Nocton Hall - 2nd World War and beyond

Nocton Hospital

In 1948, Nocton Hall and about 100 acres of adjoining land were requisitioned by the Air Ministry. The Hall (used as the living quarters for the female officers of the RAF Medical staff), wards and other buildings were fully renovated. Married quarters for officers and men were also built. This General Military Hospital became part of a 740-bed RAF medical facility until 1984.

The hospital was then leased to the United States Airforce as a wartime contingency hospital during the Gulf War. More than 1,300 US medical staff were sent to the hall - many were billeted at RAF Scampton. In all that period, only 35 casualties had to be treated.

RAF Nocton Hall was finally handed back to the British Government in September 1995. It was then bought by a private owner who turned the hall into a residential home.

Nocton Estate

The Nocton Estate came under the ownership of a company - Agricultural Estates Ltd. F Le Neve Foster advised on 9th July 1962 (in a letter to one Mr Ireson):
“So far as I recollect, the Estate, with other large farms, was sold by Dennis and Sons to a public company floated by Hatry in 1920 to which the public were invited to subscribe on the basis of a valuation by Knight, Frank and Rutley. This flotation has particular interest because I believe it was the only occasion on which the Public were invited to subscribe to a purely farming enterprise. It was not a success and never paid a dividend.”

From 1948 the Company commenced to renovate and repair the houses and buildings, which over the years were brought into good condition. The horses were replaced by a fleet of sixty tractors, twelve combines, pick up balers, a fleet of lorries, sugar beet harvesters, mechanical potato planters, and other modern machines and this fully mechanised the Estate.

The light railway was later removed and some twenty miles of roadways laid, thereby enabling potatoes to be loaded direct from field to factory. Indoor potato stores were erected and buildings altered for controlling chitting of seed potatoes. Two corn dryers were erected which with the storage capacity of the Mill could hold 4,500 tons.

The company has also paid particular attention to the development of the social amenities in the village and large halls, each with a Club licence for serving drinks, were provided in Nocton and Dunston.

Nocton, it is very evident, has seen more changes than many an English village so deep in the heart of the country. Formerly bound up in the fortunes of the Hall, Nocton witnessed large-scale commercial farming. It was part of a progressive era in agricultural history, though to see its cottages, a gracious farm or two, a tiny post-office, the quiet stone walls and colourful cottage gardens, one might imagine it to be olde-worlde, peaceful, and untouched by the modern spirit of change.

Nocton Hall - era of Hodgson and Dennis & Sons

Hodgson

John Hodgson created a lake in the Park (which was later filled in by the Air Ministry). After Mr Hodgson’s death, the Estate was kept on by his family, being managed by Mr Norman Hodgson until 1919, when it was purchased by Messrs WH Dennis and Sons of Kirton.

Dennis & Sons

Up to this date all the farms on the estate had been let to tenants, but from now onwards Messrs Dennis commenced to get possession of the farms (except Nocton Rise) and within a few years they were farming the estate as a whole. They erected the concrete corn mill for storing and grinding corn, and making up cattle rations.

It was Messrs Dennis who laid a two foot gauge light railway, extending to about 30 miles over the Estate – principally on the Fens – and connected this to the mill at Railhead with a siding for loading into railway trucks. They also built the Maintenance Sheds, Engine Shed and Bag Store, and engaged maintenance staff for repairing implements and shoeing horses. In those days over 200 horses were used on the Estate.

Messrs Dennis and Sons finally sold the estate in 1926 to a Mr J Herbert Dennis, who farmed it until 1936 when it was purchased by the Estates Company.

Nocton Hall - Marquess of Ripon

Philanthropist

The Marquess' first act, after his mother's death, was to employ Sir Gilbert Scott to complete and beautify the church in her memory, particularly in the work of the great west window. To link to a website for All Saints Church, click here: allsaintsnocton.org.uk

The Marquess also built the present school on the site of a farmstead, known as Scarcliff, and threw open the rest of the site for a village green. A chestnut tree was planted by Lord de Gray, the Marquis’s only son, famous as one of the best shots in the country, when he came of age in 1873.

