Thurgarton nr. Southwell

There was a priest and a church here for the 1086 Domesday Book. Traces of that church were found in the 1950s. White's county directory of 1853 [www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/NTT/Thurgarton/] [accessed 27 September 2013] notes: "The old Priory was taken down about 90 years ago by J.G. Cooper Esq., who erected the present mansion on its site, the cellars of which are the only portions of the religious sanctuary that now remain. The ancient priory was founded in 1130 by Ralph de Ayncourt, for canons of the order of St Augustine. He dedicated it to St Peter". The Southwell & Nottingham Church History Project [http://southwellchurches.history.nottingham.ac.uk/thurgarton/hintro.php] [accessed 27 September 2013] reports: "The Domesday entry for Thurgarton and Tythby records a priest and a church; evidence of a late Anglo-Saxon / early Norman church site was discovered in the 1950s during archaeological excavations on Castle Hill, 250m south of the present parish church. [...] The priory was surrendered to Henry VIII’s commissioners in 1538. The advowson and tithes were granted to Trinity College, Cambridge but the priory buildings and surrounding land were sold to William Cooper. The Coopers dismantled most of the church and claustral buildings to build a Tudor mansion. The priory church continued as the parish church but as a much smaller building which retained only the north-west tower and the west end of the nave with a lowered roof. In 1777 the Tudor house was replaced by the brick Georgian mansion one can see today. In 1820 the Milward family bought the Cooper estate and in 1853 Richard Milward commissioned the Nottingham architect, T C Hine, to restore the dilapidated church. The present church is essentially Hine’s work together with surviving fabric from the 13th and 14th century building and retains its ancient title of The Priory Church of St Peter. The present font is 19th-century. [NB: we have no information on the font of the original church here].