| South Witham | |
|---|---|
 St John the Baptist Church, South Witham | |
  South Witham Location withinLincolnshire | |
| Population | 1,533 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | SK925192 |
| • London | 90 mi (140 km) S |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Grantham |
| Postcode district | NG33 |
| Police | Lincolnshire |
| Fire | Lincolnshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
South Witham is a village andcivil parish in theSouth Kesteven district ofLincolnshire, England.[1][2] The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,533.[3] It is situated 10 miles (16 km) south ofGrantham, 10 miles east ofMelton Mowbray and 10 miles (16 km) north ofOakham. The village is close to theLeicestershire andRutland borders.
The village takes its name from theRiver Witham which rises nearby. But the origin of the wordWitham is still unknown.[4] The village has until recently also been spelt as "South Wytham".[citation needed]
Richard Troughton was the Bailiff of South Witham; he was imprisoned by charges brought against him by Thomas Wymberley, partly due to Troughton's part in the Duke of Northumberland's attempt to putLady Jane Grey, Northumberland's daughter-in-law, on the throne. Instead of Lady Jane,Mary I of England became Queen, whenEdward VI of England died in July 1553.John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland was accused of treason for his plot.
In 1966, theRoyal Air Force built a large housing estate on the opposite side of the River Witham. The houses were intended for servicemen atRAF Cottesmore, but were taken instead by personnel atRAF North Luffenham. The village trebled in size virtually overnight, and the primary school was similarly increased in size. ANAAFI was provided for the forces' families.[citation needed]
On Thursday 2 August 1973 at around 11 pm,Canberra B2WJ674 of231 OCU crashed in the field east of The Fox public house, near Woodbine Farm in North Witham parish.
Three sets of fire crew from RAF Cottesmore arrived, with three other civilian sets from Grantham, Stamford and Corby. The first RAF fire crew had exited the airfield from the crash gate 1 nearGreetham, Rutland.
John Stafford heard two distinct bangs (theejection seats being fired) and an intense flash of light, and called emergency services.[5]Flt Lt John Dennis was killed, aged 26, the pilot, and married fromCrantock near Newquay, with a 10-month old baby; he was on attachment on the No.50 course at Cottesmore fromRAF St Mawgan inCornwall. Flt Lt Max Murray, the survivor aged 38, was a navigator, with a 13 year old son, and a daughter.[6][7][8]
Vincent Davies, who ownedThe Fox also called the police, and ran to the scene, and spoke to the pilot before he died, a few minutes later. Pathologist Trevor Spencer said the pilot died from multiple fractures, mainly to the ribs, legs, and pelvis. The dead pilot was found by policeman Brian Parrish, and taken to the RAF Medical Centre atRAF Spitalgate in Grantham.[9][10] The ejection seats were fired when the aircraft was at 700 feet.[11][12][13]
John Dennis's wife Michèle died in 2012.[14] WJ674 was the first of the last batch of Canberras made byHandley Page, and entered service on 26 October 1954.[15]
In 2010 a plan for a super-dairy with almost 3,000 cows was withdrawn after concerns expressed by residents.[16]
South Witham is bisected by theRiver Witham, about 3 miles (4.8 km) to the east of its source. It is the point on theA1 where it enters Lincolnshire from the south, near The Fox Inn. The parish of 1,770 acres (7 km2) acres bordersThistleton andRutland to the south, and the boundary to the west meets Wymondham, Leicestershire at Thistleton Gap. The parish includes the Forty Acre Wood to the north-west, where it borders Gunby. The boundary goes due east to meetNorth Witham parish at the first undulation in the road northwards.
Crossing the road, the boundary goes due eastwards to meet the A1, which it then follows due south on the east side of the road. The boundary goes through The Fox, with North Witham parish to the east, to a point just south of the A1 interchange. The A1 was upgraded in early August 1971, through Rutland, toTickencote (built by Rutland County Council). Before the road was improved, the South Witham crossroads on the A1 lay at the point where the sliproads join today.
Nearby to the south wasRAF Cottesmore, and the village was the centre of theflight path circuit.
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Quarrying began in the village when the railway was built in the 1890s. The geology of the area is 40 cm oftopsoil, 32 metres ofbrown clay (Oadby Till, fromAnglian glaciation), 10 metres of limestone (Lincolnshire Limestone Formation), 4 metres of Lower Estuarine Clay (Grantham Formation), 6 metres ofironstone (Northampton Sand Formation), then 7 metres ofUpper Lias Clay (Whitby Mudstone).
Ironstone originated from deposits on the Lias andoolites, which stretch from Dorset to Teesside; ironstone occurs mainly on the western edge cliff;Scunthorpe is on the Lower Lias. But in the south of county, ironstone is on theMarlstone Rock bed, on the upper portion of Middle Lias. Ironstone quarrying began in 1944;Stewarts and Lloyds Minerals Ltd owned the site from 1950. Theadit (6.7 metre diameter) extended as far south as Hooby Lodge. Production was hoped to be 1 million tons of iron ore a year, but only reached 390,000 tons in 1962, and closed on 27 June 1964. TheLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway railway through the village closed in the same year; the adit was bricked up in 1966.
