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A History of

MANTHORPE,

TOFT and LOUND

Produced by the Witham-on-the-Hill Historical Society

(Incorporating Manthorpe, Toft and Lound)

Charity No. 1078244

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FOREWORD

This booklet is an attempt to gather into one place all the historical information contained in

the many files and bundles of records, notes, photographs, postcards, books and my

personal research in the archive of Witham-on-the-Hill Historical Society concerning the

three villages of Manthorpe, Toft and Lound.

I have tried to include items to make it an interesting read and have, wherever possible,

given only information from before the 1970s in order not to invade the privacy of current

residents.

I have endeavoured to give factual information, but I cannot guarantee that all the research

is correct. Many historians who have written papers on subjects such as the transcription

and interpretation of the Domesday Book have often contradicted each other, so I have

tried to give as many possible meanings without confusing the issue. The same applies to

various archaeologists’ reports on crop circles and barrows; the newer reports are much

more detailed than earlier ones due to better technology and data such as satellite images. I

have included references to where the information was obtained in some instances, but

have not made a formal bibliography for such an informal collection of local history.

After the individual sections on the villages, I have listed some of the names connected with

each village as I have come across them while researching this booklet. The Historical

Society has a lot more details in the form of banns, baptisms, marriages, burials and even

family history research on some prominent local names. To have included all this

information would have taken up too much room.

I hope you find in this small publication a mix of very local history, social history

observations and a few items to make you say “Well, I never knew that”.

Sue Cork, Witham-on-the-Hill Historical Society, 2013

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Contents

Foreword 2

General History 3

The Enclosure Act 9

Kelly’s Directory 11

Population 12

Post and Telephone 13

Water and Sewage 14

Electricity 18

Workhouse 19

Transport 20

The Law and Government 22

Health 26

Schooling 28

The Church 33

The Protestant Chapels 34

Information from Old Maps 38

Aerial and Satellite Images 39

Interesting items from the Parish News 40

MANTHORPE 43

Bowthorpe Park – Deserted Village 49

Residents of Manthorpe 51

TOFT 58

Residents of Toft 63

LOUND 69

Residents of Lound 71

Glossary 73

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MANTHORPE, TOFT AND LOUND – A HISTORY

GENERAL HISTORY

There have been small communities in the three villages that make up the Parish Council

area since at least the Danish invasion and settlement of about 865AD (the Danes first

invaded South Lincolnshire in 841AD). According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place

Names by A. D. Mills, all three villages have Old Scandinavian names, the language of the

Vikings, comprising Old Danish and Old Norse. Manthorpe is listed as ‘outlying farmstead or

village of a man called Manni, or of the men’ (Lincoln Archive says it is Manni’s secondary

settlement), Toft as ‘curtilage or homestead’ and Lound as ‘small wood or grove’. It is

interesting to note that Witham-on-the-Hill, our bigger neighbour, has an Old English name

that is Saxon in origin meaning ‘homestead in a bend’ and has its own Parish Council. Maybe

these different administrative areas date back to that Viking settlement. The Deanery

within the Diocese of Lincoln is still called Beltisloe, from the time of the Danelaw. This area

was part of the Beltisloe Wapentake, later included in the district of Kesteven. The word

Kesteven has been around since about 1000AD and means ‘wood’ and ‘meeting place’.

There are earlier signs of human habitation all over the area. There are Bronze Age barrows,

a series of at least 12 crop marks showing circular features, enclosures, field boundaries and

ditches stretching along the line of the East Glen river valley which connects all three

villages giving evidence of Iron Age settlements, all within a few miles of Careby Iron Age

Fort. These show an area of settlement from as long ago as 2,500BC, but there are also signs

that Stone Age man was here sometime around 4,000BC, and dropped a stone axe; if he did

not settle here he at least passed through, and even the Romans may have had a small

settlement south east of Toft when they conquered this part of Lincolnshire in 45AD.

The Vikings, who settled in the area and gave our villages their names, would have found,

between gently rolling hills, a pleasant valley with woods and a river away from the Fens.

There is evidence that the East Glen river valley was once much wetter than it is now, with

lots of mentions in the archives during the 13th century of fisheries, osiery beds and

marshlands. So it seems that the sites for the three villages were all chosen to be near the

river but set well enough above flood level on rising ground, and all near a bend in the river,

giving good rich farming as well as easy access to water and fish. There were a lot more

trees than at present. By the time the Normans came, well over 50% of the land in

Manthorpe is described as pannage or natural woodland.

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There is a belief that Hereward the Wake was the son of Leofric of Bourne. But there are

records that show Hereward held land in Witham-on-the-Hill and Barholm, which was seized

by the Normans and then later returned to him. He is said to have given or sold this land to

his friends Anstrid and Asfort sometime in the early 1070s.

From the Domesday Book

The first all-encompassing written evidence of local land ownership comes from the Norman

Domesday Survey of 1086 where the three villages are listed as being part of the

Wapentake of Beltisloe along with Witham and the extinct villages of Bowthorpe and

Adewelle (Old or Holywell). The main landowners at that time were the Abbot of

Peterborough and Gilbert of Ghent, although Hereward gets another mention as owning

land in Manthorpe, Toft and Lound too. Bowthorpe is now a farm but lots of lumps and

bumps show evidence of a much larger settlement in the past. The site of Adewelle is

unknown, but as the whole area tends to be prone to springs it may be that one of the

surrounding farms once had a larger concentration of dwellings close to a well-fed spring.

Maybe it is referring to Braceborough Spa, which lies nearer to Bowthorpe than it does to

Braceborough, and is again on a bend of the East Glen River.

In Manthorpe there is still mediaeval ridge and furrow strip farming visible in the field in the

heart of the village, which the main road runs round. Manthorpe had a watermill on the

river downstream from Bowthorpe towards Wilsthorpe. This may be the site of the mill

mentioned in Domesday and was in operation until the 19th century. The farm in the middle

of the village is still called Mill Farm although nowhere near a mill; perhaps it was so-called

as the mill was on part of the land owned by the farm.

Another farm in Manthorpe is Church Farm; I have been told this may be named after the

Wesleyan chapel built in 1875 that stood on the other side of the road approximately where

“The Haven” stands today, but in reality it is simply because the land at one time belonged

to the church, although in the 1813 settlement enclosure the land is owned by W.A.

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Johnson of Witham Hall and only rented to Witham Church Estate which would then have

rented it to a farmer. The chapel was a fairly poor building towards the end with a

corrugated iron roof, and was still in use in the 1920s and maybe much later.

The Spalding Gentleman’s Society has a handwritten book with translations from the Latin

of legal documents that include the villages of Manthorpe and Bowthorpe (Manthorp and

Burthorp). These transcripts, mostly dating from the 14th century in the reigns of Edward III,

Richard II and Henry IV (covering 1312 to 1413), are records re-written by the monks at

Crowland of earlier documents. A suspicion exists that the monks may have been trying to

establish a formal title to lands only loaned to them, and as very few outside the church

were literate they could get away with it. There is an entry for the tenth year of the reign of

Henry III, which would be 1217, listing many transactions of assets passed by noblemen to

Abbot Henry and the Abbey at Croiland (Crowland) for the good of their souls, mostly in the

form of Quitclaims and Frankalmoins giving plough land, tofts (cottage with a garden),

oxgangs, woods, ridges, meadows, pastures, waters, fisheries, marshes, even villein-ages

and the service of free men. These detailed descriptions give many insights into the names

used at the time for the parcels of land and the names of surrounding landowners (see more

details in the Manthorpe chapter). Sometimes money is also mentioned, as when the Abbot

of Crowland gives Ralph, son of John of Burthorp (Bowthorpe) three marks of silver, but

there are also several mentions of gloves, of paying a yearly rent of “certain white gloves

worth 1d at Whitsuntide”, or “furred gloves or 2d at the feast of St Nicholas”.

Crowland Abbey engraving from 1776

There are numerous other records of land sales, and even court cases and disputes, that

give an indication of the major landowners at various times and sometimes these apply to

several people or areas in the parish. There is evidence dating from 1441 that John, Viscount

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and Lord of Beaumont (6th Baron) and Folkingham owned land in lots in Manthorpe, Toft

cum Lound and Witham.

The National Archives at Kew have a document dated 24th Oct 1630 of a rent agreement,

where “William Wilson of Manthorpe and Lucie his wife rent to John Watson of Toft a

messuage and tenement in Lound with 30 acres of land, arable and pasture, for the rent of

40 shillings and repair of tenement”. Kew also has a record of a case from 1682 before the

Court of Chancery (Six Clerks Office) called Harrington v Johnson. The plaintiff was William

Harrington (the Harrington family were the lords of the Manor in Witham at one time, with

a manor house on land opposite where the Six Bells now stands) and the defendants were

Thomas Johnson, Anne Johnson his wife (their grandson Woolsey Johnson built Witham Hall

in 1755), the Cambridge Colleges St John’s, Emanuel, Clare Hall, and William Kendrick. The

case refers to property in Witham, Toft, Lound and Manthorpe, which shows that many

different interests part-owned land in all the villages.

Over the centuries the surrounding gentry has owned, leased and rented great chunks of

the villages, both land and houses, buying and selling as their fortunes increased or waned.

In 1650 the Rt. Hon. Henry, Earl of Stamford and Anne his Countess with a few others had to

sell large parcels of land, messuages, buildings etc. in many locations, including the manors

of Toft, Lound and Manthorpe to cover the payments of the Earl’s debts totalling £6,576

14s. 2d. as well as the legal costs. In June 1719 Richard Wynne, Esq. of Folkingham leased to

Robert, Duke of Ancaster (of Grimsthorpe) the manors of Manthorpe, Obthorpe and

Wytham Super Montem (on-the-hill) for seven years at £3 per annum.

By 1905 the majority of the land in Manthorpe is listed as belonging to W. L. Fenwick of

Witham Hall and the Trustees of Witham Church Estate, with only a few farmers owning

their land rather than renting.

The land in the East Glen valley has been used for both the growing of grain, fruit and

vegetables and the rearing of livestock for many centuries, if not millennia, often in a small

way of strip farming, small fields and later the typical cottage garden, with a few fowl and

maybe a pig or cow. There are records of orchards and areas of wood used for pannage

(where pigs were left free to find food) and, before the Enclosure Act, an area around every

village of common land.

There are roads in the parish that show evidence of the movement of animals. In the days

before motorised trucks the only way to get cattle, sheep, pigs and even large flocks of

geese to market was to walk them via roads or tracks, and if you had only a few animals to

send you could use the services of a trader or drover who would herd the animals with

others on the well travelled drove roads. These had much wider verges between the field

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boundaries to allow the herds to graze as they went. We still have such roads - the

Wilsthorpe Road in Manthorpe and the A6121 between the Witham crossroads and Toft.

Wilsthorpe Road - Manthorpe

Manthorpe, Toft and Lound are small for villages and could be called hamlets, although they

have their own parish council which over the years has invested wisely and still owns

property that generates income, meaning that the residents do not have to pay a precept

on top of the rates to fund it, unlike Witham-on-the-Hill which has its own parish council. All

four villages come under the Church Parish of Witham-on-the-Hill and share not only St

Andrew’s Parish Church but also the small Parish Hall next to it.

The First World War saw 65 men from the area join the armed forces, mostly in the Army

but also the Navy and Royal Flying Corp. Of these, 15 died (23%). During the Second World

War the whole parish of Witham-on-the-Hill pulled together in lots of different ways. Of the

population of 320 in the four villages, 22 men and seven women joined the forces or were

on National Service and only two men died (7%). There was a Home Guard of 27 men, much

fund raising and war savings such as Wings for Victory, South Kesteven Corvette, Salute a

Soldier Week, jumble sales, concerts, dances, whist drives, fetes and Red Cross savings. The

W.V.S. (Women’s Voluntary Service) knitted well over a 1,000 items, collected herbs for

medicinal purposes, baked pies for agricultural workers, ran a Jam Preservation Centre,

organised a book and paper collection, collected names of those willing to be a blood donor,

and managed the billeting, welfare and clothing of 35 evacuees from Hull in the parish.

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The W.V.S. was so busy that not only Witham but also Manthorpe and Toft had their own

branches. Parish-wide collections were taken on a regular basis; the War Weapons Week in

1941 raised £1,366/6/5, with Toft providing £173/2/0, Lound £138/15/0, Manthorpe

£209/17/0 and the schoolchildren £55/5/11. As the vicar said, this was a wonderful total

from only 320 inhabitants in the parish. Also in 1941, just a couple of months later, the

parish raised £3,237/13/8 for Warships Week.

THE ENCLOSURE ACT

The Stamford Mercury reports as early as 20th September 1805 (p1, col. 5) the Application

for Intended Enclosure at Witham-on-the-Hill, Manthorpe and Toft with Lound.

The final Enclosure Act came into force in our part of Kesteven in 1813 and changed the use

of a lot of land from Common Land, where smallholders and cottagers with just a few

animals could graze livestock in pastures and woods as their ancestors did. These areas

were suddenly parcelled up by those landowners, larger farmers and local aristocracy who

could afford the legal fees to have deeds and land titles drawn up, and fenced or hedged to

keep the poorer people’s animals out.

The final Plan of Enclosure Award dated 25th August 1818 was drawn up by Edward Arden,

surveyor of the whole parish including Witham-on-the-Hill. This detailed, coloured map

shows in green the land already in private hands, mostly in and around the villages, and in

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white all the newly enclosed fields (the Historical Society has a ditial copy of the map, but it

is under copyright so cannot be included here ). Each field and strip of land has been given a

number, a detail of how many acres and the name of the owner. Sometimes this can be a

little complicated, with one person owning a plot, another leasing it and then sub-letting, so

all three names are listed.

The Enclosure Map gives some useful and otherwise lost local information such as field

names of 200 years ago. Around Lound there are Red Field to the north west, Hunter Field to

the north east and Tucking Field to the east, with Between Towns between Lound and Toft,

and Neefer Field to the east of that. Directly north of Toft is Carr Field, with Calcroft

Meadow running along the east of the main road and the west side of the river south of the

village, with a small area just near the river called Galley Hill Meadow, then Rowen Meadow

just below that down to Witham crossroads. The field behind Roundhills is called Little

Pasture, while the huge field covering the hill north and east of Manthorpe on the road to

Thurlby (called Thackham Road) is called Thackham Field. It seems it only becomes Swallow

Hill on the Thurlby side. On the other side of this road is Middle Gate Field, and south of that

is Wood Field which covers both sides of Wilsthorpe Road south of Manthorpe.

The field on the Witham side of the crossroads is called Bridge Field, while on the

Manthorpe side the big field to the south is called Bridge Meadow. The smaller field on the

north side of the road into Manthorpe and closer to the village is Lamb Cotes Meadow.

Bowthorpe is surrounded with Mill Field to the east and Sand Pit Meadow south of that,

Grange Field to the south and Racer Field on both sides of the main road to the west with

Far Racer Field south of that.

There are other landmarks that have all but disappeared from the current landscape too. In

the days before builders’ merchants and motor vehicles to ship heavy loads large distances,

natural resources like stone were obtained as locally as possible. The Enclosures Map shows

two stone pits, three gravel pits and Sand Pit Meadow in our area. There is a stone pit north

of Lound off to the left of the road to Edenham, and another stone pit is on the west of the

main road south of Bowthorpe Farm entrance. The gravel pits are shown approximately

where Roundhills stands today, half way up Swallow (or Thackham) Hill on the left going

towards Thurlby, and at the edge of the A6121 just north of the road to Lound on the left if

heading towards Bourne.

In Manthorpe, the little road just on the village side of the bridge that leads to Jasmine

Cottage today is shown, but the entrance to the cottage may have had to come from the

track to Townlands Farm, as a large area of water is shown attached to the river which looks

like a village pond, and the road ends at its edge.

