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. This manor was in the
Domesday Book in 1086. Under the title of "The land of the
King (in Derbyshire)" it said: In Newton Solney and
Bretby Ælfgar had seven
carucates of land to the
geld. There is land for six ploughs. There the king has one plough and nineteen
villans and one
bordar with five ploughs. There are of meadow, woodland pasture two leagues long and three furlongs broad. TRE as now worth one hundred shillings. The village was passed over to
Norman de Solney some time after 1086. 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. == Modern development==