Skendleby
| Skendleby | |
| Lincolnshire | |
|---|---|
 Church of St Peter and St Paul, Skendleby | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TF433696 |
| Location: | 53°12’16"N, -0°8’43"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 174 (2011) |
| Post town: | Spilsby |
| Postcode: | PE23 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | East Lindsey |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Louth and Horncastle |
Skendleby is a small village in Lindsey, the northern part of Lincolnshire, near the A158 four miles east of Spilsby and 35 miles east of the county town, Lincoln. The village stands near the south-eastern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
The village pub is the Blacksmith's Arms.
Church
The parish church, St Peter and St Paul, dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, and was connected with Barney Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was restored in 1875 by George Gilbert Scott. The church is a Grade II listed building.[1]
The believed remains of St James Chapel, Skendleby Priory, were uncovered during archaeological investigations and excavations in 2005. It was a small cell to Bardney Abbey built by Walter de Gant in the 12th century. It is possible that an earlier Saxon monastery may also be near the site of the cell.
History
A chalk long barrow, Giants Hill, was built here for seven adults and a child, whose remains were found on chalk slabs at the south-east edge of the site.[2][3]
Bede mentions a monastery 'near Partney', in the 7th century.[4] Bardney Abbey was founded no later than 697, but fell into decline, during the 9th century.
Skendleby appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having a church and 36 households, with lord of the manor being Gilbert de Gant.[5] In the reign of Elizabeth I, Skendleby was recorded as having 27 households.[6]
Bardney Abbey was refounded by Gilbert de Gant who re-dedicated it to St Peter and St Paul.[7] A St Peter's church at Skendleby was given to the monks of Bardney by Gilbert De Gant, sometime before 1094.[6]
Skendleby Hall dates from the mid-18th century with some later alterations and additions. It is Grade II listed.[8]
RAF Skendleby
One mile north-east of Skendleby was the location of RAF Skendleby Chain Home Low radar station, with a 200-foot wooden mast on the top of a nearby manmade hillock, that operated during the Second World War between 1941 and 1945. In 1950 the site was developed further by the RAF with the addition of a two storey underground facility excavated to house a ROTOR ground control intercept station that operated during the Cold War.
The RAF handed over the site during the late 1960s and it became a civil defence regional headquarters that controlled Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Redesignated as Regional Government HQ 3.1 in the 1980s and with an additional two underground floors added, the only above ground structures are four ventilators on the mound together with a radio mast. A small building, disguised as a bungalow, conceals the heavy blast doors and stairs down to the nuclear proof bunker. The site was sold in 2000 and the whole facility is now in private ownership and believed to be used for secure storage.[9]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Skendleby) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1063641: Church of St Peter and St Paul (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "Natural England". Skendleby - Giants Hill. Natural England. http://cwr.naturalengland.org.uk/Default.aspx?Module=CountryWalkDetails&Site=4207. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
- ↑ Megalithic Portal: Giants Hill
- ↑ Steven Ronald Ronson: 'The founding, decline and refounding of Bardney Abbey and its dependencies', 2012
- ↑ Skendleby in the Domesday Book
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Edmund Oldfield (1829). A Topographichal and Historical account of Wainfleet in the Wapentake of Candleshoe, in the County of Lincoln. Longman Rees Orme Brown and Green. pp. 260–263. https://books.google.com/books?id=4oQuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA259&dq=Skendleby&hl=en&ei=8a_oTceTB8OZ8QOd6-C1AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Skendleby&f=false.
- ↑ A History of the County of Lincoln - Volume 2 pp 97-104: Houses of Benedictine Monks (Victoria County History)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1359680: Skendleby Hall (Grade II listing)
- ↑ RAF Skendleby