Skellingthorpe

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Skellingthorpe
Lincolnshire

Skellingthorpe village
Location
Grid reference: SK924719
Location: 53°14’11"N, -0°36’59"W
Data
Population: 3,465  (2011)
Post town: Lincoln
Postcode: LN6
Local Government
Council: North Kesteven
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Lincoln

Skellingthorpe is a village in Kesteven, the south-western part of Lincolnshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,465. It is three miles west of Lincoln city centre, and just outside the A46 Lincoln ring road.

The village of Doddington and Doddington Hall are a mile to the south-west. The Birchwood estate, built in the 1970s on the site of RAF Skellingthorpe, is a mile to the south-east.

The earliest-known spelling of the village's name, Scheldinchope, has unclear origin; perhaps a Danish name meaning 'Sceld's marshland enclosure',[1] or from the Old English for 'shilling and village'.[2]

History

Early

A few Stone Age remains have turned up hereabouts,[3] including an ancient hand-axe discovered in the construction of the railway line in 1897.[4] However the was a marshland until modernity. Roman engineers excavating what is now the Foss Dyke were in the vicinity around AD 120, as evidenced by a Roman bowl found in the parish, an image of which now features on the village sign., a copper alloy bell found in Main Drain,[5] and 13 coins (of the third or fourth century) unearthed in 1978.

Middle Ages

Main Drain

The Domesday Book (1086) records that "Scheldinchope" contained 12 carucates of land worked by 18 villeins, two sokemen and four bordars. Skellingthorpe would have consisted of 960 acres of ploughland plus common pasture, common land, woodland and wasteland.[6] The survey noted that the soke of the manor and the manor of Doddington were claimed by Balwin the Fleming but his claim was disallowed, the jury finding that it belonged to the Abbot of Westminster.[7]

In the Middle Ages the manor was held by the Norman Wak, or Wake, family until the lands of Baldwin Wake – Skellingthorpe, Hykeham, Waddington – were seized by King Henry III for his part in the Third Barons' War.[8] In 1283 the manor of Skeldingho was granted to Edmund, Earl of Cornwall,[9] and later it was obtained by Philip de Kyme a "Keeper of the Peace" in the county between 1308 and 1317.

Woodland bridleway on the perimeter of a mediæval hunting bank

By the 1360s the manor had passed to Gilbert de Umfraville, 3rd Earl of Angus and Kyme. In 1368, while he was away on political business in Scotland, his park at Skeldynghop was attacked by a party of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire gentlemen, led by members of the Everingham family (of Laxton), who occupied it for illegal hunting. The gang stayed there for three days before leaving with poached deer. According to a complaint heard at Westminster on 8 February 1368 they also "perpetrated other enormities".[10]

By February 1399 the manor of Skellingthorpe was all but deserted, with much land left uncultivated through a lack of tenants.

The Site of mediæval Skellingthorpe, near Ferry Lane

The mediæval settlement was laid our in the vicinity of Lower Church Road, to the north of the church and most the present village. There were three sub-rectangular fishponds, orientated north-south, near Manor Farm. It is unknown at what point that settlement became fully deserted. (In 1981, it was reported that the remains of the fishponds, water channels, ridges and furrows were in excellent condition but by 1987 they had been largely obliterated. The site is now largely given over to livestock.)[11]

Modern Age

In March 1610 the Court of the Star Chamber adjudicated on the case of a marauding clan said to have committed outrages in Lincolnshire. Thomas Clokes, Edmund Clapham, Mary Clapham (his wife), Ann Clapham, Elizabeth Clapham and Mary Clapham (their daughters), Roger Tonge, John Daye, and others were accused of burglaries at Scothern; while in Skellingthorpe they were accused of forcibly entering the property of Roger Fulshaw and seized bales of hay and plundered cattle from his land.[12] Roger Fulshaw had found himself in trouble following a violent brawl with a fellow called Rands in the churchyard.[13]

The 1694 survey, carried out by Robert Hopkins, the bailiff for Christ's Hospital, established that the parish consisted of 3,670 acres and that there were 31 tenants on manor lands.[14] The 1694 map shows that several roads existed at the time, under different names. Saxilby Road was called Ox Pasture Lane; Jerusalem Road was called Doddington Road, with a Wood Lane at Hughes's corner; and Waterloo Lane was called Witham Lane. (Witham Lane changed its name to Coldholme Lane in 1830 before becoming Waterloo Lane in 1914.)[15]

