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
_Thurlby_ Church stands only a few yards from the ‘Carr Dyke,’ it is full
of interesting work, and is curiously dedicated to St. Firmin, a bishop
of Amiens, of Spanish birth. He was sent as a missionary to Gaul, where
he converted the Roman prefect, Faustinian. He was martyred, when bishop,
in 303, by order of Diocletian. The son of Faustinian was his godson,
and was baptized with his name of Firmin, and he, too, eventually became
Bishop of Amiens. Part of the church is pre-Norman and even exhibits
“long and short” work. The Norman arcades have massive piers and cushion
capitals. In the transepts are Early English arcades and squints, and
there is a canopied piscina and a font of very unusual design. There
is also an old ladder with handrail as in some of the Marsh churches,
leading to the belfry. Three miles south is _Baston_, where there is a
Saxon churchyard in a field. Hence the road continues to _Market Deeping_
on the Welland, which is here the southern boundary of the county, and
thence to Deeping-St.-James and Peterborough. _Deeping-St.-James_ has a
grand priory church, which was founded by Baldwin Fitz-Gilbert as a cell
to Thorney Abbey in 1136, the year after he had founded Bourne Abbey. It
contains effigies of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Shameful
to say a fountain near the church was erected in 1819 by mutilating and
using the material of a fine village cross. Peakirk, with its little
chapel of St. Pega, and Northborough and Woodcroft, both with remarkable
houses built of the good gray stone of the neighbourhood, Woodcroft being
a perfect specimen of a fortified dwelling-house, though near, are in the
county of Northants.
[Sidenote: EDENHAM CHURCH]
The Corby-Colsterworth-and-Grantham Road leaves Bourne on the west and,
passing through Bourne Wood at about four miles’ distance, reaches
_Edenham_. On the west front of the church tower, at a height of forty
feet, is the brass of an archbishop. Inside the church are two stones,
one being the figure of a lady and the other being part of an ancient
cross, both carved with very early interlaced work. The chancel is
a museum of monuments of the Bertie family, the Dukes of Ancaster,
continued from the earliest series at Spilsby of the Willoughby
D’Eresbys, and beginning with Robert Bertie,[2] eleventh Lord Willoughby
and first Earl of Lindsey, who fell at Edgehill while leading the
Lincolnshire regiment, 1642. The present Earls of Lindsey and Uffington
are descended from Lord Albemarle Bertie, fifth son of Robert, third Earl
of Lindsey, who has a huge monument here, dated 1738, adorned with no
less than seven marble busts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account