In 1874 the Marquess built the Old Four Row and in 1878 he built the 'new' Ten Row. At this time the Great Northern and Great Eastern Railway Company had begun to lay the railway line which passes through Nocton and many of the navvies lodged in the village so that the population of the parish at the census taken in 1881 numbered 628 – the highest ever.

Old Four Row



The 'new' Ten Row

In 1880 the Marquess was appointed Viceroy of India and the Rev Footman was Vicar of Nocton. The big farmers were Robert Wright, John Mills, Georg Melbourne, George Woodhouse, Edward Howard and William Roberts, besides the Daltons and the Thorpes. There was a tennis club, also a cricket club and an annual flower show was held.

Evenly spaced on the carriage way approaching the Hall are towering Wellingtonias planted by the Marquess of Ripon in 1887, just three years after his return from India where he had completed four years as Viceroy.

Nocton Wood was then famous for its lilies of the valley, and Nocton Heath famous for its Lincoln Longwool sheep and Lincoln Red cattle. The names of Caswell, Dean, Howard and Wright were as well known in the agricultural world of South America, South Africa and on the continent as they were in Lincolnshire. Early in the 20th Century a flock of sheep founded in 1790 on Nocton Heath was sold to Buenos Aires for £30,000.

In 1889 the Marquess of Ripon sold the estate to Mr John Hodgson of Bradford. It is said the Marquess sold the estate because he could not afford to keep it in good condition and repair.

Nocton Hall - Lady Ripon and Church of All Saints

Lady Ripon

In 1862 the Countess pulled down the eighteenth century church of St Peter, which had had so short and troubled a career.

The Countess went on to build the present fine church of All Saints in memory of her husband. This church was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and is one of the finest modern churches in Lincolnshire. It was consecrated by Bishop Jackson on December 16th 1862.

All Saints Church, Nocton

In 1867 Lady Ripon died at the age of 74, leaving the bulk of her property to her son, who had been created Marquess of Ripon.

Nocton Hall - 'Prosperity' Robinson

Rt Hon FJ Robinson MP

Lady Sarah married the Rt Hon Frederick John Robinson on September 1st 1814. He was the second son of Lord Grantham and educated at Harrow and St John’s College, Cambridge.

The public career of 'Prosperity Robinson is well known. Initially MP for Ripon and Joint Paymaster of the Forces, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1823 –1827. He became Viscount Goderich of Nocton on April 28th 1827 and was Prime Minister from August 1827 to January 1828. He later inherited the title of Earl of Ripon (1833) and as a member of Sir Robert Peel’s cabinet, moved the second reading in the House of Lords of the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws on May 25th 1846.

One of the things at Nocton to claim the attention of the Robinsons, was the premature decay that had overtaken the church, built only 40 years before. The Minutes of the vestry meetings between 1818 – 1821 record many repairs and improvements. Mr Robinson seems to have borne two-thirds of the expense while the balance was defrayed by a rate. About the same time, the Lady Sarah arranged for all the village children to attend the school – where Justina Brackenbury (then Mrs Edward Seeley), had succeeded to her father – on payment of a penny a week, Lady Sarah paying the difference herself.

The first ordnance survey map of Nocton was published in 1824. About this time the old road to Dunston by Burton Plantation was closed and the present Bridle Path provided in its place. On the ordnance map the carriage drive from Nocton Hall to Dunston Pillar is clearly defined.

In 1832, the Nocton, Potterhanworth and Branston Commissioners contracted a steam-engine to try and improve the workings of the scoop-wheel. An old wind-engine had been used initially to lift the waters from the Fen, but was found to be inadequate. They obtained an Act of Parliament giving them further powers of taxation, successfully opposing an application of the Witham Drainage Commissioners for an injunction to restrain the use of steam. The appellants alleged that the greater quantity of water to be thrown into the river with greater velocity would imperil the safety of the banks.

