Austerfield

Austerfield

Austerfield

Village in South Yorkshire, England

Austerfield is a village and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north-east of the market town of Bawtry on the A614 road, and adjacent to the hamlet of Newington in Nottinghamshire, close to the River Idle. The population in 2001 was 571,[2] which fell to 536 at the 2011 Census.[1]

Quick Facts Population, Civil parish ...

Heritage

The name Austerfield was first recorded in 715 and derives from the Old English Ouestraefelda (eowestre), which means open land with a sheepfold.[3][4] It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Robert of Mortain, and having 27 villages, 40 freemen, a priest and a church.[5]

The Council of Austerfield was convened here by King Aldfrith of Northumbria in AD 702 and attended by Berhtwald, Archbishop of Canterbury to decide on whether Saint Wilfrid should become Archbishop of York.[6] Austerfield was then on the border between the two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia.[7]

Austerfield contains the 11th-century church of St Helena, which was built in 1080 by John de Builli, using stone from quarries at Roche Abbey.[8] The church today has 19th-century several stained-glass windows designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.[9] The nave has a sheela na gig, a rare type of quasi-erotic stone carving of a female figure sometimes found in Norman churches.[10] This had been blocked into a wall in the 14th century and was rediscovered in 1898 during restoration work.[11]

Notable people

In birth order:

Transport

The nearest railway station to Austerfield is at Doncaster (9½ miles, 15 km). It is served by a bus route, as are Bawtry, Worksop and Sheffield.[13] The A1M trunk road between London and the North passes 5 miles (8 km) to the west of the village.[14]

References

  1. [1]
    UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Austerfield Parish (E04000061)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  2. [2]
    UK Census (2001). "Local Area Report – Austerfield Parish (00CE005)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  3. [3]
    Smith, A. H. (1961). The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire: Part One Lower and Upper Strafforth and Staincross Wapentakes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 46. OCLC 258654754.
  4. [4]
    Ekwall, Eilert (1960). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (4 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 0-19-869103-3.
  5. [5]
    "Austerfield | Domesday Book". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  6. [6]
    "Doncaster Council Heritage Strategy" (PDF). doncaster.moderngov.co.uk. p. 41. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  7. [7]
    Fraser, James E. (2009). From Caledonia to Pictland Scotland to 795. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 264. ISBN 9780748628209.
  8. [8]
    "Austerfield St Helena". nationalchurchestrust.org. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  9. [9]
    Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003) [1959]. Ratcliffe, Enid (ed.). Yorkshire the West Riding (2 ed.). London: Yale University Press. p. 87. ISBN 0-300-09662-3.
  10. [10]
    "Austerfield – The Sheela Na Gig Project". sheelanagig.org. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  11. [11]
    Bradford's baptism. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  12. [12]
    "Creator of best-loved TV Yorkshire comedy series turns 88 this month". Doncaster Free Press. 27 January 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  13. [13]
    Bus times. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  14. [14]
    "279" (Map). Doncaster. 1:25,000. Explorer. Ordnance Survey. 2015. ISBN 978-0-319-24476-0.
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