Scrivelsby is a village and

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

in the

East Lindsey East Lindsey is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The population of the district council was 136,401 at the 2011 census. The council is based in Manby. Other major settlements in the district include Alford, Wragby, Spilsby ...

district of the County 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. It is situated south of

Horncastle Horncastle is a town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, east of Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman walls remains. History Romans Alt ...

and is on the B1183 road east from the

A153 road The A153 is a non-primary A road entirely in Lincolnshire in the east of England. Route description The A153 starts at the T-junction with the A607 at Honington and heads east to Sleaford, passing a crossroads with the B6403 - the Roma ...

. It is administered by the

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 ...

Mareham on the Hill Mareham on the Hill is a village and civil parish about south-east from the town of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England. Mareham on the Hill is listed in the 1086 ''Domesday Book'' as having one household and of woodland. The parish church i ...

. Historically the

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

was

held Held may refer to: Places * Held Glacier People Arts and media * Adolph Held (1885–1969), U.S. newspaper editor, banker, labor activist *Al Held (1928–2005), U.S. abstract expressionist painter. *Alexander Held (born 1958), German television ...

grand serjeanty Under feudalism in France and England during the Middle Ages, tenure by serjeanty () was a form of tenure in return for a specified duty other than standard knight-service. Etymology The word comes from the French noun , itself from the Latin , ...

, a form of feudal tenure which required the performance of a ceremonial service rather than a money payment – in this case as the King's Champion.

History

The manor of Scrivelsby is listed in the

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 manusc ...

of 1086 as "Scrivelesbi" and was

in-chief from the king. It then comprised 89 households, 16 villagers, 11 smallholders and 30 freemen, with 8.5

ploughland The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

s, a meadow of , woodland of , a mill and a church. In 1086 the manor was held by ''Robert Dispensator'' (Latin) ("Robert the Bursar"). Robert was succeeded by his brother Urse d'Abetot,

feudal baron A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely been ...

Salwarpe Salwarpe is a small village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England, less than two miles south west of Droitwich, but in open country. The name is also spelled Salwarp, and in the time of John Leland was recorded as S ...

in Worcestershire. Shortly thereafter the manor was in the possession of Roger Marmion (d.1129), of

Tamworth Castle Tamworth Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a Norman castle overlooking the mouth of the River Anker into the Tame in the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. Before boundary changes in 1889, however, the castle was within the edge of ...

, then in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, 1st

of Tamworth, and

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

of Fountenay in Normandy, it is believed due to his having married the daughter and heiress of Urse d'Abetot. Robert Marmion held the manor of Scrivelsby by grand serjeanty on condition that he should perform the duty of King's Champion. The Marmions had historically been Champions to the Dukes of Normandy and King Henry I wanted to re-establish that relationship for his English crown. The Marmion family died out in the male line in 1291, on the death of

Philip Marmion Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

, 5th

of Tamworth, who left four daughters and co-heiresses. His fourth daughter Joan Marmion (d.1341), whose quarter share of her paternal inheritance included the manor of Scrivelsby, married Sir Thomas de Ludlow, by whom she had a son John de Ludlow, who died without issue, and a daughter or great granddaughter Margaret de Ludlow, who married Sir

John Dymoke Lieutenant-Colonel John Lindley Marmion Dymoke MBE (1 September 1926 – 21 March 2015) was the hereditary Queen's Champion from 1946 until his death in 2015. He was present, as champion, at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and acted ...