On Thursday June 12th 1834, the steam engine of 40 horse power which cost £4,000 was put in motion in the presence of a vast number of persons. It’s operations were soon impeded for want of water, as it made light work of clearing out the quantity which had been accumulated for the experiment.

Fire damages Windmills and Old Hall

In 1827 the old windmill was taken down and a new one erected on Mill Corner, but this was burnt down in October 1833. The third mill was erected on the same site and pulled down in 1904.

Windmill - corner of Main St and Old Sleaford Rd

Following the destruction of the mill and another by fire, the Earl of Ripon – as the Lord of Nocton had become – ordered a fire engine of the latest design. This had only just arrived from London when, on Tuesday July 15th 1834 a more serious fire broke out at the Hall.

Lord and Lady Ripon had arranged to come from Carlton Gardens on the Thursday as they were expecting a visit from the Bishop of Lincoln, but about nine o’clock on the Tuesday evening as Richard Semper and other labourers were coming from the Fen, they saw flames bursting from the roof of the Hall.

The alarm was given and the new fire engine brought out, all to no purpose. The lead roof was lined with reeds which burnt fiercely and the molten lead descended on all sides. The water from the engine produced no sensible effect and the servants turned their attention to rescuing what furniture they could. Among the salvage was a chest from the library ticketed ‘to be saved first in case of fire’. It proved to contain the playthings and other relics of little Eleanor Robinson the only daughter of the house, a promising child who had died in 1826 at the age of eleven.

Sketch of the ruins of Nocton Hall - AWN Pugin

When the flames were finally extinguished about noon the following day, only a low fragment of the outer walls remained. The damage was estimated at £25,000.

The 'Poor' House

In 1833 the Poor House was built at the east end of Wellhead Lane and after passing from this use, was used as the village Post Office for many years.

The Old Post Office

Old Ten Row

In 1840 the Old Ten Row was built and in 1841 (7 years after the destruction of the old Hall) Lord and Lady Ripon received a petition from the tenants begging them to rebuild the Hall and offering – as an inducement – to do all the carting of the materials.

Old Ten Row

Rebuilding the Hall

William Shearbourne of Dorking (son of Joseph Shearbourne, the Estate carpenter), was engaged as architect and instructed to prepare plans somewhat on the lines of Longhills House near Branston where Lord and Lady Ripon often stayed since the destruction of the old Hall.

On October 26th 1841 the foundation stone was laid by Viscount Goderick, the son of the Earl and Countess, who was only fourteen years old having been born at 10 Downing Street while his father was Prime Minister. The wall facings were of local stone from Dunston and the mouldings and dressings were of Ancaster stone. After the stone laying ceremony all the estate tenants were entertained to dinner in the school and all the old women of Nocton and Dunston were regaled with a tea party.

Lord Ripon withdrew from public life and died at his other residence on Putney Heath on January 28th 1859. He was buried at Nocton on February 4th 1859.

Foundation stone on Nocton Hall

Nocton Hall - the elder son of the Third Earl

Robert Hobart

Henry Lewis Hobart's elder brother Robert, was born May 6th 1760. He had acquired distinction as a soldier and politician and was appointed Governor of Madras in 1795.

On his recall in 1798, he was summoned to the House of Lords by his father’s second title of Lord Hobart and in 1804 succeeded to the earldom and to the Nocton Estate. He made several alterations closing the old road to the Fen via Laurel Walk and Abbey Field and made all vehicles go round by Long Holt Lane. He planted the triple avenue of elms, leading from the sunken fence on the east side of the Nocton Hall towards Abbey Field, and improved the Hall gardens.

Lord Hobart removed the disused and dilapidated lantern from the top of Dunston Pillar and on July 18th 1810 replaced it with a colossal statue of George III to commemorate the fiftieth of the reign of his Majesty (this statue is now in Lincoln Castle grounds).

