The village lies in a valley which is watered by a branch of the river Bain. The patronage of the benefice has been in various hands. In pre-reformation times it belonged to the Preceptory of the Knights Templars at Willoughton; in 1605 it was held by Christopher Pickering (“Liber Regis”), later by a Mr. Hatley (Ecton’s “Thesaurus”); then by the Listers of Burwell Park, who presented as late as 1837; from whom the patronage, with the manor, was acquired by the Bagnell family; whose representative now presents to the united benefice, alternately with the Traffords, as Lords of the Manor of Asterby. At what period the original church perished does not appear to be recorded; but, according to Weir (“History of Lincolnshire,” ed. 1828) there was in 1821 only a small modern church, dedicated to all Saints. This fell into decay, and in 1855 was succeeded by a small brick and stone structure; which, in turn, has more recently been taken down; and the church at Asterby now serves for the two parishes. Historic references to this parish are “few and far between,” yet by bringing them together, with a moderate degree of assumption from given premises, we can make out a fairly connected catena of its ownership. The name itself can hardly be said to give a certain sound. It has been variously spelt, as Golsby, Goldesby, Gouthesby, Golksby, Colceby, and, in Domesday Book, Colchesbi. We can only conjecture that it may have been the “Buy,” _i.e._, Byre, or farmstead of a Saxon Thane, named Col, Kol, or Golk, the two former being common as contractions of Colswen, or Colegrim, and not uncommon in the neighbourhood. {58}