Throughout the late 1600s and early 1700s duck decoys provided an important element of the village economy, until the drainage and enclosure of the land.[16] The earthwork remains of an old decoy pond can be found on private land to the east of the village.[17] This pond was established in 1693

The 'Old Decoy'

19th and 20th centuries

The Catchwater Drain

By the beginning of the 19th century large parts of the parish were still little more than a morass: in June 1816 the parish was once again completely deluged following a period of heavy rain that caused several local rivers to overflow their banks.[18] For this reason the Catchwater Drain was dug, a project begun in 1805.[19] By the middle of the 19th century, Skellingthorpe had been well-drained for some time. Two small steam engines were even erected by this time near the Decoy Farm to pump out water in times of flooding.[20]

On the night of 12/13 April 1918, a German Zeppelin flew over Lincoln, failing to spot the city, which was in darkness, and bombed Skellingthorpe and Doddington (where lights were still showing as the Lincoln air-raid sirens had not been heard). The lights attracted 14 bombs, which damaged an engine shed and a railway track at Skellingthorpe, but inflicted no damage beyond breaking glass at Doddington.[21]

In 1948 there was a proposal to develop RAF Skellingthorpe into a civil airport, but it came to naught.[22] The area was the scene of a major accident on Friday 15 July 1949. An RAF Bomber that had taken off from Waddington came down 15 minutes later, crashing in flames near Skellingthorpe. Seven people were killed.

About the village

Jessup Cottage

Skellingthorpe Hall is to the east of the village. Pevsner describes it as, 'A Greekly august house of the early C.19. The porch is particularly good, with pilasters at the angles and fluted Greek Doric columns in antis with a finely carved frieze behind them above the entrance'.[23] The hall is a Grade II Listed Building.[24]

The Manor House is also a Grade II Listed Building, dating from around 1811. It formerly went by the name of ‘West Manor’.[25]

Off Lower Church Road, Jessup Cottage is believed to be the oldest house in the village: an 1840 Commissioner’s Report observes one ‘John Jessop’ lived there in 1837.[26] The house (which is a private residence) has a well upon the premises that taps an underground spring; the well also dates to the late 18th or early 19th century. The cottage is a Grade II Listed Building[27] and may have originated as a school.

Old Wood

Woodland entrance at Magtree Hill

Old Wood is to the west of the village. An ancient woodland, it forms part of the Witham Valley Country Park. In the Middle Ages it was used as a deer park.[28]

An 1847 county guidebook observed of the bird-life in the parish: ‘The extensive wood is frequented by the fork-tailed kite, and used to possess a heronry.’[29] In 1933 the wood was the home of a large brown, or 'white-tailed', eagle with a seven-foot wingspan: it later migrated south and was shot near Sleaford following a series of attacks on farmer's livestock there.[30]

The woodland is now owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. It is a varied site with a mixture of ancient oak, lime woodland and conifers. To the west of the village, Old Wood merges with the smaller Old Hag Wood.

Buzzards are seen over the wood in the daytime, owls can often be heard hooting at dusk and deer have also been spotted among the trees.[28] Slowworms are sometimes found at the bottom of resident's gardens, and sightings of grass snakes are not uncommon. One trail through the woodland is called the Odin Trail, in honour of Skellingthorpe's likely Viking origins.

Society

Spitfire flypast at the 2014 fete

Skellingthorpe holds an annual Village Gala with stalls, a lorry pull, live music and the rest. In 2014 it had a Spitfire flypast, and in 2008 a charity race between pantomime animals: six pantomime horses, a camel, a reindeer and a cow.[31][32]

Village folklore

Thomas Miller's Pictures of Country Life (1847) observes the antics of a village character in his story 'Saint Saxby, of Skellingthorpe'. Saxby was an unpopular busybody, and Miller tells us that the villagers eased their boredom by playing tricks on him: on one occasion they placed a scarecrow in a man-trap Saxby had purchased to deter thieves from raiding his property. On another they led him to believe a murder had been committed, and he roused the whole village – only for the interred 'corpse' to turn out to be a buried sack of wood shavings. Apparently, Saxby exiled himself from the village not long after, in humiliation. These events, according to Miller, were said to have occurred about 1795; but it is unclear whether the narrative is a true one, or a fabrication merely situated in Skellingthorpe.[33]

According to a village tradition, farmer Henry Stone was working the fields here when he was forced to take shelter beneath a great oak tree during a thunderstorm in 1690. Twice his pet dog attempted to drag him away from the oak, succeeding upon the third attempt: at that exact moment a flash of lightning hit the tree, killing a pheasant that had sought shelter in its branches. To commemorate his curious deliverance, Henry Stone had a picture painted of the tree, the pheasant and his dog. This picture, dated 1693, survives in the Drawing Room of nearby Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire.[34] It is possible the painting inspired the story, rather than the other way round.