On the road toWymondham is a limestone quarry owned by Breedon Aggregates, containing around 3.2 million tonnes oflimestone. Ennstone Johnston bought the quarry for £1.5 million in April 2004 from GRS.[citation needed] Close by to the north is a formerironstone quarry. Other companies based in the village include Compressed Air Plant, Auriga, Petlife International and Clever Cooks. In the parish on the northbound A1 is the Grantham South Witham[17]Travelodge. One villagepublic house is the Blue Cow in the High Street and the other is The Angel near the village church.
There was once aSouth Witham railway station which is now closed. The line went fromMelton, viaBourne, toSpalding. In 1898 a branch line was built from the railway (near to the quarry) toBuckminster to transportiron ore for theHolwell Iron Company, later theAppleby-Frodingham Steel Company, and ran parallel to Sewstern Lane.
The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist and included in the Withams Group of Churches ofNorth Witham,Stainby andGunby. In the 19th century the vicar wasRalph Tollemache, nephew ofLord Frederick Tollemache. He built the primary school in 1879. His eldest son, SirLyonel Tollemache, born in 1854, becameLord Tollemache in 1935.[citation needed]
On 22 February 1869, Ralph Tollemache married Dora de Orellana (1847–1927), the daughter of Spanish Lt-Colonel Ignacio De Orellana (born 1793), being born in the Channel Islands. Ralph had already had five children, and with Dora he had another nine children; her brother Ignatius, a dentist, married in 1856, with one of her brother's sons being the Britishlight music composerIgnatius de Orellana (1860–1931), who worked on the 1924Pageant of Empire; her brother's shop is now theMillets store inSt Helier.[18][19] His sixth child acted as a vicar of the village, and fought as a captain, aged 34, with the First Battalion of theLincolnshire Regiment; his body was never found after 1 November 1914, and his name is inscribed on theMenin Gate in Belgium. Another brother,Leone Sextus Tollemache, served with theLeicestershire Regiment, but had transferred as aBrigade major in theThird Australian Brigade, of theFirst Australian Division, being killed on 20 February 1917, and was buried atDernancourt in France.
Frances, the granddaughter ofJohn Hay, 4th Marquess of Tweeddale, theSecretary of State for Scotland lived in village; she married Charles Manners-Tollemache, the nephew of the Earl of Dysart, in 1797. She died on 29 March 1801 in the village, aged 26. Charles Manners-Tollemache's father,John Manners, was an MP forNewark from 1754 to 1774, who had married Lady Louisa Tollemache, thus joining the Tollemache and Manners families, and taking the Tollemache name. His elder brother (William Tollemache, who took the family title) would have a granddaughter Caroline Tollemache (daughter ofFelix Tollemache, 1796–1843), who married her cousin Ralph, the vicar of the village. Ralph was another grandson of Charles Manners' elder brother, John Manners.
There were two chapels – aMethodist andCongregationalist (now known nationally as theUnited Reformed Church). One chapel on Thistleton Road became a vintage motorcycle museum.[citation needed] The owner later claimed to be Britain's safest driver,[20] having taken to the wheel in 1925 (at the age of 15), and buying his first car, aWillys Overland Crossley Whippet in 1935 for £2.50. He sold his collection of eighty 1920s and 1930s motorcycles in March 2003.[21]
The parish is one of Lincolnshire'sKnights Templarpreceptories.[22] Temple Hill was investigated by theSociety for Medieval Archaeology in 2002.[citation needed]
Until their disbandment in 1312, the Knights Templar were major landowners on the higher lands of Lincolnshire, where they had a number ofpreceptories on property which provided income, whileTemple Bruer was an estate on the Lincoln Heath, believed to have been used also for military training.[23] The preceptories from which the Lincolnshire properties were managed were:[24]
The village focuses on two centres: around the church and around the former MOD housing estate.
Theecclesiastical parishSouth Witham is part of the Witham Group of theDeanery of Beltisloe in theDiocese of Lincoln. The incumbent is the Revd Dr Tom Broadbent.[25]
The village primary school is in Water Lane.[26] The school's 2011Ofsted rating was Grade 2 (good).[27] Older children are bussed out of the village to school.
The village magazine,Witham Word, is published monthly on the web.[1]
The village used to be the terminus of the No. 28 bus route from Grantham, which provides a daily service.[28][29] In 2024 the service was extended to also serve Stamford[30]
a Celtic or pre-Celtic river-name of uncertain origin
"Possibly more intensive farming like this will be the future":Martin Witham; Parish Council chairman
(URN): 120389
Media related toSouth Witham at Wikimedia Commons
