Domesday
Dinnington is one of many places that was founded during the Saxon settlement of the area although whether Dunna was the first to carve a settlement out of the woodland we will never know. There were two estates at Dinnington in 1086. A portion of the parish was part of Roger de Busli’s manor of Laughton and Throapham. The remainder was held by William de Warenne and contained three freemen and six smallholders with 3 plough teams.
Church
The church was founded at some time before 1139 when William de Warenne granted the advowson to Lewses Priory. The parish of Dinnington only included the Warenne portion of the township as the de Busli portion became part of the parish of Laughton. The Priory supplied a priest for the church at Dinnington. The earliest recorded priest is John, clerk of Dinnington, in 1240. Some of the medieval vicars seem to have been lively characters. In 1348 John de Manningham was charged with breaking the park of William de Fourneur at Carlton (Ntt) and carrying off his animals. A later vicar, William Brandon, was murdered by Elias Skinner of Hodsock (Ntt) in 1407. The original church, which was probably of wooden construction, was destroyed by fire c1318.
By the 1780s the parish church appears to have been in a poor state and Robert Athorpe had it pulled down “to prevent mischief”. Robert built a new church, changing the dedication from St. Nicholas to St. Leonard. The new church was small, only 35ft by 17half ft. John Carver Athope apparently enlarged the church in 1842 but there is no record of what was done and in 1868 he demolished the structure and erected a new church a cost of £1,300. The church has since been twice enlarged. In 1906 the north aisle, vestry and porch were added and the nave lengthened. The chancel was lengthened in 1911 as a memorial to Rev. G.M. Athorpe.
14th Century
The Poll Tax return of 1379 indicates a small village with no resident lord. There are 43 names on the list, including two carpenters and a tailor. In 1241 Stephen de Segrave bought an estate in Dinnington and surrounding villages from Alice, Countess of Eu, who held the Honor of Tickhill, and became lord of the manor of Dinnington. The Segraves retained Dinnington until the 14th century. John de Segrave married Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk and the manor passed to their son John, Lord Mowbray. The lordship of Dinnington eventually passed to the Talbots, Earl of Shrewbury, and from them to the Howards, Earls of Norfolk.
Athorpes of Dinnington
In 1678 Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk, sold Dinnington to John Athropp of Western-sub-Edge (Glos). The Athropps (or Athorpes as the name came to be spelled) were the first lords to reside in the manor. The present Dinnington Hall was erected by Henry Athorpe in 1756. At some time before 1854, one of the Athorpes had the main road to Anston, which had run past the hall, diverted to its present line.
Falcon Inn
The Falcon Inn takes its name from the falcon in the Athorpe crest, “a falcon in the Athorpe crest, “a falcon proper, belled or”. According to legend, the tenancy of the inn was granted to a former butler to the Athorpes, called Makinson, for his good service while the squire was away from home. The inn remained in the hands of the Makinson family until after the mine was sunk. It was then sold to Mappin’s Brewery who completely rebuilt it.
Methodists
A Wesleyan chapel existed in Barley Croft Lane in the 1850s. This was replaced in 1902 by St Andrew’s Methodist Church on Laughton Road. The Primitive Methodists began by meeting in the open air before graduating to a wooden chapel on colliery land. A permanent chapel was opened in 1906 and enlarged in 1911. Many of the colliery sinkers housed in the “Tin Town” were Irish Catholics. The first Catholic church in the village was a former “Tin Town” house, replaced by St Joseph’s Church.
Education
The first reference to education in the village is to a private school for ten children taught by a widow. The first proper school, the National School, was opened in 1874 in Barley Croft Lane and cost £600. The initial roll was 38 pupils but in the early years they were more often absent than present, helping their parents on the land or just playing truant.
The National School soon became inadequate and, as a temporary measure the girls were moved into the Middleton Institute until a new Council School was opened in 1907. The new schools were full as soon as they were open. A secondary modern school was opened in 1935 and the Chelmsford Mining and Technical Institute (now Rother Valley College) in 1928.
Coal Mining
The nature of the Parish changed completely with the sinking of Dinnington Colliery which commenced in 1902. A total of 10,000 acres of coal was leased by the Dinnington Colliery Company. Two shafts were sunk, reaching the Barnsley Seam in 1904 and 1905. Coal began to be raised in 1905.
The influx of miners raised the population of the village from 258 in 1901 to 4,898 in 1911. The shaft sinkers and first miners were housed in tin huts. There were originally 17 huts but by the time coal was reached the “tin town” had grown to 100. These huts were the first houses in the village to be supplied with electricity (from the colliery generator). Once coal was reached the colliery company began to build and lease houses for its workforce. Within a few years the open field between the colliery and the old village had been filled with houses and Laughton Road was lined with shops. By 1911 the colliery was providing employment for 450 men on the surface and 1,568 underground.
Lyric Theatre
The Lyric Theatre opened in 1910. Initially as a roller skating rink, it was later used as a music hall. The Picture Palace was opened in 1913. The cinema was also used for village dances and, for a time, as the Salvation Army Sunday School.
Throapham
The 1840 tithe award for Throapham shows that the largest landholder in the parish was Henry Gally Knight with 517 acres, over a quarter of the parish. Other large landowners were Rev JC Lawe and Anthony St Leger. The civil parishes of Dinnington and Throapham St John were united in 1954, giving a total population of 7,532.
The population of the combined parish rose to 7,763 in 1971 but fell to 7,074 in 1981 only to climb to 7,781 in 1991.
The church of St John’s, Throapham, lies in an unusual position at the extreme north west corner of its parish, which formerly included Letwell and Gildingwells. The importance of the church declined after a church was erected at Letwell and Throapham was eventually absorbed into the parish of Laughton. The decline may date from the marriage of the heiress of the Laughton of St John’s to a Mauleverer of Letwell.
St John’s contains work from four periods; Norman, 13th century, 15th century and 19th century. Norman stonework survives in the north west corner of the church while the chancel is early 13th century and the tower and west wall date from the 15th century. The church was extensively renovated in 1906.
(Extracted from:- R.M.B.C, Patchwork of parishes, 1997)
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