Village Life
History of Car Colston
Car Colston and Screveton may be small villages today but the landscape around them tells a story stretching back thousands of years.
From evidence of Bronze Age settlement and a Roman villa to medieval manor houses, ancient churches and centuries-old farming communities, both villages have a remarkably rich history. Much of that history can still be seen in the buildings, fields, earthworks and open spaces that shape the villages today.
Car Colston: from the Bronze Age to the Romans
There is evidence that people were living around Car Colston as far back as the Bronze Age.
Later, during the Roman occupation of Britain, a substantial Roman villa stood at Hall Close, to the south-west of the present village. Archaeological evidence shows the outline of a winged or corridor-style villa and Roman pottery has also been discovered nearby. The remains now form part of a protected Scheduled Monument.
The wider protected site is particularly fascinating because it contains evidence from several different periods of village history, including the Roman villa, a medieval moat, fishponds, ridge and furrow cultivation, a postmill mound and earthworks associated with the medieval settlement.
A village recorded in Domesday
Car Colston appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name Colestone.
Its modern name developed over the centuries. “Colston” is thought to combine the Old Norse personal name Kolr with tun, meaning a farm or settlement. The prefix which eventually became “Car” derives from an Old Norse word associated with a church and was added to distinguish the village from nearby Colston Bassett.
Medieval Car Colston
The shape of medieval Car Colston is still visible in the landscape.
Earthworks in Hall Close mark parts of the earlier settlement and a square moat once surrounded the Willoughby Manor House. Croft boundaries, fishponds and areas of medieval ridge and furrow survive as further reminders of the way land was occupied and farmed hundreds of years ago.
The village grew around its church, farms and areas of common land and those open commons remain one of Car Colston's defining features today.
Robert Thoroton
Robert Thoroton lived at Car Colston during the 17th century and published his celebrated Antiquities of Nottinghamshire in 1677.
His work became an important early record of the county's places, families and history. Thoroton was buried at St Mary's following his death in 1678 and his stone coffin survives at the church.
The Thoroton family's story also links Car Colston with neighbouring Screveton.
The Commons and the Landscape
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Car Colston today is its open common land.
Large Common and Little Common give the village its unusual spacious character with houses and cottages arranged informally around the open landscape rather than along a conventional village street.
The whole of Car Colston is now a Conservation Area and includes 13 listed buildings or structures as well as its Scheduled Monument. Traditional local red brick, clay pantile roofs, historic houses and the open commons all contribute to the character that survives today.
Near Little Common stands Brunsell Hall, where remains of an earlier manor house dating from 1662 can still be seen. Close to Large Common is another Grade II listed house dating from 1718.