Robert died on the 4th February 1816 in consequence of a fall from his horse in St James’s Park. He was buried at Nocton and his monument, at the west end of the south aisle of the church, recounts the various high offices of state he held from time to time.

His widow survived him by thirty-five years and was buried at Nocton on 27th October 1851. She was the second wife of Robert and had one child, a daughter Lady Sarah Albinia Louise, born on 22nd February 1793 on whom Nocton had been settled. The late Earl’s titles passed to a nephew.

Nocton Hall - the younger son of the Third Earl

Henry Lewis Hobart

The younger son of the third Earl of Buckinghamshire was instituted to the Vicarage of Nocton on April 8th 1815 and to the Deanery of Windsor 1816. Henry Lewis Hobart had seen little of his parents, who lived mostly in smart London society. The children were often left at Nocton in the care of nanny Field, the Steward’s wife, to whom the Dean erected a monument. This can still be seen on the West wall of the present vestry.

During his office as Dean of Windsor, Henry officiated at the funerals of three Kings: George III, George IV, and William IV. One of the Kings died while Henry was in residence at Nocton - and the story goes that Henry hurried to the hayfield, exhorting the haymakers to make haste, as he wanted the horses to take him to Windsor to bury the King.

Henry Lewis Hobart died at Nocton vicarage on May 8th 1846.

Nocton Hall - George Hobart

HRH The Duke of York

Soon after the Hobart’s arrived at the Hall they began entertaining on a grand scale. On Saturday September 27th 1766, HRH The Duke of York, a younger brother of King George III, spent a weekend at Nocton and danced with Mrs Hobart in the Lincoln Assembly Rooms on the Monday evening.

Masquerade

On the 29th December 1767 the Hobarts gave a grand masquerade at Nocton Hall which may have been a house-warming to celebrate their advent. The guests were met at the door by a Turk in a white bearskin, who took their tickets. They were received by Mr Hobart as 'Pan' – his dress dark brown satin, made quite close to his shape, shag breeches, cloven feet, a round shock wig, a mask, a leopard skin over his back, and in his hand a shepherd’s pipe. Mrs Hobart was dressed in a muslin petticoat, puffed very small and spotted with spangles. Several dancers, including the hostess, had two costumes. Among the guests were Lord Exeter, Lord and Lady Vere Bertio, Lady Betty Chaplin, Sir Cecil and Lady Wray, the Huttons, the Sibthorps, the Custs, the Amcotts, the Neviles and all the great Lincolnshire families, all in fancy dress.

Creator of Modern Nocton

The Honourable George Hobart, who may be called the creator of modern Nocton, was the oldest son of the second marriage of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. He married Albania oldest daughter and coheiress of Lord and Lady Vere Bertie of Branston and he was for many years MP for Beeralston in Devon. In 1762 he was appointed secretary to the Embassy at St Petersburgh, by his half brother, John, second Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was ambassador to the Russian Court 1762 – 1765.

The spirit of “lands improvement” was abroad in Lincolnshire and the scheme for draining the Fens may have suggested the development of the Nocton Estate. To enable him to effect this with more ease and economy, he represented himself as patron of the Vicarage, though the Crown had presented every incumbant since 1667.

Church & Vicarage

By a deed of exchange dated January 6th 1773, he gave the site of the present vicarage and church in exchange for the old vicarage and church which stood in inconvenient proximity to the Hall. He destroyed every vestige of the old church, which had been dedicated to St Peter, except the font and Judge Ellis’s monument. The site of the churchyard is easily recognised by the level of the ground to the south-west of Nocton Hall.

The new vicarage was an enlargement of what was then known as Widow Storey’s homestead and the church, a mean structure, was erected where the present church now stands, and was consecrated on July 20th 1775.

In 1776 George Hobart, still representing himself as “patron of the vicarage of the parish church of Nocton and also impropriator of two-thirds of the great tithes thereof” obtained a private Act of Parliament for the enclosure of open fields and the commutation of the vicar’s tithes. The preamble recited that the open, unenclosed lands of the parish in heath, field and fen contained by estimation 4,500 acres or thereabouts.