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KELLY’S DIRECTORY of 1868

Says: “Manthorpe, Toft and Lound are hamlets, in the parish of Witham-on-the-Hill,

Southern division of the county, Bourn union and county court district, Beltisloe Wapentake,

part of Kesteven, within 3 miles southwest from Bourn and north-west from the river Glen,

about 4 miles east from Essendine station on the Great Northern Railway, and 7 to 8 miles

east from Stamford. Manthorpe lies about half a mile east from the turnpike road from

Stamford to Bourn: Toft is also on this road, Bowthorpe Park, now converted into a farm, is

celebrated for an ancient oak tree, the circumference being fifteen yards; its trunk is

hollowed out, and has received a party of fifteen persons; it is still in a high state of

preservation. Manthorpe is celebrated for strong mineral springs, which rise abundantly. The

principle landowners are Earl Brownlow and Augustus Charles Johnston Esq. The soil is clay;

subsoil, clay and gravel. The chief crops are wheat and barley. The area of Manthorpe, Toft

and Lound is 2,060 acres and the population in 1861 of Manthorpe only was 107. Manthorpe

forms one township and Toft-cum-Lound another, for the support of their poor and highway

repairs. Toft and Lound are hamlets; Lound consists only of a few small farms, and is a little

to the west of the turnpike road from Stamford to Bourn. The Wesleyans have a place of

worship at Toft. The land chiefly belongs to Augustus Charles Johnston, Esq., of Witham Hall,

Lord Aveland, and William A. Pochin, Esq. (who is lord of the manor). The population in 1861

of Toft and Lound was 205. Letters through Bourn, which is the nearest money order office”.

Manthorpe has a long history as a farming village. As well as Bowthorpe Park Farm and

Church Farm there is a Home Farm and a Townlands Farm, and both Deacon Hill House and

Manthorpe House were farms. In Kelly’s Directory of 1896 there are six farmers listed, a

cattle dealer and a collector of the poor rate. In the same edition Lound has just two

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farmers, while Toft has three farmers, a carpenter and builder, a baker and overseer, a

public house keeper (Butchers’ Arms) and a boot maker. By 1933 Manthorpe is listed as

having five farmers, four smallholders and no other trades; Toft has a baker, nurseryman,

publican, garage owner (a Miss Doris Wallis) and just one farmer at Toft House, Lound has

three farmers. Again we have house names to help identify the former uses of houses;

Manthorpe has a Forge and an Old Bakehouse, Toft has the Old Butchers Arms and Chapel

Rise (on the site of a Wesleyan chapel), while Lound has only farms.

POPULATON

In 1801 according to the Parliamentary Gazetteer Toft and Lound had a population of 196

and in 1831 it was 194

In 1842 according to an old County Directory the population was Manthorpe 103; Toft with

Lound 225 Total 328

In 1851 Toft and Lound 231

In 1861 Manthorpe was 107; Toft with Lound 205 Total 312

In 1870-72 according to John Marius Wilsons Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales

Manthorpe had 22 houses and a population of 107 (an average of 4.8 per house) while all

three villages together are quoted as a population of 548 and 115 houses. (which seems

unlikely, see Census below)

In the 1871 Census Manthorpe has 17 households and a total of 78 people

In the 1881 Census Manthorpe was 96: Toft and Lound 168 Total 264

In the 1901 Census it was Manthorpe 76; Toft with Lound 107 Total 183

In 1911 Manthorpe was 93: Toft and Lound 136 Total 229

In 1921 the Census recorded 68 (or 74) adults in Manthorpe; Toft and Lound 125. Total 193

Interestingly in 1818 when the Population for Toft and Lound was in the region of 195, the

Poll for the County of Lincolnshire which records all votes in the June 1818 election lists only

four men who voted from the two villages, a farmer, a shoemaker, a butcher and a

blacksmith – an illustration of the lack of democracy at that time. In Manthorpe only two

men who voted, both farmers.

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Manthorpe Post Box, in the wall of Church Farm Barn, taken in 1998

POST and TELEPHONE

Manthorpe, Toft and Lound have never had a Post Office as far as records show, and have

always had to rely on their bigger neighbour Witham-on-the-Hill, a long walk from Lound via

the road, but both Toft and Lound had well-used footpaths over the fields.

There are letter boxes in all three villages today but a map dated 1886 and revised in 1903

shows the box in the same position in Toft (wall of Toft House), and in Manthorpe as in the

above photograph. There was no box in Lound.

In 1885 the local Post Office in Witham-on-the-Hill was run by “George Meades “receiver”.

Letters by cart from Bourn at 7.30am; dispatched at 4.45pm. The nearest money order &

telegraph office is at Bourn. Wall letter Box at Manthorpe cleared at 5pm and at Toft at 4pm

week days only”. By 1889 the Post Office has been taken over by Samuel Newham (who was

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also a tailor) and the nearest money order and telegraph office was at Little Bytham railway

station.

By 1892, still under Samuel Newham, letters arrive at 8am and are despatched at 4.45pm

via Bourne which is now the nearest money order office, but the telegraph office is still at

Little Bytham. Witham-on-the-Hill Post Office started a telegram service in July 1903, see

poster below.

In 1905 there is a sub-postmistress in charge, Miss Lydia Francis who died in 1916 aged 48.

Prior to 1918 the Holmes family held the post, and then Mr and Mrs Lambert.

By 1933 the Post Office in Witham was run by George Walter Todd, who was a boot maker

as well as postmaster.

Later the Post Office, under Mr Ward,

was situated in Bracken Cottage,

Witham, near the entrance to Witham

Hall, and then it moved to The Six Bells

public house where Walter

Dalby, who had been the Witham Hall

chauffeur, served beer as well as

stamps. Subsequently the Post Office

moved across the road to a shop

behind a bungalow, and from there to

the old telephone exchange, until it

finally closed in the early 1990s.

The Telephone Exchange at Witham-

on-the-Hill became a “real” exchange in

July 1932. Before then the telephone service for the villages was available for local calls

only. Telephone connections came to private houses slowly; the village school in Witham

did not have a telephone until the late 1960s.

WATER AND SEWAGE

Many documents mention the abundant springs in our area. Manthorpe especially was

famed for them, and is only a few miles as the crow flies from the once very popular spa

resort of Braceborough Spa, now a private residence. During its heyday it was a smaller rival

of Bath and Harrogate, with its own railway station called Braceborough Spa Halt. A

“Bathing House” was constructed here in 1841 to take advantage of the one and a half

million gallons of mineral water that gushed forth each day (seven hogsheads per minute

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according to White’ Directory). Kelly’s Directory for 1896 described the water as “noted for

its remarkable purity and abundance of gaseous constituents, rendering it eminently suitable

for drinking and dietetic purposes, it exerts also beneficial action used externally in certain

affections of the skin”. Dr Willis, the famous royal doctor who treated George III for his

“madness”, was supposed to have brought His Royal Highness here for treatment.

On an Ordnance Survey map dated 1949 there is a wind pump marked at Braceborough Spa

and F.B’s which are normally filter beds, along with a fan shape of streams and a separate

river that runs south, parallel to the East Glen River, for some way before joining it. Most of

this stream pattern is still visible on modern maps but is now enclosed in woodland.

After the demise of the spa, use was still made locally of this abundance of water in a

flourishing watercress industry (unfortunately no longer in existence) which had a long

connection with Braceborough. In Lincoln Archives there is a reference to Bracebor and

Shadwell, thought to be Chad’s Well, and in 1236 this was called Watercress Well.

Braceborough Spa Halt, the line of the tracks to the left

Mention must be made here of the Peterborough Corporation Waterworks Pumping Station

(to the west of the road to Wilsthorpe opposite the old Railway House) with its 52 feet deep

artesian well drilled more than a hundred years ago, when it provided one million gallons of

water each day for pumping to Peterborough. Several people who worked at the pumping

station lived in Manthorpe, including Mr Tom Oldman who was the manager, pictured

overleaf inside the Wilsthorpe Waterworks, with a Ruston and Hornsby engine which was

later dismantled and sent to Israel.

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Tom Oldman

Mains water supply was very late coming to the villages and most farms and cottages had a

well not too far from the door. To this day, there are wells or evidence of wells in

Manthorpe - in Home Farm, Manthorpe House and The Old Cottage. Mill Farm had its own

spring supplying its well until 1948, when it had to be connected to the mains as someone

had poisoned the well with sheep dip.

Mains water supply reached Manthorpe in the 1930s, although many continued to use their

well and free water. In Lound a derelict well has been found (by a horse falling in) near the

remains of a house on land belonging to Heathcote’s Yard. A map from 1886, revised in

1903, shows two pumps in Manthorpe (only part of Manthorpe is shown), one at

Manthorpe House and another at Deacon Hill House, three wells and three pumps in Toft

and two pumps and one well in Lound. Interestingly, there is also a pump opposite the

Tollgate cottage at the crossroads, and a well at the side of the main road, half way between

the crossroads and Toft. The well stands on the east side of the road with a wall round it, or

maybe a small building in a small enclosure with what looks like a horse trough. On the O.S.

Map of 1949 there are still two pumps and a well marked in Lound, and one pump and one

well in Toft, but only one pump in Manthorpe and two pumps at Bowthorpe.

In the details of an auction by Alfred Savill and Sons in May 1939 for the sale of Bowthorpe

Park Farm it states: “Water – is supplied from a deep well, over which is an engine which

pumps to a reservoir adjacent, and thence flows by gravitation to the Farmhouse and

cottages, buildings and various tanks on the farm. The water is said to contain natural

calcium, as do many springs which are in evidence on various parts of the Property. The River

Glen adjoins the Property on a part of the northern boundary”.

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We think of mains water as something that has been around for a very long time. That may

be true in towns and cities, but in small villages in Lincolnshire it can sometimes come as a

surprise at how recently water came from taps rather than wells. The local school at

Witham-on-the-Hill did not get mains water until 1956; before that water had to be

collected from the schoolmaster’s well in the north-east corner of the garden.

Wilsthorpe Water Works, Steam Beam Engine House on left, Diesel Engine House on right

Sewage and proper mains drainage did not really exist in Manthorpe until the 1980s, and

according to Hazel and Andy Darley before that “Manthorpe had a village drain that

collected storm water from the roads and effluent from sanitary arrangements. Some houses

had a septic tank but other houses had at least one WC which discharged directly into the

drain. The drain terminated in a concrete tank at the bridge with an overflow into the river.

The council emptied the tank regularly, but heavy rainfall filled it faster and the excess

entered the river. This was then, as now, prone to drying up in summer, so the effluent hung

around near the bridge to cause a noticeable smell in the summer months. However the

SKDC was determined to bring the mains (sewerage) to all villages and a plan was

announced for Manthorpe. Then came the depression of the late 1970s and 1980s and the

plan went on hold.

Amusingly the Water Authority came to our rescue. Bacteriological contamination had

been detected in the Wilsthorpe bore holes and the suspicion fell on Manthorpe’s unsavoury

activities as the river ran next to the pumping station. It was never proven and Manthorpe

had no concerns, as Wilsthorpe supplies Peterborough’s water not ours (which comes from

Lound). So the scheme was reinstated and the smell faded into memory.”

Of course we now have our own mini sewage works in Manthorpe, just upstream of the

bridge. It still overflows into the river, but we are assured that only well treated clean water

ever leaves the tanks. A sewage expert some years ago gave the Historical Society a talk on

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these sewage works, and told us that it was impossible for Manthorpe to expand any further

as we had reached the maximum capacity of these works and more houses would mean a

total and very expensive rebuild.

ELECTRICITY

The Rev. Cooley reports in the parish magazine that “a Garden Fete will be held in Witham

Hall gardens on the 11th of July 1931, organised by Miss Tiptaft, the proceeds of which are to

go to start a fund for wiring the Church for Electric Light” (it was opened by Lady Kesteven

and made £29/5/0). He mentions in November 1931 the kind gift of a 2nd “Aladdin Lamp”

for the Church, and there being “no sign of the National Electric Scheme coming anywhere

near us”.

By November 1935 work on

the wiring of the church was

in full progress, but although

electric lighting came to the

church in December 1935 it

was thanks to Commander

and Mrs Maitland for

providing current from a

private plant at Witham Hall.

Mains electricity finally

arrived in 1937. In the Parish

News of July 1937 the vicar

comments “At long last Witham is being supplied with Electric Light and Power, it was

promised by October 1933, but seeing is believing and poles and mains are being erected”.

He does not mention the other villages unfortunately, but one would assume the service to

have been rolled out across the whole area at around the same time.

19

WORKHOUSE

As the saying goes, “the poor are always with us”, and after 1601 the support of those in

need fell to the charity of the parish they were born in, where they could apply for relief.

Funds would have been set aside to be given out by a committee, which was often in the

hands of the local clergy and the well to do of the parish who would judge if the applicant

was “deserving poor”. So a widow with small children, who would find paid work hard until

the children were older, might get support, but someone who could not find work but was

able bodied would be denied help in the hope that they would be forced to move away to

find a job and thereby not prove a burden on the parish. Witham-on-the-Hill later provided

“widows’ cottages” near the Bywells spring at the top of Bottom Street for a long succession

of elderly widows.

As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the whole parish became part of the

Bourne Poor Law Union. Bourne Union was the local workhouse. Newly built, it opened in

1837 and was situated in

Union Road, now St Peter’s

Road, Bourne. It was a very

large red brick building

designed to accommodate

300 people and was in

existence as a workhouse

for nearly 100 years. In the

days before a welfare state

and the NHS, the only

option for the homeless

unemployed, sick,

mentally disturbed and

elderly was a workhouse, Workhouse children in Bourne in 1900

the upkeep of which was

levied as a poor law tax on the parishes signed up to send their poor to that workhouse.

Between 1836 and 1884, 25 people from Witham church parish died in Bourne Union

Workhouse, and were buried in Witham-on-the-Hill churchyard. Of those, eight were

children under 18, four were adults and 13 were over 70.

The 1841 Census has all inmates of the workhouse listed as ‘pauper’. Sometimes older

people also have a trade noted such as carpenter, blacksmith or labourer, but there are

many just labelled “weak minded”, a general comment for the elderly who may well have

had dementia. But there are also much younger residents who may have spent their life in

the workhouse due to mental illness or learning difficulties.

20

Interestingly in 1868 the medical officer at the workhouse was John Galletly JP, MA, MB, CM

Edin. DPH. Cambs, and of course Galletly is a well known name in Bourne to this day. By the

1930s the building was St Peter’s Hospital for the mentally ill, which closed in the 1980s. The

building later became part of Warner’s printing works, and was demolished in 2001.

TRANSPORT

The roads in the parish would have been very basic until well into the 20th century, rutted

and muddied by carts and wagons as well as sprinkled with the droppings of so many

horses. The road from Stamford to Bourne (present A6121) was made a turnpike road in

1756, making the users pay a toll to travel on it; these tolls were levied to defray the costs of

the upkeep of the road and bridges, which had been the responsibility of the local parish

before their introduction. There was a tollhouse at both the Manthorpe/Witham crossroads

and at the north end of Toft; these would have been small cottages that housed the toll

keeper and his family, and both of these buildings were still shown on an O.S. map of 1886

and revised in 1903. Many of these tolls started out as a spiked barrier that was turned out

of the way once a fee was paid, hence turn-pike, but gradually a large gate across the road

became the norm.

A Victorian farm cart

On the O.S. map of 1949 there is a milestone marked opposite the turning to Racer Farm

reading Bourne 4 miles, Stamford 6 miles, another half way between Manthorpe Crossroads

and Toft where the stream from Witham cuts across the road marked Bourne 3 miles,

Stamford 7 miles and a last one north of Toft and just south of the road to Lound marked

Bourne 2 miles, Stamford 8 miles. These would have been very useful in the heyday of carts

and horses, but along with carved wooden signs and old cast iron way markers have

gradually disappeared.

