Aslockton

Cranmer's Name and the Village Setting

The Cranmer name runs through Aslockton: the village pub, primary school and church centre all carry it. Thomas Cranmer was born here in 1489 and spent his first fourteen years in the village. The Notts Villages blog once called Aslockton "a bit of a one-trick pony."

The village sits on the north bank of the River Smite in the Vale of Belvoir, a couple of miles east of Bingham and about ten from Nottingham. Main Street is lined with nineteenth-century cottages, farmhouses and detached houses. At Aslockton station on the Nottingham–Grantham line, the platform shelter is Grade II listed. Centrebus service 833 stops on Dark Lane, linking Aslockton with Bingham and Cropwell Bishop.

Two Pubs, One Survivor

The Old Greyhound on Main Street is a Grade II listed former pub. It closed in 2007 and was converted into homes; its listed entry includes the former coach house and stables. The Cranmer Arms, also on Main Street, is the village's remaining pub.

The pub offers changing cask ales, a real fire, darts, pool, table football and a skittle alley; the beer garden has a children's play area.

Village Recreation

The shared playing field has a children's playground and sports space. A flat, roughly five-mile walk links Orston, Whatton and Aslockton along the River Smite, with no stiles or hills but muddy stretches after rain.

St Thomas's and Domesday

St Thomas's was built in 1891–92 as a memorial to Rev Thomas K Hall, who drowned when RMS Quetta sank off Queensland; his mother funded the church. Earlier villagers had worshipped at Whatton after Aslockton's Holy Trinity chapel was converted to domestic use. Pevsner criticised the later church, but its windows draw together two local stories: the east window is dedicated to Cranmer and depicts Doubting Thomas, while the north window recalls the Quetta.

The Domesday survey records several holdings in Aslockton. One, held from Ilbert of Lacy, had two freemen and a smallholder, half a ploughland and eight acres of meadow; its value to the lord was five shillings and two pence in both 1066 and 1086. Aslockton parish had 974 residents in the 2011 census and 1,937 in 2021.

Cranmer and the Mound

Thomas Cranmer was born in Aslockton in 1489 and later became Archbishop of Canterbury and a principal author of the Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer's Mound is a medieval castle motte later adapted as a viewing mound, with associated moats and fishponds. Local tradition says he climbed it to hear the bells of Whatton church while visiting his brother in Aslockton.