North Carlton, St Luke

Location

You can see South Carlton church from the churchyard of North Carlton.  Like South Carlton, North Carlton and it's manor house were Monson property.  The antiquarian sixth Baron Monson visited this church in September 1828 and found two Monson monuments within this 'very neat, small edifice'.  These monuments, brasses covering the burials of two younger sons of the Monson Baronets, are still to be seen in the sanctuary.  With the exception of the tower with its Norman and Perpendicular bell stage, the brasses predate the church. For in 1770 the medieval building was replaced with the present ashlared nave and apsidal chancel.  The simple whitewashed interior is simply furnished and retains a 'birdbath' font and balustered altar rails of 1770. 







Access: There is plenty of parking by the roadside.  The church is kept open during daylight hours. 

If you want to see some more photos of North Carlton see my Flickr folder

South Carlton

Location

The picturesque village of South Carlton is situated on the edge of the limestone cliff to north of Lincoln, just at the point where it dips down to meet the valley of the Trent.  The church of St John The Baptist looks a bit disappointing from the outside, for as you walk up the path you are faced with a rather pedestrian looking Victorian building.  The church was thoroughly restored by SS Teulon in 1859-60.  However, this somewhat unimpressive exterior belies an interior of considerable interest.   Inside is a Norman chancel arch and two reconstructed thirteenth century arcades.  Since the sixteenth century South Carlton has been the home of the Monson's, Baron's Monson of Burton.  In fact they still live here in a beautiful early eighteenth century house to the east of the church. Everywhere you turn in St John's are reminders of this prominent county family.  An impressive set of family hatchments decorate the nave walls and the sixteenth century rood screen is adorned with their coat of arms.



 

A sign in the nave pointing east directs you to 'the monument'.  As you enter the chancel, passing a set of medieval stalls, you are little prepared for the impressive sight that is soon going to appear before you.  Protected by spikey railings, the north chapel is entirely filled with large canopied monument reaching to the roof.  This is the monument of Sir John and Lady Joan Monson who died in 1593 and 1624 respectively and was erected in 1625 by their son Sir Thomas, 1st Baronet.  It was carved by the court sculptor Nicholas Stone, who was paid £200 for it.  Stone was at the height of his artistic powers and the work is accomplished.  It needs considerable restoration.   



Beyond the monument to the north is the vast, but inaccessible Monson mausoleum, built in 1898 by William Watkins. Inside there are further family monuments including one to William Monson, 6th Baron, who was a noted nineteenth century antiquarian. 



Access: There is ample parking on the roadside close to the church.  The church is kept open during daylight hours. 

If you want to see some more photos of South Carlton have look in my Flickr folder

Claxby (near Market Rasen)

Location

You will find St Mary's Claxby on a back lane with glorious views north across the Wolds towards Nettleton Top.  Built, like most Wolds churches, of ironstone, it is quite a grand building for this area.  It is mostly Early English, but was restored in 1871 by James Fowler of Louth.  It wasn't a severe Fowler restoration, for although he provided new furnishings, he left behind a lot of interesting features.  The Early English chancel arch is supported on two rather cheeky corbels; one showing a man sticking out his tongue, the other a man with his hands on his mouth as though suffering from toothache. 

 



In the chancel are a series of interesting monuments.  In a niche in the north walls is a thirteenth century cross slab.  On the south wall is a painted stone monument in a severed classical style. Erected in 1605 it incorporates the rather battered kneeling effigies of the lord of Claxby, John Witherwick (died 1595) his wife Elizabeth FitzWilliam and their only daughter.  On the wall beside it is an armorial brass to Elizabeth's second husband William FitzWilliam who died in 1634 and their daughter Mary Monson who died in 1638.



Moving to the nave there is a striking late Victorian painting of the Annunciation.  Said to come from St Paul's church in Burton on Trent in Staffordshire, it is one of seven similar paintings in the area.  G F Bodley did work at St Paul's and it is possible he was responsible for the painting.   



Access: The church is kept open during daylight hours and there is parking in the lane next to the church. 

If you would like to see some more photos of Claxby have look in my Flickr folder.

Wold Newton

Location

When Hawerby became redundant the parish was amalgamated with Wold Newton a few miles further into the Wolds.  In 1862 a new church at Wold Newton was consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury Charles Longley. Designed by the local architect James Fowler of Louth, it replaced a seventeenth century building that in turn replaced a medieval building.  Early English in style, as were most of Fowler's church, it is built of ironstone with an apsidal east end.  So thorough was Fowler's work that the only reminder of the early church on the site is the fine late fourteenth century font, carved with an inscription recording the donors John and Joan Curteys. 



