Sibthorpe: Hotels and Traces of the Medieval Village

Dovecote and Church

If you are considering Sibthorpe as a travel destination, its local history offers a clearly defined theme: the dovecote, parish church, and remains of the medieval village point to different aspects of architectural and settlement history. The dovecote is a circular stone building with a diameter of ten metres at the base and a conical, tiled roof. It still stands at its original height. Inside, the building is divided into 28 horizontal bands, each containing 40 or 42 nesting boxes. The building can therefore be understood both through its exterior form and its clearly structured interior.

St Peter’s Church is the parish church of the village. It comprises a west tower, a chancel dated to 1335, a nave from the late 18th century, and a vestry from the late 19th century. The dates refer to different parts of the building; they do not give a single construction date for the entire church. Anyone dating the church can consider its parts individually rather than attributing a single date of origin to the whole church.

Traces of the Medieval Village

On the site of the medieval village, rectangular platforms mark the locations of medieval houses. The abandoned village areas contain standing, buried, and earthwork remains. These different forms of preservation show that the village traces do not consist solely of standing structures. Parts of four medieval open fields together form the ridge-and-furrow earthworks. Thus, the marked house sites, as individual rectangular features, contrast with the shared earthworks formed by the fields.

Top Green displays another type of feature: it is a good example of a double moat connected to fishponds. House sites, fields, and this moat feature complement one another as different elements of the area’s landscape history, without describing the same kind of trace.

College and Hall Yard

The College of Secular Priests in Sibthorpe is documented as a collegiate foundation for the period from 1325 to 1540. Its founding charter was issued in 1341 and provided for eight priests and two clerks. The dates serve different purposes: 1325 to 1540 refers to the documented period of the college, while 1341 is the year of the charter. The site of the college buildings is tentatively believed to be east of the church, in Hall Yard. Ground evidence supports this assumption; apart from the remains of a possible enclosing ditch, nothing there can be surveyed. None of the college buildings remain standing. The institution’s history and the tentatively identified location of its buildings can therefore be considered separately.

Practical Travel Planning

A timetable for route 354 lists the Sibthorpe, Main Street stop on the Newark–Elston–East Bridgford–Bingham route. It takes effect on 8 April 2024, so check the current timetable before travelling. For Rushcliffe as a whole, a 2021 nature report notes that there are at least some public footpath networks throughout the borough, though their extent varies. If you are planning a particular walk, check current path conditions.

Discover more destinations: Blidworth, Southwell, Edwalton, Warsop, Dunham, Eastwood, East Retford, Calverton

For the broader travel overview: Nottinghamshire.