Countess Albinia

Tradition describes his Countess Albinia, as a notorious gambler and a devotee of fare. When she won she went abroad in her sedan-chair, attended by gorgeous lackeys, to scatter largess among the poor and when she lost, Nocton had to be mortgaged (January 1786) and Branston had to be sold (1787), with the balance of the purchase money (after paying off her debts of honour), being laid out on some small properties at Dunston. Her breakfast parties, given at her villa adjoining Buckingham Palace – the site of which villa is now occupied by Hobart Place – were famous at the beginning of the 19th Century.

In 1789 another Act of Parliament was passed for embanking the enclosed fenland in the parishes of Nocton, Potterhanworth and Branston. The award of the Commissioners was dated January 11th 1793 and the works involved the erection of the wind engine which served for 40 years to pump the waters of the Fen into the Witham.

In 1793 the Earl of Buckinghamshire died and the Honourable George Hobart succeeded his half-brother as the third Earl.

The autumn of 1793 saw the first beginnings of a regular school at Nocton. In that year a certain John Brackenbury of Gedney, having quarrelled with his father came to lodge at the Plough Inn near Potterhanworth and married Alice Tether, daughter of the tenant of the Manor Farm.

Brackenbury had been well educated and at the invitation of the curate, Dr Willis, went to live at the vicarage and started a private school there. Soon afterwards he moved into a house, converted from two cottages at the east end of Town Street, and obtained leave to build a school on some waste ground at his own expense, the materials being carted free by his neighbours.

George Hobart, the third Earl of Buckinghamshire died on November 14th 1804, and was buried at Nocton on November 21st.

Nocton Hall - Early/Mid 18th Century

Sir William Ellis-Bart

Sir William died in 1727 and was succeeded by his oldest son, Sir Richard, who collected a fine library at Nocton. Sir Richard died without issue, leaving his estates to his wife for life and after her death, to his youthful cousin George Hobart.

Shortly after Sir Richard's death, his widow married a Sir Francis Dashwood. It was said that on taking up residence at Nocton, he found the heath uncultivated, unenclosed, without any proper roads; he heard of poor folks, benighted and lost on its dreary waste, dying from prolonged exposure to cold and wind and snow and liable to attack by highwaymen. As a result, he conceived the idea of a land lighthouse and erected the Dunston Pillar. This was 92 feet in height with an octagon lantern on the top 15 and a half feet high, surrounded at its base by a gallery. It is still standing today, although not in its full height.

During this period the Howard family arrived in Nocton and took a farm in the village, vacant through the insolvency of a Mr John Kent whose creditors had to be content with 5/- in the £. At this time Mr William Headland was tenant of the Glebe Farm.

In the Nocton Registers is an entry of June 12th 1613 “Christopher Wilkinson, being murdered on the heath, was buried at Nocton.”

Around this time, Lord Vere Bertie of Branston Hall was the leader of a movement for draining the Fens, so they might be made to produce something more than a nominal rent. Sir Francis and Lady Dashwood subscribed £21 towards the expense of promoting the Witham Drainage Bill in Parliament. This became an Act in 1762 and the works carried out were of great advantage to Nocton and the neighbourhood.

In 1762, Sir Francis Dashwood became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Bute’s Tory administration and in 1763 succeeded his uncle, Lord le Despencer and retired to his seat at West Wycombe allowing young George Hobart to take possession of his inheritance at Nocton.

Dunston Pillar - the land lighthouse

Nocton Hall - 17th Century

Townley

John Townley died in 1609 and was succeeded by his son Richard. Immediately after the Restoration Richard was compelled to sell Nocton to repair the breeches made by endless fines for not attending the Protestant services and for loyalty to the Crown.

