Commons, carvings and cricket
Car Colston
Two ancient open greens shape this small Vale of Belvoir village, alongside a Grade I church, a traditional pub and field-path walking.
- Best for
- Open commons, church detail and a traditional village pub
- Give it
- A village circuit or a longer field walk
- Don't miss
- The Norman font and carved sedilia at St Mary's
The Fox verdict
A village still arranged around its commons
Car Colston pairs unusually broad grazed greens with a richly detailed medieval church, a long-established pub and summer cricket.
Come for the Large and Little Commons, then slow down for the stocks and whipping post, St Mary's medieval carving and the Royal Oak's country-pub character. Field-path routes connect the village with East Bridgford and the surrounding arable landscape.
Where to go
Places in Car Colston
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesLittle Common
The 5½-acre Little Common is the smaller of Car Colston's two ancient open greens, which together account for 27 acres of common land.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 25 minutes
- Locality
- Car Colston's Little Common
Village Stocks and Whipping Post
Early-19th-century Grade II-listed village stocks and a whipping post fitted with two pairs of iron manacles survive on the green.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 15 minutes
- Locality
- on the green
Car Colston Cricket Club
Founded in 1864, the club plays cricket on the village common; its Presidents' Day fixture for the John Gilbert Trophy draws around 250 people.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- on the village common
- Access
- The club's cricket ground is on the village common.
Food & drink
1 placeThe Royal Oak
A traditional country pub and restaurant in a building over 200 years old, serving food and cask ales and offering a beer garden, skittle alley and separate function room.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- on The Green (the Large Common)
- Access
- Dog friendly, with food served at lunchtimes and in the evenings.
Walks & outdoors
2 placesLarge Common
The 16½-acre Large Common is the largest village green in Nottinghamshire; it and Little Common were left open in 1598 so cottagers could graze animals, a common right still exercised today.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Car Colston's Large Common
East Bridgford to Car Colston Walk
A flat summer walk from East Bridgford through arable fields to Car Colston's Large Green, passing two windmills, a bug hotel, the village stocks and stiles; one recorded route is 8.39 miles.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 180 minutes
- Locality
- between East Bridgford and Car Colston's Large Green
History & heritage
1 placeSt Mary's Church
A Grade I church with a Norman sandstone font, Decorated Gothic sedilia and piscina, stained glass by Charles Kempe and the burial place of county historian Robert Thoroton.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Car Colston
No places match this filter. Choose All places to reset the list.
Three ways to explore Car Colston
Signature outings
Cross the Large Common
Take in the 16½-acre green that was left open for common grazing when the surrounding fields were enclosed in 1598.
Find the faces in St Mary's
Look closely at the church's carved sedilia for small humorous faces and a ram's head, then find its Norman sandstone font.
Settle into the Royal Oak
Stop for food and cask ale in a country pub whose building is more than 200 years old and whose bar has a vaulted brick ceiling.
The village story
Car Colston Village Guide
Ancient commons, village rituals and remarkable church detail in a small Nottinghamshire settlement.
The Two Commons and Their Old Rights
The village stocks are still on the green, with a whipping post fitted with two pairs of iron manacles, and nobody has needed either for the best part of two centuries. They sit on the Large Common, which at sixteen and a half acres is reckoned the largest village green in Nottinghamshire and quite possibly in England.
There's a second green too, the smaller Little Green, twenty-seven acres of open grass between them, ringed by the village's houses and church. Landowners enclosed the surrounding fields in 1598 but left the greens open, so cottagers could graze cattle, geese and horses — a right still exercised today.
The Royal Oak: Food, Ale and Folklore
The Royal Oak sits on the Large Common and is the only pub Car Colston has ever had — no record of a lost second pub, shop or post office. Richard and Vicky run it, both members of the British Institute of Innkeeping; Vicky cooks, Richard looks after the ales. The building is over two hundred years old, and local tradition holds it started life as a hosiery factory — the vaulted brick ceiling above the bar is the evidence usually offered.
The beer is Cask Marque five-star rated, mostly Marston's, with Wainwright Gold and Eagle Bombardier among the named regulars. It's won the Vale of Belvoir & Nottinghamshire CAMRA Pub of the Year three times — 2021, 2020 and 2009. Dog friendly, with a beer garden, a skittle alley, a separate function room, and a small campsite about five minutes away. TripAdvisor reviewers describe the food as "wholesome, well cooked, top quality, flavoursome."
Arriving and Walking the Fields
There is no shop in the village. Nearest shopping, and the nearest railway station, is Bingham, three miles south, with trains roughly every hour or two toward Nottingham, Grantham and Skegness. The village sits just off the A46, the old Fosse Way, with around seven buses a day to Nottingham and Newark.
Walking routes head out in most directions: a circular through Scarrington and Screveton passes the Horseshoe Tower, and a longer route from East Bridgford crosses arable fields to the Large Green, past two windmills and a bug hotel.
St Mary's and Robert Thoroton
St Mary's Church is Grade I listed, with a Norman font carved from a single block of sandstone around 1130 and a chancel sedilia carved with small, humorous faces and a ram's head, plus a stained glass window by Charles Kempe, a memorial to Henry Girardot.
Robert Thoroton is buried here — physician, magistrate, and Nottinghamshire's first county historian, whose Antiquities of Nottinghamshire took ten years to research and was published in 1677, the year before he died. He lived at the Old Hall on the green. His carved coffin, prepared six years before his death, was unearthed during chancel repairs in 1845, and for a time his skull sat in a village shop window as a curiosity before proper reburial was arranged.
Plague Memory and Cricket Tradition
The parish register also has a grimmer entry, from 1604: "The plague began with George Caunt... 49 others died and were buried 15 August 1604" — roughly a fifth of the village.
Car Colston Cricket Club has played on the common every Sunday through summer since 1864. Its Presidents' Day fixture against Flintham, for the John Gilbert Trophy, draws around 250 people for a lunch under a marquee on the green where, on any other Sunday, someone's horse might be grazing.
Stay around Nottinghamshire
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Nottinghamshire, linked directly to their property pages.
Nottingham
Camila's Penthouse Central Stay with Balcony
- Sleeps 16
- 5 bedrooms
Nottingham
Anna's Central Stay
- Sleeps 16
- 5 bedrooms
Nottingham
Blair's Central Stay
- Sleeps 16
- 5 bedrooms
Nottingham
Melissa's Central Stay
- Sleeps 13
- 5 bedrooms
Nottingham
Stephanie's Central Stay
- Sleeps 6
- 2 bedrooms
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Large Common — rushcliffe.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Little Common — rushcliffe.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Village Stocks and Whipping Post — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- The Royal Oak — royaloakcarcolston.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Mary's Church — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Car Colston Cricket Club — carcolstoncc.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- East Bridgford to Car Colston Walk — ramblers.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access