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
Within a mile to the north-east we pass _Saltfleetby-St.-Clements_,
a church which has been moved from a site two fields off, and very
carefully rebuilt in 1885, and shows an arcade of five small arches
beautifully moulded resting on massive circular columns. It has also a
good font on a central shaft with clustered columns round it, and in
the vestry, part of a very early cross shaft. Hence we soon reach the
sea at _Saltfleet_ on a tidal channel, as the name indicates. Here is a
remarkable old manor-house.
The parish church of Saltfleet is at _Skidbroke_, which stands in the
fields a mile inland. In the churchyard is a tall granite cross in memory
of Canon Overton of Peterborough. The church is of Ancaster stone which
has a much longer life than the green-sand, but the parapets of the nave
are of brick now, with stone coping. The belfry of all these churches is
approached by rough and massive ladders. In the west of the tower is a
good doorway. The chancel is a poor one.
Two miles through the rich meadows brings us to _South Somercotes_,
remarkable as having a spire, but of later date than the tower. Here the
chancel is absolutely bare, with painted dado and red tiled floor and
no fittings of any kind. It looks something like a G.N.R. waiting-room,
without the table. There is a very elegant rood screen, and an
exceptionally tall belfry ladder or “stee,” also, as in the two churches
just visited, ancient tablets in memory of the family of Freshney. The
family still flourishes; and at the Alford foal show, September 1912,
a Freshney of South Somercotes carried off several prizes. Unlike
Skidbrooke, the church has houses and even shops close to it. We saw
here a fell-monger’s trolley drive up with a strange assorted cargo from
the station of Saltfleetby-St.-Peters. There were several packages and,
sitting amongst them, several people all huddled together. It stopped at
the village corner to deliver a long parcel draped in sacking—it was a
coffin.
[Sidenote: THE GRAINTHORPE BRASS]
A few miles north is _Grainthorpe_, the old roof lately renovated. The
whole church well cared for, and in the chancel a mutilated but once
very beautiful brass, with a foliated cross, probably in memory of
Stephen-le-See, who was the vicar about 1400. The stem is gone, the head
shows some very delicate work, and the base stands on a rock in the sea
with five various fishes depicted swimming. It was once seven feet high;
and, if perfect, would be the most beautiful brass cross extant.
[Sidenote: THE HARPHAM TABLET]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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