Lord Stanhope

Charles, the second and last Lord Stanhope of Harrington was the purchaser and a Thomas Sergeant was instituted to the Vicarage in 1661. Lord Stanhope died in 1675 and was followed by a distant relative, Sir William Ellis-Bart, MP for Grantham, who inherited a large fortune from his uncle, Judge Ellis, whose monument may be seen in Nocton Church.

Sir William rebuilt Nocton Hall, and also built a banqueting suite in which he kept open house, providing 12 dishes every day whether any guests came to eat them or not.

Nocton Hall - Wymbish

'Old Master'

His nephew and successor, old master Thomas Wymbish was Sheriff of Lincolnshire and Mayor of Lincoln. He was a wealthy man, as by his will he left Nocton to his oldest son, Blankney to his second son, and Metheringham to his third son.

'Young' Thomas

Thomas Wymbish was succeeded by his great grandson, young Thomas Wymbish at the age of nine years, in 1530. While still under age he married Elizabeth Lady Tailboys of Kyme, a baroness in her own right, and a great heiress. On Thursday October 13th 1541, these young people were honoured by a visit from King Henry VIII and his fifth Queen, Katherine Howard who stayed the night at Nocton. Young Thomas had a short life and a merry one and died without issue in 1552. For the following seventeen years, the rents of his estates were set aside to pay his debts.

During the time of Young Thomas at Nocton, the Priory, with all other Monasteries in England whose incomes were under £200 per year, was suppressed by the King, and in 1536 it was dis established and disendowed. The net annual income of the Priory was £43. 3s.8d. for the support of a Prior, four Canons and two poor boys who were being educated at the Priory. The income of the Vicarage was £7.10s.0d. net yearly.

Mary

The estate then passed to Mary, the only child of Thomas Wymbish’s sister, Frances. Mary had married John Townley of Burnley, Lancashire and they had a family of seven sons and seven daughters.

Nocton Hall - D'Arcys

Domesday Book

In 1086, the date of the Domesday Book, the two English owners had given place to a single foreigner, Norman de Adreci, or D'Arcy, one of the companions of William the Conqueror.
N.B: in Domesday, Nocton is spelt "Nochetune" and in later documents, "Noketon" and "Nokton".

In addition to Nocton, D'Arcy was given 32 other parishes in Lincolnshire. The parish must have been of some importance in those days because D'Arcy preferred to live there. The parish numbered 41 households including the Lord of the Manor, the priest, "twenty six sokemen, nine villeins, and three bordars" with nine plough teams and two "talliage"of £2.0s.0d. The value of the manor in 1086 was reckoned at £10.0s.0d.

For eleven generations from circa 1070 to 1350 the D'Arcys held the lordship of Nocton; for twelve more generations from 1350 to 1660 their descendants on the spindle side continued the succession. This family improved the Estate and the Hall, which must have existed in Ulf's time, but apparently no attempt was made to fortify the Hall as no trace of anything in the shape of a castle exists.




Norman D'Arcy's son and successor, Robert D'Arcy, lived in the days of the great monastic revival under Henry I. and Stephen. He gave the churches of Nocton and Dunston to the Benedictine Monks of St Mary's Abbey at York, and granted certain lands at Nocton and Dunston to the Cistercian Monks at Kirkstead Abbey, near Woodhall Spa.

Nocton Park Priory

It was Robert who founded the Priory in the Park at Nocton, dedicated to St Mary Magdelene for a Prior and four Canons of the Order of St Augustine. The Priory stood in what is still known as Abbey Hill and the only remains of it are some large stones, broken hillocks and uneven turf on the rising ground which overlooks Nocton Fen. Some broken pottery was found on the site a few years ago and presented to Lincoln Museum.

N.B: the ashes of a Mr JH Dennis (who latterly owned the Nocton Estate) are scattered in a small fenced enclosure on the site.

The D'Arcys, throughout the ages, were Lords of Parliament, most of them were soldiers, fighting for the King abroad or against the King in several civil wars. One, Norman, in 1215 was one of the barons in arms against King John, from whom they exacted the Great Charter on June 15th. Thomas D'Arcy (who married a d'Eyncourt of Blankney) won a law suit which he brought against the Bishop of Lincoln for appointing a Prior of whom he disapproved.

