Quarrington, Lincolnshire: Difference between revisions

Quarrington
Village
Church of St Botolph, Quarrington
Population	242 (2001)
OS grid reference	TF054444
• London	100 mi (160 km) S
District	North Kesteven
Shire county	Lincolnshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	NG34
Police	Lincolnshire
Fire	Lincolnshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Sleaford and North Hykeham
List of places UK England Lincolnshire

Quarrington is a village in the civil parish of Sleaford, in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, a non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands of England. The old village and its church lie approximately 1.2 miles (2 km) from the centre of Sleaford, the nearest market town, but suburban housing developments at New Quarrington and Quarrington Hill effectively link the two settlements. Bypassed by the A15 and A17, it is connected to Lincoln, Newark, Peterborough and King's Lynn.

A rural community occupied land at Quarrington during the early and middle Anglo-Saxon period, while milling along the nearby River Slea in the Middle Ages gave the village its name. The Bishop of Lincoln and Ramsey Abbey held manors in Quarrington after the Norman Conquest, but the Carre family of Sleaford were the principal land-owners between 1559 and 1683, when it passed by marriage to the Marquesses of Bristol. Although the growth of Victorian Sleaford saw the town encroach into the parish's boundaries, the old village remained a small cluster of farm buildings and cottages for much of its history. However, the sale of virtually all the surrounding farmland by successive Marquesses of Bristol in the late 20th century led to the rapid development of housing estates on Quarrington Hill and in New Quarrington which have engulfed the original settlement.

St Botolph's Church, a grade II* listed building, lies at the heart of the old village and is a hub for the Anglican community. The village's primary school serves local children, who contiue their secondary education in one of Sleaford's three secondary schools. The town also houses the nearest railway station, which is on the Grantham to Skegness and Peterborough to Lincoln lines.

Scattered Palaeolithic and Bronze Age material has been discovered in and around Quarrington; however, while nearby Old Sleaford is known to have been settled in the Iron Age and occupied by the Romans, there is little evidence for sustained settlement at Quarrington.^[1] Between 1992 and 1995, archaeologists evaluating 34 trenches across 13 hectares of land around the village uncovered 56 ditches or gullies, a number of postholes, a large collection of pottery sherds and "extremely rare" evidence of metalworking from the 6th–7th centuries. The whole site has been dated to the 5th–9th centuries, representing an early and middle Anglo-Saxon settlement.^[2] Although noted for its metalworking and the size of the excavated area, the archaeologists concluded that it "displayed all the signs of a typical rural community", reflecting how "the vast majority" of the Anglo-Saxon population lived.^[3] Analysis of the animal bones revealed that sheep-farming increasingly replaced pig-rearing during this period.^[4] A small early Anglo-Saxon cemetery containing inhumations was also uncovered in the parish in 2000.^[5]

Ramsey Abbey was granted the manor of Quarrington by a monk, Jol of Lincoln, in c. 1051.^[6][7] The Domesday Book (1086) shows that the Abbey's manor consisted of 1 carucate and 6 bovates of land with 2 churches. The local historians Mahany and Roffe concluded that one of these churches was probably All Saints/St Giles Church at Old Sleaford, which the Abbey held as sokeland of Quarrington.^[8] A thegn, Bardi, held another manor under that name before the Conquest, but it had been granted to the Bishop of Lincoln by 1086 and consisted of 9 carucates and 2½ bovates of land plus 60 acres of meadow and two mills.^{[9][n 1]} A separate village called Millthorpe was also recorded, but the archaeologists Walker and Lane suggest this may have been an alternative name for Quarrington.^[10] Amongst the Bishop's tenants was Hugh de St. Vedasto or Vedeto, who held a knight's fee there of the Bishop in c. 1200-10. His family were prominent tenants in the village; Amicia, wife of a Hugh de St Vedasto, died in possession of lands and tenements there in 1253, and Alexander and William de St Vedasto are named in connection with the village in other documents.^[11] A knight called Henry Selvein held Quarrington of the Abbey and in c. 1166 granted the lands to Haverholme Priory.^[6]

