Gonalston

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Gonalston is a small village in Nottinghamshire lying just to the north-east of Lowdham and almost upon the A612 trunk road that runs from Nottingham to Southwell. It lies on a small river called the Dover Beck which separates the village from Lowdham and which flows south-east into the River Trent 2 miles away.

1 Historical
2 Gonalston Spital
3 Archaeology
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Historical

Gonalston "is a small rural village and parish, near the Dover Beck, 4 miles south-south-west of Southwell, containing 100 inhabitants and 862 acres of land, enclosed in 1768, when 155 acres were allotted for the tithes. John Francklin Esq. owns the whole lordship, and is patron of the rectory, which is valued in the King's books at £7 19s 2d, now £324, and is enjoyed by the Rev. Edward Walker Foottit B.A. The church, dedicated to St Lawrence, is a small structure, with a tower and two bells, and was rebuilt in 1852. In Thoroton's time it contained some ancient figures of crusaders, but they were either destroyed or removed at the diminution of the church. They have since been taken up by the present proprietor, under the superintendance of Rd. West Macott Esq. R.A., and are about to be placed in the name of the new edifice."^[1]

[edit] Gonalston Spital

The village is famed in ancient times for its hospital or spital now lost, and its effigies of Crusaders. "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."^[2]

[edit] 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 and Hoveringham. For example, "the isolated Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age midden, all of which have been recorded beneath alluvium at Girton Quarry, and the burnt mound at Holme Dyke, Gonalston^[3] recorded in an extension to Hoveringham Quarry. Such burnt mounds are fast becoming the most frequently recognised “domestic” type of site."^[4] Some very large "collections of Neolithic pottery come from the ring ditches at Great Briggs, Holme Pierrepont, and Holme Dyke, Gonalston....while the examples of Great Briggs and Gonalston must remind us that some of the ring ditches in the Trent Valley are Neolithic, most of these may be attributed to the Bronze Age."^[5]