Orston

Orston is a village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, England, adjacent to Scarrington, Thoroton, Flawborough, Bottesford and Elton on the Hill, and 15 miles (24 km) east of Nottingham. It had a population of 454 at the time of the 2011 census.

The place-name Orston seems to contain an Old English personal name, Osica, with -ingtūn (Old English), a settlement called after, or connected with..., so probably, "farm/settlement connected with Osica". Some early spellings are Oschintone in 1086 (the Domesday Book); Orskinton, 1242; Orston, 1284 and Horston in 1428. It lay in Bingham Wapentake (hundred) until such units were abolished under the Local Government Act 1894.

The population of Orston was 351 in 1801, 391 in 1821, and 439 in 1831. More detail on the history of the village and the sources for it appears on the village website. There is a short description of the village in 1870–72 in John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales.

Orston farming showed an unusual variant of the open-field system, with four fields instead of three. An enclosure act was passed in 1793. A detailed survey of Orston's present appearance and recent history as a conservation area was made in 2010.

There are still gypsum quarries in the area. Indeed, Orston was once primarily a mining village. In earlier centuries Orston was probably the most important source of gypsum in the East Midlands. According to the Nottinghamshire volume of the Victoria History of the Countries of England, the gypsum at Orston was the "finest in the Kingdom". The remains of several brickworks have also been identified. Mining subsidence has been a problem in some parts of the village, affecting also the church. A full account of the quarrying and mining in the village has appeared.

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