21

The AA sign below is like the sign displayed in the bar of Toft House Hotel, and may date

from 1932 when the Vicar Rev. Cooley mentions that “the Automobile Association has

provided two round discs at either end of Witham-on-the-Hill, with the name of the village,

distance from Bourne, Stamford and London”. All local road signs were removed and hidden

at the start of the Second World War, ”when the danger of invasion by the enemy was real

and menacing”, but they were put back up in June 1943.

The railway station on the Wilsthorpe Road called Wilsthorpe Halt, on the independent

Essendine to Bourne Railway. According to a local, the trains were often used by the

residents of Manthorpe, up until the 1940s to get to Bourne as the bus services were poor

at this time. The line was opened in 1860 and closed in 1951. The railways were not as

useful to the residents of Toft and Lound who would have had to travel to Bourne to the

nearest station. Trains passed very near to Lound and just to the North of Toft but on

another line with no local stations or halts.

Rev. Cooley mentions several items of transport news in

1924-5. In August 1924 Bourne Rural District Council

undertook the first tarring of the road through Witham

(and supposedly other roads in the area) to mitigate the

dust. The road before this would have been a mix of small

pebbles, ground stone and dirt, making mud in the wet

and dust in the dry months. In May 1925 Mr William

Wells, who had just moved from Manthorpe to Stoke

Rochford, died after “being run into by a motor car on the

Great North Road, a week since he left, a fund is being

raised for his distressed widow”. Then there was a motor

car accident in September 1925 when a Mrs Worthington

was seriously injured and in Stamford Hospital. In the same month, Mrs William Sharp of

Manthorpe had a broken collar bone after being thrown out of a trap when the horse

stumbled on the crossing at Toll Bar (Witham and Manthorpe Crossroads).

There is an interesting flyer in the Historical Society records dating from the winter of 1918-

1919 headed “Witham-on-the-Hill MOTOR CONVEYANCE” listing the fares to Bourne and

Stamford in a car, with tickets in advance. It ran on Thursday (market day) to Bourne leaving

Witham at 10.30am and returning at 2pm; the fare was 1/6 return or 1/- single from

Witham and 1/- or 8d from Toft. The trips to Stamford on Fridays and Saturdays ran only if

at least eight people had pre-booked for a return fare of 2/6. Private journeys could also be

arranged, for not more than nine people; it must have been a big old car. This endeavour

was run by a committee of seven, but unfortunately did not last very long.

22

The modern bus stop on the crossroads is the second shelter in this position; the original

appeared in 1939, just after the outbreak of the Second World War. Rev. Cooley reports in

the parish news of December 1939 that on 20th November he received consent of the

County Council to erect a bus shelter and the next day it was up. He had it all made ready

beforehand and had to sign an undertaking to remove it if it obstructed vision of motor

traffic. He comments that “The shelter faces due south and will get maximum sunshine so

residents of Witham and Manthorpe will wait for buses in comfort. The cost was £16/5/0,

the old Flower Show Committee balance of £8/7/5 has paid more than half the cost and we

will raise the deficit with a social gathering”.

This cross roads has seen many accidents over the years. In about 1892 according to a later

parish magazine “the toll-bar cottage was seriously damaged when a heavy load of timber,

descending the hill, got out of control as the horses took the corner at the gallop, and timber

crashed like “a battering ram” into the house and right through the wall and over the

shoulder of old Mrs Reddish (who lived there) sitting in the chimney corner”. Unfortunately it

is still somewhat of an accident black spot.

As the only one of the three villages to stand on the main road Toft has had better access to

the bus services between Bourne and Stamford over the years, without the longer walk that

residents of Lound and Manthorpe had before most of the population had access to private

cars. Delaine of Bourne started in 1890 with horse drawn vehicles carrying people to and

from markets in the area; by 1919 it introduced the first motor bus and in 1923 started the

daily service between Stamford and Bourne.

THE LAW AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The earliest form of recorded law is the Manorial Courts; there is a record of a Richard Kiva

from sometime between 1316 and 1324 who was tried by such a court for removing stone

collected by the people of

Manthorpe to build a bridge over

the East Glen River.

Justice for minor offences was

administered by the parish council

during the Tudor period, and in 1595

Witham-on-the-Hill had two

constables. The parish council was

also responsible for collecting

taxes to pay for the poor in their

area, following an Act of Parliament

Convicts being led onto a ship in 1601, and employed a trustworthy

person in each parish to collect the Poor Law Tax.

23

There were Assizes and Quarterly Sessions to deal with more serious offences in Bourne and

Stamford, with lock-ups or gaols locally and at the House of Correction at Folkingham, and

for more long term imprisonment the Gaol at Lincoln Castle. But from 1788 until well into

the Victorian era in 1868, a period of 80 years, a much used form of punishment was

deportation or as we usually call it today transportation, a way for judges and magistrates to

be rid of not only real criminals but also ne’er-do-wells. It was not cheap to transport and

house convicts until the next transport ship left, but it meant offenders were placed where

any re-offending would be a long way away. In Lincolnshire this one-way trip was not only to

Australia (Tasmania, New South Wales and Western Australia) but also to Gibraltar,

Bermuda and Norfolk Island Penal Colony in the Pacific Ocean. Prisoners were transferred in

chains via large gaols like Lincoln to the prison hulk ships in places such as Woolwich,

London, before boarding a prison ship for a very uncomfortable voyage. Lincolnshire County

Council website has a list of all the convicts transported from Lincolnshire, with details on

most of the crimes, where the convict was born, the name of the court and the sentence,

date convicted, even the name of the ship, destination and the year it sailed. The lists cover

nearly 2,000 convicts, so a detailed break-down would not be possible here, but mention

should be made of local crimes.

Susannah Rogers of Toft for stealing a piece of printed cotton (or a pocket

handkerchief) from Thomas Warren of Toft, yeoman. At the trial on 15th January

1811 she was sentenced to seven years; she was transported on the “Indefatigable”

to Tasmania (Van Diemen’s Land) in 1812.

Thomas Moysey of Toft aged 34, a butcher, for stealing a fat sheep, property of

Samuel Hotchkins of Kirby Underwood, from a farm at Rippingale. At the trial on 17th

October 1836 he was sentenced to life in New South Wales and was transported in

1837 on the “Prince George”. Able to read and write imperfectly, Moysey was

described by a number of witnesses as driving sheep with his black and white

sheepdog on his black bald faced horse called ”Mettle”. One witness described him

as “lightish made – with a smock frock on”. He was arrested at Carlby whilst selling

mutton.

Eight years later, John Moysey of Lound aged 26, a butcher, for stealing three lamb

hogs, property of Robert Wass of Toft, farmer and grazier. The trial on 1st January

1844 sentenced him to ten years and he sailed on the “Maria Somes” in 1844 to

Tasmania. Able to read and write imperfectly, Moysey claimed that he had taken the

sheep from the Close in the occupation of his aunt Mary Cawthorn, slaughtered

them and then taken them to the van (probably a caravan or enclosed cart) at

Bourne to be sent to Newgate Market, London.

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John Porter of Counthorpe a labourer aged 40 was convicted of killing a ewe sheep

and stealing two hind legs, the property of the Rev. William Tennant of Castle

Bytham. At the trial on 17th October 1836 in Bourne he was given a life sentence in

New South Wales and sailed on the “Prince George” in 1837. He was able to read

and write imperfectly and was employed by Thomas Steel of Castle Bytham, a farmer

and surveyor of highways. His father and mother lived at Lound, he was married to

Ann, and her mother lived in Bourne. His story and the impact on his family are

related in the book “Leaving Lincolnshire in Chains” by David J. Porter, published in

2010.

Charles Pell aged 50 of Witham-on-the-Hill, for stealing a lamb hog sheep from

Thomas Moxon (Palace Farm) was sentenced to six years in Bermuda in 1857.

Another resident of Witham was John Stubley a labourer aged 24 who was on trial

on 2nd July 1833 for stealing three moulding planes, one dovetail saw and one

mortice gauge from Jonathan Veasey, a carpenter of Bourne, and eight table knives

and five table forks from Joseph Shotbolt of Bourne. Stubley was given seven years

and sailed on the “Moffatt” in 1834. This seems very generous compared to Charles

Ashby, 24, of Thurlby who stole a silver teaspoon from the house of Joshua Page a

miller of Thurlby, and on 6th March 1830 was given the death sentence, commuted

to life, in New South Wales.

Australia was divided differently during this period

25

The types of crime are interesting, as well as the importance placed on them as illustrated

by the sentence and time the convict would spend before they could apply for the relative

freedom of a new colony. There was no such thing as a return ticket; freedom had to be

worked for and ex-convicts were expected to stay and build the new colony. Most acts of

theft were of food or clothes, with lots of sheep stealing or sheep killing and butchery. The

theft of boots, shoes, clogs, hats, coats and linen received very heavy sentences compared

with modern moral codes. There were crimes that you would never hear of these days such

as the many cases of the stealing of horsehair - taking just 10oz of horsehair in 1817 would

earn you a one-way trip to New South Wales for seven years. The same sentence was given

in 1829 for taking two pieces of lace, and for stealing a pair of slippers in 1837.

Sexual assault in 1857 resulted in 20 years, rape in 1858 received a term of 15 years, both in

Gibraltar, while in the same year “raping a girl less than 12 years of age” was sentenced to

10 years in Bermuda. Child abuse is not a new thing; “carnally knowing and abusing a girl

under age 10”, also in 1858, received life in Western Australia, while John Tyler of Swayfield

aged 18 for “carnally knowing and abusing a woman child” in 1825 meant a death sentence,

commuted to life, in Tasmania - the same term as a burglary in 1836. Sex crimes could be

more bizarre too; in 1846 Samuel Dodd of Stow was sentenced to life in the Norfolk Island

Penal Colony for “committing an unnatural offence by carnally knowing an ass”.

In 1844 Charles Jordan of Stamford, aged only 10, was sentenced to seven years in

Tasmania, but was not transported until 1849 when it can be supposed he would have been

15. Stealing horses seems to have always earned a life term, as would burglary, setting fire

to a haystack, stealing a waistcoat, offering a counterfeit £5 or stealing a brewing copper,

whilst highway robbery might earn you only 15 years. Stealing two guns received the same

sentence as stealing two tablecloths, and when a husband and wife were found guilty of

receiving stolen goods one was sent to Tasmania and the other to Bermuda, presumably

never to see each other again. Some convictions merely say for felony.

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Witham-on-the-Hill Stocks

There are stocks and a whipping post at Witham-on-the-Hill, but these were heavily

restored in the early 1900s after the stocks had sat around in the Rev. Cooley’s garden for a

number of years. It seems he had saved them from a huge bonfire the residents were having

on the green in 1900 to celebrate the victory at Mafeking. There is no proof that these

stocks were ever used in earnest but it is likely that the odd drunk may have been left to

sober up in them at one time.

HEALTH

The poor of any area had to doctor themselves as best they could until fairly recent times.

Doctors were expensive and only for the wealthy or rich farmers and landowners. By the

Victorian era, if you could not work and your family could not support you, the only option

was the workhouse, which is seen by modern standards as a terrible option, but before they

existed the very poor, elderly and sick had no release from long term illness except death.

Until the National Health Service came into being in 1948, all medicines, doctor’s visits and

stays in hospital had to be privately funded, a real burden for those working the land as

poorly paid labourers.

There have been four hospitals in Bourne over the years. The earliest opened in 1885 in

Manor Lane to accommodate cases during a smallpox outbreak, and closed in 1913. A new

hospital was opened in 1915 in South Road, originally intended for infectious diseases such

as scarlet fever, diphtheria and typhoid but by 1918 it was taking cases of tuberculosis too.

By the 1960s it was being run as a medical centre and performed minor surgery, with 53

27

beds. Unfortunately this “cottage hospital” closed in 1998 after a long-running campaign to

keep it open.

St Peter’s Hospital for mental patients was established in 1930 in the former workhouse,

until the policy of “care in the community” rendered it redundant.

The Butterfield Hospital,

shown here, opened in

1910 in a converted house

bequeathed to the

community on North Road.

Later enlarged, it had 12

beds in three wards. It

closed in 1982. In 1985 it

reopened as a Day Care

Centre for the elderly.

Rev. Cooley in the Parish News makes a few mentions of the hospitals, including the

Stamford and Peterborough hospitals. In April 1923 Percy Holmes aged 14, a choirboy, was

in Butterfield Hospital, but in June 1923 he was taken home in great weakness, and Captain

Fenwick (Witham Hall) had kindly lent an “open-air shelter” without which he could not

have been brought home (presumably he had T B). A benefit cricket match was organised

for him by Mr Todd, but he died on 20th June 1923. In October 1929 Mrs Waddington (of

Bowthorpe) was undergoing treatment in the Butterfield Hospital and was seriously ill. In

October 1930 Cooley reports that Mr Cecil Story had been a patient in Peterborough

Infirmary for a long time and that a skittle tournament was held to raise funds to defray the

heavy cost of Mrs Story’s frequent visits to his bedside. In July 1939 Mrs Pell was coming

home to her little widow’s cottage after her illness and stay in Stamford Hospital. Stamford

and Rutland infirmary is shown here in an engraving of 1836.

The vicar also mentions the various

bouts of infectious disease that

swept through the neighbourhood

and school, as in April 1916 when

there is an epidemic of sickness and

influenza. In May 1918 there is an

outbreak of measles and most of the

children are down with it. In March

1929 there is a widespread influenza

epidemic and three deaths. In July

1932 the school is closed owing to

28

the prevalence of chicken-pox, and again in February 1937 due to an influenza epidemic.

SCHOOLING

The earliest record of education in the parish of Witham-on-the-Hill is a church estate book,

which states that a schoolmaster named Mr Hall was provided for the children in 1625. His

salary was probably paid by Robert Johnson, who was the founder of both Uppingham and

Oakham schools and bought part of Witham Estate that year. By 1692 a deed had been

drawn up for a board of trustees to manage the money and land belonging to the church

from gifts and legacies, but its primary objective was to place the education of the children

of the parish on a formal basis. The deed stated that nine poor children should be educated

and the schoolmaster paid £4 a year.

In 1700 the trustees built a new schoolhouse at a cost of £15-4s-1d, perhaps on the same

site as the later school which is now the Parish Hall. It is not known how many children were

fee-paying in addition to the nine poor children, but at this time they would all have been

boys and the education provided would have been religion-based. Unless very bright the

boys would have been ready for the world of work by age 10.

In his will dated 1719, James Thompson, Gentleman, of Ropsley gave several bequests to

schools in Lincolnshire including “Wytham on the Hill – To current Schoolmaster and his

successors £4 yearly for ever as additional salary to teach 8 poor children as approved by the

Minister, churchwardens and Overseer of the Poor of Wytham without charge to read, write

and cast accounts and the principles of the religion of Church of England from income of

marsh lands called Wragg Marsh in Spalding, Amount to be paid half yearly at Michaelmas

and Lady Day (25 Sept and 25 March) by equal payments”. This was incorporated into the

Church and School Estate Charity, along with the bequest of Edward Moulton who in 1723

left about six acres of land in Barrowby Parish to provide income for the poor of Witham-on-

the-Hill Parish in the form of coats each winter “in trust that the rent be spent and proceeds

thereof in buying four coats for poor men of the Parish of Witham”. In 1905, this amounted

to £11/5/0 per annum. Another bequest incorporated into the Church and School Estate

Charity was that of Dr Quarles, vicar of Witham, who in his will of about 1710 set up the

Widows’ Charity, giving £100 South Seas Annuity, which later paid for 10 acres of land at

Whaplode. The rental for this in 1905 paid £15 per annum and in 1904 10 widows received

25/- (shillings) each. By Christmas 1929 - nine coats were given out and Quarles’ money

divided among 12 widows. Up until recently these bequests were still paid out in the form of

cash at Christmas to each pensioner in the four villages making up the Church Parish. The

educational element of the charity still exists, and if an appeal is made to the Trustees they

may contribute towards educational costs such as books for university or other higher

education.

