Flintham
Encyclopedia
Flintham is a village in Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

 within a few miles of Newark
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1 , and the East Coast Main Line railway. The origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way...

, opposite RAF Syerston
RAF Syerston
RAF Syerston is a Royal Air Force station in the parish of Flintham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire. It was used as a bomber base during World War II.-Bomber Command:...

 on the A46
A46 road
The A46 is an A road in England. It starts east of Bath, Somerset and ends in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, but it does not form a continuous route. Large portions of the old road have been lost, bypassed, or replaced by motorway development...

. It has a population of circa 650 and a school, village hall, church and cricket pavilion. It has one pub, the Boot and Shoe Inn on Main Street. It also has a community shop run by volunteers called Flintham Community Shop, and a museum. The Ham class minesweeper
Ham class minesweeper
The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers , known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. It took its name from the fact that all the ship names were British place names ending in -"ham"...

 HMS Flintham
HMS Flintham
HMS Flintham was one of 93 ships of the of inshore minesweepers.Their names were all chosen from villages ending in -ham. The minesweeper was named after Flintham in Nottinghamshire.-References:...

 was named after the village.

The church is dedicated to St Augustine
Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...

 of Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

, and has "a Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 nave attached to a Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

 Tower and chancel."

Historical

Flintham "is a pleasant and well-built village, 6½ miles south-west by south of Newark, including within its parish 637 inhabitants and 2110 acres (8.5 km²) of rich loamy land, at a rateable value of £3,324, which was enclosed about the year 1780, when 172 acre (0.69605992 km²) were allotted to the vicar, and about 300 acres (1.2 km²) to Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, in lieu of tithes, exclusive of 165 acre (0.6677319 km²) which had previously belonged to the said college. The greater part of the parish belongs to Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard Esq.
Thomas Thoroton-Hildyard
Thomas Blackborne Thoroton-Hildyard was an English Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1846 and 1885....

, but Francis Fryer Esq., Richard Hall Esq. and John Clark Esq. have also estates here. The Duke of Newcastle
Duke of Newcastle
Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne is a title which has been created three times in British history while the title of Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne has been created once. The title was created for the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 when William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne...

 is lord of the manor, which he holds in fee of the King's Duchy of Lancaster
Duchy of Lancaster
The Duchy of Lancaster is one of the two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Cornwall. It is held in trust for the Sovereign, and is used to provide income for the use of the British monarch...

, together with several others in this neighbourhood. His Grace has no land here except 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) allotted to him at the enclosure. Flintham Hall, which has been successively the seat of the Husseys, Hackers, Woodhouses, Disneys, Fytches and Thorotons, is now the residence of Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard Esq. It is a handsome modern edifice, erected on the site of the ancient mansion. It owes many of its present beauties to the late Col. Hildyard."
Col. Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard, Coldstream Guards
Coldstream Guards
Her Majesty's Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, also known officially as the Coldstream Guards , is a regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division or Household Division....

, was Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

, High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire
High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire
’The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...

 and MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1 , and the East Coast Main Line railway. The origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way...

. As a Colonel in the Coldstream Guards, Thoroton Hildyard served with British forces in the American War of Independence. Col. Thoroton Hildyard was also a friend of longstanding and advisor to John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland
John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland
John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland KG PC was an English nobleman, the eldest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland and Catherine Russell...

, to whom he was related. His eldest son Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard
Thomas Thoroton-Hildyard
Thomas Blackborne Thoroton-Hildyard was an English Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1846 and 1885....

 (1821–1888) also lived at Flintham Hall and was educated at Eton and Oxford. In 1846 he entered political life as the Conservative Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for the southern division of Notthinghamshire.

It was a toughly contested election. Hildyard was supported, according to the University of Nottingham, by the 4th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne "in spite of the fact that Newcastle’s son, the Earl of Lincoln, was his opponent. Lincoln attacked Hildyard’s youth and inexperience, but the ‘young squire’ still defeated him by a majority of almost 700. Hildyard held South Nottinghamshire from 1846 until 1852. He was re-elected in 1866. He then continued to represent the South Nottinghamshire constituency until his retirement in 1885."

The name of the Hildyard family of Flintham was initially Thoroton. Col. Hildyard, father of MP Hildyard, was formerly called Thomas Blackborne Thoroton, but changed his name to Hildyard in 1815 on marrying a Hildyard heiress, the niece of Sir Robert d'Arcy Hildyard
Hildyard Baronets
The Hildyard Baronetcy, of Patrington in the County of York, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 25 June 1660 for Robert Hilyard, of Patrington and Winestead. The ancient Hildyard family is thought to have been of Saxon origin...

, 4th and last Baronet who died without issue, leaving his estate to his niece. Col. Thoroton Hildyard was descended from Mary (Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...

) Blackborne, who was the daughter of Sir Richard Levett
Richard Levett
Sir Richard Levett , Sheriff, Alderman and Lord Mayor of London, was one of the first directors of the Bank of England, an adventurer with the London East India Company and the proprietor of the trading firm Sir Richard Levett & Company. He had homes at Kew and in London's Cripplegate, close by...

, Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

 and the widow of merchant Abraham Blackborne, and her second husband Robert Thoroton of Screveton Hall, Nottinghamshire. (Robert Thoroton and his wife Mary became parties to a contentious lawsuit with the Blackborne family heirs—Thoroton vs. Blackborne—over an enormous estate left by William Hewer
William Hewer
William 'Will' Hewer was one of Samuel Pepys' manservants, and later Pepys's clerk, before embarking on an administrative career of his own...

, longtime friend of diarist and Secretary of the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

 Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

.)

