district of the county of Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands, north west of East Retford, on the River Ryton.-Geography:...
and the monks there serving God." The name appeared as "Elleton" in an Inquisition (survey) taken in 1283. Buildings belonging to Elton Manor and to the Rectory were whitewashed with black paintwork in the early 20th century, as are a couple to this day. So for a time Elton was nicknamed the "Magpie Village".
Earlier history
The feudal dues paid in the Middle Ages to Blyth, in money and kind, were high, and the village appears not to have grown. Then came a not untypical succession of sales leading to increased rents and fines. Having belonged from DomesdayDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
to the Dissolution
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
to the Priory of Blyth, "it then came into the possession of someone by the name of York, who sold it to Sir John Lion, Citizen and Alderman of London, who left it to his nephew, who sold it to a man named More, whose stepson in [the Nottinghamshire historian] Thoroton's
Robert Thoroton
Dr. Robert Thoroton was an English antiquary, mainly remembered for his county history, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire .-Life:...
time 'obtained the utmost profit the Lordship was any way able to yield him by the means of the extremest rack rents now paid'." The farmland of Elton and of most surrounding villages was still cultivated by the open field system
Open field system
The open field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe from the Middle Ages to as recently as the 20th century in some places, particularly Russia and Iran. Under this system, each manor or village had several very large fields, farmed in strips by individual families...
in 1790. Some of the fields today are ridged, but it is hard to say for sure whether the ridges follow the lines of medieval strips, or whether they formed part of a later system for draining the land. Even before the enclosure
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
s, the village and church were described as small, and an account of the tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
s paid records that apart from the rectory and the "Manor, or Hall-Farm" there were only eight farms and twelve cottages, "so that it seems there is not much above Half so many Farmers as in old Time."
Rev. William Selby, inducted
Canonical provision
Canonical provision is a term of the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, signifying regular induction into a benefice.-Analysis:It comprises three distinct acts - the designation of the person, canonical institution, and installation...
in 1686, was an unsatisfactory rector. Bingham court records of 25 October 1709 report that "John Trinbury, in justification of his assault upon the Rector of Elton complained that at the funeral of Ellen Ragsdale 3 or 4 years earlier, the said Rector was so drunk that he could not say the usual prayers for the dead but fell asleep at the reading desk and had to be disturbed by the Parish Clerk, and then he went to the grave with the corpse and bid them put her in saying 'God help thee poor Nell' without any other prayers or ceremony and afterwards was led home by the Clerk. On the following day the Rector answered in a similar sworn statement that he was abused by the said John Trinbury in a very scandalous manner being called a knave, a rascal and a 'paultry scrub' and having his clothes pulled off his back by the said John and his wife and daughter." The Rector had already been charged in December 1708 for blasphemy for having given utterance to the following question: "Was God Almighty a drone? If not what was he doing before he made the Earth?"
Turning to a later, more condensed account of Elton's history, "In the Saxon times it was called Ayleton, and was afterwards of the fee
Fee simple
In English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...
of Roger de Busli, who gave it to the Priory of Blyth
Blyth, Nottinghamshire
Blyth is a village in the Bassetlaw district of the county of Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands, north west of East Retford, on the River Ryton.-Geography:...
. At the dissolution
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
it was granted to the family of York, from whom it passed to the Lions, Mores, Collins and Launders, and is now possessed by William Fletcher Norton Norton Esq., who resides in the manor house, a large and handsome mansion. William Fletcher Norton Norton Esq. is patron of the rectory, which is valued in the King's books at £8 0s 5d, now £286, and is enjoyed by the Rev. Robert Weatherell. The church, dedicated to St Michael, is a small humble edifice, which Thoresby describes as being 'dove house topped'. The parish was enclosed
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
in 1808, when land was allotted in lieu of all tithes. The feast is on Sunday after old Michaelmas
Michaelmas
Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...
Day [October 10 or 11]....
"In 1780, the parish clerk found, whilst digging a grave in the churchyard, upwards of 200 silver pennies, of the reign of Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
and, on taking them to Mrs Collin, then lady of the manor, his honesty was rewarded with a present of £10. In 1784, a blacksmith in Elton purchased a rusty piece of iron, about 2 feet long and 1½ inches in diameter, apparently solid, and which had been used as a pestal
Mortar and pestle
A mortar and pestle is a tool used to crush, grind, and mix solid substances . The pestle is a heavy bat-shaped object, the end of which is used for crushing and grinding. The mortar is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone...
[sic] upwards of 60 years. Having some doubts about its solidity, he put it into his fire, when it exploded with great force, and a musket ball from within it grazed his side, and lodged in some coals behind him. This surprising accident led to further examination and enquiry, when it was discovered to have been a gun barrel, dug up in the year 1723, but so completely filled with earth and rust that no cavity had ever till then been noticed."
The village had 81 inhabitants in 1848, and 91 in 1851.
Apples and peers
According to Notes and Queries (4 February 1870, Vol. 41), William Fletcher Norton Norton of Elton Manor acknowledged himself to be the illegitimate son of "a former Lord Grantley," presumably the secondWilliam Norton, 2nd Baron Grantley
William Norton was a British MP and peer. His father Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley was created a peer on 9 April 1782, from which time William Norton was styled 'the Honourable'...
(1742–1822). He married, first, Ursula Launder, daughter and co-heiress of Cornelius Launder of Elton Manor, in 1807, and secondly Sarah Lushington, previously Mrs William Carmac, in 1847. Other sources say that Ursula and her sister Frances were cousins of Cornelius Launder (c. 1720-1806), the previous lord of the manor, who had founded in about 1800 a charity for the benefit of clergy with livings near Nottingham.
