diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index 1c96a84df1..b6c9233382 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@ Changelog
  * The current live version of a page is now tracked on the revision listing view (Matheus Bratfisch)
  * Each block created in a `StreamField` is now assigned a globally unique identifier (Matt Westcott)
  * Mixcloud oEmbed pattern has been updated (Alice Rose)
- * Added ``last_published_at`` field to the Page model (Matt Westcott)
+ * Added `last_published_at` field to the Page model (Matt Westcott)
+ * Added `show_in_menus_default` flag on page models, to allow "show in menus" to be checked by default (LB (Ben Johnston))
  * Fix: Unauthenticated AJAX requests to admin views now return 403 rather than redirecting to the login page (Karl Hobley)
  * Fix: `TableBlock` options `afterChange`, `afterCreateCol`, `afterCreateRow`, `afterRemoveCol`, `afterRemoveRow` and `contextMenu` can now be overridden (Loic Teixeira)
  * Fix: The lastmod field returned by wagtailsitemaps now shows the last published date rather than the date of the last draft edit (Matt Westcott)
diff --git a/docs/reference/pages/model_reference.rst b/docs/reference/pages/model_reference.rst
index 9c56077a4b..f3fb363f65 100644
--- a/docs/reference/pages/model_reference.rst
+++ b/docs/reference/pages/model_reference.rst
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ Database fields
 
         Toggles whether the page should be included in site-wide menus.
 
+        Defaults to ``False`` and can be overridden on the model with ``show_in_menus_default = True``.
+
         This is used by the :meth:`~wagtail.wagtailcore.query.PageQuerySet.in_menu` QuerySet filter.
 
 Methods and properties
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.11.rst b/docs/releases/1.11.rst
index 3448f83f85..fd580b1e87 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.11.rst
+++ b/docs/releases/1.11.rst
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ Other features
  * Each block created in a ``StreamField`` is now assigned a globally unique identifier (Matt Westcott)
  * Mixcloud oEmbed pattern has been updated (Alice Rose)
  * Added ``last_published_at`` field to the Page model (Matt Westcott)
+ * Added ``show_in_menus_default`` flag on page models, to allow "show in menus" to be checked by default (LB (Ben Johnston))
 
 
 Bug fixes
diff --git a/wagtail/tests/testapp/migrations/0017_alwaysshowinmenuspage.py b/wagtail/tests/testapp/migrations/0017_alwaysshowinmenuspage.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5253df4b56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wagtail/tests/testapp/migrations/0017_alwaysshowinmenuspage.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+# Generated by Django 1.10.6 on 2017-05-26 13:38
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+import django.db.models.deletion
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('wagtailcore', '0032_add_bulk_delete_page_permission'),
+        ('tests', '0016_auto_20170303_2340'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.CreateModel(
+            name='AlwaysShowInMenusPage',
+            fields=[
+                ('page_ptr', models.OneToOneField(auto_created=True, on_delete=django.db.models.deletion.CASCADE, parent_link=True, primary_key=True, serialize=False, to='wagtailcore.Page')),
+            ],
+            options={
+                'abstract': False,
+            },
+            bases=('wagtailcore.page',),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/wagtail/tests/testapp/models.py b/wagtail/tests/testapp/models.py
index aebf62d95f..339296225f 100644
--- a/wagtail/tests/testapp/models.py
+++ b/wagtail/tests/testapp/models.py
@@ -961,3 +961,7 @@ class TabbedSettings(TestSetting):
             FieldPanel('email')
         ], heading='Second tab'),
     ])
+
+
+class AlwaysShowInMenusPage(Page):
+    show_in_menus_default = True
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py b/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py
index 18d2bac103..44a5a211ff 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py
@@ -295,6 +295,8 @@ class Page(six.with_metaclass(PageBase, AbstractPage, index.Indexed, Clusterable
         blank=True,
         help_text=_("Optional. 'Search Engine Friendly' title. This will appear at the top of the browser window.")
     )
+
+    show_in_menus_default = False
     show_in_menus = models.BooleanField(
         verbose_name=_('show in menus'),
         default=False,
@@ -367,11 +369,16 @@ class Page(six.with_metaclass(PageBase, AbstractPage, index.Indexed, Clusterable
 
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         super(Page, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
-        if not self.id and not self.content_type_id:
-            # this model is being newly created rather than retrieved from the db;
-            # set content type to correctly represent the model class that this was
-            # created as
-            self.content_type = ContentType.objects.get_for_model(self)
+        if not self.id:
+            # this model is being newly created
+            # rather than retrieved from the db;
+            if not self.content_type_id:
+                # set content type to correctly represent the model class
+                # that this was created as
+                self.content_type = ContentType.objects.get_for_model(self)
+            if 'show_in_menus' not in kwargs:
+                # if the value is not set on submit refer to the model setting
+                self.show_in_menus = self.show_in_menus_default
 
     def __str__(self):
         return self.title
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py b/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py
index 8f25225d52..21c9eb09fc 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py
@@ -16,10 +16,11 @@ from django.test.utils import override_settings
 from freezegun import freeze_time
 
 from wagtail.tests.testapp.models import (
-    AbstractPage, Advert, BlogCategory, BlogCategoryBlogPage, BusinessChild, BusinessIndex,
-    BusinessNowherePage, BusinessSubIndex, CustomManager, CustomManagerPage, EventIndex, EventPage,
-    GenericSnippetPage, ManyToManyBlogPage, MTIBasePage, MTIChildPage, MyCustomPage, OneToOnePage,
-    SimplePage, SingleEventPage, SingletonPage, StandardIndex, TaggedPage)
+    AbstractPage, Advert, AlwaysShowInMenusPage, BlogCategory, BlogCategoryBlogPage, BusinessChild,
+    BusinessIndex, BusinessNowherePage, BusinessSubIndex, CustomManager, CustomManagerPage,
+    EventIndex, EventPage, GenericSnippetPage, ManyToManyBlogPage, MTIBasePage, MTIChildPage,
+    MyCustomPage, OneToOnePage, SimplePage, SingleEventPage, SingletonPage, StandardIndex,
+    TaggedPage)
 from wagtail.tests.utils import WagtailTestUtils
 from wagtail.wagtailcore.models import Page, PageManager, Site, get_page_models
 
@@ -1349,3 +1350,26 @@ class TestDummyRequest(TestCase):
 
         # '*' is not a valid hostname, so ensure that we replace it with something sensible
         self.assertNotEqual(request.META['HTTP_HOST'], '*')
+
+
+class TestShowInMenusDefaultOption(TestCase):
+    """
+    This tests that a page model can define the default for 'show_in_menus'
+    """
+    fixtures = ['test.json']
+
+    def test_show_in_menus_default(self):
+        # Create a page that does not have the default init
+        page = Page(
+            title='My Awesome Page', slug='my-awesome-page')
+
+        # Check that the page instance creates with show_in_menu as False
+        self.assertFalse(page.show_in_menus)
+
+    def test_show_in_menus_default_override(self):
+        # Create a page that does have the default init
+        page = AlwaysShowInMenusPage(
+            title='My Awesome Page', slug='my-awesome-page')
+
+        # Check that the page instance creates with show_in_menu as True
+        self.assertTrue(page.show_in_menus)