, who thereby inherited the manor of Scrivelsby and the feudal duty of acting as King's Champion. There had however been some confusion as to the identity of the King's Champion, as that feudal duty had appeared to descend with the tenure of Tamworth Castle, which was inherited by Mazera Marmion, Joan Marmion's elder sister and co-heiress, who married Ralph de Cromwell, by whom she had a daughter Joan de Cromwell, married to Alexander de Freville (d.1327/8). Alexander de Freville held Tamworth Castle by the service of "coming to the king's coronation armed ''cap-a-pie'' (head to foot) with royal arms delivered by the king seated upon the king's chief charger offering himself to make proof for the king against all opposing his coronation". Due to the uncertainty then surrounding the identity of the King's Champion, the ceremony was dispensed with for the coronation of King Edward III in 1328. However, it was soon resolved that the rightful Champion was the holder of Scrivelsby, and not the de Freville family of Tamworth. The Dymoke family survives today, still possessed of the manor of Scrivelsby and living at Scrivelsby Court, the (nominal) lord of the manor in 2022 being Francis John Fane Marmion Dymoke (born 1955), 34th lord of the manor of Scrivelsby and 8th of Tetford. The duty of the King's Champion was to ride fully armed into the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...

banquet at

Westminster Hall The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

and challenge anyone who doubted the new monarch's right to the throne. The Champion then threw down his gauntlet to signal that he would fight to the death anyone who might dare to do so. This action was performed three times and if no challenge was received the king was presented with a gold cup of wine from which he drank a toast to the Champion, who in turn took the cup, drank the remnant and shouted "Long live your Majesties". Although feudal tenure was abolished in England by the

Tenures Abolition Act 1660 The Tenures Abolition Act 1660 (12 Car 2 c 24), sometimes known as the Statute of Tenures, was an Act of the Parliament of England which changed the nature of several types of feudal land tenure in England. The long title of the Act was ''An act ...

, which thus abolished tenures by grand serjeanty, the traditional custom of the lord of the manor of Scrivelsby acting as King's Champion continued until the coronation of King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

in 1821, after which it was discontinued.

Landmarks

The

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, Scrivelsby Court, was burnt out in 1761, and was demolished between 1955 and 1957. However the gatehouse was retained and restored in 1959. The west front is predominantly 15- and 16th-century, with the rest, being

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

and later. It 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 ...

. The Lion Gateway was built around 1530 and was rebuilt in 1833. It is Grade II* listed. The park was designed by

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

before 1791. Repton also added two octagonal lodges to the side of the Lion Gate.

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'' (19 ...

; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'' pp. 354-356; Penguin, (1964); revised by Nicholas Antram (1989), Yale University Press. The church of St Benedict originates from the 13th century, with 15th-century additions. It was completely restored in 1860 by Sir Henry Dymoke (who added a small tower with spire), in greenstone, and in

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 ...

and Early English style. A

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

east window by

Thomas Willement Thomas Willement (18 July 1786 – 10 March 1871) was an English stained glass artist, called "the father of Victorian stained glass", active from 1811 to 1865. Biography Willement was born at St Marylebone, London. Like many early 19th centu ...

was part of the 1860 rebuild. Within the church is a 1776 chalice by John Swift with an 1805

paten A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium. Western usage In many Western liturgical denominations, the p ...

by Samuel and George Whitworth. There are

monuments A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

to the Dymoke family and one, c.1300 of a Knight and Lady, probably to the earlier Marmian family.Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' pp. 262-264; Methuen & Co. Ltd. The churchyard contains a war grave of a

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

soldier of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Today

Today Scriveslby is a

country estate An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which would historically generate income for its owner. British context In the UK, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, and woods that s ...

with deer park, still under the Dymoke family, and an event site for country fairs. In May 2012 it was announced that the estate would be part of Horncastle's events for the Queen's

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...

, with a

beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

lit as part of a sequence of National beacons."Horncastle's official Diamond Jubilee beacon takes shape in Scrivelsby Park"
This is Lincolnshire, 14 May 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2012

References

External links

"Horncastle Worthies: Dymokes - Royal Champions"
Horncastle Civic Society. Retrieved 22 May 2012
"Scrivelsby"
''

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

.org.uk''. Retrieved 22 May 2012 {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire East Lindsey District Country houses in Lincolnshire

History

Landmarks

Today

See also

References

External links