More information : Settlement remains (SK 995824), formerly part of Hackthorn, lie within and around the existing village at 25m above OD. The village and its earthworks extend for 1.4km along both sides of a shallow valley running E-W across the lower dip-slope of the Jurassic limestone ridge, and occupy a similar location to Firsby and Riseholme, made viable by reliable water supplies. Several religious foundations had small interests in Hackthorn in the Medieval period. These included the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, the Prior of Thornholme, the Knights Templars and Barlings Abbey. However, the principal religious holding was a grange belonging to Bullington Priory which eventually grew to a considerable size. The grange was still being referred to in the late 17th century, and presumably the present farm of that name, shown on the 1st edn 1 in OS map of 1824, indicates its location at the E end of the settlement.
The morphology of the settlement shows marked similarities to the plan of the deserted village of Firsby, situated 3km to the N, where a manorial block containing a church occupies the W end of the earthworks. At Hackthorn, a similar topographical position is occupied at least by the later Middle Ages by a manorial block encompassing St Michael's church, which is recorded in Domesday Book and has produced pre-Conquest grave-slabs. The surviving Hall was built on the W edge of this block in order to give unrestricted room outside the village for the creation of the park and ornamental lake, though whether this landscaping destroyed earlier remains is uncertain. At Hackthorn, as at Firsby, a through street lies on the S side of a valley; all of the housing of before the middle of the 19th century lies on the NW side of the street, and there is ridge and furrow on the south. To the S of Popples Cottage, the modern road leaves this line to skirt the perimeter of the park, but the street formerly continued directly SW, where it is represented in the park by a hollow-way continuing its line. On the N side of this hollow-way ('a'), walls of limestone rubble standing up to 1m high mark the positions of at least six former properties containing the remains of rectangular stone buildings. It is possible that these were cleared when the Hall and park were laid out at the end of the 18th century in order to create an uncluttered view, and replaced by estate cottages that form the core of the present village in a block on the N side of the axial street. Since no map survives accompanying the 1779 Enclosure
Award, this is a conjecture only.
Mounds and depressions cutting through the ridge and furrow on the S side of the hollow-way have been caused by quarrying, and are probably the 'Hackthorn quarry' which supplied the facing stone for All Saints at Cold Hanworth, dedicated in 1863.
Farms and dwellings scattered along the N side of the valley- Long Acres, Yew Tree Farm and Washdyke Cottages - are surrounded by fragmentary earthworks forming closes and groups of buildings or in the latter case by ploughed settlement remains that have produced much medieval pottery in fieldwalking. The arrangement probably
reflects what had gone before, with earlier farmsteads served, like their surviving counterparts, by cross lanes emanating from the axial street on the S side of the valley. A good example occurs at 'b' where earthworks of a farmstead is approached from the S by a hollow-way. The settlement remains at the E end of the village, although largely destroyed by ploughing and recoverable only from soil marks recorded on aerial photographs, form a group of large closes with a stepped-in rear boundary similar to the arrangements at, for example, Cabourne. This block, on both sides of the stream, appears as a Dean and Chapter leasehold property on a 19th-century estate map and may represent part of the early 13th-century gifts to St Mary of Lincoln that included 'two tofts, i.e. all the land that lies between the toft of Adam Wodcock and the stagnum of the canons of Bullington '. The Bullington grange presumably lay further E again. The same estate map seems to mark a track following the stream in the centre of the village which survives partly as a hollow-way ('c'-'d') and partly as a lane. Initially this may have been no more than a former course of the stream which was later utilized after the latter had been realigned along a more direct route. The stream was certainly straightened
further E where the marshy trough at 'e' represents a former bend. The occurrence of ridge-and-furrow on the valley side NW of Long Acres indicates that the village remains to the E were earlier separated from the church and manorial complex to the W, as at
Firsby. (1-2)
The Medieval or Post Medieval settlement remains recorded by Authorities 1-2 in the form of croft boundaries, buildings and ridge and furrow were seen as earthworks and soil marks and mapped from good quality air photographs as part of RCHME: Lincolnshire NMP. Additional areas of ridge and furrow were recorded to the east of the village, centred at SK 9929 8220 and an oblong fishpond at TF 0027 8281.
(Morph No. LI.36.1.1-18)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
(3)
The village earthworks survive in pasture as recorded by Authorities 1-2. The associated blocks of ridge and furrow survive as recorded by Authority 3, although some may have been ploughed and reseeded as improved pasture, with the exception of the land N
of Washdyke Cottages which is now arable. Additional slight earthworks were noted in the pasture field between Hackthorn Hall and North Plantation, centred SK 9885 8245, principally old field boundaries but possibly also some 7m ridge and furrow oriented
approximately N-S; a small ditched mound, possibly a stack stand, was also seen in this area. Not surveyed. (4)
Scheduled. (5) |