Aunsby and Dembleby is a

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 authority ...

in the

North Kesteven North Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The district is located to the east of Nottinghamshire, north-east of Leicestershire and south of the city of Lincoln. Its council, North Kesteven District Council, is bas ...

district of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a 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-west, Leicestershire ...

, England. According to the 2001 Census it had a population of 125. The parish includes Aunsby and Dembleby, which were separate parishes until 1931, and the hamlet of Scott Willoughby. The three ecclesiastical parishes are part of the Parish of South Lafford in the Lafford Deanery,

Diocese of Lincoln The Diocese of Lincoln forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. History The diocese traces its roots in an unbroken line to the Pre-Reformation Diocese of Leices ...

. The incumbent is the Rev'd Nick Munday.

Aunsby

Aunsby lies just north and west off the point where the A15 crosses the A52. Its church, dedicated to

St Thomas Of Canterbury Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

, is a mixture of

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

and

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

styles of architecture. It was repaired and rebuilt in 1861. In the ''

Domesday 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 manusc ...

'' survey the village is called "Ounesbi". The ecclesiastical parish is South Lafford.

Dembleby

Dembleby appears in the ''Domesday'' survey three times, as "Denbelbi", "Delbebi" and "Dembelbi". The parish was in the ancient Aswardhurn

Wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

. St Lucia's Church is a foundation of unknown age, originally built in Early English style. The old church was taken down in 1867. The new church was built upon a better site in Norman or

Romanesque Revival style Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

by the Sleaford architect Charles Kirk of

Kirk and Parry Kirk and Parry were an architectural and civil engineering practice in Sleaford that specialised in the design of public buildings, housing and the construction of Railways. The practice was initially founded by Charles Kirk (senior) (1791–18 ...

The vestry in the current church was re-erected from the old church. The new church was consecrated in January, 1868 The ecclesiastical parish is South Lafford. To the west is the woodland of Dembleby Thorns.

Scott Willoughby

Scott Willoughby is a small hamlet situated less than south-east from Aunsby. It has the smallest church that remains in use in the county. It was built in 1826, although there may have been an earlier church on the site. The ecclesiastical parish is South Lafford. The population of Scott Willoughby has rapidly declined over the past 200 years, with few houses remaining in the hamlet; despite this the post-box is still used.

Lost villages

Several abandoned medieval villages are known in the wider area. * Dembeleby is a ''Shrunken'' Village, considerably larger in Medieval times. * Scott Willoughby is a ''Shrunken'' Village, or more properly a modern hamlet named for a nearby Medieval site * Crofton is mentioned in documents of the twelfth century, and the name is associated with two modern houses to the North West of the parish. Crofton

Businesses

All employment in the parish is agricultural.

References

External links

Aunsby, Lincolnshire - St Thomas a Becket ChurchLafford Deanery
* * * {{Authority control Civil parishes in Lincolnshire North Kesteven District