Denton 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 ...

in the

South Kesteven South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Bourne, Grantham, Market Deeping and Stamford. The 2011 census reports 133,788 people at 1.4 p ...

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, subdivision ...

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 of the civil parish was 273 at the 2011 census. It is situated approximately both south-west 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 a ...

and west from the

A1 road A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country. * A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar * A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës * A001 highw ...

History

The Denton name derives from 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 settlers in the mid-5th ...

'dene+tun', meaning "village in a valley," but in ''

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 ...

'' it is written as "Dentune". Denton is the site of an ancient Roman settlement. It may also be a site of the

Beaker culture The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from a ...

, based on some archeological finds made.

Iron industry

Iron ore was quarried in the parish from about 1888 onwards. Quarrying began north of Woolsthorpe Road close to the boundary with Woolsthorpe ,continuing south of the road and finishing there in 1910. The ore was taken by narrow gauge tramway to the Great Northern Railway branch at Woolsthorpe. Quarrying began again in 1918 close to the

Harston Harston is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, located around 5 miles (8 km) south of Cambridge. In 2011, it had a population of 1,740. Village Sign The village sign was erected in the Queen's Silver Jubilee ye ...

road and the boundary with Harston in Leicestershire. Until 1930 this was south of the road. By 1918 the Great Northern branch had been extended to a point near Socketwell Plantation to serve quarries at Harston. A narrow gauge tramway was extended to serve the new Denton quarries from the Great Northern terminus. Quarrying was carried on north of the road from 1925 to 1931 and began again in Denton Park closer to Denton village, south of the road, in 1940. The Denton Park quarry closed in February 1974. The final quarry face was close to the A607. In 1948 the narrow gauge tramway was converted to standard gauge so that the ore no longer had to be tipped from narrow gauge wagons into standard gauge wagons. Steam locomotives were used until 1967 when a diesel took over. The first quarries were worked by hand with the aid of explosives, From 1918 steam diggers began to be introduced and from 1938 diesel and electric machines.

Geography

Denton is situated just north off the main

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 ...

between Grantham and

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...

. Nearby villages include Harlaxton, Barrowby and Woolsthorpe. Denton is a 3 miles east from

Belvoir Castle Belvoir Castle ( ) is a faux historic castle and stately home in Leicestershire, England, situated west of the town of Grantham and northeast of Melton Mowbray. The Castle was first built immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066 an ...

. The civil parish covers approximately .

Community

In 1984 Denton held its first street market, proceeds from which were equally divided between the Church, the School and the Village Hall. The street market is now held every year on the first Bank holiday Monday in May. The 2013 event was the 27th, (the 2001 and 2012 markets being cancelled because of foot and mouth and bad weather respectively) with over 150 stalls, food outlets, children's entertainment, and traditional village sports. 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 ...

is Denton, part of The Harlaxton Group of the

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or reside ...

of Grantham. The 2013 incumbent is the Rev'd Keith Hanson. The nearest non-conformist church is the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

chapel at Ab Kettleby. 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 ...

, the Welby Arms, is an early 19th-century building constructed of coursed ironstone rubble, with the side walls of red brick, and although a number of alterations were made in the 20th century, it has been

Grade II listed 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 I ...

since 1979. Denton has a village hall, managed by a parish council, but no village shop. It is served by the daily No. 9 bus service from Grantham.

Landmarks

St Andrew's Church

Denton Grade I listed

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

parish church is dedicated to

St Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Pete ...

. Restored in 1888, it is mainly

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 c ...

in style. In the south

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, pa ...

is a table-tomb with an effigy of John Blyth, his wife Margaret and his six children; a monument to Richard Welby (d. 1713) is in the north aisle.Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' pp. 116, 117; Methuen & Co. Ltd The church originally had only four bells, but now has six. The original bells were the now No.1, No.3, No.4 and No.5. These were augmented by two bells in 1782 by recasting four bells and adding the new No.2 and No.6 (the tenor). The bells were re-hung in 1855 by Denton wheelwright and machinemaker John Caborn. In 1994 the bells were again re-hung in metal frames by Hayward Mills Associates.

Denton Park

Denton Manor ( 52°52'58.17"N 0°43'15.72"W ) house is a Grade II listed 17th-century house standing in Denton Park. It is constructed of coursed ironstone rubble with ashlar quoins and Collyweston diminishing coursed slate roof in two storeys to an L-shaped plan with a 5 bay frontage. It was built for Sir Bruno Welby, with extensive alterations and additions in 1953 and 1965 by

Marshall Sisson Marshall Arnott Sisson RA (14 February 1897 – 26 January 1978) was a British architect, active in 1928–70. Although his earliest buildings were modernist, after around 1935 he used only traditional styles and became known for his restoration wo ...

. Another larger house, generally known as Denton Hall, was rebuilt by the Welby family in 1879 on the site of an earlier house to the designs of architect

Sir Arthur Blomfield Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...

, was restored after a fire in 1906 but demolished in 1940. At one time it was owned by

Sir William Welby-Gregory, 4th Baronet Sir William Earle Welby-Gregory, 4th Baronet (4 January 1829 – 26 November 1898) was a British Conservative Party politician. Career He was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Grantham at the 1857 general election, and held the s ...

, MP for

and South Lincolnshire and his well-known wife Victoria, Lady Welby, the philosopher of language, musician and water-colour artist. She was followed in 1887 by their son Sir Charles Welby, 5th Baronet, MP for Newark and

Under-Secretary of State for War The position of Under-Secretary of State for War was a British government position, first applied to Evan Nepean (appointed in 1794). In 1801 the offices for War and the Colonies were merged and the post became that of Under-Secretary of State fo ...

. The park also houses a series of large ponds and a freshwater spring, St. Christopher's Well, which is hidden in a

grotto A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high t ...

built from fossils and shells in 1823. Within the cave is an inscription: "faery of the well".

Denton Reservoir

The main engineering feature of the

Grantham Canal The Grantham Canal ran 33 miles (53 km) from Grantham through 18 locks to West Bridgford, where it joined the River Trent. It was built primarily for the transportation of coal to Grantham. It opened in 1797 and its profitability stead ...

, which opened in 1797, was Harlaxton Drift near Grantham. This was a deep cutting which was built just wide enough for one-way traffic. Two passing places, where the canal was made wider, were added in 1801. Two reservoirs were also needed to feed the canal, one of which was built at Denton, close to the canal, and the other at Knipton, about 3 miles away. Both were on the ''Belvoir Estate'', and the job of building them, along with the cutting, was the responsibility of William King, the agent for the

Duke of Rutland Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in whos ...

.Hadfield (1970), pp. 62, 63 File:Denton Hall - Denton Lincolnshire - 1879.jpg, Denton Hall illustration and plan, 1879 File:Denton Manor Gate House - geograph.org.uk - 67712.jpg, Denton Park gatehouse File:Denton near Grantham St Andrews Church.JPG, Church of St Andrew, Denton

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Denton Village website
(archived page). Retrieved 17 January 2014

Roman-britain.org. Retrieved 7 July 2013
"Denton"

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 emph ...

.org.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2013
Denton village
{{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District