Thorpe Tilney is a hamlet in 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 ...

of Timberland in the district of

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 ...

, in 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. The hamlet is located directly south of Timberland, and stretches from Thorpe Tilney on the B1189 eastwards through Thorpe Tilney Fen to Thorpe Tilney Dales beside the

River Witham The River Witham is a river almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham at , passes through the centre of Grantham (where it may be closely followed using the Riversid ...

. Thorpe Tilney was a civil parish between 1866 and 1931 when it was abolished to enlarge Timberland.

Locale

In 1545 three houses in Thorpe Tilney, a possession of the dissolved Kyme Priory, were granted to John Broxholme and John Bellowe. A farm on a slight hill east of the

Car Dyke The Car Dyke was, and to a large extent still is, an long ditch which runs along the western edge of the Fens in eastern England. It is generally accepted as being of Roman invasion of Britain, Roman age and, for many centuries, to have been ta ...

may represent the site, which is known locally as Priory Hill. Evans Farmhouse, originally an inn on the then Billinghay to

Metheringham Metheringham is an English village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,605. It is about south of the city and county town of Lincoln and north of Sleafor ...

road, is also a listed building, built of red brick and dating from 1782.

Thorpe Tilney Hall

Thorpe Tilney Hall is a Grade II

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

red brick

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

dating from 1740 with later alterations and additions. Also listed are the

Orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very large ...

and attached garden dating from 17th Century, and the stable block and cottage dating from 1740. The current Hall replaces an earlier medieval building, the ruin of which was demolished in 1969, which stood away on the site of Hall Farm. This earlier Hall was struck by lightning and destroyed in 1705, and the Orangery and its associated walled garden relate to this earlier building, and are dated c. 1680. The Hall was used by the Whichcote family as a

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family h ...

for their main seat, Aswarby Park, the other side of Sleaford, and one of their tombs can be seen in the adjacent Timberland church. The Whichcotes continued to own Thorpe Tilney, with a estate, until 1918, when much of the land was bought by the County Council to provide small-holdings for returning soldiers. Latterly, Thorpe Tilney Hall was owned by the aristocratic Stockdale family who restored the building.

Freddie Stockdale Frederick Minshull Stockdale (20 May 1947 – 23 November 2018) was a British opera impresario known for founding Pavilion Opera. He also wrote a number of fiction and non-fiction works with an opera theme. Early life and family Stockdale was b ...

was a well regarded opera

impresario An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer. Hist ...

, in 1977 he oversaw the construction of the Opera Pavilion to a design by Francis Johnson, with

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 ...

by John Piper in the grounds of the hall. At this time the Hall became well known for operatic performances. Thorpe Tilney Hall was used as a filming location in two separate television productions of Pride and Prejudice, first in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

and then in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

History

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

axes made of stone and flint have been found around the village.Archi UK
/ref> Later finds include a piece of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

pottery, a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

barrow and a Bronze Age flanged bronze axe.

References

{{Authority control Hamlets in Lincolnshire North Kesteven District