NORMANTON ON SOAR: Rushcliffe Parish #8 of 59

RUSHCLIFFE PARISH #8: NORMANTON ON SOAR

Normanton on Soar – “Northman’s Town on the Flow of Water”

Hello folks, time for another village on the banks of the River Soar. We’re not done with this river, not by a long shot, but this is the last time it’ll make an appearance for a while. It does so in the beautiful riverside village of Normanton – or Normanton on Soar to give it it’s full title. Normanton appears several times in the Domesday book as Normantune. The name has nothing to do with the Normans, even though you initially think it might.

Instead, it derives from the Anglo-Saxon ‘Northman’s Tun’ meaning Northman’s Farm. It was believed to be first used sometime between 870 and 940 AD. Occupying a low lying piece of land in the Soar valley, Normanton was once a part of the Paget estate, which we learned about in Sutton Bonington. In the 19th century the family owned quite a lot of land here. Their influence can still be seen in various places around the village and they would be responsible, until 1981, for the maintenance of what’s become Normanton’s best known attraction – a boat, like none other we’ve ever seen.

Still fully operational, the craft in question is used at weekends only. Normanton also has a boating club, a pretty medieval church, and a type of rare building on its main street – the only one in the UK that’s lived in no less!

Let’s go and find it all

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#Rushcliffe, #Nottingham, #Nottinghamshire, #Normanton, #NormantononSoar, #Boats, #Churches, #Ferries, #Chains, #Pubs, #Buildings, #Cruck, #Football, #Railways, #Stations, #Buses, #Memorials, #Sheep, #Chapels, #Halls, #Clubs, #Loughborough,

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GENUKI:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/NTT/NormantononSoar

Manor House:

The Manor House

Soar Valley Bus:
https://www.soarvalleybus.co.uk/timetables-c11vb

Kegworth Imps:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/martin-hawksworth?utm_term=YAardWXBP

Plough Inn:
https://whatpub.com/pubs/NOT/457/plough-inn-normanton-on-soar

Wesleyan Chapel:

Normanton on Soar Wesleyan chapel

Leigh Court Barn:
By User:Simon Webb – Own work by the original uploader, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50728427

Demographics:
http://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastmidlands/admin/rushcliffe/E04007988__normanton_on_soar/

Rightmove:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/normanton-on-soar.html?page=1

Some of the following music tracks may appear in this video:
Brendan Perkins – “Foxsnow” (B. Perkins)

Brendan Perkins – “Mickey’s House” (B. Perkins)

The Keyhouse – “Voices” (H. Flunder)

The Keyhouse – “Circles” (H. Flunder)

Helen Flunder – “Sun” (H. Flunder)

Helen Flunder – “Angels” (H. Flunder)

Helen Flunder – “C Song” (H. Flunder)

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Hello my name is Andy and I Am The Village Idiot I’m armed with a car and a GoPro and an unhealthy amount of time on my hands I’m using that time to attempt to visit every civil Parish in England you’re watching The Rush Cliff Series this is the southernmost District in

Nottingham sh and it contains 59 civil parishes of England and there’s some ckers down here let’s dive in and check one out welcome back to rushcliffe again everybody now today we’re going to be seeing a very familiar River now sometimes when we talk about rivers we talk about fairies which used to cross

Them well here in this place there is a ferry that still crosses the river and it’s one of the most unique fairies anywhere in the United Kingdom welcome to the Parish of normanton on Saw Here’s my disclaimer for people who may be watching me for the first time I say things as I would in my native accent and dialect as a result I may not pronounce things in the same way as the locals do remember I’m a visitor it’s impossible to know everything leave me a

Comment spin me a like and Bash that subscribe button let’s go get to today’s Parish Video Norman to on saw northman’s town on the flow of water hello folks time for another Village on the banks of the River Saw we’re not done with this River

Not by a long shot but this is the last time it’ll make an appearance for a while it does so in the beautiful Riverside Village of normanton or normanton on saw to give it its full title noron appears several times in the Doomsday Book as Norman tune the name

Has got nothing to do with the Normans even though you initially might think it does instead it deres from the Anglo-Saxon northman’s tun meaning northman’s Farm it was believed to be first Ed sometime between 870 and 940 ad occupying a low-lying piece of land in the saw Valley normanson was once part

Of the padish estate which we learned about in Su bonington in the 19th century the family owned quite a lot of land here their influence can still be seen in various places around the village and they would be responsible until 1981 for the maintenance of what’s become Norm’s best known attraction A

Boat like none other we’ve ever seen before still fully operational the craft in question is used now at Weekends Only normanson also has a Boating Club a pretty medieval church and a type of rare building on its Main Street the only one in the UK that’s lived in let’s go find it All Before we get cracking with the walk we first have the small matter of an Old Railway Station you’ll recall from the Sutton bonington episode that there were two stations in this area Once Upon a few decades ago in that video we covered kegworth here it’s Haven like kegworth

It was built by the Midland Railway on a line initially opened in 1839 between lufra and long Eaton the station was operational between 1868 and 1960 and despite being named for the village of haen in leerer it was geographically closer to normon and Sutton bonington the station buildings remain today

Vastly extended and they’re in use as the old ha station bed and breakfast a fair number of accidents occurred close to the station the worst coming in 1871 when a male train from leads to London derailed between ha station and lufra injuring seven people normanson now has

No station but it can claim to be the base of a rather notable local bus service let’s head into the village and see what’s so special about it we begin this walk around normanson at a local football pitch on Mo Lane this is the home of the kegworth imps

Junior Football Club they provide football for young children from the age of six who play weekly at this humble little ground this area also features a garage it’s the home of the saw Valley bus which we’ve mentioned a couple of times before it has seven routes which connect these Rush Cliff villages to

