Throsby's drawing of the remains of the tower in 1790

Thorpe in the Glebe

Nottingham Archdeaconry

East Bingham Deanery

Introduction

Domesday does not record either a priest or a church at Thorpe in the Glebe. The first rector was appointed in 1251. The earliest fiscal reference to a church here is in 1291. Its dedication is unknown.

In the reign of Henry VIII, the lord of the manor, Gabriel Armstrong, enclosed the open fields to form pasture, and the village was deserted as was reported by the Valor Ecclesiasticus in 1535.

The church was abandoned and fell into ruin. Thoroton stated that a shepherd sold ale in it. Throsby’s drawing of 1790 shows only a ruined steeple. No presentation was made after the last incumbent died in 1868.

Tradition says that the church was Norman and consisted of a chancel and a nave with a small squat tower, the whole building being little more than 60 feet by 18 feet and similar in form to the church at Stanton on the Wolds.

All that now remains of this church is a grass-covered mound on the south side of the Chapel field and to the west of Church Site Farm. The site is preserved as part of the site of the Deserted Medieval Village of Thorpe in the Glebe. It is grassed over. A footpath across the Chapel field leads right round the mound covering the remains of the church.

Particular thanks to Jean Anabel-Cooper and Sandra Ford for research on this entry