29

The Second School, which has never had a bell in the tower

The second school was built in 1847 at the cost of about £800. There is an interesting motto

carved in the stone around the top of the wall that reads “Train up a child the way he should

go and when he is old he will not part from it”. It would have been fee paying with more

academic subjects for boys, and for girls sewing, needlework and knitting along with basic

reading and writing. It was for many years a one-room schoolhouse, with the younger

children taught the basics by the master’s wife or other educated local women, and the

older children drilled by the master on more complex maths, grammar etc.

This building is now the Parish Hall (renovated and re-opened on 9th June 2000) but in the

past it has been used as a Reading Room and as a Lending Library. The schoolmaster lived in

the small stone house next door. All children in the parish would have attended the school

in Witham-on-the-Hill after the Education Act of 1870 unless they had a very good reason,

but attendance was often low during the ploughing season or such rural activities as a

coursing meeting, evidenced by the headmaster recording in 1872 “for which several boys

took a holiday and received a sound flogging”. Schooling was not free at this time either.

What started as a penny fee, and later more, had to be paid by families unless they were

given help by the Church and School Estate Charity. For the labourers of the area, often with

large numbers of offspring, this was a considerable burden, so it was no wonder that in

times of financial hardship it was a temptation to keep children at home and working. The

Education Act of 1891 abolished this fee, and the government gave schools a grant each

year, but only for basic education. Pupils would still remain in school only until 10 or 11 in

most cases. It was not until 1921 that the leaving age was raised to 12 provided a certain

standard had been reached, and 13 if not. 1921 also saw the first boy from the school

30

receive a scholarship to attend Bourne Grammar School. Further education was not free and

could prove very expensive.

The Old Grammar School, Bourne, next to Abbey Church

Other reasons recorded for poor attendance are deep snow, chilblains, whooping cough,

other illness, as well as the Manthorpe Feast or the Toft Feast. In June 1906 heavy rain

caused severe flooding and 70% of the children could not reach the school.

In 1885 Kelly’s Directory lists the school as “an Endowed School (mixed), the church and

school estates produce £230 yearly, & are vested as trustees, who appoint the schoolmaster

& regulate his stipend; the residue of the endowment being applied to the repair of the

church; the school will hold 60 children; of whom 6 boys and 6 girls are educated free;

average attendance 48; Charles William Edwards, master; Mrs. Jane Edwards, mistress”. The

1905 edition states that “the estate produces £150 yearly; a rent charge, out of Wragg

Marsh Farm of £4, is devoted in aid of the school; the school will hold 90 children; average

attendance, 77; William Edward Metcalfe, master”.

By 1896 the building was proving too small, and the school was re-built for the third time

behind the existing school, this larger school is now a private house, Birch House. The school

was still controlled by the previously mentioned private charity, the Church and School

Trustees, who appointed teachers and set the curriculum until the Local Education Authority

took over the role.

31

There was a lot of movement of farm hands and labourers around the area. Most were

contracted for only a 12 month period, April to April, and part of the agreement would be a

cottage owned or leased by the farmer. This could mean that the school had wild

fluctuations in numbers, as in 1921 when a family with 13 children moved to Toft.

In August 1927 Mr Metcalfe retired, after 35 years service. When Mr and Mrs Metcalfe

moved to Lincoln at the end of the month, 100 families subscribed to give them a mahogany

bookcase bureau. Mr Stoddart took over, but left in 1929 to take up a headmastership in a

larger school in Oxfordshire. He was replaced by Mr H. M. Mansell of Stockport in October

1929, who would also take over the duty of church organist. He had served in the Army,

(Royal Field Artillery) as a gunner. In October 1930 the vicar reports that Mr Mansell has

received an offer of mastership in a school near Manchester, and that the County Education

Authorities will sanction only the appointment of a female teacher owing to diminished

numbers. He complains that Witham has had a schoolmaster as long as it has had a school.

The head teacher’s post went to Mrs C. L. Peart, headmistress of Mellis School, Suffolk in

November 1930; she started in December and also acted as church organist. Mrs Peart

relinquished duties as headmistress in November 1933, and remained in Witham; the new

schoolmistress, Miss Margaret Bird, started in January 1934 and moved to Witham with her

mother and sister.

During the 1930s, school outings first started. There was a trip to Wicksteed Park in 1934,

and in 1935 the whole school went to witness a display of flying at Morton, where Sir Alan

Cobham was giving a demonstration of “this wonderful new means of transit”. Miss Bird left

on 1st November 1937, with the new headmistress, Miss Joan Atkinson, starting on 1st

December, but she did not last long and the school’s future looked bleak. In September

1938 Rev Cooley in the Parish News says “Miss Atkinson has decided, for the good of the

School to terminate her duties. We cannot say what, when she goes, the future of the School

may be, but the Managers hope to secure the services of another certificated Head Mistress.

Failing this, the School would be reduced to a “junior” status, and the older scholars would

attend elsewhere. This will eventually happen in any case, but for as long as possible we

hope to retain all our scholars, at least until the school leaving age is raised to 15”. He

reported in October 1938 that if they failed to replace Miss Atkinson, the scholars over age

11 would attend at Bourne and a special bus would be provided to take them daily. Mr

Wells was appointed as temporary headmaster.

Mr Wells (who did not seem to be a teacher, but a well meaning local) left at the end of the

summer of 1940, and new head teacher Miss Chambers took over. She moved into School

House with her widowed mother. By the end of 1940 there were only 40 children in the

school, where there had been 90 to 100. Spring 1943 saw Miss Chambers on “prolonged rest

and cure”, and meanwhile Mrs Langham took her place. Mrs Langham lasted two years and

32

left in April 1945. So after Mr Metcalfe, who stayed for 35 years, the children had eight

different teachers during the following 18 years.

In August 1944 it was announced that a canteen to provide “hot dinners for the kiddies”

would be opened at the school, providing meat, two vegetables and pudding at a cost of 5d.

The old woodwork shed at the back of the school (Birch House) was to be furnished as an

up-to-date kitchen. By 1951 the school roll was down to 35, although it did rise a little in the

1970s.

The school at Witham finally closed in 1983 when pupil numbers reached an all-time low of

seven. The children of the four villages were added to the catchment area of Edenham

Church of England Primary School, and a school bus service provided. Most children now go

on at age 11 to either Bourne Grammar or Robert Manning senior schools.

There was also an Infants School in Toft for a short time. It was built in 1876, probably to

alleviate the overcrowding problem in the school at Witham-on-the-Hill. By 1892 it was no

longer in use as a school and was used as a Mission Room.

Witham-on-the-Hill Church Choir 1908

(Rev Cooley seated in the middle)

33

THE CHURCH

From at least as early as the 11th century the Christian church was a dominant force in the

parish, as it was in the whole of the country. There is evidence of early chapels or religious

houses and land in each settlement, which were run and owned by various prominent

religious houses of the time. Lound had a chapel in the 12th century until at least the 15th

century. In Manthorpe there was a church listed in Domesday, and maybe a religious house,

under the control of Peterborough Cathedral, in Manthorpe at around the same time; land

was definitely being farmed, by and for the brothers, there. Before 1226 there was a

manorial chapel at Bowthorpe which was later acquired by Sempringham Priory. The Abbey

of Revesby at one time owned land in Toft until it was sold to Grimsthorpe Estate.

St. Andrew’s Witham-on-the-Hill

But for hundreds of years the villagers of Manthorpe, Toft and Lound and the surrounding

farms would have attended St Andrew’s parish church in Witham-on-the-Hill, the earliest

parts of which were built between 1130 and 1150, probably on the site of an earlier chapel.

The church would have been both Roman Catholic and Protestant in its history. The church

registers go back to the early 1600s, so from at least this period all worship, baptisms,

banns, marriages and burials would have taken place and been registered there until the

building of the Wesleyan Chapels in both Toft and Manthorpe during the reign of Victoria.

During bad weather, when getting up and down the hill to Witham would have been

dangerous, services were sometimes held in private homes in Manthorpe and Toft or in the

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chapels when not in use by the Methodists. Methodists would still have married in St

Andrew’s Church and been buried in the churchyard at Witham-on-the-Hill.

Most burials were not marked with gravestones; it was much too expensive for the average

family working on the land to do more than afford the basic interment. Over a 39 year

period from 1813 to 1852, a total of 436 people were buried in the churchyard in Witham-

on-the-Hill; 151 from Witham, of whom 54 were under 18, 66 were adults of working age

and 31 over 70; 72 from Manthorpe (24, 34 and 14); 112 from Toft (52, 39 and 19); and 49

from Lound (21, 18 and 10). There were also 40 others from places such as Thurlby and

Carlby and 12 from Bourne Union Workhouse (3, 2 and 7). The graveyard survey undertaken

by the Historical Society lists out of the 436 burials, only 69 gravestones erected and still

legible, from this period (6.3%), most of which can be identified as farmers and landowners.

The election of churchwardens dates back a long way. In 1708 the records say that the

minister chooses one in Witham and the parishioners choose one in “Manthorp or Toft or

Lown”.

THE PROTESTANT CHAPELS

There are records of a Wesleyan chapel in Toft, which was a small building and at one time

served also as an infant school and mission house. In 1906 Rev. Cooley refers to it in a

poster as simply “The Room” at Toft. The biggest and longest lasting Protestant chapel was

the Methodist Chapel in Manthorpe, built to replace the one in Toft. Mr Henry Michael

Ansell of Deacon Hill Farm, Manthorpe, sold the land to the Methodists in 1875 for the sum

of £10.

Manthorpe Wesleyan Chapel, with the Forge in the foreground

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The Opening of the New Wesleyan Chapel at Manthorpe was mentioned in the Stamford

Mercury on 7th of April 1876 (p 4, col. 5).

According to H. A. Sneath in Methodist Memories published in 1931: “Though one of the last

comers into the [Bourne] Circuit, Manthorpe has had a chequered career. Originally the

Society was formed at Toft, and from 1865 to 1875 it flourished exceedingly.

The preaching services were originally held at the house of a Mrs Baker, adjoining the village

bakery, up on the Hill, afterwards demolished because of a case of cancer. A little later,

about 1870, they were transferred to a cottage adjoining the present home of Mrs Robert

Smith. Leaders of both Class and Choir came over from Thurlby, and with the help of the

Starkie family from Lound, made the singing go with a swing.

Unfortunately, in 1872, a new landowner came into residence and possession of the village,

and at once served the Methodists with a notice to quit. Then these simple people began to

pray about the matter and before the notice expired, in a strange way the landlord sickened

and died.

At Manthorpe the largest farmer in the village chipped out with the Vicar of Witham-on-the-

Hill, and being owner of his farm, offered us a site on Chapel Hill for a new Methodist Chapel.

This hill was originally a part of the Ecclesiastical endowment of Witham, and there exists

today the fish pond which supplied the nuns and monks with their Friday’s dinner. Not many

years since, on the adjoining Church Farm, a piscine was found being used as a pump trough,

and was rescued by the Vicar and restored to its original purpose.

This Church Farm and Bowthorpe Park were two of the farmsteads that Hereward set fire to

on his return from Flanders as a sign that he had come. Readers of “Hereward the Wake”

will remember the incident.

In the parish is the wonderful Bowthorpe Park (Buttery Park was its name in my young days)

with its famous oak still green and flourishing. This is the largest oak in England being 39

feet in girth, 3 feet from the ground, and much larger than the Major oak at Welbeck Abbey.

On the occasion of a school treat of the Bourne Wesleyan Church being held there – on the

day that James Goodyear, of Cawthorpe, was gored to death by a bull – 39 people were

crowded into it, and 13 could sit down and have tea comfortably inside it.

Both the late owners – Sir Phillip Duncombe and Mr. Fenwick, of Witham Hall – spent

considerable sums on its preservation, and in my opinion, this oak tree, of 1,000 summers,

should be brought to the notice of the Society for the preservation of ancient relics.

Here too, the River Glen has its source. Very little water winds under Manthorpe Highway

Bridge, but long before it leaves the parish it has developed into what you see at Kate’s

Bridge, between Bourne and Peterborough”. (Note, this is not how we would understand the

source of a river, but I think what he refers to is the “abundant springs” some of which

surfaced and joined the river in front of Bowthorpe farmhouse)

“This is digression, but one is naturally interested in a farm and village that one’s ancestors

farmed and lived in for the last 200 years. Here, too, the writer’s three boys were born, five

miles from a doctor and four from a nurse.

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Church Army Van 1907

To return to Manthorpe Chapel. The stones were laid in 1875 and it was built, unfortunately,

on clay subsoil, so that for some years the walls sank and cracked. It was opened in

November 1875 by Rev. Gervase Smith, a personal friend of Wilsthorpe squire William Cross,

who entertained him. From all round the villagers trooped into the chapel, from Witham,

William Andrew and John Lloyd; from Lound Stephen Smith and their sons Fred and Walter,

and sister Kate, with the Starkies, father, mother, sons and daughters; from Toft, the baker,

John Atter and his daughter, who was our organist; together with the Baker and Clarke

families, so that on Sunday nights the congregation often numbered 100.

Out of the village itself, the squire (Henry Michael Ansell) always occupied the back seat

corner, while the Wells, Tyler, Smeaton, Harvey and Sneath families were well to the fore.

Good old Henry Wells and his Uncle James (who told the Lord that when he thought of his

sins he was overwhelmed), and William Harvey, who unblushingly told the Lord that His

blessed word declared, “Every tub must stand on its own bottom” a truth that would bear

repeating today with stronger emphasis.

Then in 1880 Wilsthorpe pumping station (this was just off the Wilsthorpe Road on the right

before the old railway line) was opened, and with it there came one of the most godly

earnest men that I have ever met. Bro. Brock. Oh, how he loved Manthorpe Chapel, and

when he married his wife from Hobson’s of Spalding, the drapers, the church went forward

by leaps and bounds. A band of Hope of 40 members, a Sunday school of 50 and a class

membership of 25, was something to be proud of. The singing was led by Bro. Joseph Ellis

and his family, from the waterworks. Sunday morning prayer meetings at 7 o’clock were the

fashion, and once a year a great united camp meeting was held in the afternoon at

Manthorpe Toll Bar (Witham cross roads), and the evening under the elm at Dykey Wood (at

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the top of Swallow Hill where the Xmas Trees are now planted), Who can forget the

impassioned appeals of John Hind as he reminded us that they that do His Commandments

should have a right to the tree of life, and enter into the gates of the Pearly City?

Often 250 to 300 were present at this Camp Meeting, as both the Free Methodists and the

Wesleyans of Thurlby closed their church for the evening service and joined in. Since then

Manthorpe has had some ups and downs, but in spite of all Brother and Sister Brock kept the

flag flying, and although they lived a mile and a half away, were always present to give the

preachers a smile and a welcome.

Today, (1930’s) with the families of Boynton, Green, Strawson, Mason, and Stubley, things

look much brighter and better than ever before.

Manthorpe history would not be complete without mention of Jim Haddon, the Radical

Roadman (who took the chair for the Liberal candidate in his corduroy breeches) who has

been in touch with its history ever since he was converted in 1882. He is the only stalwart

left, except Miss Wells, the daughter of James Wells, the man who was overwhelmed.”

In August 1933 at a garden party in Witham Hall a raffle for a rug was held and the money

raised to “extinguish the debt on Manthorpe Chapel heating apparatus”. I have been told

that before the chapel was finally demolished it had become very run down, and had a

corrugated iron roof. A bungalow now stands on the spot.

It is supposed that after the decline in membership, and the cost of maintaining the building

became too great, the parish Methodists managed to sell the land and joined either the

Thurlby or Bourne chapels. Unfortunately no exact date for the closure of the chapel or its

final demolition could be found.

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Map from 1860

INFORMATION FROM OLD MAPS

It is interesting the things you can find on maps. The one above shows the railway from

Essendine through Braceborough Spa crossing the road half way from Manthorpe to

Wilsthorpe, and going on to the station at Bourne at The Red House, but not the railway

north of Toft and Lound or Toft Tunnel built later.

