Roman road, Trent carrlands and a tower without a steeple
Sturton le Steeple
A small Nottinghamshire village where a landmark church tower, green-lane walking and Pilgrim history meet between Retford and Gainsborough.
- Parish church
- Grade II*
- Local circuit
- About seven miles
- Nearby rail
- Retford or Gainsborough
The Fox verdict
Come for the tower; stay for the layered history
Sturton le Steeple suits a church-and-landscape visit, with a traditional pub and a circular walking route linking Clarborough Nature Reserve and North Leverton.
The Grade II* Church of St Peter and St Paul anchors the village story, from its c.1180 core and fire-surviving tower to John Robinson, John Smyth and the local Mayflower connections. Nearby choices extend that history to St Nicholas at Littleborough, Bassetlaw Museum and Gainsborough Old Hall.
Where to go
Places in Sturton le Steeple
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Reindeer Inn
The village's only operating pub is a traditional village pub with a beer garden, real fire, dog-friendly policy and cask Eagle Bombardier.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Church Street
St Nicholas' Church, Littleborough
Within the parish at Littleborough, this Grade I church is said to be Nottinghamshire's smallest and incorporates reused Roman brick and tile.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Littleborough, within the parish
Bassetlaw Museum
Bassetlaw Museum occupies Grade II* Amcott House in Retford, holds Mayflower Pilgrim artefacts and is a stop on the Mayflower Trail.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Retford
Walks & outdoors
1 placeClarborough Nature Reserve
Clarborough Nature Reserve is a named point on the circular walking route linking Sturton le Steeple, North Leverton and back.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Clarborough
History & heritage
2 placesChurch of St Peter and St Paul
The Grade II* church has a core dating from around 1180 and a massive pinnacled tower with eight gargoyles and twelve crocketed pinnacles; despite the village name, it has no steeple.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Sturton le Steeple
Gainsborough Old Hall
One of England's best-preserved late-medieval manor houses, with a medieval great hall and kitchen complex, a climbable tower with Trent views and a tearoom.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 120 minutes
- Locality
- Gainsborough
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Three ways to explore Sturton le Steeple
Signature outings
The Tower Without a Steeple
Count the eight gargoyles and twelve crocketed pinnacles on the tower that gave the village its suffix, despite the absence of a steeple.
Clarborough on Foot
Follow the seven-mile circular route linking Sturton le Steeple, Clarborough Nature Reserve and North Leverton.
Great Hall, Kitchen and Tower
Explore the medieval great hall and kitchen complex, climb the tower for Trent views, and pause at the tearoom.
The village story
Sturton le Steeple Village Guide
A Roman-road village on the Trent carrlands, defined by a church tower with pinnacles rather than a steeple.
The Town on the Street
The village sign at Sturton le Steeple reads "The Town on the Street," a reference to the Roman road it sits beside, once the route from Lincoln to York and known locally as Ermine Street. The village sits on a dry rise above the Trent's floodplain, flat carrland that grows wheat, rapeseed, onions and sugar beet.
You'll see the church tower before you see anything else, visible for some distance across the fields, unusual for a village of fewer than 550 people.
One Pub and a Wednesday Post
There is one pub, the Reindeer Inn on Church Street, and it is the only one in the village. It started life as The Stag, was renamed in 1895, and was refitted in 2014 with a real fire and a proper beer garden. CAMRA calls it "a well kept village pub catering for the locals," which it is: food Sunday lunchtimes and Friday and Saturday evenings, cask Eagle Bombardier at the bar, dogs welcome.
There's no butcher, baker or farm shop in the village. The post office on Cross Street opens Wednesdays only, 1pm to 4pm, and a mobile post office van calls at the Reindeer's car park, 3.30 to 4.45.
Green Lanes and a Tower Without a Steeple
For walkers, the Trent Valley Way passes close by, and a signposted circuit runs out through Clarborough Nature Reserve to the windmill at North Leverton and back — about seven miles on green lanes with views, on a clear day, into three counties.
The church is St Peter and St Paul, Grade II*, its core dating to around 1180 and financed by Lady Oliva de Montbegon, whose monument is still inside. The tower went up in stages between 1340 and 1480. Despite the village's name, the church has no steeple — what it has instead is a tower, pinnacled, gargoyled eight times over, with twelve crocketed points along the top, and it was that tower which gave the village its suffix in 1823. Cornelius Brown called it "a prominent feature in the landscape" in 1896.
Fire, Bells and Pilgrim Links
Fire gutted most of the church in 1901; Charles Hodgson Fowler rebuilt it the following year, which is why Arthur Mee could later write that the tower "is almost the only part of the church which escaped." Inside is a marble slab to Colonel Francis Thornhagh, a Parliamentarian cavalry commander killed at the Battle of Preston in 1648. Six bells hang in a frame built for eight; five were cast in 1825, the sixth added in 1991.
The bigger story is upstairs in the church register. John Robinson, born here around 1576, preached illegally from this pulpit before leading his Separatist congregation to Leiden in 1608 — remembered as the Pilgrim Pastor, though he never made the crossing to Massachusetts himself. He married a local woman, Bridget White; her sister Katherine married John Carver, who became the first governor of Plymouth Colony. John Smyth, an early English Baptist, was also born in the village.
Between Retford and Gainsborough
There's no railway station now; it closed in 1964, and the nearest trains run from Retford or Gainsborough, both about six miles off, with the Stagecoach 95 bus running between the two and stopping in the village along the way.
Sturton is still here, and on a Wednesday afternoon you can watch its entire postal system arrive in a van and park outside the pub.
Stay around Nottinghamshire
Make a longer stay of it
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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.
- Church of St Peter and St Paul — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- The Reindeer Inn — camra.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Clarborough Nature Reserve — nottinghamshirewildlife.org other published source
- St Nicholas' Church, Littleborough — visitchurches.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Bassetlaw Museum — bassetlaw.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Gainsborough Old Hall — english-heritage.org.uk national body or asset manager