Syston 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 authority ...

in the

South Kesteven South Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Bourne, Lincolnshire, Bourne, Grantham, Market Deeping and Stamford, Li ...

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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

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. The population of the civil parish was 162 at the 2011 census. It is situated north from

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

, and on the

A607 road The A607 is an A road in England that starts in Belgrave, Leicester and heads northeastwards through Leicestershire and the town of Grantham, Lincolnshire, terminating at Bracebridge Heath, a village on the outskirts of Lincoln. It is a primary ...

which runs to the

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

. Syston lies between the larger village of

Barkston Barkston is an English village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. The parish population was 497 at the 2001 census and 493 at the 2011 census. The village lies about north of the market town of Grantham, on the A ...

to its north, and Belton to its south.

Syston Park

Syston Park Hall, built in 1775 to the designs of John Lanwith, for Sir John Thorold. The hall was demolished in 1925. It was the seat of the

Thorold baronets There have been four baronetcies created for members of the Thorold (pronounced "Thurrald", though the late Revd. Henry Croyland Thorold was insistent on the pronunciation "Thorough") family of Lincolnshire, two in the Baronetage of England and t ...

, who had relocated from Cranwell Manor. The 9th and 10th baronets both served as

High Sheriff of Lincolnshire This is a list of High Sheriffs of Lincolnshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilitie ...

, in 1778 and 1822 respectively. The 10th baronet commissioned architect

Lewis Vulliamy Lewis Vulliamy (15 March 1791 – 4 January 1871) was an English architect descended from the Vulliamy family of clockmakers. Life Lewis Vulliamy was the son of the clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy. He was born in Pall Mall, London on 15 March 179 ...

in 1822–4 to build a new library which was then richly stocked with rare books and manuscripts, including a copy of the

Gutenberg Bible The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed b ...

. On his death in 1831 the property passed to his widow Mary Anne, who married Sir Charles Ogle, Bt in 1834. The contents of the house were dispersed in sales held in 1884 and 1923 and the house demolished soon afterwards.

Motorsports at Syston Park

Sir John Thorold was a motorsports enthusiast and held a hill climb in 1906 at Syston Park, T. W. Mays won the 12 hp class in this year, probably accompanied by his son

Raymond Mays Thomas Raymond Mays (1 August 1899 – 6 January 1980) was an auto racing driver and entrepreneur from Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. He attended Oundle School, where he met Amherst Villiers, leaving at the end of 1917. After army service in ...

who went on to become a well known racing driver and owner of

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

and

BRM British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM wo ...

. In 1926 a circuit was created from the estate road and motorcycle races were held there until the 1930s. At first, these were unaffiliated but soon Syston Park became a Grand Prix venue attracting crowds of up to 30,000 and legends such as

Stanley Woods Stanley Woods (1903 – 28 July 1993) was an Irish motorcycle racer famous for 29 motorcycle Grand Prix wins in the 1920s and 1930s, winning the Isle of Man TT races ten times in his career, plus wins at Assen and elsewhere. He was also a skill ...

, C. J. Williams and Tommy Cann.

returned in 1934 to test his new voiturette class racing car ERA R1A and the following year, 1935 Oxford and Cambridge held the Inter-'Varsities at Syston. Racing ceased in 1939, however, vintage cars and motorcycles returned to Syston Park in 2015 with a regular event established from 2016
Syston Park Speed Trials

References

External links

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