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Also visible is “Manthorpe Haws” (on a later map Carlby Haws) between Bowthorpe and

Carlby, a Haws being an enclosed hedged area for gathering animals. There are also pinfolds

(a pen for gathering or holding animals) in the area, one in Thurlby and another in Witham-

on-the-Hill, but there may well have been others nearer.

Dikey Wood (Dikey is another word for ditch) is just on the top of Swallow Hill (Thackers

Hill), where Christmas trees have now been planted. There is a track from Bowthorpe to the

station at Braceborough (on other maps the track is shown going all the way from

Manthorpe to Braceborough). Another track goes from the main road through Bowthorpe

to the mill and joins with Wilsthorpe Road. The mill is marked “Old Mill House” on a 1949

map, with a footpath that runs straight to Braceborough Spa.

On several other old maps a gravel pit can be seen on the left, half way up Swallow Hill and

a hollow is still visible in the fields. On an 1891 map the track from Manthorpe to

Bowthorpe and on to the railway station at Braceborough Spa is marked as a bridleway and

must have been well used. It went from the track alongside Glen House in Manthorpe

instead of the current climb over a stile the other side of Hilltop Cottage.

There are lots of ponds marked on old maps too. These are shown in Manthorpe just to the

north of the bridge near the river, another in the front garden of “The Brambles”, one

behind “Mill Farm”, another between “Home Farm” and “The Old Cottage”, a large pond

which still exists behind “Church Farm” and a much larger pond behind “High Fields” and

“The Forge”. In Lound there are three small ponds, one in the grounds of the “Manor

House” and the others in fields, with only two in Toft, one behind the farm buildings next to

where “Pemberton” stands today and another approximately where the car park for the

Golf Club is.

Even the positions of wells and letterboxes are marked on the more detailed Ordnance

Survey maps, showing the position of the post box in the wall of a barn next to Church Farm

in Manthorpe at the beginning of the 20th century. It was removed when the barn was

pulled down in the late 1990s and a pillar box erected next to the phone box instead. Maps

of the same date show the post box in Toft in the same position as today, in the wall on the

corner belonging to Toft House, while Lound does not seem to have acquired a post box

until more recently.

AERIAL AND SATELLITE IMAGES

Lincoln library holds the records of all the ancient finds and photographic and satellite

surveys of crop marks undertaken by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of

England 1992-96 National Mapping Programme, which also includes aerial photo runs by

utility companies such as British Gas.

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There are at least 24 references to crop marks in the immediate area of Manthorpe, Toft

and Lound, and many more listed under adjoining settlements nearby. There are five

barrows listed as Bronze Age or dating from 2200BC to 801BC, a medieval enclosure, a

prehistoric pit, numerous prehistoric enclosures, boundary ditches, concentric ring ditches

and Ring Ditches, several trackways, medieval ridge and furrow earthworks, and two

earthwork quarries. There is a set of crop marks south east of Toft that are “probably late

Prehistoric or Roman” and three ring ditches south east of Manthorpe that “may be the

remains of a Prehistoric Round Barrow Cemetery”.

It is possible for everyone to spot some crop marks on the Google Maps Satellite website.

There are some noticeable ring ditches in the field on south of the road just the Witham side

of Manthorpe Bridge and several others in the large field south of Toft and “Roundhills”

bordered by the Thurlby to Manthorpe and Thurlby to Toft roads. It is also easy to spot ridge

and furrow in fields near all three villages, plus trackways and enclosures once you get your

eye in.

INTERESTING ITEMS from the PARISH NEWS:

There are records that state the first “Parish Magazine” was published in January 1887, but

unfortunately the Historical Society does not have any copies from the 19th century. The

Rev. Leonard Henry Cooley was the Vicar of St Andrew’s, Witham-on-the-Hill, from 1900

until 1945 and during most of that time he produced regular monthly newsletters (for a

charge) for the parishes he served. To us they look rather dated, but alongside the

sermonising and hectoring, for example criticising his flock for such deeds as putting silk

flowers on graves (“these hideous and tasteless objects disfigure the beauty of Gods Acre”),

he did report the occasional interesting bit of local news.

Dec 1906 Evening Services at Manthorpe - during winter, services held at the home of Mr

Henry Wells

June 1912 Concert - held on 6th May in aid of “sufferers from the wreck of the Titanic”. £2,

14s 3d was sent.

July 1913 Death of Oldest Parishioner - on 5th June Miss Ann Osborn of Manthorpe, nearly

88, died. She was born in Witham in 1825 in the house that stood on the site of the present

school master’s house (next to Parish Hall). She lived with her brother James at the “Keepers

Lodge” until his death in 1886, when she moved to a cottage in Manthorpe. Buried next to

her brother, she leaves a niece and companion Miss Emma Osborn.

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September 1914 - “there has broken out the Great European War”.

April 1915 Golden Wedding - Anniversary of Mr and Mrs Garner of Manthorpe on 6th

February 1915 (he died in 1922 aged 80, leaving a widow after 58 years of marriage)

March 1917 Party on Ice - Squire Fenwick (Witham Hall) provided tea, served on the fish

pond on 7th February 1917, with tea tables above 18 feet of water.

February 1920 Rev. E. H. Smith - ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Wakefield; he was born

and brought up in Toft.

March 1923 Manthorpe Meeting - The Trustees of the Chapel in Manthorpe let the building

for week-night meetings.

February 1927 Oldest Parishioner - Mrs Thomas Allam was 96 on 27.12.1926. She was

baptised Elizabeth on the 5.1.1831 the daughter of John and Mary Wright of Toft. She can

still do her housework un-aided (she died aged 99 in May 1930).

June 1927 Empire Day - Mr Hall of Manthorpe gave an address to the school on “Far-flung

Empire”.

June 1929 Mr Henry Wells - passed away in his sleep on Whitsun Day in the caravan in

Manthorpe in which for some years he had resided. He was born in the house where his

sister Mrs Walpole lives. He never married.

August 1936 Sympathies - go to Mr James Haddon of Toft, on the deaths within a fortnight

of each other of his brother and sister-in-law.

March 1937 Coronation Trees - the Vicar remembers trees planted in the Park (grounds of

Witham Hall). For King Edward VII in 1902 a maple was planted by Mr Brackenbury of Ling’s

Farm, and for King George V in 1911 an oak was planted by Mrs Watts of Toft. (For the

Coronation Day of King George VI, 12th May 1937 an oak was planted by the vicar).

December 1937 Emma Osborn - Died on 9th December 1937 age 79. From a child she lived

with her aunt Miss Ann Osborn at Manthorpe. She looked after her aunts until her death in

1913, and then moved to live with her brother in Sussex.

December 1938 New Pavements - Witham is becoming urbanised with new asphalt

footpaths and curb stones. The Vicar is paying for the path to the Village Hall to replace

rough cobbles (again no mention of the rest of the parish).

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January 1939 Eliza Bradshaw - Death of Mrs Alfred Bradshaw on 29th November 1938 when

residing in Lound. She was present every Sunday at church and held a Sunday Class for

children at Toft. She was married from the Hall (Witham on March 28th 1910, and leaves

husband and 2 daughters).

February 1939 Mrs Ash - Died at Aslackby on 26th December 1938. She was for a number of

years resident here, first at Manthorpe and later at Palace Farm Witham. Mrs Ash was our

strongest Soprano.

March 1939 Mrs Charles Bradshaw - Died at Bourne last month, survived husband four

years, they used to live in Toft. Mr Alfred Bradshaw has suffered in the space of a few weeks

the loss of both his wife and his mother.

April 1939 International Outlook – “Is grave indeed but so it was just 6 months ago, but God

delivered us in answer to prayers”.

August 1939 Mr Rodgers - We regret the death of Mr Rodgers late of Toft, who died at

Stapleford two or three weeks ago, leaves widow.

October 1939 Outbreak of War - On September 3rd while we were in church, War was

declared. We must steel ourselves to endure, though we know one thing, and that is, how it

will end, of that there is no question, be it long or short. We have already screened the

windows of the Village Hall so the Hall can be used after dark and contribute to the social

life of the Parish.

August 1940 - The L. D. V.’s (Local Defence Volunteers) The men who make up this new

force now known as “Home Guard” now number over a million and a quarter. Hearty

congratulations to all who have joined our local unit.

September 1945 The War is Over - “The King spoke to his people on the evening of “V. J.”

(Victory in Japan) Day, while we rejoiced we could not forget it was through the discovery

and use of new and fearful power hitherto unknown in nature called Atomic Energy. This

frightful menace to mankind has now been revealed”.

October 1945 Resignation - Rev Cooley retired after 45 years as Vicar of St Andrew’s

Witham-on-the-Hill and retires to St Mary’s Rectory in Stamford age 77.

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The Oldman family. These cottages were next to the Chapel in Wilsthorpe Road

MANTHORPE

Called Mannethor in the Domesday Book, in some translations it is listed as belonging to

“Abbot of Peterborough and Ansfrid and Asfort (Abbot Thorald’s man, Peterborough) from

him; Gilbert de Ghent (or de Gand) and Berewold from him, Church, 2 mills.” But other

transcriptions go into more detail saying “Wlf had 5 Bovates of land (assessed) to the geld.

There is land for 5 oxen. Drew has 1 team there (in demesne), and 6 villeins and 2 bordars

with 1 team, and 30 acres of meadow, and 40 acres of wood (land) for Pannage, now worth

40 shillings. Colegrim holds it. The Abbot of Burg (Peterborough) claims 1 Bovate in Soke of

Gilbert.”

From the same list (benefactors of gifts of Abbot Brand and his brothers) it also appears that

a brother of Halden’s named Ulf, son of Tope, gave Manthorpe to St Peter (Peterborough

Cathedral). The relationship between Ulf and Abbot Brand is an important fact, for Ulf was a

person of much consequence at the time of the Conquest. At the end of 1066, he attests

King William’s confirmation to Peterborough Abbey of the lands of Abbot Brand and his

brothers. Ulf then (Ulf died in September 1069.) bequests his land at Manthorpe to the

Abbot.

Lincoln Archive has a report on Manthorpe using information written and gathered between

1986 and 2000 that says “Possible Earthworks of Shrunken Medieval Village of Manthorpe

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seen on Aerial Photos by South Kesteven Community Archaeologist; Earthworks are also

visible on aerial photographs. Ridge and furrow to the south of Manthorpe appears to

survive as earthworks, which shows on aerial photographs of 2000”. There is also a report

on a “Possible prehistoric settlement near Manthorpe Bridge” – which states that “the

cropmarks have been interpreted as the remains of a settlement comprising enclosures,

trackways and field boundaries”.

With the name Manthorpe being Old Danish in origin we can assume that it was settled by

the invaders who came to the area in the late 800s, and either built a complete new

settlement or took over an existing small homestead or settlement.

There is mention of Manthorpe in 1536-1544 in a case before the Court of Augmentations

involving the tenants of Thurlby, Wilsthorpe, Manthorpe and Obthorpe, which indicates that

tenants from these villages were leasing land from the Catholic Church, and were trying to

continue those leases. The Court of Augmentations was set up in 1536 by Henry VIII,

following the dissolution of the monasteries; its primary function was to gain better control

over land and finances formerly held by the Roman Catholic Church. Religious

establishments with annual incomes less than £200 per annum were dissolved, and their

lands, properties and incomes went to the Crown. Most of those assets were then simply

sold off to wealthy lay people, with the Court of Augmentations to deal with the spoils.

Old wills, land transfers or feoffments and deeds can also give a few interesting details.

William Armyne of Osgodby left land in Manthorpe in his will of 1558, and there was a

feoffment in 1749 and 1751, finalised in 1751, in which “Edward Johnson of Beauthorp Park

(Bowthorpe) yeoman and Anne his wife mortgaged to Thomas Measure of Pinchbeck,

gentleman, a cottage and 55 acres of arable land, 5 acres of meadow and 6 acres of pasture

in the towns fields and territories of Toft, Lound, Witham and Obthorpe, also May Green

Close (a close is a piece of land in private ownership) in Manthorpe and 2 and a half acres in

Manthorpe meadows”. May Green Close has another mention in October 1788 when

William Torkington of Stamford, gent., and Elizabeth Wingfield of Stamford, spinster, signed

a lease and re-lease to John Clarke of Stamford Baron, gent. The transaction is described as

“a close of meadow called May Green Close of one and a half acres, a piece of land adjoining

formerly an osier bed, and one acre of meadow, all in Manthorpe, Witham-on-the-Hill, for a

consideration of £110”. So it seems Manthorpe may at one time had a green with a

maypole and it was near the river where osier beds would be sited (osiers are willows grown

to be harvested and used for basket and hurdle making). There is another “close”

mentioned in a conveyance in the 1880s when Henry Michael Ansell of Manthorpe House

sold part of Oak Stile Close to Lord Aveland for £150.

The History Gazetteer and Directory of Lincolnshire for 1842 says Manthorpe belongs to

General Johnson (of Witham Hall), Mrs Phillips, Mrs Calverley, Mr William Ansell and a few

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smaller owners. The Gazetteer, 50 years later in 1892, lists Augustus Charles Johnston Esq.

and Mr Edward Ansell and a few small owners, but states that “At the enclosure (1813)

fourteen acres in Manthorpe and six acres in Thurlby Fen were allotted to the poor in lieu of

common-right. These allotments are now let for £25, which is carried to the poor rates.” So

the poorer small holders could not graze their animals on common land but received rents

from these parcels of land, or did until the parish took the rent towards the poor law rates

to help pay for the contribution to the Bourne Union Workhouse.

It is possible to find snippets of information from the local press too; the Stamford Mercury

on 26th February 1864 has a headline ‘Manthorpe – General Improvements to the Village’,

while on 18th February 1853 there is a report of the case before the Stamford Petty Sessions

on 16th February, with an Order of Affiliation made upon William Smeaton of Manthorpe,

farmer, towards the support of Alice Tuckwood’s illegitimate child.

Ariel photograph of Manthorpe from the 1980s

Manthorpe has been called a pantiled village, as although there were several stone farms

and cottages these tended to have pantile roofs rather than the more expensive

Collyweston stone tiled roofs of other villages in South Kesteven. It has always been a

farming village, with a collection of farms and small holdings, farmers and lots of labourers.

Apart from a baker, the only other professions listed in the records are a cattle dealer,

butcher, shopkeeper and collector of poor rates.

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The village sits on the road between Witham-on-the-Hill and Thurlby at the bottom of

Swallow Hill (or Thacker’s Hill as it used to be called), above the East Glen River. The way the

main road winds round several bends is probably an indication that the original track

followed field boundaries dating from the mediaeval period, and the ‘ridge and furrow’ strip

farming can still be seen in the field in the heart of the village. This may even date from the

period when Peterborough Cathedral owned a large part of the village, and may have had a

small priory (according to local legend) or monastic house farming the land. More ridge and

furrow can also be seen on satellite images south of Mill Farm, and the whole village might

have been surrounded by such strip farming at one time, but ploughing has erased all

traces.

Manthorpe Bridge

The single-span bridge over the East Glen River is listed as Grade II, described as squared

limestone rubblestone with ashlar dressings, single span elliptical arch, with rounded

keystone, a rounded coped parapet ramped up to the centre and splayed at the ends. This

road bridge was built in 1813 and repaired in the 20th century. In the late 20th century it was

narrowed to a single lane, with priority instructions, for safety. It has an oval panel bearing

the inscription “1813” in raised letters.

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Manthorpe Forge

Manthorpe Forge, thought to date from the 18th century and to have been used by

travelling farriers, was at one time on a triangle of land with a road or track going behind the

building as well as the two roads it sits on today. There is also a pond shown on old maps,

which may be why a forge was sited here for the ready supply of water. This triangle of land

was owned at the time of the Enclosures in 1813 by the Manthorpe Town Estate (or as we

would now call it the Parish Council).

