__NOTOC__ Morton and Hanthorpe is a

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 ...

, formerly known as Morton by Bourne 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 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 north from

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 ...

, and south-east 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 ...

. According to the 2011 Census the parish had a population of 2,406.

History

The village is in two parts, one each side of the fen-edge road, the A15. To the fenward side is Morton and to the upland side is Hanthorpe. The earlier name is that of Morton which will come from the acid peat land which the Anglian settlers found in the fen in around the year 500. The name therefore indicates that the

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires. T ...

was to a significant extent better called the bog in modern terminology. They were Germanic speakers so they called it a

moor Moor or Moors may refer to: Nature and ecology * Moorland, a habitat characterized by low-growing vegetation and acidic soils. Ethnic and religious groups * Moors, Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during ...

. Hanthorpe is a name indicating a subsidiary settlement established in the period of the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

settlements, probably in the tenth century. The church and the later signs of the manorial centre are in Morton. The church is built in the Early English and

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 ...

styles, and was restored in 1860 and 1951. A baptist chapel was built in 1875, and still serves the village today. In the late 19th century

Morton Road railway station Morton Road railway station was a station serving the village of Morton, Lincolnshire on the Great Northern Railway Bourne and Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Cent ...

opened in 1872 and finally closed in 1964. A gazetteer of the 19th century said:

George Hussey Packe George Hussey Packe (1 May 1796 – 2 July 1874) was a United Kingdom Member of Parliament, an army officer present at the Battle of Waterloo, and was instrumental in establishing the Great Northern Railway. Personal life George Hussey Packe w ...

, the 19th-century South Lincolnshire

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

and chairman of the Great Northern Railway, was born at Hanthorpe Hall in 1796.Sylvanus, Urban; ''

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...

'' (1837), volume 7, p.656Howard, Joseph Jackson, Crisp, Frederick Arthur (1899); ''Visitations of England and Wales'', volume 7, p.167.

Geography

Morton lies on the western margin of

The Fens The Fens, also known as the , in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a ...

on three sorts of land, the upland, the fen edge and the fen. The

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 ...

was laid out in an elongated form so as to provide access to each of these. At the highest edge, in the west, the

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

is chalky

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

(boulder clay) but most of the upland is

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

, including a little

Oxford Clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset and as far north as Yorkshire. The Oxford Clay Formation dates to the Jurassic, specifical ...

but mostly Kellaways Sand and some

Cornbrash The Cornbrash Formation is a Middle Jurassic geological formation in England. It ranges in age from Bathonian to Callovian, the uppermost part of the Middle Jurassic. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the form ...

and Kellaways Clay. The fen edge consists of First Terrace Gravel with a little Glacial Gravel. The landward part of the fen was black soil, composed largely of peat. Over the two and half centuries since the land was drained, this has largely

oxidized Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...

away leaving the underlying First Terrace gravel and the mainly

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

s of the Barroway Drove Beds. These beds form the central part of the fen as well, as they do at the eastern end of the parish. However, there, there is a broad ridge of the Terrington Beds, the remains of a huge marine creek which was not laid down until the

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 was still active when the

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 ...

s diverted

Bourne Eau Bourne Eau is a short river which rises from an artesian spring in the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England, and flows in an easterly direction to join the River Glen at Tongue End. Within the town, it once powered three water mills, one of w ...

into it by means of what is called by archaeologists 'the Bourne-Morton Canal'. Our

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

ancestors knew it as ''the Old Ea''.

Community

The parish has 921 households in Morton and 74 in Hanthorpe. Morton

Grade I 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 ...

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 th ...

parish church is dedicated to

St John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. The ecclesiastical parish is Morton (Bourne), part of the Ringstone in Aveland 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 residenc ...

Beltisloe Beltisloe is a Deanery of the Diocese of Lincoln in England, and a former Wapentake. The Wapentake of Beltisloe was established as ancient administrative division of the English county of Lincolnshire before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

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 vicar was the Revd Dr Lynda Pugh between 2012 and 2018. The incumbent is the Revd Neil Bullen. "St John the Baptist Church of England"
, Morton and Hanthorpe web site. Retrieved 12 February 2014

References

External links

Morton historical summary (UK & Ireland Genealogy page)Local annual steam rally
{{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District