Greatford

Greatford
Lincolnshire
Church of St Thomas Becket, Greatford
Location
Grid reference:	TF089117
Location:	52°41’37"N, 0°23’34"W
Data
Population:	268  (2011)
Post town:	Stamford
Postcode:	PE9
Dialling code:	01778
Local Government
Council:	South Kesteven
Parliamentary constituency:	Grantham and Stamford

Greatford is a village in Kesteven, the south-western part of Lincolnshire., two miles west of the A15, four and a half miles north-east of Stamford, and five miles south of Bourne. Greatford is noted for Greatford Hall, once the home of the physician Francis Willis.

The 2011 census recorded a population of 268.

History

The name 'Graetford' might be derived from its location on a gravel or 'grit' ford of the West Glen River, which is consistent with one local pronunciation of the name as 'Gritford'.

Greatford is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Greteford" and "Griteford",

The parish contains the now untraceable mediæval hamlet, Banthorp, mentioned in the Domesday Book. A 1334 tax list puts the site of Banthorp to the west of Greatford at Banthorpe Woods and Lodge.

In October 1892 a granary full of barley collapsed at the farm of the Dean family, killing four people: two from Greatford, one from Langtoft and one from Market Deeping.

Parish church

The parish church, St Thomas of Canterbury or St Thomas A Becket, is built in the Early English Gothic style. It is a Grade I listed building.

The parish is part of the Uffington Group of the Deanery of Aveland & Ness with Stamford, in the Diocese of Lincoln. It was previously part of the Greatford with Wilsthorpe Group.

About the village

Greatford Hall was originally a manor house built by Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century. It was the home and private asylum for Francis Willis, the physician who treated and 'cured' King George III of his madness here in 1788. In 1922 the hall burned down and was subsequently rebuilt in a similar style to the original. There is no public access to the hall today.

During the Second World War the Hall was owned by Lancaster Gate Hotels. In the 20th century It was the residence of the businessman Harry Dowsett who, in 1943, formed the civil engineering company Dow-Mac that first developed the use of prestressed concrete, made at Tallington two miles to the south of Greatford. (The company is now Tarmac Precast Concrete.) In 1940 Dowsett bought the Lowestoft-based firm of shipbuilders, Brooke Marine that built landing craft for the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

The village public house is the Hare and Hounds on Village Street.

The Macmillan Way long-distance walking route runs straight through the parish, broadly following the Rive Glen. Along the edge of the parish is an older route, a Roman road known as King Street.

Also at the edge of the parish is the Greatford Cut, a navigation canal built in 1954 to connect the West Glen River, to the north at Greatford, with the River Welland west of Market Deeping, and to stop the River Glen from flooding.

Society

There is a village hall hosting local activities.

Pictures

• 
  King Street near Langtoft
• 
  East Coast Main Line on the Belmesthorpe road
• 
  Greatford Cut

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Greatford)

• Greatford Parish Council