Morton, Kesteven
| Morton | |
| Lincolnshire | |
|---|---|
 Morton High Street | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TF097240 |
| Location: | 52°48’10"N, 0°22’22"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 2,406 (2011, with Hanthorpe) |
| Post town: | Bourne |
| Postcode: | PE10 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Kesteven |
Morton is a village in Kesteven, the south-western part of Lincolnshire. It is two miles north of Bourne, and fourteen miles south-east of Kesteven's main town, Grantham. According to the 2011 Census the parish of 'Morton and Hanthorpe' had a population of 2,406.
The village is to the east of the fen-edge road, the A15: to the west, the upland side (relatively), is Hanthorpe, with which it shares a civil parish. To the north is another small village, Haconby. The name 'Morton' comes from the acid peatland of the fen.
Parish church
The parish church, St John the Baptist, is built in the Early English and Perpendicular Gothic styles, and was restored in 1860 and 1951.[1] A baptist chapel was built in 1875, and still serves the village today.[2]
The church is a Grade I listed building.[3]
History
In the late 19th century Morton Road railway station opened in 1872 and finally closed in 1964.[4]
A gazetteer of the 19th century said:
MORTON, a village and a parish in Bourne district, Lincoln. The village stands near Car dyke; 2½ miles N by E of Bourn r. station, and has a post office under. Bourn. The parish contains also the hamlet of Hanthorpe. Acres, 3,390. Real property, £9,382. Pop. in 1851,938; in 1861,1,008. Houses, 203. The manor belongs to the Marquis of Exeter. Hanthorpe House is the seat of W. Parker, Esq. The living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Hacconby, in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £400.* Patron, the Bishop of Lincoln. The church is ancient; was restored in 1861; and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower. There are a Baptist chapel, a free school, and charities £33.[5]
George Hussey Packe, the 19th-century South Lincolnshire Member of Parliament and chairman of the Great Northern Railway, was born at Hanthorpe Hall in 1796.[6][7]
Geography
Morton lies on the western margin of the Fens. Over the two and half centuries since the land was drained, the peat has largely oxidized away leaving the underlying First Terrace gravel and the mainly clays of the Barroway Drove Beds. These beds form the central part of the fen as well, as they do at the eastern end of the parish. However, there, there is a broad ridge of the Terrington Beds, the remains of a huge marine creek which was not laid down until the Bronze Age and was still active when the Romans diverted Bourne Eau into it by means of what is called by archaeologists 'the Bourne-Morton Canal'. In the Middle Ages it was known as the Old Ea.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Morton, Kesteven) |
- Morton and Hanthorpe
- Information on Morton, Kesteven from GENUKI
- Article about both the Eau and the Bourne-Morton canal
- Morton annual steam rally
References
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 348460 – Church of St John the Baptist
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 1379855 – Chapel
- ↑ National Heritage List 1166383: Church of St John the Baptist (Grade I listing)
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 507045 – Station
- ↑ Wilson, John Marius: Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (A. Fullerton & Co., 1870)
- ↑ Sylvanus, Urban; The Gentleman's Magazine (1837), volume 7, p.656
- ↑ Howard, Joseph Jackson, Crisp, Frederick Arthur (1899); Visitations of England and Wales, volume 7, p.167. ISBN 1146165595
