Flintham

{{Short description|Village in Nottinghamshire, England}} {{Use British English|date=May 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}} {{Infobox UK place | official_name = Flintham | country = England | region = East Midlands | shire_district = Rushcliffe | shire_county = Nottinghamshire | constituency_westminster = Newark | post_town = NEWARK | postcode_area = NG | postcode_district = NG23 | coordinates = {{coord|52|59|N|0|54|W|scale:25000}} | population = 563 | population_ref = (2021 census) | static_image_name = St.Augustine's Church, Flintham - geograph.org.uk - 2887811.jpg | static_image_caption = St Augustine of Canterbury Church, Flintham | type = Village and civil parish | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 11 | mapframe-point = none | static_image_2_caption = Parish map | area_total_sq_mi = 3.19 | os_grid_reference = SK 740462 | dial_code = 01636 | london_distance_mi = 110 | london_direction = SSE | website = {{URL|https://flinthamvillage.org.uk}} }} '''Flintham''' is a village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe district in Nottinghamshire, 7 miles (11 km) from Newark-on-Trent and opposite RAF Syerston on the A46. It had a population of 597 at the 2011 census,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11123494&c=flintham&d=16&e=62&g=6458203&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1460193910703&enc=1 |title=Civil Parish population 2011 |access-date=9 April 2016 |publisher=Office for National Statistics |work=Neighbourhood Statistics}}.</ref> estimated at 586 in 2019,<ref>[https://citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastmidlands/admin/rushcliffe/E04007976__flintham/ City Population. Retrieved 30 January 2021.]</ref> and a fall to 563 at the 2021 census.<ref>{{NOMIS2021|id=E04007976|title=Flintham parish|accessdate=10 February 2024}}</ref> The village name was taken by the Ham class minesweeper HMS Flintham.

==Amenities== The Grade I listed Anglican church is dedicated to St Augustine of Canterbury and has "a Victorian nave attached to a Norman tower and chancel."<ref>[http://www.acny.org.uk/5527/ FLINTHAM, Flintham: St Augustine of Canterbury Church – Nottinghamshire |Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham].</ref> 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.<ref>Fosse Group [http://www.fossegroup.org.uk/worship/services-this-month/ Retrieved 11 October 2016.]</ref>

The village has a primary school, currently closed,<ref>[https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/146011 12 August 2021.]</ref> a village hall (the old school building),<ref>Village site [http://www.flinthamvillage.co.uk/flintham-primary-school/ Retrieved 9 April 2016.]</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.flintham-museum.org.uk/ |title=The Flintham Museum Collection |publisher=Flintham-museum.org.uk |date=16 October 2013}}.</ref> Several gardens are normally open to the public for a summer weekend each year.<ref>Village site [http://www.flinthamvillage.co.uk/category/general/ Retrieved 9 April 2016.]</ref>

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 personal name, ''Flinta'', + '' hām '' (Old English), a village, a manor, an estate or a homestead, so probably, "Flinta's homestead or village".<ref>J. Gover, A. Mawer and F. M. Stenton (eds.), ''Place Names of Nottinghamshire'' (Cambridge, 1940), p. 224; A. D. Mills, ''Dictionary of English Place-Names'' (Oxford, 2002), p. 140; E. Ekwall, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'' (Oxford, 1960), p. 182.</ref> The hard grey rock, flint, does not exist in the neighbourhood.<ref>J. Gover, et al., ibid.</ref>

==Heritage== White's ''Directory of Nottinghamshire'' described Flintham in 1853 as: <blockquote>"a pleasant and well-built village, 6½ miles south-west by south of Newark, including within its parish 637 inhabitants and {{convert|2110|acre|km2}} of rich loamy land, at a rateable value of £3,324, which was enclosed about the year 1780, when {{convert|172|acre|km2}} were allotted to the vicar, and about {{convert|300|acre|km2}} to Trinity College, in lieu of tithes, exclusive of {{convert|165|acre|km2}} 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 is lord of the manor, which he holds in fee of the King's Duchy of Lancaster, together with several others in this neighbourhood. His Grace has no land here except {{convert|6|acre|ha}} allotted to him at the enclosure. Flintham Hall, which has been successively the seat of the Husseys, Hackers, Woodhouses, Disneys,{{efn|The Disneys who formerly held Flintham were related to the Hildyard family of Yorkshire.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qV8OAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22robert+hildyard%22+%22anne+disney%22&pg=PA70 | title=The baronetage of England, or, the history of the English baronets, and such baronets of Scotland, as are of English families | last1=William Betham | first1=rev | year=1802 }}</ref>}} 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."<ref>[http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/NTT/Flintham/index.html White's Directory of Nottinghamshire (1853), p. 429].</ref></blockquote>

