Owthorpe

A Hall the Size of the Parish

Owthorpe's community hall sits down the lane past a collection of old ploughs, and the hall is a surprisingly large building for a place this size — it can seat 102 people, which is roughly the population of the parish. That tells you most of what you need to know about Owthorpe before you've even reached the village proper.

Owthorpe has no pub. For a drink, head to the Chequers Inn in Cropwell Bishop, about 1.7 miles from Owthorpe in a straight line, or to the Martins Arms in Colston Bassett, about 1.3 miles away in a straight line; road journeys are longer.

Stilton and the Five-Mile Circular

Owthorpe has no shop either. What it has instead, within easy reach, are two of the county's better-known cheesemakers. Colston Bassett Dairy has hand-ladled its Stilton since 1913, when a local doctor persuaded the farmers around him to raise £1,000 in capital to get the business going; five dairies are licensed to make PDO Blue Stilton, and the Dairy Door welcomes direct buyers. Cropwell Bishop Creamery, passed on the five-mile circular from Cropwell Bishop, makes Blue and White Stilton, with its Blue Stilton earning Supreme Champion honours at the 2025 Virtual Cheese Awards.

Start from Cropwell Bishop's playing field on a five-mile circular that follows the Grantham Canal towpath, crosses meadows and short arable sections, and reaches the churchyard through a metal gate followed by a wooden gate, then leaves through a kissing gate. The path crosses two stiles and a wooden bridge before reaching the road beside Owthorpe's fishponds — the last visible trace of Owthorpe Hall, which burned down in the late 1820s. Woodview Holiday Cottages, on a working arable farm, offers trout and coarse fishing on two stocked lakes, with day tickets for coarse fishing.

St Margaret's in the Fields

St Margaret's Church stands apart from everything else, alone in farmland on the site of the old Hall, reached by a grass footpath. Inside, a three-decker Jacobean pulpit remains in use beneath a Jacobean canopy, alongside a 15th-century font with a castellated top and a monument to Colonel John Hutchinson, one of the men who signed Charles I's death warrant, who retired here and died in 1664. The nave floor collapsed in 1859, revealing the Hutchinson family vault beneath it, seventeen coffins deep.

Lucy Hutchinson's Owthorpe

Lucy Hutchinson wrote her husband's life story at Owthorpe after his death — one of the great first-hand accounts of the Civil War, and a 19th-century bestseller once it was finally published in 1806. She also produced the first complete English translation of Lucretius.

Domesday, Transport and Hunting Season

The Domesday entries for Owthorpe include three holdings; one fell from £1 10s in 1066 to £1 in 1086. Owthorpe has changed little since. The nearest station is Radcliffe-on-Trent; buses now run on demand rather than to a timetable. In hunting season the lanes round Owthorpe fill with the cars of people who've come to watch, rather than ride.