Bavington (anciently "Babington") was the original seat of the prominent
Babington family, originally
de Babington. Sir John de Babington,
Lord of Babington Parva (now Bavington), in the county of
Northumberland was alive in 1178 and 1220 and the family remained there for at least five generations before migrating south to Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Nottingham, Cambridge and Devon. In 1794, the Northumberland mathematician and astronomer
Henry Atkinson began running Bavington school when he was only thirteen. According to
John Stokoe in his "Songs and Ballads of Northern England" (1893), the song
Bobby Shaftoe is connected by tradition with one of the Shaftoes of Bavington, who ran away to sea to escape the attentions of a lady of beauty and fortune. The poet
Kathleen Raine spent her younger days living in the
manse in Great Bavington. == See also ==