===Hildyard family=== thumb|Victorian conservatory, Flintham Hall Col. Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard (1752–1814), was MP for Grantham.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: Mortimer-Percy Volume |author=Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval |edition=Republished |publisher=Heritage Books |year=2001 |orig-year=1903–1911 |isbn=978-0-7884-1872-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=uOHHuwI8tD4C&pg=PA309 308]}}</ref> As a colonel in the Coldstream Guards, Thoroton Hildyard served with British forces in the American War of Independence.<ref name="Granby" >[https://archive.org/details/someaccountmili01manngoog/page/n62  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].</ref> He was also a longstanding friend and advisor to John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland, to whom he was related.<ref name="Granby" /> His grandson Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard (1821–1888), son of Thomas Blackborne Hildyard (1788–1830),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography of Colonel Thomas Blackborne Hildyard (1788–1830) – The University of Nottingham |url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/family/thorotonhildyard/biographies/biographyofcolonelthomasblackbornehildyard(1788-1830).aspx |website=www.nottingham.ac.uk}}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=68ITAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Thomas Curson Hansard, Great Britain Parliament, Vol. XCV, G. Woodfall and Son, London, 1848].</ref> 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."<ref>[http://nottingham.ac.uk/mss/online/biographies/index.phtml?biog=thomas-thoroton-hildyard Thomas Blackborne Thoroton-Hildyard (1821–1888; M.P.), The University of Nottingham, nottingham.ac.uk].</ref>

The name of the Hildyard family of Flintham was initially Thoroton.<ref>[http://www.thorotonsociety.org.uk/news/thornews_autumn2005.htm The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, thorotonsociety.org.uk]</ref> 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 of Dalvey, Elgin, Scotland, and MP.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEI3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA560 | title=The New Monthly Magazine | last1=Campbell | first1=Thomas | last2=Hall | first2=Samuel Carter | last3=Hook | first3=Theodore Edward | last4=Hood | first4=Thomas | last5=Ainsworth | first5=William Harrison | year=1816 }}</ref> Rev. Levett Thoroton later became a rector in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where his family owned land,<ref>[https://archive.org/details/greatlandowners00bategoog/page/n254 ].</ref> 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.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/anewandcomplete00hollgoog/page/n367  Thoroton vs. Blackborne et al., 1731, William Kelynge's Reports in Chancery, Great Britain Court of Chancery, 1764].</ref><ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Thoroton, Thomas}}</ref> Col. Thoroton Hildyard was descended from Mary (Levett) Blackborne, who was the daughter of Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London<ref>Most of the Levett family portraits and other heirlooms went to Mary Levett's older sister, who married Edward Hulse, physician to the Royal family. The Hulse family resides at Breamore House in Hampshire.</ref> and the widow of merchant Abraham Blackborne,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Az0SAAAAIAAJ Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, Thoroton Society, published by the Society, 1953]</ref> and her second husband Robert Thoroton of Screveton Hall, Nottinghamshire.<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Thoroton, Robert.}}</ref> (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, longtime friend of diarist and Secretary of the Admiralty Samuel Pepys.)<ref>[https://archive.org/details/williamkelynges00bencgoog/page/n38  William Kelynge's Reports in Chancery, In the 4th and 5th Years of George II (1730–1732), Great Britain Court of Chancery, Peter King, Robert Raymond, Great Britain Court of King's Bench, Philip Yorke Hardwicke, William Kelynge, Published by Stevens and Haynes, London, 1873.]</ref>