The Old Bakehouse had old ovens set in the walls until fairly recently. They may have been

used by villagers to cook their cakes, pies, stews and meats when not everyone could afford

to run an oven of their own, as well as supplying the village with bread.

The crossroads between Manthorpe and Witham-on-the-Hill was known as Toll Bar. There

was a toll house, described as “the old cottage” and “a little house”, approximately where

the bus stop stands. It was demolished in August 1932 when it was about 100 years old (is

not shown on the 1818 map) and it would have had a tollgate in front of it.

In May 1931 the vicar reports that “the Cricket Club can continue through the kindness of Mr

Sharp and now has the use of an excellent pitch at Manthorpe, though they hope someday

they may return to the old headquarters at Witham Hall, where the late Mr Fenwick

provided them with a fine pavilion, now unused and deserted”.

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Witham Cricket Team (Minor Counties Club) top left to right, Albert Metheringham (Witham), Eric Allen

(Manthorpe), William Strawson (Wilsthorpe), James Holmes (Carlby), Jack Wallace (Toft), William Green

(Manthorpe), Robert Curtis (Toft), Cecil Green (Witham), Tom Holmes (Witham), Cyril Sandall (Witham), Tom

Oldman (Manthorpe)

Sometimes you find snippets of information in the archive that you want to know more

about, like the mention in the Parish News in August 1941 of Mr Griffin’s accident. He was a

resident of Manthorpe who “was very extenively burnt, chiefly on the face and arms, he

escaped with his life and the cottage was saved with the help of neighbours”, but which

cottage in Manthorpe, and did he make a full recovery? Or in 1922 the death of Paul Louth

aged 74 of Manthorpe, which “occured in so tragic a manner in the village, a shock to us

all”.

It is truly amazing what you can find on the internet if you trawl long enough, such as this

witness statement dated August 1966 by Eileen Favell of a UFO sighting! It says “On a visit to

our family at Manthorpe farm in south Lincolnshire, I took my 6 month baby son out in a

pram down a nearby single track road. It was a warm (clear blue sky) early evening night. A

silver disc shaped craft the size of a house, slowly flew over my head from behind and

stopped at about 100 metres in front of us. It was totally silent and stayed there for a

minute. It was a typically shaped round UFO but around the edges it had flashing multi

coloured lights, I stared at it for a while, then it flew away fast into the air.”

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BOWTHORPE PARK – Deserted Village

Bowthorpe is now a farm with just a few buildings where once a village stood. The name is

derived from the Old Norse, from the personal name Breithr, “the Broad” and Thorpe

meaning a settlement. The Domesday Book published in 1086 says “land in Birthorpe or

Berchetorp belongs to Gilbert of Ghent (or de Gand), other land in Bergestorp belongs to

Saint Peter of Burg (Peterborough Cathedral), and Drew de Beurere holds 7 Carucates in

Bredestorp manor”. It has been recorded that in 1226 Sempringham Priory acquired the

manorial chapel which once stood at Bowthorpe.

Many historians want to gather facts about extinct settlements, so there are lots of entries

in historical books and records of the land and the village, with many variations in the

spelling of the name. The following are a few snippets from published papers:

In circa 1100 in the ‘Chronicon Petroburgense’ listing land in the ownership of the

Monastery of Peterborough - Breidestorp, 4 and half Carucates in demesne and half a

Carucate in Socage.

In 1226 the Abbot of Crowland had the twenty-fifth part of a knight’s fee in Burethorp.

In 1253 the abbot and convent of Croyland had a grant of free warren (rights to take rabbits)

in their demesne lands in Burthorpe.

In 1282 Crowland Abbey were lords of the manor of Burthorpe, which is referred to as a

village.

In 1316 it is called Manthorp cum Beirethorp, in 1327 Manthorp’ cum Bourethorp’, in 1333

Manthorp’ cum Bourthorp.

In 1304 Gilbert de Gaunt had one knight’s fee in Wytham, Manthorp and Bouresthorp.

In 1535 Crowland had rents in Manthorpe and Baurthorpe. In 1545 in the State papers of

Henry VIII, the Duke of Suffolk received a grant of the possessions of the collegiate Church

of Tattershall in Manthorp and Burthorp.

In 1577 a terrier mentions a Caudell or cold well near Bowthorpe.

In 1585 in the 27th year of the reign of Elizabeth there was a ‘final concord’ touching the

manors of Burthorpe and Manthorpe.

Lincoln Archive has a report (MLI33644) on “Bowthorpe Settlement, now deserted, south of

Manthorpe” and gives the description of “The lost village of Bowthorpe, mentioned at the

time of the Domesday Survey, is represented by C17th Bowthorpe Park Farm. Burthorpe is

mentioned in the C13th, Manthorpe and Bourthorpe in C14th and Burthorpe and Manthorpe

in 1585. Aerial Photographs show traces of desertion at grid ref TF0667 1525. There are no

surface indications of desertion in indicated area. The Aerial Photo markings have been

ploughed, during which farmer met no obstacles.

Medieval and post medieval pottery, mainly Bourne wares (smooth wares including handles,

jug and dish rims, one pancheon rim)”.

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There is also a report of a medieval seal ring made of silver which dates to the late 15th or

early 16th century and carries a merchant mark. This was a metal detecting find on land near

the farm.

There is a record in the National Archives dated early 14th century of a “Quitclaim” in which

“Clarice and Matilda, daughters of William of Billeford give all rights and claims which they

have in the land which Ralph the son of John of Burthorp, gave to the monks of Croyland in

the town of Burthorp and Manthorpe, Lincolnshire to the Church of Saint Guthlac of Croyland

and the monks of the same”. Witnesses are “Lord Reginald de Welle, Lord Alexander de

Pointon, Nicholas de Flora, Reginald de Berch, Peter de Lekeburne, Peter de Brumford,

William de Lardar, Osbern de Cellar, and Nicolas, his son”.

The farm house, Bowthorpe Park Farm, was listed Grade II in June 1987, and the listing says

that it dates from the early 17th century and was altered in the 19th and 20th centuries it

gives a detailed description of the building materials used - limestone, ashlar, Collyweston

slates, and oak framed roof timbers - as well as details of mullioned windows, cornices, and

the oak staircase.

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Bowthorpe is called a park as it was used as a hunting park at one time. It is famous for the

legendary oak tree near to the farm buildings, which is thought to be over 1,000 years old; it

even features in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest-girthed living British oak, at a

circumference of almost 40 feet. The tree has been famed over the centuries for being

hollow, with accounts of meetings, parties and even meals held inside, it has even been

used as an animal shelter. At one time the tree had a door fitted and a ceiling, with a pigeon

loft above. The then resident George Pauncefort Esq. is recorded as having it floored in

1768, with benches placed around to use as a dining area. Mention is also made in the

records “that near to the Oak Tree rose strong mineral springs, which doubtless were used at

some date for cures for various real or imagined ailments.” Due to its great age, the tree is

supported by heavy chains to prevent it from splitting under the weight of the branches.

This local marvel is open to the public for a small charge which goes to charity.

Manthorpe Owners or Tenants Pre 1960 Bakehouse

1868 (1871 Census) David Samuel Smeaton, butcher & baker

1881 Census - Bakehouse and shop, David Smeaton aged 58, born 1823 in Manthorpe,

farmer (25 acres) and baker, wife Sarah age 52, born Carlby, son George aged 24 born

Manthorpe, daughter Margaret Matilda aged 18 born Manthorpe

1885 - David Samuel Smeaton, butcher and baker

1889 - (Mrs) Sarah Smeaton, butcher and baker (1892 cottager)

1911 Census - David and Sarah Smeaton

1947 - Percy and Edie Rose and daughter

In later years the land at the rear was used as an egg farm.

Miss Davis lived here later and died aged 101

Bowthorpe Park

Was once owned by the Bishop of Crowland and may have been called Manthorpe Grange

in the1600s

1749 and 1751 - Edward Johnson, yeoman

1768 - George Pauncefort (it is to be supposed that he rented and did not own the park as it

was owned before 1813 by John Clark of Stamford gent., whose executors after his death,

sold to Phillip Duncombe Pauncefort Duncombe Esq. of Great Brickhill, County of

Buckingham, for £145 on 11th Oct

1813 - onwards the Park was then let to:

1844 - Edward Nixon of Bowthorpe Park died

1845 - Thomas and Elizabeth Nixon (also Mary and John Nixon live at the Park)

1868 - Nixon, farmer. 1871 census Elizabeth Nixon, widow, is the farmer, James Wells her

farm steward. She later marries John Sneath and dies in 1879 aged 80

1881 Census - John Sneath aged 82, widower living at Bowthorpe

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1892 - Sir Phillip Duncombe Pauncefort Duncombe, Bart. (this is not a typo!)(Lord of the

Manor)

1905 & 1909 - Thomas Gray & Sons, farmers

1919 - Frank Donald Parkin, farmer.

1929 - Mr and Mrs John Waddington leave and move to Ingoldsby

1933 - Charles Albert Percival farmer

1953 - Mr and Mrs Blanchard

Church Farm

1818 - Witham-on-the-Hill Church Estate rent from W.M. Johnson

1933 - Harold George Allen farmer

1947 - Mr and Mrs Allen and son Derek, had a dairy business delivering milk round village

1960s - Mr John and Mrs Rene Munton

Deacon Hill Farm

1818 - owned by William Sneath, farmer (voted for R Heron)

1868 - Thomas Sneath farmer, John Sneath senior Farmer, John Sneath junior farmer.

1871 Census - John Sneath senior, farmer, Thomas Sneath farmer wife Mary and two sons

John Sneath junior, farmer and wife Mary (three separate households)

1881 Census - John Sneath age 46 born Manthorpe, farmer 87 acres, wife Mary aged 50,

born Barkby Leics, plus three servants, one aged 19 and two aged 14

1885 - Thomas Sneath, farmer. Henry Sneath, farm bailiff to Sir Phillip D P Duncombe Bart.

1889 - Henry Sneath, farm bailiff to Sir Phillip Duncombe Pauncefort Duncombe Bart.

1947 - The Teagardine family

Glen House

Has eight or nine acres down to the river; the red brick, pantiled house was built late 1800s.

Mr and Mrs Burchenal, with children Derek and Mary, bought it in the early 1950s.

Derek ran a rabbit farm (for the meat) on the land for many years.

Hilltop Cottages – Originally two cottages

Home Farm

“Holmes family owned for many years”

5.8.1840 - Thomas Holmes married Sarah Munton WOTH

1868 - Thomas Holmes, farmer and thrashing machine owner. His father was John Holmes

1881 Census - There are four separate Holmes families in Manthorpe, James and Hannah,

Thomas and Alice, John and Catherine and Thomas and Sarah, all with children living with

them

1885, 1889 and 1892 - Thomas Holmes, farmer

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1892, 1905, 1909 & 1919 - James Holmes, cattle dealer

1906 - E Holmes is on the Reading Room Committee WOTH

1933 - Ernest James Holmes, smallholder

During WWII Still Holmes family, Rachel died 1941 aged 82

1947 - Charlie and Floss Harris and son Richard

Up until the late 1990s there was a large complex of sheds and barns, or the foundations of

them, to the west of the house, that would fit the era of cattle dealer

Jasmine Cottage

1813 - Shown as owned by Manthorpe Town Estate, (still owned by the Parish Council

today).

Mill Farm

The original mill at Manthorpe was a water mill on the river between Bowthorpe and

Wilsthorpe and is now a ruin. We now have Mill Farm in the middle of the village, where as

far as is known no Mill was ever sited, but the farm includes land once named Mill Field

1940s - Mr Hodgkinson

1948 - Mrs Kerfoot and children

1966 - Mr and Mrs Munton

Manthorpe House

1780 - William Ansell died aged 35, wife Elizabeth died aged 30 in 1781

1809 - Mary wife of William died aged 20

1818 - William Ansell and wife Sarah

1838 - Edward Ansell of Manthorpe, will 26th June 1838, died aged 32, lived in Tottenham

Court Road, London, but buried in Witham

1852 - William died aged 75, wife Sarah died in 1847 aged 63

1868 - Henry Michael Ansell, farmer. 1871 census with wife Elizabeth and three servants

1885 - Henry Michael Ansell died 1887 aged 68

1892 - Edward Ansell

1924 - Bought by Hedley Knight

1949 - Mr Harris

1963 - Mr and Mrs Twells, son Derek Twells married Susan and built Timberscombe across

the road

Old Cottage

Once called Field House, built between 1700 and 1800, before 1946 it was owned by the

Church and School Estate and the Wragg Marsh Farm Rentcharge Charities (see page 28)

and rented out. It was rented by Mr Walpole who worked as a part-time gardener at

Witham Hall and had a few fields on the Wilsthorpe Road. Sarah Walpole (née Wells) was

born there and later lived there with her husband who by the 1930s had moved into the

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caravan in the front garden before disappearing. The cottage was sold in 1946 for £450 to

Mr and Mrs Bennett

1889 - Henry Wells, collector of poor rate. (1892 cottager) Dec 1906 evening services were

held in his house in Manthorpe. He was born in the Old Cottage, died 1929 in his caravan in

the front garden of the cottage then owned by his sister Mrs Walpole. He never married

1962 - Mr and Mrs Leate

1964 - George and Ivy Aitkenhead

Sunnyside Cottage

Once called “The Dwelling”, deeds date back to 1858, part of it may have been used as a

chapel early in the 1900s, was this Rev. Fry?

Pre 1920 - owned by Sir William Bart

1920 - owned by Captain K R G Fenwick of Witham Hall

1921 - Rev Harry Fry

1922 - Thomas Bull

1933 - Mr Henry Payne

1942 to at least 1947 - Mr William and Mrs Clarke

1966 - Mrs Kerfoot

1968 - Flora and Alex Swinerton

Tate House

An aerial photo from 1971 shows a large cattle shed right behind the house

Townlands Farm

1818 - owned by Thomas Phillips

1947 - Mr and Mrs Hodgekins

Toll Bar Cottage

Located at Manthorpe WOTH crossroads, a small cottage where the bus-stop now stands

1871 Census - Mary Reddish 62, widow, toll collector, lives with two daughters and a

grandson

1881 Census - Mary Reddish 72, cottager, she lives with one daughter and grandson

1910 - Damaged by fire

1925 - Miss Sarah Elizabeth Wells of Toll Bar Cottage died aged 48

1932 - Demolished

Wesleyan Chapel

Built in 1875

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Other names found in research

1500

Robert Gilbert (of Manthorpe in a land transaction on 7th April)

1536 to 1544

The Augmentation Court has a case listing the Tenants of Thurlby, Wilsthorpe, Manthorpe

and Obthorpe

1602

Richard Makernesse

1630

William and Lucie Wilson (rent agreement), in 1649 a sale agreement says of Witham

1745

Sarah Challand, widow, of Manthorpe, who died before 1745, named in a probate lawsuit

1752

John and Jane Smith buried son John 28th May

Vie Corton baptised 12th June

William and Sarah Hepworth buried daughter Mary 28th June

1754

John and Theodosia Castledine baptised son William 11th Aug

Mary, wife of Andrew Corton buried 30th April

1807 -1818

William Allen, born Manthorpe, served ten years, seven months in 30th Foot Regiment, was

discharged aged 28. (Nat Arc)

1808

Mary Seaton died before 1808 according to her will.

1814-1839

John Dewey, born Manthorpe, served in 30th Foot Regiment and 41st Foot Regiment,

discharged aged 42

1818

William Howitt voted for R Heron

1831

William Wells born, by 1881 living in Northorpe with wife Alice

1853

William Smeaton, farmer (court case)

1868

(Mrs) Mary Kendall, farmer

George Reddish, road surveyor. Did he live at Toll Bar cottage?

