Croft is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the East Lindsey district of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, England. The village is situated approximately north-east from Wainfleet, and south-west from

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, ...

. Croft is listed in the 1086 ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

'' with 15 households, of meadow and a salthouse. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

is dedicated to All Saints and is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

built of greenstone, dating from the 14th century. Monuments inside the church include kneeling

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...

effigies to Sir Valentine Browne (d.1600) and Elizabeth (Monson) his wife, with their fifteen children in relief below. Its inscription states that Browne was "Treasurer and Vittleter of Barwicke and dyed (about 1600) Treasurer of Ireland".Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' p. 109; Methuen & Co. Ltd A related alabaster monument is to Valentine Browne's son John Browne (d.1614), and his wife Cicely (Kirkman). A further ( ashlar) monument is to William Bonde (d.1559), erected by his son Nicholas, President of Magdalen College, Oxford. In the floor of the south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

and

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...

is a late 13th or early 14th century

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

, the half effigy of a knight in banded

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

. A tablet on the south side of the tower mentions a restoration of 1656; the church was again restored in 1857. There is a tower

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

which is Grade II listed, built in 1814, which was raised in 1859 from four to seven storeys, and in 1949 reduced again to four. It comprises tarred red brick with brick

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

s. No milling machinery survives inside. The Old Chequers Inn is a Grade II listed

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

dating from the 18th century. Within the parish of Croft are two railway stations, one being the extant Havenhouse railway station, the other the now closed Seacroft railway station. In 2011 REG Windpower announced plans to install a

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

with six

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

s on land at Bank House Farm near Croft. The plans are at consultation stage.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches north west to Great Steeping with a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 2,288.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire East Lindsey District Windmills in Lincolnshire