White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

Orston, Scarrington and Thoroton

A Description of the Villages and Parish

Orston Parish includes the townships and chapelries of Scarrington, Thoroton, and also part of Flawborough, which is mostly in Staunton parish, in the hundred of Newark. It contains 868 inhabitants and 2,150 acres of land, in the vale of the Smite river. Orston and the two chapelries maintain their poor separately, and in the population returns are entered as three distinct parishes, though they have long been united under the same pastor.

Orston village and township contains 1,850 acres of land, on the south side of the Smite, 5 miles east of Bingham. It was enclosed in 1796, when 272a 2r 31p were allotted to the appropriators, and 68a 3r 20p to the vicar, as a commutation for all the tithes. Earl Manvers is lord of the manor, and owner of about 200 acres, but the largest proprietor is William Marshall Esq., who has 500 acres. Near the village is a chalybeate spring, moted for its tonic qualities. Mr John Henry Fisher resides at the Hall, which is a neat residence. The Nottingham and Ambergate branch of the Great Northern Railway has a neat station about half a mile from Orston.

Scarrington is a small village, township and chapelry, 2½ miles east-north-east of Bingham. It has only 230 inhabitants and 910 acres of land, belonging to Henry Flower Esq., and several other resident freeholders, except 115 acres allotted to the appropriators at the enclosure in 1779. Thomas Watson is lord of the manor.

Thoroton, on the north side of the Smite, 1 mile north of Orston, and 4 miles east-north-east of Bingham, is a smaller village than Scarrington, but has a larger township and chapelry. It contains 177 inhabitants and 730 acres of land, which was enclosed in 1799, when 195a 3r 1p were allotted to the dean and chapter of Lincoln, in lieu of the great tithes, and 19a 1r 3p to the vicar of Orston, in lieu of the small tithes. The soil is generally a rich clay, producing fine crops of grass, wheat and beans. Earl Manvers and G.W.M. Staunton Esq. are joint lords of the manor. The principal land owners are Mr Sherlock and Mr Chettle.

Descent of the Manor

The manor of Orston, or Osebluton, was held by the crown from the reign of Edward the Confessor to that of Richard I, the latter of whom granted it to William de Albini, Lord of Belvoir, from whose descendants it passed to the families of Roos, Montague and Bozon, the latter of whom sold it to the Earl of Kingston, an ancestor of the present Earl Manvers. In the Doomsday Book, Scarrington is described as a berne of Orston, as was Thoroton, which was held by a sokman, whose descendants took the name of the place. From them descended Robert Thoroton M.D., the first Nottinghamshire topographer, whose ancestors sold their patrimony here in the reign of Henry VIII, and removed to Car Colston.

Religious History and the Church

The church at Orston is dedicated to St Mary. The body is ancient, but the tower, which has four bells, was rebuilt in the year 1766. In 1834, Mrs Middlemore gave an organ to the church, which cost upwards of £80. William Rufus save it to Lincoln Cathedral, and the dean and chapter of Lincoln are still the appropriators, and also patrons of the vicarage, which is valued in the King's books at £12 4s 7d, now £268, and is enjoyed by the Rev. Charles J. Fiennes Clinton, for whom the Rev. Geo. Gallagher officiates, both here and at Scarrington and Thoroton. The feast on on the Sunday after the 19th of September. Matthew Wilkinson Esq., the exectutor of the late Mrs Middlemore, is lessee of the rectorial land.

The church at Scarrington is in the same appropriation, patronage and incumbency as that at Orston, to which it is a chapel of ease. Being in a ruinous state, it was partly rebuilt, and thoroughly repaired about 30 years ago, at a cost of £300. It has a spire steeple with three bells. The church or chapel at Thoroton is a handsom structure, with a tower containing two bells, and surmounted by a fine spire.

There is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel at Orston, and is a small Methodist chapel at Scarrington, built in 1818.

Education

In 1843, the old schol at Orston was taken down and a new one erected by public subscription.

Charities

The Ladies Dole is a rent charge of £1 14s 6d paid to poor widows of Orston every Christmas, out of Mr Norton's estate, but the donor is unknown. An annuity of 10s left by an unknown donor, is paid out of Robert Watson's farm, to poor widows at Scarrington.

[Transcribed by Clive Henly]