(Mrs) Mary Shaw, shopkeeper

William Woolley, farmer

1871

Census Total of 17 houses

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John Wakefield Ag Lab, Ellen wife

James Osborn, shepherd, wife Ann (Sarah Ann Osborn married Abel Camm of Creeton in

1872)

Mary Wells married William Makings of Dyke Fen in Bourne

James Wells, cottager (was he the steward at Bowthorpe in 1868?)

Letitia Woolley, pensioner

Elizabeth Kendall, farmer

Thomas Wells, shepherd, wife Mary

Charles Wells, (son of John and Sophia Wells) born in Manthorpe, ag.lab, wife Ellen had

moved away by next census to Nottinghamshire

John Dorman, agric. Lab., wife Harriet, three daughters

Francis Allam, agric. Lab., wife Lucy, six children, one farm servant

1874

Edward Seymour married Eliza Osborne (both of Manthorpe)

1875

William Bend married Emma Allam (both of Manthorpe)

1876

Ellen Holmes married John Barrow of Hammersmith, Middlesex

1882

Elizabeth Holmes married Henry Baker of St Martin’s, Stamford

1885

Henry Goodyear, farmer

Francis Peach, farmer

1889

John Cappitt, farmer (in 1892 listed Manthorpe, lives Thurlby)

(Mrs) Elizabeth Close, farmer

Francis Knipe, butcher (1892 farmer, listed Manthorpe, lives Baston)

Edwin Mills, farmer (and 1892)

Robert Charles Bannister Watts, farmer & grazier

Henry Wells, collector of poor rates (1892 cottager) Dec 1906 evening services were held in

his house in Manthorpe) (Died 1929 in his caravan in Manthorpe

1890

Eliza Mary Knipe of Manthorpe (born 29.7.1855 in Braceborough) married Sam Pierepont

Johnson of East Retford

1892

Edward Gray, farm bailiff, manager Bowthorpe Park

Samuel Cousins, farm bailiff (Witham Hall)

John George Cappit, farm bailiff

Thomas Close, farmer

Thomas Gray, farmer, lives Morton

William Hayes farmer, lives Thurlby

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Mrs Ann Osborn

Robert Charles Watts, farmer (listed Manthorpe lives Littleworth, Spalding)

James Wells, cottager

1896

John Jack Haddon born (died WWI 25th March 1818 of Diphtheria in France)

1905

George William Wilson, widower married Alice Archer, spinster of Haconby

James Drury, farmer & 1909

William Hayes, farmer & 1909 & 1919

David Henry Horne, farmer & 1909

Eldred Knipe, farmer & 1909 (1892 blacksmith)

Thomas Wilson, farmer

1905 & 1909

Herbert and Maria Harmston, baker (moved to Toft by 1919) son Stanley baptised

12.2.1905, Percy 29.4.1906, Reginald 11.2.1912, daughters Millicent May 9.6.1907 and

Gladys Maud 7.2.1909 WOTH

1906

Sarah Ann Francis, spinster married Ernest George Tibbles of Tickencote

1907

John Henry Holmes married Louisa Holmes of Toft

1908

Gertrude Jeffries married John William Francis of Melton Mowbray

1909

George Wilson, farmer

Henry Wells died aged 68, leaves widow Frances (who died 1912)

1913

Miss Ann Osborn died aged 87, lived in a cottage. Born in 1825 in the house that stood

where the old school master’s cottage now stands in Witham

1914

Alice Maud Green married Thomas William Kirby

1915

Mr and Mrs Gardner

1916

Sarah Jane Head married Ernest Smart of Bourne

1918

Mr and Mrs Francis return to Manthorpe

1919

William Ash, farmer

William T Hall, farmer

Charles Horne, farmer & 1933

William Musson, farm bailiff to Francis Knipe Esq.

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William Francis Ogden, farmer

Gertrude Holmes married Alfred Thompson of Westhorpe, Southwell

1920

Arthur Francis married Annie Richards of Hoole, Cheshire

1921

Jessie Holmes married Ernest William Forryan of Wigston Magna, Leics.

Frances Mary Wells married Thomas Potter of St Luke’s, Hammersmith

1933

Charles Boynton, farmer

Susan W Green, (Mrs) smallholder

William S Sharpe, farmer and wife (hurt in accident at crossroads in 1925)

Philip Waddington, smallholder

Jonathan Warne, smallholder

Mr and Mrs King move here from Witham

1934

Clarence Joseph Birch married Ivy Daisy Newbon of Castle Bytham

1940

Mr and Mrs Payne have left Manthorpe and are now settled in new home at Paignton,

Devon

TOFT

The Domesday Book in 1086 says that the land belongs to “Ansfrid from Abbot of

Peterborough; Gilbert of Ghent and Berewold from him. A Church, 2 Mills.” But Toft gets

mentioned as Toftlund or Toft Lund, so it is difficult to separate the Toft from Lound. Toft is

also included with Manthorpe and Lound (Mannetorp and Toftlund) as being in the

ownership of Hereward the Wake “Hereward had 12 bovates of land assessed to the geld.

There is land for one and a half teams, Asfort (Asuert), Abbot Thorald’s man, has 6 villeins

and 4 bordars and 2 sokemen there with 2 teams, and 20 acres of meadow, and 40 acres of

woodland, Tempore Regis Edwardi (1066) it was worth 40 shillings”.

The National Archives have several documents concerning Toft. In April 1635 Robert Jessop

of Lound rented to John Fracey of Lound a close called “Charities Close” (1 acre) in Toft for

the term of one year for 20 shillings. Another sale document in May 1649 lists Geoffrey

Revill (maybe Bevill), gentleman of Toft, buying property and land in Toft, Lound and

Witham from John Sherrard of Lobthorpe, William Wilson, gent, of Witham and Thomas

Harrington Esq., of Boothby Pannell who was the descendant of the Harrington’s who held

the lordship of the manor at Witham-on-the-Hill. Robert Harrington was buried in the

church in 1558 in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

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The Enclosure Act plan dated 1818 shows several interesting items. There is a large formal

oblong of water in the grounds of Toft House (approximately where the golf course car park

is today) which in maps 90 years later is reduced to a round small pond. The house itself in

1818 is a much different shape, maybe even more extensive than at present. There is what

looks like a small entrance, approximately where the entrance to Fairways starts today, that

has a building on either side at the roadside, maybe cottages. The area where the golf shop

is today has a group of four large buildings, maybe a farm, and the Dovecote is either not

shown or not built yet. Robert Porter not only owns the public house the Butcher’s Arms,

but also the long plot in which it sits. The same applies to the blacksmith William Warren.

The road between Toft and Lound is labelled Low Road, the main road is simply called

Stamford Road, while the road towards Thurlby is – you guessed it – Thurlby Road.

The 1843 edition of the Parliamentary Gazetteer says “TOFT WITH LOUND, a hamlet in the

parish of Witham-on-the-Hill, county of Lincoln; 3 miles south-south-west of Bourne. The

children of this hamlet attend the endowed school at Witham. Acres 1,370. Houses 45. A.P .

(assessed property) £911, Pop., in 1801, 196 ; in 1831, 194. Poor rates in 1838, £101 13s”.

Toft at the junction with Lound Road, the blacksmiths on the far left

From the Enclosure of 1813, when George Pochin owned large parcels of land in Toft,

through to the Victorian period, the name Pochin dominated the village as owners of Toft

House, which was the manor house and then, as now, the largest, most imposing house in

the village. There is a stained glass window in St Andrew’s Church in Witham-on-the-Hill

which was inserted in the north transept in 1881 in memory of the late Ashby Pochin by his

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widow Agnes and children. He died in 1880 in a horse riding accident aged 35. Rev Cooley in

the Parish News of November 1939 says “Mr Pochin’s Grave, near the north door of the

church (Witham) is the most satisfying of any in the churchyard. With its beautifully

proportioned little cross, inscribed with the simple prayer “Jesu Mercy” and its handsome

wrought iron railings, it is the grave of Mr Ashby Pochin, 2nd son of William Pochin, one time

Lord of the Manor of Toft. He died from a fall while hunting nearly 60 years ago. His home

was the large house in Toft, now owned by Mr Wallis. His widow later married the vicar of

Witham, Rev. W. N. Leeson. She is still living and in her 94th year”.

Toft House has a prominent position beside the main road and is still the centre of the

village as a hotel, public house, restaurant, caravan park, wedding venue, golf course

clubhouse and location for other businesses.

Over the years it has had

many owners, some of whom

were wealthy landowners

who leased the house and

land to tenants to farm. It is to

be supposed that the

dovecote shown on many old

maps, which now stands in

the land belonging to the golf

course, was used by the

owners of Toft House as a

supply of winter meat and

many pigeon pies.

In 1892 the History Gazetteer and Directory of Lincolnshire states “the land belongs to W.A.

Pochin, Esq., lord of the manor (although by this time the Pochin family no longer lived in

the village), Augustus Charles Johnson, Esq. (of Witham Hall), the Earl of Ancaster

(Grimsthorpe Castle) and a few smaller owners. An infant School was erected in 1876, at a

cost of about £100 and is now used as a mission room.”

By 1933 Kelly’s Directory says that Grimsthorpe Estate is the principal landowner for Toft

and Lound, and that the main crops grown are wheat, barley, beans and roots.

Toft straddles the A6121 and has always stood on the main road between Stamford and

Bourne, which explains why the village had a pub, as it could attract passing trade. The pub,

“The Butchers Arms”, some parts of which date from the 1600s, seems to have served a

dual purpose as it really was both a butcher’s shop and a public house in the 1800s.

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Unfortunately it ceased as a pub in the early 1960s. Rev. Cooley says in the Parish News in

June 1929 that Mr A. M. Bent had recently died, that he was proprietor of “The Butcher’s

Arms” at Toft for many years before taking over the “Six Bells” in Witham, and that his wife

had died 18 years before.

There seems to have been another tollbar at the end of the village just before the hill

heading toward Bourne. A Toll Bar Cottage once stood in the corner of the plot of the

present Toll Bar House, which was previously called Willow Tree House. This toll may have

covered not only the main road to Bourne but the track to Thurlby.

The Grade II listed cottage north west of the Bridge over the River East Glen at Toft, now

called Machar Cottage, was built around 1800, with alterations later that century. It is built

of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and the pantile roof has two brick stacks.

During the later part of the 20th century it was allowed to remain empty and deteriorate but

was renovated around the millennium and is once more a family home.

There are articles in the Stamford Mercury of 27th March 1818 (p 1, col. 2) reporting the

“Intended Construction of a Bridge on the Stamford to Bourne Turnpike Road at Toft near

Manthorpe”. Toft Bridge over the East Glen River is Grade II listed and was built sometime

after 1818 of “coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressing, it is a single- segmental-arch

span with slightly raised ashlar voussoirs and keystone, the bridge is splayed at the ends

terminating in round piers with hemispherical copings”.

There is a record that the blacksmith in Toft, Robert Nicholls, born 1733, died aged 75 of

drowning and was buried in Witham on 3rd June 1808. He was old for a blacksmith, and you

feel there is a story behind his death.

There was still a baker in the village at the end of the Second World War, and a forge and

farrier in the First World War. On maps of the time the forge is marked in the middle of the

village, on the corner of the main road at the junction of Lound Road. The building is still

there but it has been a long time since it was used as a blacksmith’s forge. Over the years

there have also been shoemakers, boot makers, tailors, carpenters, a garage owner and

builders as well as farmers and labourers.

The village of Toft gave its name to Toft Tunnel on the former Midland & Great Northern

joint Railway, which ran from Saxby to the station at Red Hall, Bourne. The line linked the

industrial Midlands with the East Coast resorts, and ran about one mile north of Toft. This

was the only tunnel on this railway and was needed because the escarpment which

overlooks Bourne was too steep to allow the line to be taken over it, so a tunnel had to be

driven through it.

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Work began in 1890, with tunnelling work starting in earnest in 1891, the initial workforce

of about 100 men soon increasing to about 400. Clay from near the tunnelling operation

provided raw materials for one million of the 2.5 million bricks needed to line the 300 metre

- long tunnel, which were ordered from Henry Kingston of Bourne. Work on the tunnel took

over two years; a special excursion train from the Midlands to King’s Lynn used the route in

June 1893, but passenger traffic did not officially start until May 1894. The line was closed in

February 1959, and the work of removing the track started in the spring of 1962. The tunnel

and a large section of the cutting are now cared for by Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.

Toft Tunnel

According to an article by David Kaye, and published in 1981 in Lincolnshire Life, Toft in the

mediaeval period had a manorial chapel built by Robert, son of Hugh of Tattershall, in the

12th century. One hundred years later the Register of Bishop Oliver Sutton calls it a church.

When William Stukeley visited the site in 1735 he found the building all right, but it was by

then being used as a blacksmith’s shop.

There was another chapel-cum-school-room in the Victorian era, and this was occasionally

used for services by the Vicar of St Andrew’s, Witham-on-the-Hill. It was demolished, and

Chapel Rise, built in 1889, stands on the site.

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In December 1934 the tragic death of Rev. E. H. Smith was reported in the parish news, one

month after the death of his mother. He was born in Toft in 1878 and was the vicar of

Illingworth in Yorkshire.

During the Second World War the Civil Defence had a Home Guard Company for the whole

parish. Mr Muscott was head warden for Toft and Lound, which also had one Special

Constable and 10 Fire Guards, while Mrs Muscott led the Toft branch of the Women’s

Voluntary Service. Mrs Stubley of Toft was the Billeting Officer, who placed 35 evacuees

from Hull in homes in the parish of Witham. Whist drives in Toft from 1942 to 1944 raised

£113 for war charities.

Toft Owners and Tenants Bridge House

Built about 1880, it was originally two stone cottages

Butcher’s Arms P.H.

John Porter, butcher, he was born in Toft in 1736, and died 1806

1818 - Robert Porter, butcher, voted for R Heron (Robert was son of John and first victualler

he died 1825)

1868 and 1885 - Thomas Howett, Butcher’s Arms and butcher

1889 - William Raistrick, victualler, Butchers’ Arms (also 1892)

1905 - William Mace

1909 - Alfred M. Bent (he was later at Six Bells, Witham, and died in 1929)

1919 - John H Stubley

1933 - Alfred Stubley

1940 - tragic death of Ruth Stubley, “this dear child had attended school in Witham and

recently joined Miss Bird’s girl guides there”

3.1.1945 - Sheila May Stubley, 24, married Stewkley Gerald Edwards, 31, a sergeant in the

RAF, her father Alfred Edward Stubley is listed as a dairyman

Machar Cottage

Listed as Grade II

The Poplars

Formerly Eastern Cottage

Toft House

There was also a Toft House Lodge at one time

1868 - Owned by William A. Pochin who was not living here, but is listed as Lord of the

Manor, (he is listed in 1885 as of Edmond Thorpe Hall, Oakham)

1880 - And before this date, Ashby and Agnes Pochin

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1881 Census - Agnes Eliza Pochin, 34 widow and four children (husband Ashby Pochin died

26.2.1880 aged 35 in a riding accident)

1905 - Robert Charles Bannister Watts, farmer & grazier

1909 - (Executors. of) Robert C. B. Watts, farmers

1919 & 1933 - George Wallis, farmer

Wesleyan Chapel

Situated where Chapel Rise now stands

Other names found in research etc.