   
William Maurice Wright inherited the manor of Wold Newton in 1879 at the age of six and he would remain here until his death in 1956.  He was a staunch Anglo-Catholic, a member of the English Church Union and over time he transformed the church into something of an Anglo-Catholic shrine.  Fowler's gloomy polychromatic interior was whitewashed and corbels formed from masonry recovered from Bardney abbey and elsewhere, were added to the north and south walls to support rows of images of the saints. Wright evidently had collecting mania, for everywhere you look there are devotional objects and images.  On a windowsill is an image of Our Lady of Walsinghm, panels of continental glass hang from wires in the windows and in the chancel there is a portrait of Bishop Edward King, the saintly bishop of Lincoln and hero of the ritualist movement.  This is a prayerful place, where the Anglo-Catholic tradition is still maintained. 



Access: Park on the roadside in the centre of the village.  The church is on the hillside above the village up a public foot path through a field and is well marked.  The church is kept locked but the key is available from Rectory Cottage about fifty yards south of the church footpath.

There are more photos of Wold Newton in my Flickr folder.

Hawerby

Location

Hawerby church is a sad case.  Located just where the Wolds drops down to meet the marsh, St Margaret's Hawerby-cum-Beesby, is in an area where there has been a good deal of depopulation since the Middle Ages.  In fact the name says it all, Hawerby with Beesby. Once Beesby, two miles away, was a thriving village with its own church.  That was demolished in the fifteenth century.  There is now little in Hawerby either, save for St Margaret's, the large rectory next door and Hawerby Hall, the eighteenth century home of the Harneis family.   The church was made redundant in 1978 and was bought by a prominent local architect, who was supposed to convert it into a studio.  Although some remedial work has been done, the church has been left it to rot for the last thirty years.  It is now in a parlous state with gaping holes in the roof and is on the Buildings at Risk register, though I'm pleased to see that some holding repairs are planned.   





The church is a simple structure, nave, chancel and bellcote, built of local materials, ironstone, chalk and brick.  The north wall is probably twelfth century and in the south wall incorporates the blocked thirteenth century arcade of a south aisle.  There is evidence of a demolished west tower too; the seventeenth century bellcote shelters two medieval bells.  The church was restored in 1846 and it was then that the aisle was demolished.  Inside there is a restored Norman drum font and some monuments. On the chancel north wall is a brass to Elizabeth Humfray (died 1638) the daughter of former rector, Nathaniel Pilkington and below it is a Gothic niche that formerly held the marble bust of Maria Harneis, wife of Theophilus Harneis, former lord of the manor.  The chancel floor is made up of ledger slabs to the Harneis family and there are more tablets in their memory lying in a stack at the west end of the church.  It's not a church to visit unless you have a strong stomach.       



Access:  The church is approached up a lane that leads to the hall and rectory. The church is in private hands and internal access is no longer possible. 

If you want to see some more photos of Hawerby have a look at my Flickr folder.

Gautby

Location

Gautby church doesn't appear to be that promising from the outside.  It is a simple brick box, constructed in 1754-6 on the site of a medieval church. The chancel is built over a burial vault of the Vyner family of Gautby Great Park and it was they who paid for the building.  Gautby Great Park has long gone, as are the Vyners, who left the village in the nineteenth century for Newby in Yorkshire, leaving the church as the only reminder of their long residence here.  The interior of the church is quite surprising after the exterior impression, it is a light, elegant and quite sophisticated space.  The chancel arch is an impressive classical piece, flanked by two flat ionic pilasters.  The chancel floor is made up of Vyner ledger slabs and on either side of the altar are two purpose-made niches that ontain striking monuments to the founders of the Vyner family fortunes. One monument is that of Sir Thomas Vyner, 1st Baronet (1588-1665), a goldsmith of London and Comptroller of the royal mint who served as Lord Mayor of London.  The other is that of his son Thomas. Both were carved in 1673 by Jasper Latham and were removed to Gautby from St Mary's Woolnoth in London when that church was demolished in 1716.  For much of the twentieth century this little church was something of an Anglo-Catholic shrine and the Georgian features blend with some lovely devotional items to make an interior of great character.   Sadly that tradition has long gone and the church is now  little used. 







Access:  There is limited roadside parking to the east of the church, but please be careful as there isn't a lot of room.  The church is kept locked, but there is a keyholder notice in the porch.   

