Whitton 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 ...

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Bar ...

, England. The 2011 census found 212 inhabitants, in 92 households. It is situated at the northern termination of the

Lincoln Cliff The Lincoln Cliff or Lincoln Edge is a portion of a major escarpment that runs north–south through Lindsey and Kesteven in central Lincolnshire and is a prominent landscape feature in a generally flat portion of the county. Towards its northe ...

range of hills, on the south shore of the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...

about below Trent Falls, and west of

Barton-upon-Humber Barton-upon-Humber () or Barton is a town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 11,066. It is situated on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at the southern end of the Humber Bridge. It is ...

. The parish is bounded on the west by

Alkborough Alkborough is a parish of 458 people in 192 households (2011 census) in North Lincolnshire, England, located near the northern end of The Cliff range of hills overlooking Trent Falls, the confluence of the River Trent and the River Ouse. Al ...

, on the east by

Winteringham Winteringham is a village in North Lincolnshire, England, on the south bank of the Humber Estuary. History Roman Britain The Romans founded a settlement probably called ''Ad Abum'' in this area. It was where Ermine Street, the major Roman roa ...

(which also includes the Winteringham Haven Wildlife Reserve) and, to the south, by

West Halton West Halton is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated north-west from Winterton, approximately north from Scunthorpe, and south from the Humber Estuary. The parish contains part of Coleby, a hamlet sout ...

Toponymy

Cameron and Mills have suggested that the place name is an

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 c ...

masculine personal name (genitive ''-n'') + Anglian ''ēg'', hence 'Hwita's island of land', but Ekwall thought the name meant ‘White Island’ perhaps assuming wrongly that the ground was chalky. Gelling pointed out that the settlement is situated on an obvious ''ēg'', i.e. an 'island' of dry land, projecting into the Humber Estuary, and surrounded on east and west by former marshy ground.

History

Whitton may have originated at the time the

Romans 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 lette ...

crossed the Humber northward in 71 AD; first as a military camp and then later as a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

, overlooking the river, with its temple a few yards to the east, where the Church now stands. It is possible that Whitton was a landing stage on the south bank for the Roman fort and civitas of ''

Petuaria Petuaria (or Petuaria Parisorum) was originally a Roman fort situated where the town of Brough in the East Riding of Yorkshire now stands. Petuaria means something like 'quarter' or 'fourth part', incorporating the archaic Brythonic *''petuar'', ...

Parisorum'' at Brough across the river.

Roman Coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denom ...

Claudius Gothicus Marcus Aurelius Claudius "Gothicus" (10 May 214 – January/April 270), also known as Claudius II, was Roman emperor from 268 to 270. During his reign he fought successfully against the Alemanni and decisively defeated the Goths at the Battle ...

(268–270 AD) and Constantine I (the Great) (309–337 AD) have been found in the fields. ''

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

'' states that the Church tower "re-uses massive blocks of Roman stone",Pevsner, Nikolaus; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'', Pevsner Architectural Guides (1989), p. 797. but these blocks of millstone grit which are to be found in several local churches (such as neighbouring

) may have been transported down the Ouse and the

from

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

where Roman buildings were being dismantled, or may even have come from some sort of triumphal arch or structure (perhaps like the

Arch of Constantine The Arch of Constantine ( it, Arco di Costantino) is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milv ...

), which might have stood at the end of

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' ...

. Whitton is mentioned in the 1086 ''

Domesday Book 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 manus ...

'' as "Witenai".''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. p.918 Before the

Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

lordship A lordship is a territory held by a lord. It was a landed estate that served as the lowest administrative and judicial unit in rural areas. It originated as a unit under the feudal system during the Middle Ages. In a lordship, the functions of econ ...

was held by

Siward Barn Siward Barn ( ang, Sigeweard Bearn) was an 11th-century English thegn and landowner-warrior. He appears in the extant sources in the period following the Norman Conquest of England, joining the northern resistance to William the Conqueror by th ...

, and after by Saswalo of Ettington, with

Henry de Ferrers Henry de Ferrers (died by 1100), magnate and administrator, was a Norman who after the 1066 Norman conquest was awarded extensive lands in England. Origins He was the eldest son of Vauquelin de Ferrers and in about 1040 inherited his father's ...

becoming

Tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...

. Listed are of meadow, land for eight ploughs, two plough teams belonging to the lord, five men's plough teams, ten villans (villagers) four

bordars Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

( smallholders) and ten freemen. The land was valued at seven pounds. The church is not mentioned in the ''Domesday'' survey. St. John the Baptist is a building of stone overlooking the

, consisting of a west tower, a small

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

( wide and long) with a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

and a south

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

attached. The partly Romanesque (or

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

) tower contains three, now untolled, bells; the third bell is said to have been brought from the village of Welton, across the river in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. The base of the tower forms a

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

and the large tower arch, leading into the

, is thought to be Romanesque. The font is also ancient and may be from the same period. The church seems to have been almost completely rebuilt in about 1797-8 when the elaborate

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

ted pinnacles were removed from the top of the tower. A drawing, by Nattes, of 1794 shows a dilapidated structure with a 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, par ...

and a south porch. The church was reseated in 1865 at the expense of Lady Strickland, and between about 1892 and 1897 the nave, chancel and roof were entirely rebuilt from the designs of W. & C. A. Bassett-Smith, architects, of London. On the north side of the chancel are two stained-glass windows, erected in 1918 to the memory of Henry Spilman who was killed in the First World War. In 1952–53 cracks in the tower were repaired under the direction of A.R Haynes, architect of

Brigg Brigg ( /'brɪg/) is a market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in the 2001 UK census, the population increased to 5,626 at the 2011 census. The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east–west tra ...

. A small part of the relatively new island of Whitton Island in the Humber Estuary falls within the parish.Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer mapping, accessed October 2014

Census

Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

table showing the relative stability of the population:

References

External links

*
"Whitton, North Lincolnshire – notes on the history of a village"

"Whitton"

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 16 December 2011
"Whitton Local History Pack"
North Lincolnshire Council. Retrieved 16 December 2011 {{Authority control Civil parishes in Lincolnshire Villages in the Borough of North Lincolnshire