Kirkby la Thorpe is a 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 ...

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 b ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

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 population at the 2011 census was 1,120. It lies east from

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington to the south-west, Holdingham to the nor ...

. The village is near th
start
of the A17

bypass.

History

There are three possible deserted medieval village sites in the parish, identified as Thorpe, Laythorpe and Burgh – these from written records including '' Domesday''. The identification of which site refers to which name is unlikely.

Community

The civil parish extends to include that part of Sleaford that lies to the south-east of the town's

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Road Police Station, including the Poets Estate.Parish map: "New Sleaford: St Denys"
Achurchnearyou.com. Retrieved 21 April 2012 In the late 1990s Sleaford Town Council consulted residents over a proposed change in the civil parish boundary, in order to realign these parts within the town, but this was rejected. In 1924, Poets Estate fell within the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of New Sleaford, after the boundary between New Sleaford and the parish of Quarrington and Old Sleaford was altered from the River Slea to the railway line. The village has a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, comprising the original 1860 building with its classroom and school hall. An extension housing three additional classrooms, cloakroom and library was opened in April 2004, and two further rooms were added in the summer of 2011. The village

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 ...

is the Queens Head Inn on Boston Road.

Landmarks

Kirkby's

Grade II* 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 ...

listed Anglican

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 St Denys. Originating in the 12th century, its

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

was rebuilt in 1854 in Early English style. The

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

crenellated 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 interva ...

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

with

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

ed pinnacles are of Decorated style, with the tower incorporating Saxon elements. There are remnants of 14th-century glass in the aisle windows. Kirkby previously contained two churches – the church of St Peter was pulled down in 1593, and in 1859 fragments of the church were found together with Saxon remains.

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'' p. 586; Penguin, (1964); revised by Nicholas Antram (1989), Yale University Press. Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' p. 184; Methuen & Co. Ltd. St Denys' was part of the Leasingham Group of churches until the latter part of 2009, when the ecclesiastical parishes of Kirkby Laythorpe and Ewerby became part of the benefice of New Sleaford, to be held in plurality. The Grange is a Grade II* listed house on Church Lane. Of 15th-century origin, it was altered in the 16th century – ''Pevsner'' records a moulded beam that indicates an earlier date. An early 19th-century barn on Church Lane, early 17th-century cottages on Mount Lane, and the mid-18th-century Mount Lane Farmhouse are also listed.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire North Kesteven District