Nocton Priory - seal

Thomas's son, another Norman D'Arcy lost a law-suit which a Prior brought against him for stopping up a right-of-way from the Priory to the Watermill at Dunston. Prior Lane at Dunston is still in existence, leading from the old mill in the direction of Abbey Field. It probably follows the line of the main drive through Nocton Wood, past the trees now known as the Nine Brethren and the Odd Tree, as it is quite obvious these were, years ago, boundary trees and probably divided the Lord of the manor's land from the Priors.

The importance of the D'Arcy barony must have entitled its holders to a writ of personal summons to the great council of the realm from the earliest days in which these special writs were used to distinguish the barons from the tenants-in-chief of lower rank. We find Norman D'Arcy personally summoned to the Parliament of September 1283, and the status of the Lords of Nocton as hereditary barons by writ was clearly established in the person of his oldest son, Philip, born 1259 who was summoned in like manner to every Parliament held from February 1297 to January 1307.

In 1314 another and graver quarrel arose between the Prior and the Lord. Matters came to such a pass that the Prior addressed to the King's Council a petition setting forth that Philip D'Arcy "keeps in his Manor of Nocton several unknown men who are sworn never to to cease from doing all the damage and injury that they can to the said Prior and his house, and who indeed are constantly from day to day seizing the said Prior's farm-beasts, both plough-oxon and others, and doing divers other injuries; so that for this reason the lands belonging to the said Prior lie untilled and unsown, and for those things the said Prior prays that a remedy be provided him". The Council appointed three justices to examine and decide the case, but unfortunately no exact record can be found of the trial or its result; but one account states that Philip was bound over to keep the peace for twelve months.

This same Philip joined in the revolt of Earl Thomas of Lancaster against the King, and was made prisoner with him at Boroughbridge in 1322. His estates were forfeited, but were restored shortly after the execution of the Earl, and Norman then accompanied Edward III. to his Flemish Wars of 1338-1339.

Philip died on March 25th 1340 and on his death Sir Philip de Lymbury and Agnes, wife of Sir Roger de Pedwardine, relatives through marriage, were declared coheirs of the D'Arcy Estates. From Philip's death to 1444, Nocton is totally without history. To fill the blank we have only the pedigrees showing how the Lymbury share of the estate descended to one, Nicholas Wymbishe. It was during this period that the estate was divided between the coheirs, with some probably sold, thereby reducing the once vast acreage.

During the D'Arcy period several attempts were made to establish a market at Nocton which might have considerably influenced its material well being and social development. In 1214 the second Norman D'Arcy obtained from King John a Charter for himself and his heirs to hold a market at his manor in Nocton "but so that it should not be to the injury of the neighbouring markets". The same Charter included the grant of a warren in the same manor. But the forfeiture of Norman's estates in the winter of 1215-6 probably involved the deprivation of this Charter.

In 1281 his grandson, the third Norman, being summoned to show by what tenure he held his estates, and what "liberties" he claimed in them, thus enumerated his rights at Nocton - free warren, gallows, a market every Tuesday, assize of bread and ale, and all other liberties pertaining to a market, and a fair every year on the eve and day of St Mary Magdelene" - 21st and 22nd July. There is no trace that these rights were ever granted.

During the plague known as the 'Black Death', the Vicar and Prior died and also the last of the D'Arcy family. For the next fifty years Nocton was at "sixes and sevens" until a Nicholas Wymbish, whose great grandmother had been a D'Arcy, bought out the interest of his cousins and restored order and prosperity to the parish. He enriched the Priory by gifts of land and houses in London. Nicholas Wymbish was a clergyman, a Canon of Lincoln and Archdeacon of Nottingham; he was also a lawyer and held high office in the Court of Chancery.

