Highways and Byways in LincolnshireRawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
History
Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire
Rawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
Lincolnshire (England) -- Description and travel
One of the many roads across the Wolds from Rasen to Grimsby passes
through _Walesby_ to _Stainton-le-Vale_ and _Thorganby_, another goes
through _Tealby_, _Kirmond-le-Mire_, and _Binbrook_, once a market town,
and near to _Swinhope_, the ancestral seat of the Alingtons. Both roads
after this unite and pass by _East Ravendale_, _Brigsley_, _Waltham_ and
_Scartho_.
A clear stream flows north through a narrow valley from Kirmond top
through Swinhope, Thorganby, Croxby pond, Hatcliffe, and almost to
Barnoldsby, and thence east to Brigsley, and so across the marsh to
Tetney Haven.
[Sidenote: SOUTH ELKINGTON]
Leaving Tealby, we climb to the top of the Ludford ridge, and, turning
to the right, come to the Market Rasen and Louth highway at Willingham
Corner, thence, to the left, by _Ludford Magna_ with its cruciform church
on the infant ‘Bain.’ To the right we notice Wykeham Hall, further on
to the left the church of _Kelstern_, standing solitary in a field, and
soon we reach the singularly beautiful and well-wooded approach to Louth
by _South Elkington_, the seat of Mr. W. Smyth. The church here, whose
patronage goes with the Elkington estate, was given about 1250 to the
convent at Ormsby, which presented to it until the dissolution, when it
fell to the Crown, and was given, in 1601, by Queen Elizabeth to the
famous John Bolle of Thorpe Hall. This Hall we now pass on our approach
to Louth, and a splendid picture awaits us when we see that lovely spire
of Louth church, standing up out of a grove of trees, and eventually
presenting itself to our eyes, in its full height and beautiful
proportions, as we come into the town by the west gate.
[Sidenote: LOUTH SPIRE]
The highway from Louth to Horncastle is best traversed the reverse way.
Starting from Horncastle with its little river—the Bain—its cobble-paved
streets and its pretty little thatched hostel, the King’s Head, the Louth
road brings us soon to West Ashby. Then, at a distance of four miles
from Horncastle, we come suddenly on the unpretending buildings of the
Southwold Hunt kennels. These are in the parish of _Belchford_, which
lies half a mile to the right.
[Illustration: _Westgate, Louth._]
We now climb 300 feet up Flint Hill, a name which tells us that we are
on an outlier of the chalk wolds, and a fine view opens out on the
left which we can enjoy for a mile, after which the road turns to the
right and discloses a totally different scene. In front lies the snug
village of _Scamblesby_, and behind it the south-eastern portion of the
South Wolds, sweeping round from Oxcombe’s wooded slope in a wide curve
to Redhill, behind which the Louth and Lincoln railway emerges near
_Donington-on-Bain_. It is a fine landscape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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