Various places including East leak lfra market and two Asda stores in Long Eaton and West bridgford now for a walk down more Lane into the village this isn’t the most exciting Street ever built it has to be said and it’s mostly modern properties it features two very modern culde saacs

Which can be found on the left hand side just before you meet Main Street this area is not typical of what noron village is the oldest and most historic properties here all line the riverbank and some of them are huge normanson was once a part of the padet estate which

Was based in Sutton bonington and in places it’s easy to tell Main Street isn’t wholly straight it begins in a fashion perpendicular to M Lane before it turns a corner to run parallel with the riverbank on the bend these houses are a clear indication that this was once an estate Village they

Just have that sort of feel to them don’t they directly opposite is the saw Boating Club founded in 1953 the club acquired its current position on Main Street in 1961 this is for PR private members only and has around 100 boats annually the club holds its main rally in May over

The Spring Bank holiday not far away is the phone box and this one houses the defib machine Beyond this property starts to go up a notch there’s a handful of farmhouses and converted old barns along Main Street these are pretty good examples of them Main Street also has the Village

School it isn’t the original though it’s a modern Affair which replaced a board school which dated from 1876 built to ker for 60 children outside the school is the parish notice board that’s 8 down now in rushcliffe just a small matter of 51 to go no sweat the central part of Main Street

Has the biggest buildings yet and they include the enormous normon Mana house and a beautiful thatched Cottage directly opposite it this is the latter and isn’t it fabulous the Mana House was built built in 1863 on the site of an earlier building which was 15th century the original building was destroyed by

Fire there was no record of the architecture but it’s known to have been built for Thomas Westland Roland the padet family also lived in the property sometime in the 19th century next we have the plow a former coaching in that can trace its roots back to the 1600s like most of the

Properties on the southern side of Main Street this has access to the riverbank next to the plow in but separate saw Lane offers access to a slipway for launching rivercraft dead opposite we have the green this sign tells us normon once won the annual trophy for the best

Kept Village in Nottingham sh it doesn’t say what year though there’s also a bench here under a tree which commemorates King Charles III’s coronation housing wise we’ve already seen some absolute crackers like this one for example however the next one is the best yet dating from 1454 this is

The old post office and it’s what’s known as a crook building it’s the oldest property in normanton a crook is a timberframe building with long naturally curved members that form an a-shaped roof pictured now is the interior of another example Lee Court Barn in werer Norm’s crook though is

Unique because it’s the only one in the entire country that’s lived in now we come to the church dedicated to St James this one is Medieval having been built in the 13th century it’s grade one listed and stands on the bank of the River Saw on a mound it’s one of

Only two churches in Nottinghamshire that have a central tower crowned with a Spire the other one is in Waton in the veil a fellow rushcliffe Parish St James’s most notable feature would be a royal coat of arms that of Charles II which above the chancell arch it dates

From 1683 now I would have liked to have got closer to this one but it was impossible I’m afraid hopefully you didn’t notice but there’s actually a funeral going on literally right now I had to be so so careful with what I captured there of

The church I did ask the uh the uh the The Undertaker or whatever you call them these days whether I could walk through the church are cuz my route follows the foot path that goes right through the churchyard that brings us to the River

Saw so I kind of had to go through there was no um two ways about it there was no other route I could have taken because this is the the thing that I’ve come to see the the normont on onur ferry which is the next thing to talk about probably

The uh probably the the most the most important part of the video actually normanson Ona has for many years had a very unique tourist attraction this is the chain fery one of the last in fairies of its kind anywhere in the UK it dates back to at least 1771

When it was first mentioned on a map it’s now the last chain ferry in operation in Nottinghamshire after the Hazel for Ferry we talked about in BBY ceased operation here’s the ferry boat itself chain fairies work by way of an actual chain that’s attached to both

Shores of the river in the 19th century chains were largely replaced by wire cables this information board tells you about the history of the ferry and this can be found close to what I describe as a collection of Riverside lodges or ferryman’s houses until 1981 the Ferry’s

Maintenance was down solely to the padet estate after that it became the responsibility of the parish council it closed for a short time but since 2017 it’s offered summer Crossings every weekend between April and September the current fee per person is £1 and it’s 50p per dog or bicycle it’s Opera completely by

Volunteers the path back to the village is permissive and it brings us to the Village Hall this is very new it was built in 2007 and as well as functioning as Norm’s main communal space it’s also the location of the community shop the shop is open from Monday to Friday and

On Saturday mornings the hall is also surrounded by a massive 5 acres worth of Playing Fields with an outdoor children’s play area and as if all that wasn’t enough the local allotments are located here as well that’s another patch for the fans to add to their growing Collection running behind the allotments is our path back to the beginning this foot path crosses three Fields two of which are directly behind the school there were a few local residents in these although they didn’t chat much and were a bit woolly for my liking our last

Street is far Lane a dead end which terminates at the Midland main line hold residential the only landmark of note along here was an old wesleyian chapel it’s not the original Village Chapel though that was built in 1832 this one replaced it in 1889 and it closed its doors in

1930 and that’ll do us for normon on saw it’s not every day you come across a place with a working Ferry but to find a chain Ferry is even rarer I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode maybe during the summer this year I might return to try

The ferry out it’s got to be worth the nominal fee anyway I’ll see you next week as we head deeper into Rushcliffe thanks for watching this video folks don’t forget to like this episode if you have already it really makes a difference with YouTube if you’re new here subscribe to the channel for more videos like this and give us a share too if you’ve got friends who’d

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Time I’ve been Andy also known as The Village Idiot and I’m out