Thurgarton

The Village's Last Inn

The Red Lion on Southwell Road is Thurgarton's village inn, while the former Priory Stores was built in the 1960s as a village shop, later doubled as the village post office, and is now a beauty salon.

The pub holds two AA Rosettes, serves modern British cooking and traditional pub classics, and sources meat from James Vickers, fish from Paulo's Seafoods, and other ingredients from All Shires Foods and Fruit Basket, all within thirty miles. The pub's programme includes Steak Night, Chippy Tea, Daily Specials and Sunday Lunch; the dining room is called the Clarke Restaurant.

The Village Inn and Priory

An ale house has stood on the site since the 16th century. After a two-year absence, residents lent money to new owner Julian Benton, while he and a team of directors invested to revive the pub in 2019; the pub had been registered as an Asset of Community Value three years earlier. The outdoor spaces include a 16-seat courtyard and a terrace. Castle Rock Harvest Pale and Draught Bass are regular real ales, and well-behaved dogs are welcome on leads in a quieter area.

The priory sits behind the pub and gives the village its deepest historical layer. Founded around 1119 by Ralph de Aincourt for Augustinian canons, it rivalled Southwell Minster in scale until the Dissolution in 1534, after which most of the buildings were pulled down for stone. The surviving six-stage west tower and fragment of nave were absorbed into the parish church, now the Priory Church of St Peter. Its pointed, dogtooth-carved west door dates from the 13th century and is one of the finest of its kind in England.

Walter Hilton and Domesday Thurgarton

One of the canons who lived here, Walter Hilton, wrote The Scale of Perfection at Thurgarton in the late 1380s and was still working on the second book when he died in 1396. The Walter Hilton Way follows footpaths and lanes from the priory to Southwell, about five miles over the ridge. Train journeys from Thurgarton's own Grade II listed station to Nottingham average 21 minutes, with the fastest journey taking 20.

Domesday valued the whole manor at three pounds in 1066, rising to four pounds by 1086, and recorded twelve villagers, ten freemen, two smallholders and a priest — an estimate of 12.5 households, not a direct count of Thurgarton's population.

Civil War and Village Life

The Civil War treated the place less gently. Sir Roger Cooper fortified the Tudor priory house; musketeers fired as Parliamentary troops passed, but Parliament took the house anyway. His loyalty to the royal interest weakened his fortunes.