===Myles Thoroton Hildyard=== {{main|Myles Thoroton Hildyard}} In 2005 the family's best-known representative, Myles Thoroton Hildyard, 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.<ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article560627.ece Myles Hildyard: Soldier and aesthete who devoted his life in peacetime to improving his splendid house with gardens and woodlands, Obituary, ''The Times'' of London, 31 August 2005.]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> 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."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100220113111/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/myles-hildyard-506709.html The Independent, 14 September 2005]</ref> 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,<ref>Historian and writer Antony Beever, in the introduction to the Hildyard book published by Bloomsbury.</ref> '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."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100220113111/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/myles-hildyard-506709.html Myles Hildyard, 'Lord Merlin' of Flintham and author of a vivid account of the Second World War, Obituary, ''The Independent'', 14 September 2005]</ref>

===Flintham Hall=== left|thumb|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 in 1789. It was extended in 1820–1830 by the architect Lewis Wyatt for the British Army Colonel. T. Thoroton and again remodelled in 1853–1859 by George Thomas Hine 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.<ref>[http://www.rushcliffe.gov.uk/doc.asp?cat=9995 Flintham Hall, Rushcliffe Borough Council, rushcliffe.gov.uk] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214033023/http://www.rushcliffe.gov.uk/doc.asp?cat=9995 |date=14 February 2007}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-448096-flintham-hall-and-adjoining-terrace-wall |title=Flintham Hall and Adjoining Terrace Wall, Flintham |publisher=British Listed Buildings |access-date=11 February 2014}}.</ref>

The Thoroton Hildyard family continues to reside at the Hall.<ref>[http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Jacks1881/flintham.htm Flintham Hall in the 1920s, Nottinghamshire History, nottshistory.org.uk].</ref><ref>Before their purchase of Flintham Hall, the Thorotons owned Screveton Hall, another family property, located in Screveton, less than two miles south of Flintham. Screveton Hall has since been demolished.[http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Brown1896/screveton.htm].</ref> 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 play.<ref>[http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/template/temp0.asp?id=32e49e3b-31b5-102b-809e-c80eeb737c15 Newark Advertiser, newarkadvertiser.co.uk] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222035210/http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/template/temp0.asp?id=32e49e3b-31b5-102b-809e-c80eeb737c15 |date=22 February 2014}}.</ref> It was also used in ''And When Did You Last See Your Father?'', a film starring Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth, directed by Anand Tucker,

The village has a circular brick pinfold resembling those at Screveton and Scarrington.<ref>Waymarking. [http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKN64_Scarrington_Village_Pinfold_Nottinghamshire_UK Retrieved 1 January 2016.]</ref> A windmill stood in Broad Marsh field from 1779 to 1847 ({{gbmapping|SK742462}}).<ref>Notts Archive ref. DDH 86/1</ref> {{Clear}}

===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.<ref>M. W. Barley, "Plough Plays in the East Midlands", ''Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society'', Vol. 7:2 (1953), pp. 93–94. Text: [http://www.folkplay.info/Notts/Td00462.htm PLOUGH BOY'S PLAY: Flintham, Notts. (M. W. Barley Collection, 1948)].</ref> It was more recently revived by the Foresters Morris Men<ref>[http://www.chezfred.org.uk/for/ www.foresters-morris.org.uk].</ref> in September 2014 with schoolboys from Flintham, and performed at Nottingham Castle and around.<ref>Photos of Nottingham Castle performance at [http://www.chezfred.org.uk/www/WWW-Foresters-Morris-2014/20140921-IMG_1608.htm].</ref>

==See also== *Listed buildings in Flintham

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Flintham}} *[http://mss-cat.nottingham.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28AltRefNo%3D%27THF%27%29 "Papers of the Thoroton and Hildyard families of Screveton and Flintham, Nottinghamshire; 1478–2005"], University of Nottingham *[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=F5484 Hilyard Family of Flintham Hall, 17th–19th Century, National Register of Archives, nationalarchives.gov.uk] *[https://flickr.com/photos/architec/408825077/ Flintham Hall today, Flickr.com]

Category:Civil parishes in Nottinghamshire Category:Villages in Nottinghamshire Category:Newark and Sherwood