More information : [TA 034079] The lost village of Kettleby in Bigby is mentioned in 1334 see also TA 00 NW. There was one family only in 1563. (1-2)
The area is occupied by the earthworks of KETTLEBY HALL (TA 00 NW 10) There are no surface indications of a DMV. (3)
The deserted village of Kettleby (TA 032076) lies at 11m above OD
on deltaic sands and gravels over Jurassic clays. The settlement
was probably depopulated in the late 14th or early 15th century by
the Tyrwhitt family.
Kettleby is first recorded in a will of about 1066. In 1086 two
manors there had a minimum population of 13, plus an unknown number
of the 23 of the soke and berewick shared with Elsham. Thereafter
and throughout the later Middle Ages Kettleby is subsumed with
Kettleby Thorpe (TA 00 NW 11, also a deserted settlement) as an
unnamed member of Bigby. By the mid 16th century it was totally
deserted: for the Lindsey Musters in 1539 the village returned nil
although Sir Robert Tyrwhitt was entered with 12 servants; Sir
Robert was the sole taxpayer in 1542-3 and the single household in
1563 was clearly the Tyrwhitts'. The enclosure of Kettleby
township and its conversion to pasture certainly pre-dated the mid
16th century since the manor in 1548 comprised 'a capital messuage,
1000 acres of pasture, 100 acres of meadow and 300 acres of marsh'.
The enclosure may have taken place by the 15th century, perhaps as a
direct result of the Tyrwhitt's acquisition of the manor.
The earthworks of the village have been largely destroyed and only
a few amorphous fragments remain at its E end. A hollowed platform
('e') has considerable quantities of pottery, animal bones,
limestone blocks and gravel associated with it, while large amounts
of pottery ranging in date from early Saxon to late medieval have
been found on the site.
Air Photographs (5a) show that slight earthworks of the village
formerly extended into the next field W, though these had already
been reduced by ploughing by the 1950s. The remains then consisted
of a hollow-way ('f'-'g') which was bounded on the S by ridge and
furrow and on the N by ditched closes with house sites along their
S sides. This suggests that the settlement was originally a
single-row village. Fieldwalking in 1976 produced a range of post-
Roman pottery similar to that found to E, as well as a scatter of
Roman material. (4)(5-5a)
The village remains recorded by Authorities 4-5 were mapped from
good quality air photographs as part of Lincolnshire NMP; the
features are seen as earthworks and cropmarks, centred at TA 0345
0769 and TA 0317 0764. A block of S-shaped broad ridge and furrow,
200m in length, was seen as earthworks at TA 0317 0752, against the
southern boundary of the village.
Probable Post Medieval garden remains, recorded as TA 00 NW 10,
overlie the the western end of the village.
(Morph No. LI.489.3.1-2, LI.489.7.1)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
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