Early Days of Nocton

Parish of Nocton

Nocton was described in the last century as 'a green and pleasant place seven miles south east of Lincoln, having a Hall which was the home of a Prime Minister and a Church, built in his memory and which is his last resting place'.

About a mile from the village, on the edge of Nocton Fen and close to Nocton Wood, where lilies of the valley grow in great profusion, is the site of a priory founded in the time of King Stephen.

Nocton - as it might have been

The Parish of Nocton, in the Wapentake of Langee and parts of Kesteven in the County of Lincoln contains 5,340 acres; of those 2,315, to the east of the Carr Dyke are fen, and 1,583, to the west of the Lincoln - Sleaford road are heath; the remaining 1,172 lying between the Carr Dyke and the Lincoln Rd, include the village and wood.

Romans

Brass artwork on footpath between The Green / The Avenue

The Carr Dyke was cut by the Romans some time during their occupation of this country, AD 80-448 and was probably during the time of Agricola AD 79-84. This channel, originally about sixty feet wide, was navigable from its junction with the River Witham near Lincoln to the River Welland, north of Peterborough. It's chief purpose was to catch the waters from the rising ground to the west and to prevent them from swamping the Fens.

The Romans clearly thought the Carr Dyke an important work, and according to some historians, they built seven forts along its bank: of these, one was about four miles north of Nocton and another three miles to the south. How far the Romans succeeded in their attempt to drain the Fens we cannot tell for after they left the country their works were allowed to fall out of repair. Today, the Carr Dyke is only a fair sized drain and conveys the upland waters into the Nocton Delph. In 1811, when the dyke was being cleaned out, two ancient boats or canoes and some clay moulds for casting false coins of Constantine the Great and his mother Helena, circa AD327, were found.

The Fen and the Heath have been enclosed since 1776; until then both were practically waste, the only inhabited and cultivated portion of the parish being "the old enclosure" and the "field lands".

Britons and Romans may each in turn have made a temporary settlement of the place, but its continuous occupation as an abode of men must date from some time between the English settlement of Lindsey and Kesteven, AD 500-600 and the Danish settlement AD 870-880.

At the time of the Norman Conquest the parish was unequally divided between two, Ulf and Osulf. Ulf's lands were rated as twenty three carucates, Osulf's as one carucate. There was a church and a priest on Ulf's lands, as well as "ninety five acres of meadow and forty acres of brushwood."

Introduction to Nocton

Nocton in Lincolnshire

This blog is an attempt to create an online social record of information relating to the village of Nocton, Lincolnshire, UK.

Sign at entrance to village

Village History

This is a short extract from the weekly letter to the publication ‘London Calling’ from 16 March 1950, which is still pretty accurate today.

'Lincolnshire Village of Nocton' by Muriel Burton

"It is easy to miss the village of Nocton. The first time I went there, on the Lincoln-Sleaford road, I was through it before I realised the existence of any village. A scatter of houses, a gracious farm or two, a church, a tiny post-office-cum-shop: that is all.

True, it is set in rich farming land, its local stone glows a warm yellow, and, if the sun were shining, you might be tempted to stop and look around. But even then you might be tempted to dismiss it quickly as just another charming village with no real history. The hall, you would find, goes back only to 1841, and the church to 1862. So you would get back again into your car and drive away.

But that impression of Nocton could be hopelessly wrong. There are the remains of the Car Dyke, presumed to be a Roman drainage channel constructed by the demobbed veterans who were settled around Lincoln. There is Abbey Field, a few hillocks that are remnants of a twelfth-century priory, and a few pieces of stonework from it. The young church is the third on a site that goes back to Norman times, and the hall is successor to two others that from Norman days have belonged to great families whose names are part of England’s history."

The information in these blog pages has been collated from various sources and brought together to try and provide a 'one-stop shop' for people who are interested in this locality. I have endeavoured to give credit for those sources wherever possible, if however you find any possible copyright infringes, please advise and I will remove the offending item forthwith.

I hope you enjoy reading the extracts and browsing the various photographs of our area.