If you want to see some more photos of Gautby have a look at my Flickr folder

Sutterby

 

Location

The tiny two cell church of St John the Baptist, stand alone on a hillside in the Lincolnshire Wolds.  Henry Thorold in his Lincolnshire Churches Revisited remarked that it almost appeared to grow out of the hillside.  Like many small churches in the Wolds, it is built of greenstone with limestone dressings and some later brick patching.  The nave is probably Norman and there is Norman door in the north wall, the rest is mostly 14th century.  The south porch with its odd tracery-headed doorway dates from 1743.  I've never been inside this church, but have taken photos through the open west window.  The interior, long disused, has been stripped of its furniture.  The nave is divided from the chancel by a solid wall pierced by a rood screen and beyond it you can glimpse an altar rail.  Since 1981 the church has been in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.  The Friends are undertaking a programme of repair for this tiny building, the exterior and roofs were replaced in 2002 and in 2010 they are turning to the interior.    

Access:  There is plenty of parking close to the church.  At present it isn't possible to access the interior of the building.  

For more photos see my Flickr folder.

Waddingworth

Location

One of many remote Lincolnshire churches made redundant in the 1970s, St Margaret's Waddingworth is in the secluded valley of the Lincolnshire Wolds that is believed to be the geographical centre of Lincolnshire. The church is tucked away in the corner of a farmyard and is privately owned.  It is still used for occasional services, including an annual mass in August in celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although it is for the most part a fourteenth century Greenstone building, a lot of the church was reconstructed in brick in 1808. There was a further restoration in 1913 by H F Traylen of Stamford.  The delightfully furnished interior of the church is mostly due to Traylen's work.  He converted the box pews into panelling and provided a simple 'English' altar.  The furniture is painted green.  Traylen retained some furnishings including the pulpit and Georgian altar rails. The roof retains some of its medieval timbers, but has probably been reconstructed too. The only significant monument is a ledger slab in the nave floor to Edward Dymoke, a member of the prominent family seated nearby at Scrivelsby.   It is a charming building lovingly cared for my it's current owners - a wonderful place of retreat. 






Access:  There is designated parking area to the north of the church. You should find the church open, but if not you can get a key from the neighbouring farmhouse. 

If you want to see some more photos of Waddingworth look in my Flickr folder

Martin (near Horncastle)

Location

Standing forlorn, with only a farm for company, St Michael's is a precious little building. Although restored in 1877 and built of a patchwork of Greenstone and brick, the church is essentially Norman. You enter the church through a striking Norman doorway, it's capitals carved with grotesques. Inside is a spectacular chancel arch, dating from c.1200 and a wonderful example of the transition between Norman and Early English. This narrow opening admits to a dark chancel, sheltering a stone altar with medieval mensa. On the east wall of the chancel is a bracket formed from a waterleaf capital. The church is filthy and damp and it is evident it is now little used and little loved.




Access:  There is ample parking on the roadside, or in the farmyard.  The church is open during daylight hours. 

For further photos of Martin have a look in my Flickr folder

Mareham-on-the-Hill

Location

The delightful and rather rustic church of All Saints, Mareham-on-the-Hill, stands hidden behind farm buildings on a hillside with wonderful views across the Lincolnshire Wolds towards Fulletby Top. All that remains of the medieval building is the chancel, the rest of the church is Georgian. There was a rebuilding in 1780 and further work was undertaken in 1804. The uneveness of the exterior masonry, a mix of greenstone, ironstone and brick, has been relieved with a coat of limewash, which is now quite worn. Inside the church are charming Georgian furnishings, a double decker pulpit and box pews all painted blue, contrasting with a contemporary floor of red brick.

Access: The church is approached along a grass lane to the south and is kept open during daylight hours.

For further image of Mareham, see my Flickr folder

Goltho

Location

Approached across a field, the tiny and isolated church of St George is all that remains of a once substantial settlement. A wonderful display board gives you information and reconstruction drawings of this deserted village.  The earthworks and field markings of this settlement show up well on the location link I've given above.  To the south of the churchyard was a motte and bailey castle built on the site of an Anglo-Saxon fortification and in the Middle Ages this was home of the Kyme family.  In the 1530s the Grantham family bought the manor from the Kyme's and it is they who are believed to have rebuilt Goltho church, an atmospheric building. The nave of the church is of diapered brick and dates from c.1540. The chancel, probably replacing an earlier structure was added in the early 18th century. Inside the church there is an impressive array of furnishings, all dating from the early 18th century, including a fine pedimented reredos. The woodwork is all painted duck egg blue. There are hints of the earlier building.  In the chancel is part of a medieval poppy head bench end and in the nave a a coffin lid commemorating Lady Margaret Amstill dating from 1507. There are further stones to members of the Grantham family.







Access: The church is redundant and is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust, a keyholder is available close by.  It is possible the drive across the field and park just outside the churchyard, but watch out the slippy grass in wet weather.  

For further images of Goltho click on the link below to my Flickr folder