Barton-in-Fabis - An Introduction

An old postcard showing the entrance to Barton-in-Fabis

Some descriptions of the village from early county histories and guide books

The village of Barton-in-Fabis was (according to Frith*) also sometimes known as Barton-among-the-beans.

Barton, (continues Frith*) [is] an old-fashioned village, where almost every cottage genially invites you to " tea and hot water," and a church well worth visiting claims your brief attention. ....

The inside of the church was modernised in 1810, and one who visited it in 1816 sums up the achieved result by saying that three or four hundred pounds had been expended in destroying "some of the most beautiful remains of antiquity in the county."

These included a " rood loft, of excellent filigree Gothic carving, in perfect order, of which there is now only the mutilated cancelli, and the roodway through the south-west angle, from what was heretofore a small oratory or chantry."

What remains of the manor-house, where the Sacheverells lived, is now a farmhouse. But it is merely a fragment of the old mansion.  The brick dovecote is still standing.

The importance of Barton in the old days and indeed now, for that matter lay in its ferry across the Trent , and the discovery of a fragment of Roman pavement in 1865 indicates the ferry's great antiquity.  [Click HERE for more information on the Roman pavement].

* FRITH, J.B. The Highways & Byways of Nottinghamshire (London: Macmillan, 1915)

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".... at the census of 1811 [Barton-in-Fabis] returned 67 houses and a population of 347 inhabitants; in 1821 it had 73 houses and 403 inhabitants.  It now contains many more than that number...

"The church... is so encompassed with fine elm trees that only the top of the spire is visible...To the right is presented delightful landscape of green fields environed by lofty hills...."

From Anon. The Nottingham & Derby Railway Companion (Nottingham: R. Allen, 1839) p.22

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