Annexed to this parish is the hamlet or manor of Poolham, anciently called Polum. It formed part of the barony of Gilbert de Gaunt until about the thirty-fifth year of Edward the first, when Robert de Barkeworthe died seized of it; {58a} and it appears to have been the residence of Walterus de Barkeworthe, who died in 1374, and was buried in the cloister of Lincoln cathedral. Afterwards it was the residence of the family of Thimbleby, a branch of the Thimblebys of Irnham, {58b} who probably built the mansion house within the ancient moat, about the time of Henry the eighth. The Savilles of Howley in the County of York, enjoyed the estate in the reign of Elizabeth, and in 1600, Sir John Saville, Knight, sold it to George Bolles, Esquire, citizen of London, whose descendant Sir John Bolles, Baronet, conveyed the same to Sir Edmund Turnor, of Stoke Rochford, Knight, and it is now the inheritance of Edmund Turnor, Esquire. {58c} Within the moat, beside the mansion house, are the remains of a chapel, built of stone, a font, and a grave-stone with the date 1527. In 1811, the parish of Edlington contained 27 houses, and 189 inhabitants. [Picture: Ancient Cross at Somersby] SOMERSBY. The village of Somersby is pleasantly situated on the wolds, in the hundred of Hill, at about the distance of six miles east from Horncastle. “The Topcliffes were an ancient family at Somersby, of which family Richard Topcliffe was the representative in 1592. He was the eldest son of Robert Topcliffe, by Margaret one of the daughters of Thomas Lord Borough, and married Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Willoughby of Wollaton Nottinghamshire, and had issue Charles his heir, and three other sons who died infants, and a daughter Susannah. He was a most implacable persecutor of the Roman Catholics, so much so, that the use of the rack and other tortures were called Topcliffian customs.” {60a} The manorial estates, which comprise the whole parish, have for many years been the property of a family named Burton. The present proprietor is William Raynor Burton, Esquire, which latter name he assumed on coming into possession of the estates on the death of his uncle, Robert Burton, Esquire, of Lincoln. On the south side of the church, near to the porch, is an elegant stone cross, which having escaped both the ravages of time, and the destruction of the Puritans, remains in so perfect a state as to be justly esteemed of unrivalled excellence and beauty. The extreme height of it, including the subcourse, is fifteen feet. The shaft is octagonal, and decorated with a capital, surmounted by a coronal of small embattlements. The cross, with its pediment, which rises from this, is ornamented on the south face with the representation of the crucified founder of the christian faith, and on the opposite side with that of the virgin and child.