Quarrington's medieval name was Corninctune or Cornunctone, as recorded in the Domesday Book. It is derived from the Old English cweorn ("mill") and tun ("homestead"), likely meaning "miller's homestead",^[10] which reflects the importance of the River Slea and the watermills which sprang up along its path; Bardi had owned 10 of these mills in Sleaford and Quarrington before Domesday, and the 11 or 12 in existence in those settlements by 1086 represents the largest cluster in Lincolnshire.^[12] Mahany and Roffe suggest that Quarrington was a specialised part of his compact estate, geared in particular to milling.^[13] Excavations have also revealed medieval pits and pottery in the village, with ditches reflecting a predominantly agricultural use of the land.^[14] In the Lay Subsidy of 1334, Quarrington and Millthorpe were valued at £4 10s. 4½d., slightly below average for its wapentake.^[14]

The Bishop of Lincoln alienated his lands at Quarrington to the Crown in 1547; they passed to the Duke of Somerset and then reverted to the Crown once more, before Queen Mary granted them to Lord Clinton, who sold them to Robert Carre of Sleaford in 1559. He acquired numerous manors, including Old and New Sleaford, during the mid-16th century and they passed through marriage from his male-line descendents to the Earls (later Marquesses) of Bristol.^[15][16] A 1563 Diocesan return shows that 17 families lived in the village and 120 people took Holy Communion;^[14][17] by the early 18th century, the diocesan visitations by Edmund Gibson show that the number of families had risen to 35.^[14] The local historian Edward Trollope records few changes in the early modern period, with exception of the fire which burnt down the rectory in 1760; it was only rebuilt in c. 1845.^[15] Two 17th century buildings still exist: the Bristol Farmhouse^[18] and the coarsed rubble Manor House, which one "widow Timberland" occupied in 1691.^[15][19]

The town's fields were enclosed in 1796 and a map of the fields was drawn up as part of that process, showing the settlement along Town Road and Townside Road with Rector Field and Earl Field to the north and north-east respectively.^[15][20] At the time, over 210 acres of land were allotted to the rectory by Lord Bristol in place of the tithes it had previously been entitled to.^[21] During the mid and late 19th century, the population of the old village of Quarrington declined (from 98 in 1851 to 72 in 1871). Aside from the Rectory and Church, the village included two large farms and a cluster of labourers cottages around Town Road. But, as Sleaford expanded, new houses were developed along London and Station Roads and into the boundaries of Quarrington; this area became known as New Quarrington.^[22] By 1872 the parish spanned 1,620 acres and the village contained 63 houses; in the same year, Trollope wrote that "the appearance of this small village, lying around its well cared for church, is very pleasing".^[15] As Sleaford grew during the 19th century, the sanitation in the poorest parts worsened and a Local Board of Health was charged with improving living conditions. In 1879 Lord Bristol sold a plot of land on Quarrington Hill to the Board, who built a pumping station to transport clean fenland water into the town.^[23]

Most of the land remained in the hands of the Marquesses of Bristol throughout the 20th century, but from the 1970s onwards, the indebted 6th Marquess and his son, the 7th Marquess, sold much of the land in Sleaford and Quarrington. In 1989, the Bristol Estates office in Sleaford closed. The result was a boom in house-building, especially in the fields around Quarrington. In the 1980s, hundreds of houses were constructed in Southfields, and developments on Quarrington Hill followed in the late 1990s.^[24] Low house prices and crime rates, and good educational facilities in Sleaford made these new homes attractive.^[25] As the local historian Simon Pawley wrote, "Quarrington ... began to look more like a suburb of Sleaford than a village in its own right".^[26] In July 2015 planning permission for 200 new homes between Northfield Road and the A15 was granted by North Kesteven District Council.^[27]

