| Country: | England | ||||||
| Coordinates: | 53.02°N -0.989°W | ||||||
| Static Image Name: | Cottages on Gonalston Lane, Gonalston - geograph.org.uk - 4224618.jpg | ||||||
| Static Image Caption: | Gonalston Lane. | ||||||
| Map Type: | Nottinghamshire | ||||||
| Official Name: | Gonalston | ||||||
| Shire District: | Newark and Sherwood | ||||||
| Shire County: | Nottinghamshire | ||||||
| Region: | East Midlands | ||||||
| Constituency Westminster: | Newark | ||||||
| Post Town: | NOTTINGHAM | ||||||
| Postcode District: | NG14 | ||||||
| Postcode Area: | NG | ||||||
| Dial Code: | 0115 | ||||||
| Os Grid Reference: | SK 67809 47478 | ||||||
| Type: | Village and civil parish | ||||||
| Static Image 2 Name: |
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| Static Image 2 Caption: | Parish map | ||||||
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 1.71 | ||||||
| Population: | 83 | ||||||
| Population Ref: | (2021) | ||||||
| London Direction: | SSE | ||||||
| London Distance Mi: | 110 |
Gonalston is a small village in Nottinghamshire lying just to the north-east of Lowdham and almost upon the A612 trunk road that runs from Nottingham to Southwell. Gonalston comprises 1096acres of arable and pasture land in about equal portions, interspersed with 106acres of wood and plantations. It lies on a small river called the Dover Beck which separates the village from Lowdham and which flows south-east into the River Trent 2miles away. Population for the 2021 census was 83 residents.
Gonalston seems to contain the Old Norse personal name, Gunnolf, + tun (Old English), an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate.., so 'Gunnolf's farm/settlement'.[1]
According to Francis White's Directory of Nottinghamshire of 1853, Gonalston
The parish church of St Laurence dates from the 14th century. It lies outside the village centre, in the grounds of the rectory, close to the manor house and home farm.
The village was famed in ancient times for its hospital or spital now lost, and its effigies of Crusaders. "William de Heris, in the reign of Henry III, founded an hospital here called the Spital, 'to the honour of St. Mary Magdalene;' the successive rectors of the parish were masters, and formerly preached their induction sermon upon its ruins."[2]
Some recent and important archaeological discoveries have been made in the East Midlands and especially in the silts of the Trent Valley area. This includes finds in Gonalston. At Holme Dyke, Gonalston, Neolithic pottery has been excavated from a ring ditch, and a Late Bronze Age domestic site (as a burnt mound) was uncovered by quarry workings.[3]