The Thoroton Hildyard family continues to reside at the Hall the family initially purchased in 1789. In 2005 the family's best-known representative, Myles Thoroton Hildyard, landowner and historian, died at Flintham. Hildyard, a Cambridge-educated landowner and historian, won the Military Cross for his daring escape from a prisoner of war camp following the Battle of Crete. He also became well-known for his work at Flintham Hall, a Grade I-listed home, which The Independent noted in its obituary of Hildyard, has been described as "perhaps the most gloriously romantic Victorian house in England." Flintham's glassed Victorian conservatory, influenced by London's Crystal Palace, is the finest of its type left in England. The architect Lewis Wyatt
Lewis Wyatt
Lewis William Wyatt was a British architect, a nephew of both Samuel and James Wyatt of the Wyatt family of architects, who articled with each of his uncles and began practice on his own about 1805....

 added an extension to Flintham Hall in 1829, and the Hall was restored in the mid-nineteenth century by English architect George Thomas Hine. Myles Hildyard had worked extensively during his tenure to restore the landscape park and woodland which enclose the Hall and the Conservatory, as well as the Hall's walled garden.
Myles Hildyard was also an historian and writer, and for 40 years served as President of The Thoroton Society, the leading Nottinghamshire history organization named in honor of Dr. Robert Thoroton
Robert Thoroton
Dr. Robert Thoroton was an English antiquary, mainly remembered for his county history, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire .-Life:...

, author of the first history of the county, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, published in 1677, and the brother of Hildyard's ancestor Thomas Thoroton. Myles Hildyard himself wrote detailed histories of the Thoroton and Hildyard families, as well as a history of Flintham village. In 1975 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. But Hildyard's greatest literary accomplishment were the wartime letters and the diary he wrote during the Second World War, when he served as Captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...

 in Nottinghamshire Yeomanry (Sherwood Rangers)
Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry
The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry is one of the five squadrons of the Royal Yeomanry , an armoured regiment of the Territorial Army. Designated as 'S' Squadron, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry's current role is to support the Formation Reconnaissance Regiments and the Joint Chemical Biological Nuclear...

. Hildyard was captured by the Germans during their airborne invasion, but he eventually escaped from the prisoner-of-war camp where he was being held. His letters home as well as the diary he kept during his escape were collected into a book published by Bloomsbury in 2005 entitled It is Bliss Here: Letters Home, 1939-1945. For his wartime exploits, Capt. Hildyard was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Hildyard also served as Deputy Lieutenant
Deputy Lieutenant
In the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area; an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county....

 and Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 for Nottinghamshire. He was Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...

 of Flintham and of Screveton, and patron of the living of Flintham. Hildyard was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

 but chose not to practice law.

Aside from his efforts as writer, historian and architectural restorer, Myles Hildyard became known in the community for his good fellowship. "Flintham was, for the years Myles Hildyard was its guardian," noted The Independent in its recent obituary, "a most remarkable place to visit. Not just because of the beauty and richness of its physical surroundings, but also because he himself was so remarkable a person. 'He was, in a way,' writes Antony Beevor
Antony Beevor
Antony James Beevor, FRSL is a British historian, educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst. He studied under the famous military historian John Keegan. Beevor is a former officer with the 11th Hussars who served in England and Germany for five years before resigning his commission...

, 'the local equivalent of Nancy Mitford's Lord Merlin.' At Flintham he encouraged and received a stream of visitors young and old, who brought lively conversation, stimulation and enjoyment to a house which, when his father inherited, had been a rather forbidding and lifeless place."

Myles Hildyard never married, and his two brothers predeceased him. He was the eldest son of Judge Gerard Moresby Thoroton Hildyard, QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...

 of Flintham Hall and his wife, the former Sybil Hamilton Hoare of Stourton, Wiltshire
Stourton, Wiltshire
Stourton is a village in Wiltshire, England, at . The village is close to the county boundary with Somerset and about south of the Somerset market town of Frome.Stourton is part of the Stourhead estate, now in the ownership of the National Trust....

, and the grandson of General Sir Henry John Thoroton Hildyard
Henry Hildyard
General Sir Henry John Thoroton Hildyard GCB was a British Army general who saw active service in the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882 and the Second Boer War.He was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South Africa, from 1905 to 1908....

, who was active in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

. The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire
Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire
The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire is Nottinghamshire’s principal historical and archaeological society.It was established in 1897, and takes its name from Dr Robert Thoroton who published the first county history of Nottinghamshire in 1677...

, the county's foremost historical organization, of which Myles Hildyard was longserving president, recently staged its first Myles Thoroton Annual Lecture Series, for which Thoroton had left a bequest in his will. Myles Hildyard was buried August 24, 2005, at St. Augustine's Church in Flintham, where many of his ancestors lay.

Flintham Hall, now the home of Myles's nephew Robert and his wife Isabella Hildyard, was recently the chief location for filming "Easy Virtue," a movie based on the Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

 play. It was also used in the filming of the movie starring Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...

 and Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...

, directed by Anand Tucker
Anand Tucker
Anand Tucker is a film director and producer based in London. He began his career directing factual television programming and adverts...

, And When Did You Last See Your Father?
And When Did You Last See Your Father?
And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a 2007 British drama film directed by Anand Tucker. The screenplay by David Nicholls is based on the 1993 memoir of the same title by Blake Morrison.-Plot:...

.

A windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...

 stood in Broad Marsh field from 1779 to 1847 .

External links


Flintham Plough Boy's play

Flintham is also the place where the traditional English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

folk play originated called the Plough Boy's Play. It was last performed in 1925. The play only consists of 151 lines of text and involves only 7 characters.

Flintham Football Club

Football club founded in 1969, currently playing in Newark Alliance Division 3.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK