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
We descend to the village, and passing in the wide valley the turn to
Asterby and Goulceby on the left, set ourselves to climb the main ridge
of the Wolds by _Cawkwell_. On the top of the hill we pass a cross road
which runs for many miles right and left without coming to anything in
the shape of a village; and naturally so, for the road like the Roman
streets in the Lake District, keeps sturdily along the highest ground,
and who would care to live on a wind-swept ridge?
[Sidenote: TATHWELL]
To the right the Wold runs up to nearly 500 feet, but our road only
crosses it, and after little more than a mile we see the level of the
marsh and the tall spire of Louth five miles ahead of us. The road
here forks, and forsaking the direct route by Raithby we will take the
right-hand road and in a couple of miles find ourselves dropping to the
village of _Tathwell_. This we circle round and arrive at the lane which
leads to the church.
This little church, dedicated to St. Vedast, who was Bishop of Arras
and Cambray (_circa_ 500), was once a Norman building, but the Norman
pilasters supporting the round tower-arch of the eleventh century are
all that is left of that period, unless the four courses nearest the
ground of large stones of a hard, grey, sandstone grit can be referred
to it. Upon these now is built a structure of brick with a broad tower
at the west and an apse at the east; but the charm of the place is its
situation, on a steep little hill overlooking a good sheet of clear
chalk-stream water. You look westwards across this to a pathway running
up the slope opposite which is fringed with a fine row of beeches, and
just below you at the edge of the little graveyard you see the thatched
roof of a primitive cottage, whilst beyond it the ground is broken into
steep little grass fields, the whole most picturesquely grouped.
We leave the secluded little village, and turning to the right, pass
between the Danish camp on Orgarth Hill and the six long barrows on Bully
Hill (the second hill of the name, the other being near Tealby). These
are all probably of the same date; the latter in a field adjoining the
road. A mile more and we turn to the left at Haugham, where is another
and larger tumulus, after passing which, on the left, we soon come to the
main Louth and Spilsby road.
The number six seems to have been a favourite one with the Vikings.
Eleven miles to the west of Bully Hill is “Sixhills,” between Hainton and
North Willingham, and another place of the same name near Stevenage in
Hertfordshire shows a fine row of six tumuli close to the road side.
[Sidenote: JANE CHAPLIN]
On October 25 there was a funeral in the Tathwell churchyard, when, in
presence of her surviving grand-children and great-grandchildren Jane
Chaplin was laid to rest beside the husband who had died forty years
before. She was not only of a remarkable age—it is seldom that a coffin
plate bears such an inscription:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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