Alkborough - North Lincolnshire

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Introduction

Preface

This is the third edition (December 2021) of the second of my articles about civil parishes. The photographs are a selection from those on Geograph; there are many more.

Geography

Alkborough village lies on a ridge that has a steep escarpment to the west, down to the River Trent, and a shallow eastern slope down to Halton Drain. The escarpment is formed of Triassic mudstone, and the ridge and land to the east are on shale of the Lower lias in the Jurassic system. This is mainly arable land. The north-western part of the parish is low-lying land adjacent to the River Trent and River Humber. This is alluvium, and was fertile farmland protected by embankments. However on 11 September 2006 the embankment was deliberately breached in order to provide storage for floodwater. The scheme will also provide a new wetland habitat, with seasonal grazing, which is to be designated as a National Nature Reserve.

Prehistory

Flint arrowheads and other implements of the Neolithic period (4000BC-2350BC) including a stone axehead have been picked up at Kell Well. An Early Bronze Age (2350BC-1500BC) beaker vessel has been found in the grounds of Walcot Hall. There is evidence for Iron Age and Romano-British settlements within the parish, especially along the top of the escarpment overlooking the River Trent. In 1931, a pot containing a small hoard of Roman coins was dug up just to the south at Walcot Hall. (NLC)

History

The names Alkborough and Walcot are Saxon. There is Saxon work in the church, including the tower (Pevsner) and the name 'Walcot' could mean that it was a surviving hamlet of British people (Ekwall). Alkborough and Walcot are listed as separate vills in Domesday Book, but their lands were split between different owners in a complicated way. Ivo Tailbois held land in both vills, but his land in Walcot was leased from Peterborough Abbey. Norman d'Arcy had land in Walcot, which he leased to his man Robert. In Walcot also were two outlying parts of other manors. (Domesday Book)

Alkborough is an ancient parish that was in Manley Wapentake, and later in Glanford Brigg Rural District in the Administrative County of Lindsey. In 1974 it became part of the Glanford District of Humberside County, which became, with Scunthorpe District, North Lincolnshire Unitary Authority when Humberside County was abolished in 1996.

The population was 345 in 1801, peaked at 528 in 1841 (Genuki) and was 453 in 2001 (ONS), when there were 188 households of which approximately 140 were in the village.

Much of the agricultural land was in large open fields, cultivated in strips allocated to the villagers, and the older farms are likely to be those fronting the main streets, whilst those out in the fields, such as Southdale Farm, were established after the open fields were enclosed c.1765. The owner of the Walcot estate enclosed his land in the 17C as sheep pasture, which was then more profitable than arable farming. He became wealthy enough to build Walcot Old Hall.

Sources

Maps

Old maps of the area can be seen on the National Library of Scotland website.
Modern OS maps can be viewed on the Geograph image pages or on the Streetmap.co.uk website.

Books

Domesday Book - a complete translation, Penguin 2003
Fisher= Adrian Fisher & Jeff Saward, The British Maze Guide, 1991
Shell= The Shell and BP guide to Britain,1964
Pevsner= Nicholas Pevsner and John Harris,The Buildings of England - Lincolnshire, Penguin 1964.
Youngs, Frederick A Jr,Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II, Royal Historical Society 1991.

Web sites

ONS = Office for National Statistics
NLC = North Lincolnshire Council:
APC = Alkborough Parish Council:
Genuki
historicengland.org.uk The map search gives large-scale mapping with little triangles to indicate listed buildings - click on a triangle to see the listing details.

The approach to the village from the south

The Village

The Church

St John the Baptist's Church was founded in or before 1052, and has a Saxon tower, except for the top stage which was added in the 14C or 15C. The west door is round-headed, in the Saxon style. The belfry was originally in the second stage behind double openings with arched tops, but is now in the third stage with tall double openings of 13C type. The chancel roof has a steeper pitch and higher ridge than that of the nave. The church clock is actually owned by the civil parish. The Parish Council is responsible for ensuring its regular winding and maintenance. The clock was made at the Harrison workshops in Barton and is considered very rare and attracts interest from far and wide (APC).
The arch between tower and nave incorporates Roman stones. The nave arcades are of the 12C, but the aisles were rebuilt in the 14C. The south doorway to the nave is in Early English style, highly decorated. The chancel, vestry and porch were added or rebuilt when the church was restored by J.O.Scott in 1887. As you enter the timber porch there is on the floor a copy of the medieval maze made in 1887; it also appears in a stained glass window above the altar (Fisher).
The oak reredos behind the Altar was made by Thompson of Kilburn in the early 1920s. His signature mouse can be seen on the right hand upright (APC).

The village streets

College Farm - Magdalene College, Cambridge, was endowed with a farm in Alkborough in 1624 by Frances Dowager, Countess of Warwick. The college still has the farm (I am assuming that it is College Farm). (APC)
When a pasture field adjacent to Countess Close was ploughed, building debris of limestone, tile, burnt stone and areas of clay floors were uncovered. The pottery finds show that these house sites were occupied from the 13C to the 16C. This area might previously have been the site of a small cell of Benedictine monks founded in 1052 by Spalding Priory; the monks were recalled to Spalding in 1220. (NLC)

Julian's Bower is a circular medieval turf maze, 12m in diameter. It is of a medieval Christian design, with eleven rings (Fisher). It is thought to have been cut around the year 1200 by Benedictine monks who lived locally. The monastic cell was an offshoot of the Monastery at Spalding, and was closed in 1220. It was first recorded in 1697. In 1866 a visitor noted that villagers played May-eve games on the maze (Fisher). It is a scheduled ancient monument, owned by the Parish Council.





Opposite Cross Lane a house called 'The Olde Library' - Mary, Lady Strickland (1797-1865), amongst other charitable works, was responsible for the building of the National and Infants’ Schools, now Watersmeet, and the Old Library in Back Street (APC).

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