Newton Solney
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Newton Solney is a small South Derbyshire village, which is located about two miles from the Staffordshire border, near to Burton upon Trent. Its nearest neighbour is Repton, situated about two miles to the northeast.
The village was once the property of Henry de Ferrers, before being passed over to Norman de Solney some time around the 11th century.
When the Anglian invaders came up the Trent in the sixth century, they would have found Newton Solney a very attractive place, sitting at the confluence of two rivers, the Trent, which could be forded here and the Dove. They called it Niwantune meaning the new farm and from this tiny nucleus, the village slowly grew. When the Vikings, in their turn, raided Mercia and destroyed the Saxon monastery at Repton (873-4) they may also have sacked and occupied Newton Solney. After the Conquest (1066) the king owned Newton Solney which appears in the Doomsday Book along with Bretby. Together, they had twenty villagers. In 1205 Alured de Solennaia, a Norman knight, inherited Newton. By about 1300 it became known as Newton Solney. Norman knights were passionately fond of hunting and the de Solneys carved a hunting park out of the extensive woodland. The first church was built in the twelfth century. There would also have been a manor house, probably somewhere near the present Newton Park Hotel. The lord of the manor would have had a mill and fishing rights on the river and a tithe barn is recorded in 1528. With the death of John, the last male de Solney in 1390, the manor passed through several important local families and was finally bought by a local attorney, Abraham Hoskins who built the house, now the hotel. The village slowly grew to a population of 181 in 1801 and now has about 800, the increase mainly resulting from a new housing development off Blacksmith's Lane. The Main Road was declared a conservation area in 1978.
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