Wilsford 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

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. The population of the civil parish was 400 at the 2011 census.

Geography

Wilsford is geographically west-south-west of

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, 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, Lincolnshire, ...

, and north-east of

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 ...

. According to the 2011 Census the village had a population of 400. Some of the north-eastern part of the village, along Main Street, form a mainly residential conservation area.Wilsford Conservation Are
Retrieved 3 June 2016.
/ref> Wilsford is located off

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln (''Lindum Colonia'') and York (''Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earningas'', ...

. The parish of Ancaster lies to the north-west and

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Rauceby South Rauceby is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated west from Sleaford. The village of North Rauceby is less than to the north. The 2001 Census recorded a village population of 3 ...

to the north-east. The parish covers about and includes the eastern edge of the village of Ancaster.

Heritage

Wilsford seems to contains the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

personal name ''Wifel'' + ''ford'' (Old English), so 'Wifel's ford'. It appears 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 of 1086 as ''Wivelesforde''. The earliest archaeological evidence of Wilsford consists of

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 ...

and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

artefacts. There are some Romano-British building remains and possibly a cemetery with seven stone coffins to the north of the village. A Roman carved stone relief of a male figure was found at Slate House Farm, west of the village. In 1969, fragments of Romano-British grey ware pottery were found on the Wilsford housing estate site, just opposite the north-east corner of the Roman town of Ancaster. In the Middle Ages it included a Benedictine priory, founded in the early 13th century but poorly funded. It was secured to the Abbey of

Bourne Bourne may refer to: Places UK * Bourne, Lincolnshire, a town ** Bourne Abbey ** Bourne railway station * Bourne (electoral division), West Sussex * Bourne SSSI, Avon, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Burrington, North Somerset * Bourne ...

in 1401. In the late 17th to early 18th centuries, Wilsford (also referred to as Willesworth) had 60 families, which fell to about 50. The

enclosure act The Inclosure Acts, which use an archaic spelling of the word now usually spelt "enclosure", cover enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land previously held in common. Between 1604 and 1 ...

covering the village was passed in 1774. By 1801, the population was only 251, rising to 689 in 1881, but falling to 656 in 1901. The medieval village of Hanbeck lay in the area of present-day Wilford. It lost population in the early modern period, and by 1856 it was described in White's gazetteer as "only a farm of ". The parish belonged to the historical

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 ...

of Winnibriggs and Threo. The disused Ancaster stone (limestone) quarry on scenic Wilsford Heath is now screened by a

coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeated ...

. The output of the quarry is reflected in the present appearance of the village, with its "attractive limestone buildings with a distinctive church".

Early buildings

The Grade 1 listed parish church of St Mary, including its tower and spire, dates from the 11th to 15th centuries. It was restored in 1860–1861 by the Sleaford firm 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 ...

. All the fittings are from the 19th century except the 15th-century octagonal

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

. It currently belongs to the Ancaster Wilford Group of parishes in the

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 Canon Mike Cooney. Wilsford Hall, built in 1649 and enlarged in 1776, was demolished in 1918. The village school and schoolhouse built in 1857 have been converted into a private house.

Amenities

The nearest doctors' surgery is in Ancaster. The nearest school is Ancaster Church of England Primary School, which was rated overall as Good in a January 2017

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

short inspection. The village hall can also be used for indoor sports, and there is a playing field. 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 was ...

is the ''Plough Inn'' in Main Street, which serves meals. Main Street also a pizzeria and a local store that acts as a sub-post office.Wilsford Village sit
Retrieved 23 September 2017.
/ref> The local community supports a

Women's Institute The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organisation for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being th ...

branch, a theatre group, a club for the elderly, a horticultural society, horticultural allotments, and a Brownies group for girls aged seven to ten.

Transport

There are two-hourly daytime, weekday buses to Sleaford and Grantham. There are also demand-response minibus services.Bus time
Retrieved 23 September 2017.
/ref> The Grantham to Skegness railway line passes close to the north of the village, running alongside 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 ...

and crosses the road at a level crossing close to the east. The nearest station is at Ancaster (, which has a six-day-a-week daytime service of three to five trains a day. The A153 used to go through the village along Main Street before it was bypassed in the 1930s.

Notable people

* Clement Cotterell (died 1631), courtier and MP for Grantham, was lord of the manor of Wilsford. *

Charles Cotterell Sir Charles Cotterell (7 April 1615 – 7 June 1701), was an English courtier and translator knighted in 1644, after his appointment as master of ceremonies to the court of King Charles I in 1641, a post he held until the execution of Charles ...

(1615–1701), son of Clement, master of ceremonies to

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...

until the King's execution in 1649, and a literary translator from French and Italian, was born in Wilsford.

References

External links

*
Wilsford

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 17 July 2012 {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire North Kesteven District