1602

William Toller of Billingborough

Geoffrey Bevill, yeoman

Thomas, Lord Burghley

1608

Thomas Caudon, husbandman

Robert Watson, husbandman

1624

John Watson

Ann Watson, widow of Robert

1630

John Watson (rent agreement), another document 1630/1 says of Lound

1649

Geoffrey Bevill, gent

1650

Jeffrey Bevill, yeoman

Thomas Bradley, husbandman

Nicholas Easton, labourer

John Fracey, husbandman

Bartholomew Smith, husbandman

Robert Bevill, blacksmith

John Anford, husbandman

William Bradley, labourer

1655

John Fracey (this name also comes up in Lound)

1666

John Bevill (may be misspelling as Bevill and Revill are so alike)

1677

John Withers, yeoman

William Bradley, yeoman

Robert Fracie, yeoman

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Mary Smith

1687

Joannah Fracye, widow

1705

Robert Withers, yeoman (also 1707 and 1708)

Robert Smith, yeoman

1741

Robert Nicholls and wife Mary (née Spreckley)

1753

Henry Weathers - buried 14th April

1754

William Edwards - buried 7th Feb

John and Mary Osborne - baptised son John 20th Aug

1808

Robert Nicholls died of drowning, blacksmith, aged 75

1813 until at least 1881

Several families named Halford, John and Hannah, Thomas and Sarah and Thomas and

Mary. (Census and death register)

Enclosure 1813 land owners

Thomas Stennett

George Pochin Esq.

Thomas Russell

Elizabeth Palmer

Robert Porter

William Warren (he owned the long field that runs down to the junction where the

blacksmith is sited and is listed 5 years later as blacksmith)

Robert Nicholls

William Aistrop

Robert Howett

1818

Robert Howitt, (or Howett) shoemaker, voted for R Heron

Robert Nicholls, farmer (he died 1826), wife Mary (née Hawkins, died 1829) he voted for C

Chaplin

William Warren, blacksmith voted for C Chaplin

1831

John and Mary Wright

1836

Thomas Moysey, convicted to a life term, transported to New South Wales

1844

Robert Wass, farmer

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1868

Alford William & Son, carpenters & builders

John Atter, farmer and baker

Wilson Barnes, farmer

John Brinkley, shopkeeper

Thomas Fairey, shoe maker

John Pick, farmer

John Porter, shoe maker

James Reedman, carpenter

John Sansom, tailor

Thomas Wass, farmer

1872

Ann Perry married George Dring of Blouslency

1875

Joseph Taylor, widower, of Toft, married Elizabeth Dallywater, widow, of Toft

1876

Mary Helen Attar married Alfred Charles Osborn, of Manthorpe

Joseph Hales

Thomas Walpole, widower, of Toft, married Sarah Ann Clark, widow, of Toft

1881

Census - Robert and Margaret Holmes and three children

Census - Edward Alford, carpenter and builder. (also listed in 1885,1889,1905 &1909)

George Newmarch married Fanny Dowman, of Claxby, Lincoln

1883

James Johnson of Toft married Charlotte Elizabeth Wass, of Toft

1884

William Stalford of Toft married Catherine Walpole of Toft

1885

(Mrs) Elizabeth Atter, farmer and baker

Charles Glover, farmer

Henry Moss, farmer

Robert Smith, boot maker (& 1889)

John Sneath, farmer

William Roberts married Ellen Butler, of Morton

Thomas Hinson Jackson of Toft married Louisa Ann Thorold, of Toft

1889

Benjamin Baker, butcher

William Bradshaw, baker

Henry Moss, farmer

Matthew Ridgeway, farmer

67

1890

Henry Swann of Toft married Sarah Kate Crampton, of Toft

1891

Elizabeth Taylor of Toft, widow, married Thomas Allam, widower, of Witham

1892

Frederick Garner, farm bailiff

Edward Alford, carpenter and farmer

John Baker, grazier

Charles Bradshaw, baker (he is a churchwarden in 1899)

Mrs Adelaide Fairburn

Matthew Ridgway, farmer and grazier

Robert Smith, bootmaker

John Sneath, farmer and grazier

Henry Thorold, farmer, Toft Lodge

1905

Charles Bradshaw, baker and tax collector (& 1909)

Thomas Pick, farmer, (& 1909)

1907

Mary Elizabeth Clarke of Toft married Robert Henry Hammerton, of Hucknall Torkard

1908

Ella Hannah Watts of Toft married John Thomas Sentence, of Witham

Mabel Watts married Cyril Harry Mills Baxter, of Bourne

1909

Frederick Watson, farmer

1910

Amos Alfred Bradshaw married Eliza Suter Veness, of Witham

1911

Mary Ann Walker of Toft married John William Bedford of Morton

1912

Mary Holmes of Toft married Percy Charles Cosham of Tidebrook, Sussex

Mary Ann Archer married William Pacey Cooper of Witham

Sarah Holmes married Isaac Smalley Garner of Cosham, Hants

1918

Mr and Mrs J Haddon (war commission - John Haddon, son died)

The Wilson’s leave Toft

1919

Herbert and Maria Harmston, baker & 1933

Henry Stubley, farmer

Louisa Holmes of Toft married Joseph Kettle of Witham

1921

Mary Louisa Lee of Toft married James Arthur Langley, of Little Bytham

68

1922

Mary Elizabeth Haddon of Toft married Percy James Vickers, of Bourne

1925

Winifred Sarah Haddon of Toft married Tom Crosley Cropley of Bourne

1927

Mrs Clarke leaves Toft

1929

Mr and Mrs Goodland moved to Somersetshire

1931

Florence Mabel Haddon of Toft married Frank Edwin Wilson, of Newborough

1933

R Sharman, nurseryman

Miss Doris Wallis, garage owner

Mr and Mrs Eriksson and daughter are leaving to move to Peterborough

1934

Ethel Beatrice Haddon married Walter Leonard Kettle, of Long Sutton

Reginald Arthur Spooncer, son of William Henry (labourer) and Emily Kate Spooncer

baptised

1940

Mr and Mrs Grant celebrate Golden Wedding, on 3rd June.

69

The surprisingly straight road from Lound to the A6121

LOUND

Called Lund in the Domesday Book of 1086, it is listed as belonging to Gilbert de Ghent and

Berewold from him. But Lound gets lumped in with Toft in an entry for Saint Peter of Burg

(Peterborough Cathedral).

There is evidence that Stone Age man either lived here or visited the area, as Lincoln library

has an “unpolished Flint Axe found at Lound in 1958 near the viaduct”.

At one time Lound was a larger village. There are fields in the hamlet that are difficult to

cultivate because of the amount of stone and building debris along with pottery and broken

clay pipes that turn up. Lincoln Archive records that an undated pit was recorded on the

land at Hillside Farm. The Archive also has a report called Village Remains, Lound, with

information gathered in 1912, 1924 and 1956 and RAF aerial photos from 1946-50, that

states “The hamlet of Lound was in existence in 1086 and had a chapel in pre-Reformation

times, of which no trace remains. Aerial photos show traces of crop or soil marks which

suggest that the hamlet was at some time slightly larger than at present. The majority of the

area is under crop, but there are some slight un-surveyable earthworks indicative of

shrinkage. No trace of the chapel found”.

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Unfortunately the Census records add the totals for Lound in with Toft so fluctuations in

population are difficult to judge. Occupations seem few in the hamlet, apart from farming,

the records show only one shopkeeper.

Local tradition says the chapel once stood on the village crossroads opposite the postbox

where the Jubilee Oak tree was planted recently. This parochial chapel was surrendered to

Bridlington Priory in the late 12th century, which replaced it with a manorial chapel. In 1411

there is a mention of it in Bishop Repingdon’s Register, when a licence to celebrate mass for

a year was issued.

When land transactions took place in the past, it was often several plots and cottages or

farms at a time in different locations, and instead of simply passing from one person to

another, several people had an interest or shares in the properties, as in the following

“Indenture of Grant” dated 18th of April 1651: “John Stubbs of Nassington, George Hill of

Stamford and Thomas Armested of Obthorpe, gents., to Robert Withers, husbandman, of

Toft, Edward Jessop and William Watson. Property: a Messuage in Lound with 39 and a half

acres of land in Toft, Lound, Manthorpe, Witham, Obthorpe, Rounden. Consideration: £140

to Robert, Lord Bruce, Lady Diana, his wife, George Booth Esq., of Dunham Massey and Lady

Elizabeth, his wife, (Diana and Elizabeth are daughters of the earl and countess of Stamford)

and a fee farm rent of 18 pence, parcel of 30 shillings due formerly to the Crown from the

manor of Toft”.

There is a complex record in the National Archive dated 28th January 1725-6 in which “Alice

Beacham, mother of Robert Weathers and relict (widow) in turn of Robert Withers senior

and relict of Robert Beecham, gives two messuages, two cottages and various pieces of

ground in Lound and Toft in consideration of a £200 dowry”. It is paid to her daughter in law

Mrs Mary Weathers (nee Mary Heath daughter of John Heath of Belmesthorpe, Rutland)

wife of Robert Weathers. Some records can throw up interesting names of fields or closes as

in a 1649 sale record that mentions Little Close in Lound.

Manor Farm House in Lound is Grade II listed. The description on the listing states: “The

house was built in the early 17th Century and altered in the 19th and 20th Centuries. It is built

of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings and a Collyweston slate roof. It

has raised coped gables, a single red-brick gable stack and axial-ridge ashlar stack with

moulded cornice and two shafts”.

The Enclosure Act map of 1818 shows another road in Lound, parallel to the downhill “no

through road”, approximately where Sunnyside Cottage is now and running to the field

behind, with a building half way down adjacent to the road. This led to land originally in

common ownership. The same map shows 22 buildings in Lound, some very small, but there

is no indication as to which is a house or cottage and which is a barn or shed. There are two

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large buildings and one small one on the east side of the Edenham to Toft road north of the

crossroads.

Hillside Farm has at least three wells in the garden, and in the 1950s, although there was

mains water to the property, a well was also in use, but gradually the spring (situated in the

spinney near the junction with the A6121 and still marked on the 2000 O.S. map) that

supplied the wells in the village dwindled. During the Second World War a German prisoner

of war called Walter lived in the outbuilding opposite the back door of Hillside Farm. A silver

birch tree was planted adjacent to the house in 1977 by the Parish Council to celebrate the

Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee.

By the 1960s Lound comprised three farms and five cottages, four of which were

agricultural, and a small white cottage where an elderly couple lived, the husband was the

retired post master of Bourne.

Lound Owners and Tenants

Hillside Cottages

21.3.1959 Ernest Bass, age 27 agric. Worker, of 2 Hillside Cottages, Lound, married Barbara

Kirby aged 17

Hillside Farm

Built in the 17th Century; at one time it was two farm workers’ cottages, with a shared

staircase and was thatched

1933 - Elijah. A. Percival, farmer (until WWII)

Pre 1960 - Michael Doncaster and family

Lound Farm (Lound House)

1813 - land owned by Sir Gilbert Heathcote

1933 - Lawrence Challard, farmer (he died in 1962)

(The modern barn conversion behind the house, now called “Heathcote’s Yard“, was part of

the farm, the barn dates from around 1820)

Manor Farm

Formerly owned by Grimsthorpe Estate

1933 - 1969 rented by Harry Tunnard Naylor, farmer

1960 - The tenant was Peter Naylor, son of Harry T. Naylor

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Other names in research etc.

1630/1

John Watson, husbandman (also 1664)

Robert Fracey, yeoman

1635

Robert Jessop

John Fracey

1647

Robert Fracey and John, his son

John Fracey, yeoman

John Addy, husbandman

1719-43

Edward Mann owned four cottages and land around this time

1754

Mary Reynolds, buried 12th June

William and Mary Nightingale baptised daughter, Elizabeth 8th November

1794

Thomas Stansall, yeoman (mentioned in Indenture Reconveyance)

1813 – Enclosure land owners

Thomas Birch Reynardson Esq.

James Torkington Esq.

Sir G Heathcote Bart.

1814

The first of many Spreckley’s of Lound was buried at Witham church; there are at least 33

entries for Spreckley in the archive dating from 1725 to 1853

1836

John and Charlotte Porter lived in Lound and all 10 children born there (son on trial)

1844

John Moysey, convicted to 10 years, transported to Tasmania 1844

1868

Joshua Christian, carpenter.

Henry Elston, farmer

Robert Goodacre, farm bailiff to Mr Edward Woolley, of Witham-on-the-Hill.

William Moisey, shopkeeper

Joseph Peck, farmer

Edward Sandall, farm bailiff to Mr Pope of Thurlby.

Stephen Smith, farmer

1878

William Sandall of Lound married Elizabeth Ann Taylor, of Stainsby

73

1885

Samuel Knipe, farmer

Stephen Smith, farmer

1891

Henry Gall of Lound married Elizabeth Jane Harding of Lound

1892

Robert Blacklock Stanger, farmer and grazier

Henry Harris, farmer and grazier, farmed Elderwood Lodge, Witham, lived in Lound

William Mansfield farmed in Lound, lived in Bourne

Harry Squires (son of William) of Lound married Elizabeth Ann Winterton of Gedney

1905

Thomas Webster, farmer

1906

Thomas William Goodacre of Lound married Mary Fowler of Edenham

1909

William Andrew, farmer

Morris Hudson, farmer

William Neal, farmer (& 1919)

1916

Elizabeth Holland of Lound married Horace William Bullivant of St Andrew’s, Lincoln

1918

William Holland of Lound married Mary Elizabeth Peasgood of Lound

1919

Alfred Bradshaw, farmer

George Covell, farmer

1929

Emily Coates of Lound married Tom Ransom of Kirkby-la-Thorpe

1944

John Saxby, aged 24, an engineer of Lound, married Jean Eliot Wright of Edenham

1958

Margaret Jennings, aged 18, of Lound married Bernard Coupland of Bulby at WOTH

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Glossary

Acre – a Norman acre listed in the Domesday Book was a measure of both length and area.

An acre was 66 feet long, in area 160 sq feet (4 times 40 perches).

Bordar – A peasant lower on the social scale than a villan (or villein).

Bovate – A unit of measurement, one eighth part of a Carucate. eight oxen could plough 120

acres in a year, so a bovate was about 15 acres.

Carucate – An area of land equal to the amount that could be worked by a team of eight

oxen.

Close – an enclosure or piece of land in private ownership.

Demesne – Land in personal possession of a lord or the king, the income used to support

the lord, not the tenants working it.

Feoffment – A transfer of land that gave the holder the right to sell the land or pass it on to

his heirs (livery of Seisin).

Frankalmoins – Tenure in Free Arms. The church holds lands forever on condition that

prayers are said for the soul of the donor and his heirs.

Geld - A tax. This was assessed on the hide-land held.

Hide – Equals 120 Norman acres.

Knight’s Fee – A measure of land needed by a knight to support himself, his esquires, his

horses and armour. So the size of this fief or fee was not based on area of land but its

richness and income.

Messuage – A dwelling, site or holding.

Mill – In Domesday usually a corn mill, powered by water; windmills came later.

Oxgang – Another word for bovate

Pannage – An area of woodland used to let pigs free to feed on acorns, beech mast and

other nuts.

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Quitclaim – Old legal term for giving up all rights.

Socage - Feudal tenure of land by a tenant in return for agricultural or other non-military

services or for payment of rent in money.

Soke – The right to administer a place and its people.

Sokeman – A free man owing service to the lord of a Soke.

Terrier – A written description or manorial document listing holdings, tenants, boundaries,

plus labour and rent dues.

Toll Bar – Originally this was a large wooden bar with spikes that was placed across a toll

road, and only moved when payment was received, later replaced by a gate across the road.

Villata – Village

Villein – Sometimes called a villan, a free inhabitant of a village, one up from a bordar.

Wapentake – a Weapon Take, dating from the Danish settlement of this part of

Lincolnshire, as well as Yorkshire, each area of land, in our case called “Beltisloe” needed to

produce a minimum number of men and weapons to fight. These were called to assemble

on a certain date, usually at a cross roads or by a river, where literally one’s presence or

vote was taken by a show of weapons.

£/S/D Pounds, shillings and pence. There were 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pence in a

shilling.

With thanks to:

Lincoln Archive

Tom Grimes of The Spalding Gentleman’s Society

The Internet

Doreen Whitaker

Ann Taylor

Jim and Tricia Barnes

Rosemary Sismey

Andy and Hazel Darley

Jean Croft

David Porter

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Every effort has been made to provide true information in this Publication; the Witham-on-

the-Hill Historical Society accepts no responsibility for any errors.