(Another version of the story claims Henry was out shooting in the woods when a storm overtook him: his pet dragged him from beneath the tree while he was in the act of levelling his gun at the pheasant in its branches – whereupon the lightning struck it.)[35]

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Skellingthorpe)

References

  1. ↑ Mills, Anthony David: 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9
  2. ↑ Illustrated London News, p.13 (Saturday 6 June 1857)
  3. ↑ Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, Volume 72, p.26, Archaeological Society (1922)
  4. ↑ Quaternary of the Trent, p.278, edited by David R. Bridgland, Andy J. Howard, Mark J. White, Tom S. White (Oxbow Books, 2014)
  5. ↑ Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, Volumes 16–19, p.99, Lincolnshire Local History Society (1981)
  6. ↑ Skellingthorpe: A View through History, p.3. Mr L Stevens (1974)
  7. ↑ Reports and Papers of the Architectural and Archaeological Societies of the Counties of Lincoln and Northampton, Volume 20, p.269 (1889)
  8. ↑ Hill, Sir Francis. Mediæval Lincoln (1948). Cambridge University Press. p.210. ISBN 9780521079259
  9. ↑ Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Volume 8, p.53 (1893)
  10. ↑ Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 1367–70, p.135 (London, 1913)
  11. ↑ Unpublished report for Lincolnshire County Council Archaeological Section (June 1998). See http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1045-1/dissemination/pdf/943_StoneNookHighStreet_Skellingthorpe.pdf
  12. ↑ The National Archives, Kew. Public Record. Category: STAC 8 Court of Star Chamber: Proceedings, James I (c1558-c1649). Ref: STAC 8/141/28. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C5571161
  13. ↑ Reports and Papers, Volume 25, p.261, Associated Architectural Societies (1899)
  14. ↑ Skellingthorpe: A View through History, p.5. Mr L Stevens (1974)
  15. ↑ Ibid Stevens, p.73
  16. ↑ Stevens, L (Skellingthorpe Evening Institute). Skellingthorpe, A View Through History. (1974). p.7-8.
  17. ↑ 230147: Lincs to the Past
  18. ↑ The Monthly Magazine, or British Register (Volume 41, Pt. 1 for 1816). (1816). p.473.
  19. ↑ Stamford Mercury, p.1 (Friday 29 March 1805)
  20. ↑ Clarke, John Algernon. On the Farming of Lincolnshire. (1852). p.51.
  21. ↑ Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh, Henry Albert Jones. The War in the Air (1935). p.124.
  22. ↑ Mysterious Lincolnshire, p.121, Daniel Codd (2007). ISBN 978-1780913049
  23. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1964; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09620-0page 646
  24. ↑ National Heritage List 1164660: Skellingthorpe Hall (Grade II listing)
  25. ↑ National Heritage List 1061966: Manor House (Grade II listing)
  26. ↑ Report of the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of an Act of Parliament for Inquiring Concerning Charities (dated 30 June 1837), p.209 (pub. 1840 by W Clowes & Sons of Stamford Street
  27. ↑ National Heritage List 1317687: Jessup Cottage (Grade II listing)
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Witham Valley Country Park
  29. ↑ A Short Guide to the County of Lincoln, p.7, Sir Charles Henry John ANDERSON (1847)
  30. ↑ Hull Daily Mail. (24 March 1933). p.13.
  31. ↑ Lincolnshire Echo (23 June 2008)
  32. ↑ Skellingthorpe Chatterbox No.319. (parish magazine). August 2014.
  33. ↑ Miller, Thomas. Pictures of Country Life: and Summer Rambles in Green and Shady Places. (1847). pp.183–200.
  34. ↑ Codd, Daniel (2007). Mysterious Lincolnshire. Breedon Books. p. 136. ISBN 9781859835630.
  35. ↑ Kentish Gazette, page 2 (15 December 1846)
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