Quarrington is a settlement south west of Sleaford, the principal market town in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. Quarrington proper is clustered around Town Road and between Grantham Road (the B1517) and London Road. To the north of Grantham Road is Quarrington Hill and the to north and east of the old village Quarrington is New Quarrington; all of these settlements are linked together by continuous housing developments to form a suburb of Sleaford.^[28][29] The County Council's State of the Environment Report (1994) found that roughly three-quarters of Lincolnshire is low-lying, with much of it near sea-level;^[30] Quarrington lies between approximately 25 and 15 feet above sea level, close to Lincoln Cliff, a Limestone scarp running north–south through Lindsey and Kesteven.^[31][32] The bedrock under most of Quarrington is Cornbrash limestone and belongs to the Great Oolite Group of Jurassic rocks formed 168−165 million years ago.^[33] The soil belongs to the Quarrington series, a type of brown, calcareous sand.^[31] The county's agricultural land is generally of "very good" quality; as a result, intensive arable and vegetable farming is predominant and pastoral farming declined over the course of the 20th century.^[34] Quarrington and Sleaford are on the edge of the Fens, a low-lying region of the East of England which, before drainage from the 17th to the 20th centuries, were marshy and liable to flooding. Draining has revealed nutrient-rich soils and enabled 88% of the land to be cultivated, especially for arable farming, and most of it is graded amongst the most productive farmland in the country.^[35][36]

According to the Köppen classification, the British Isles experience a maritime climate characterised by relatively cool summers and mild winters. Lincolnshire's position on the east of the Isles allows for a sunnier and warmer climate relative to the national average, and it is one of the driest counties in the United Kingdom.^[37] Although it may vary depending on altitude and proximity to the coast, the mean average temperature for the East of England is approximately 9 °C to 10.5 °C; the highest temperature recorded in the region was 37.3 °C at Cavendish on 10 August 2003. On average, the region experiences 30 days of rainfall in winter and 25 in summer, with 15 days of thunder and 6–8 days of hail per year; on 25 August 2001, hail the size of golf balls were reported in Sleaford and other parts of central Lincolnshire. Wind tends to affect the north and west of the country more than the East, and Lincolnshire tends to receive no more than 2 days of gale per year (where gale is a gust of wind at >34 knots, sustained for at least 10 minutes). Despite this, tornadoes form more often in the East of England than elsewhere in the country; Sleaford experienced tornadoes in 2006 and 2012, both of which caused damage to property.^[38][39][40]

Before 1832, Quarrington was in the Lincolnshire parliamentary constituency, which encompassed all of the county except for four boroughs. In the 1818 election, 49 of the 2,000 people living in New and Old Sleaford and Quarrington qualified to vote. In 1832, the Reform Act widened the franchise and divided Lincolnshire. Quarrington was in the South Lincolnshire constituency that elected two members to parliament.^[41][42] The franchise was widened by the reforms so that roughly 15% (202) of males in Sleaford and Quarrington could vote in 1868.^[43] The constituency was abolished in 1885 and Quarrington fell within the new North Kesteven constituency. It merged with the Grantham seat in 1918.^[42] In 1997, Quarrington was reorganised into Sleaford and North Hykeham.^[44]

The member returned in 2010 for Sleaford and North Hykeham was the Conservative candidate Stephen Phillips, who replaced Douglas Hogg.^[45][46] Lincolnshire elected a Member of the European Parliament from 1974 until 1994,^[47][48] and then became part of the Lincolnshire and Humberside South constituency until 1999;^[49] since then, it has elected members as part of the East Midlands constituency; from 1999, there were six members for the East Midlands, but the number was reduced to five in 2009.^[50][51]

The ancient parish of Quarrington lay within Kesteven's Aswardhurn wapentake. It was incorporated into Sleaford Poor Law Union in 1851. The Public Health Act 1872 established urban sanitary districts (USD) and Quarrington became part of the Sleaford USD, which in turn was reorganised into Sleaford Urban District by the Local Government Act 1894.^[52] Sleaford UD was abolished by the Local Government Act 1973 and, by statutory instrument, Sleaford civil parish became its successor, thus merging together Quarrington, New Sleaford, Old Sleaford and Holdingham civil parishes.^[53] Since 1974, it has been served by Sleaford Town Council, North Kesteven District Council and Lincolnshire County Council.^[54]

In the 17th century, the rectory of Quarrington and the vicarage of Old Sleaford combined to form the ecclesiastical parish of Quarrington with Old Sleaford.^[55] The parish boundaries of New Sleaford and Quarrington with Old Sleaford were last altered in 1928.^[56][57] The rectory is in the Diocese and Archdeaconry of Lincoln and has been in the Lafford Rural Deanery since 1968;^[58] the current rector of Quarrington is the Rev. Sandra Benham^[59] and the patrons are alternatively the Bishop of Lincoln and Sir L. H. J. Tollemache, Baronet. Family services are held on the first Sunday of the month at 11:00am and Holy Communion is carried out every second, third and fourth Sunday at 11:00am and every Wednesday at 10:00am.^[60]