Among many business interests, Norton was a director of the Nottingham Canal Company, which owned the Grantham Canal
Grantham Canal
The Grantham Canal is a canal that runs for 33 miles from Grantham, falling through 18 locks to West Bridgford where it joins the River Trent. It was built primarily to allow for the transportation of coal to Grantham. It opened in 1797, and its profitability steadily increased until 1841...
, and chairman of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Fire & Life Assurance Company and of the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway
Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway
The Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway was an early British railway company, which opened in 1850.The original aim was to link to the proposed Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway at Ambergate to link Manchester with Boston and the East Coast...
, which opened the Nottingham-Grantham line through Elton
Elton and Orston railway station
Elton and Orston railway station serves the villages of Elton and Orston in Nottinghamshire.- History :It is located on the line first opened by the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway in 1850 and taken over by the Great Northern RailwayThe station itself was opened by the...
in 1850. His gardens gained renown when the Baron Ward cooking apple "was raised, from Dumelow's Seedling, in 1850, by Mr. Samuel Bradley, at Elton Manor, Nottingham, and first exhibited at the British Pomological Society, May 5th, 1859." The variety is still commercially available. While at Elton, Bradley was also responsible for two strawberry varieties: Sir Joseph Paxton (1862) and Dr. Hogg (1866). Norton died in 1865, leaving the estate to a nephew. Bradley died at Halam, Nottinghamshire
Halam, Nottinghamshire
Halam is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 372 in 2001.It is located to the west of Southwell....
in 1891.
In Black's Guide to Nottinghamshire, 1876, it is noted, "The Hall, a spacious modern mansion, is now the occasional seat of Count De Pully, who inherited the estate from the late William Fletcher Norton Norton, Esq. The villagers have a tradition, that during the civil wars
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
of the seventeenth century a battle was fought in the fields near Elton, and in confirmation of this report, several weapons and human remains have been found. In 1780, a large number of silver coins, principally of the reign of Henry II., were discovered in the churchyard."
De Pully, according to The Nobilities of Europe, 1910, by Melville H. Ruvigny, was "William Enguerrand DE PULLY, of Elton, co. Notts, b. 1823, eldest son of the Count de Pully of Belabre
Bélâbre
Bélâbre is a commune in the Indre département in central France.-Geography:The commune is located in the parc naturel régional de la Brenne.The river Anglin flows northwestward through the commune and crosses the village.-References:*...
, France, by Mary, sister of William Fletcher Norton of Elton, [who] suc[ceeded] his uncle in that estate 1866, and was naturalized in the United Kingdom as 'Enguerrand, Compte de Pully,' 14 May 1867. He sold Elton in 19-- to Lord Grantley
John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley
John Richard Brinsley Norton, 5th Baron Grantley, FSA, FRNS was a British peer and numismatist.Norton was born in Florence, Italy, the son of Thomas Norton, 4th Baron Grantley and his wife, Maria, née Federigo, and a grandson of Caroline Norton, the writer, and was educated at Harrow School and...
."
According to a list of large estates sold by auction in 1900-1901, Elton Manor estate covered 1075 acres and fetched £27,000. The purchaser would have been Grantley, who as lord of the manor presented the living of Elton to Rev. E. Nelson in 1907. Grantley never lived at Elton Manor and failed to recognize it as his own when he saw it from the train. He had almost certainly sold it again before the Great War, probably before 1913, when he bought the estate of Red Rice, Hampshire
Red Rice, Hampshire
Red Rice is a hamlet south-west of Andover, Hampshire, England.-Red Rice House:The Georgian Red Rice House was in the early 20th century a seat of the Miller-Mundy family, colliery owners who had moved from their estate at Shipley Park, Derbyshire. In the 1960s it was occupied by a minor Roman...
. The next owner was Walter Black (born 1850, the son of Thomas Black of Beeston, Nottinghamshire
Beeston, Nottinghamshire
Beeston is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is southwest of Nottingham city centre. Although typically regarded as a suburb of the City of Nottingham, and officially designated as part of the Nottingham Urban Area, for local government purposes it is in the borough of Broxtowe, lying outside...
and his wife Anne, née Cooper, and possibly connected with the Nottingham printing firm) and his wife Eunice, née Stubley, who presented the living to C. R. Storr in 1917. Their successor at the manor was Lt. Col. Sir Henry Dennis Readett-Bayley (1878–1940), whose parents had lived at Langar
Langar, Nottinghamshire
Langar is a small village about four miles south of Bingham in Nottinghamshire and the Vale of Belvoir.-Geography:To the south of the parish of Langar cum Barnstone, on Langar Airfield, it borders Clawson, Hose and Harby, the district of Melton and Leicestershire. At Hose Lane it meets Colston...
Hall and left him a mining fortune. He was knighted in 1918 for his war work of providing ambulances, through the million-pound Dennis Bayley Fund for the Transport of the Wounded. Readett-Bayley was the lord of the manor, probably from 1921, who appointed Rev. W. H. Jenkins in 1927, but he soon sold on to W. N. Parr. (See above under Buildings.) Parr in 1941 presented the living to Rev. Gerald Marson, who arrived from the mining parish of Greasley
Greasley
Greasley is a parish north west of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. Although it is thought there was once a village called Greasley, there is no settlement of that name today. The built up areas in the parish are Giltbrook, Moorgreen , Newthorpe, Watnall and parts of Eastwood, Kimberley and...
. Marson had at some time visited the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
and often described Biblical places graphically in his sermons. He, his wife and his predecessor are all buried on the east side of the churchyard.
Many of the old parish registers of Elton on the Hill are available online.