The grade II* listed St Botolph's Church serves Quarrington's Anglican community. Its 13th century north arcade is the oldest part of the existing church. The tower and spire date to the following century and St Botolph's listing reflects the "excellent" 14th century tracery in two of its windows. The chancel was rebuilt when Charles Kirk restored the church in 1862−3 and an extension was completed in 2001.^[61][62] In the early 1900s a large additional church was designed; it was to be built on donated land in the parish but closer to Sleaford. However, disruption during World War I, the parish boundary changes in 1928 and rising costs delayed the plans. Instead a church hall was built in 1932 on Grantham Road and is now used as a community centre. The current rectory was constructed c. 2000 and a curate's house of a similar age was being rented by the Church of England in 2009.^[62]

Non-conformist places of worship in Sleaford include the Reformed Church on Southgate,^[63] and the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on North Street.^[64][65] The Salvation Army has a centre on West Banks.^[66] Our Lady of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church opened on Jermyn Street in Sleaford in 1888;^[67][68] Mass is held on Sundays and throughout the week.^[69] The Sleaford Muslim Community Association has met in St Deny's Church Hall since the early 2000s and plans to build a prayer hall on Station Road were approved in November 2013.^[70] Sleaford Spiritualist Church opened in about 1956 on Westgate.^[71][72]

The 1833 House of Commons enquiry into education in England found that Quarrington had no schools.^[73] This had not changed by the 1860s, when New Quarrington was emerging. This and the lack of an accessible church for parishioners (especially those in Old Sleaford) became a cause for concern, so the Marquess of Bristol gave up an acre of land on the western edge of New Quarrington, between London and Grantham Roads, for the construction of a school.^[74] The Sleaford architect Charles Kirk constructed the school and master's house at his own expense in 1867 for "to provide a place where the adults and children only of the labouring and other poorer classes of Quarrington and Old Sleaford may be instructed in the catechism and doctrine and worship of the Church of England".^[75][76] The new school operated along the National Society's recommended lines, with two teachers and 65 pupils on roll in 1870. A chancel was attached to the school, which could accommodate c. 100 children.^[77] The buildings were extended in 1898, the 1960s and 1980s.^[76] The successor, St Botolph's Church of England School, moved out of the old buildings and into its current site in 2002.^[78][76] As of 2015, the school is a voluntary controlled mixed primary school admitting juniors and infants with 394 pupils on roll, and was rated "good" by Ofsted.^[79]

Sleaford is served by three secondary schools with sixth forms: Carre's Grammar School, a boys' grammar school, Kesteven and Sleaford High School, a selective academy girls' grammar school, and St George's Academy, formerly St George's College of Technology, and before that Sleaford (County) Secondary Modern School (mixed non-selective secondary school). The grammar schools are selective and pupils are required to pass the Eleven plus exam.^[80][81] St George's is not selective.^[82] The co-educational Joint Sixth Form consortium between Carre's and St George's allows pupils to choose subjects taught at either school.^[83]

• Ellis, Charles (1981), Mid-Victorian Sleaford: 1851 – 1871, Lincoln: Lincolnshire Library Service, ISBN 9780861111022
• Mahany, Christine M.; Roffe, David (1979), Sleaford, Stamford: South Lincolnshire Archaeological Unit, ISBN 0906295025
• Pawley, Simon (1996), The Book of Sleaford, Baron Birch for Quotes Ltd., ISBN 0860235599
• Trollope, Edward (1872), Sleaford and the Wapentakes of Flaxwell and Ashwardhurn, London: W. Kent & Co., OCLC 228661584
• Walker, Fiona; Lane, Tom (November 1996), An Early and Middle Saxon Settlement at Quarrington, vol. 1, Sleaford: Archaeological Project Services, doi:10.5284/1012834
• Wareham, Andrew (2005), Lords and Communities in Early Medieval East Anglia, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, ISBN 1843831554
• Youngs, Jr, Frederic A. (1991), Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, vol. 2, London: Royal Historical Society

• Media related to Quarrington, Lincolnshire at Wikimedia Commons
• St Botolph's Church, Quarrington