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Horbling is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire. It lies on the B1177 road, 7 miles (11 km) southeast from Sleaford, 14.5 miles (23 km) northeast from Grantham, and 0.5 miles (0.8 km) north from Billingborough. Parish population recorded in the 2001 UK census was 397 in 162 households. [edit] History
Horbling is the site of a probable Romano-British settlement, centred around the present Fen Drove and Fen Farm, on Horbling Fen to the east, where has been found earthwork evidence of rectilinear enclosures, and watercourses. Large quantities of Roman Samian ware and roof tiles have also been discovered. Cox noted that on the right hand side of road from Billingborough to Horbling is a tumulus, probably of pre-historic origin. In the Domesday account the village is written as "Horbelinge". It consisted of 9 villagers, 8 freemen and one smallholder, land for 4 plough teams, a meadow and a church. Before the conquest Thorkill the Dane was lord of the manor, in 1086 lordship was transferred to Walter D'Aincourt. A hamlet of Horbling, Bridge End, (previously also Holland Brigg) to the east, is the site of the small Gilbertine priory of St Saviour, founded in 1199 by Godwin the Rich of Lincoln. The canons at Bridgend Priory were charged with the upkeep of Holland Bridge causeway (de ponte Aslaci), a Roman road running from the Midlands to The Wash.[1] Cox also noted: "It had a slender endowment and was probably never occupied by more than 2 or 3 canons". A parcel of land and messuage at the head of the causeway near the priory was given by Robert Jokem of Horbling to St Saviour's, to support the work of the canons. The causeway stretched between Horbling and Donington and was, until the 18th century, the only sound road between Kesteven and Holland. In 1816, Marrat recorded that Bridge End "consists of a few farm houses, and a tolerably good Inn." The priory had been taken down 45 years previously (c.1770), and its materials used for a large farmhouse virtually on the same site. Two miles to the east of the Bridge End was built a chapel where prayers were said for the safety of travellers.[2] The Medieval Stow Fair was held to the west of the village (today at the junction of Mareham Lane and Stow Lane in Threekingham), from 1233, and lasted until 1954. According to a district council notice board at the site, the fair, traditionally held on 23 June, was probably dedicated to St Ætheldreda. Horbling was never affluent and in the reign of Elizabeth I, so low was the land rated and such was the poverty, that at the time of the collection of the first ever subsidy, Horbling had a nil return. In 1885 Kelly's Directory noted that the village was on the Bourne and Sleaford branch of the Great Northern Railway, and that the principal dwellings were supplied by the Billingborough and Horbling Gas Company. Agricultural production in a parish of was chiefly wheat, barley, beans and oats. Its population in 1881 was 501. The Lord of the Manor was a George Shaw, and chief landowners were Edward Nathaniel Conant, George Shaw and Captain Henry Smith JP. A school for boys and girls was originally established by Edward Brown of Horbling (d.1692) with endowments provided by income from his lands at Wigtoft. A new National School schoolhouse was erected in 1865 for the free education of 11 boys and 9 girls.
Between 1939 and 1948 an area on the south side of Sandygate Lane was used to accommodate a prisoner of war camp. As Camp 80, it held German prisoners who were used as local labourers. Housing now occupies the camp site. The camp housed many Ukrainians, one of whom presented a colourful painting of Virgin and Child to the church. Billingboro and Horbling railway station closed in 1964, after ceasing to be a passenger carrier over 30 years previously. It was built in 1872 through an act of Parliament of 1865. After closure the line to the north of the station was used to store the Royal Train. The remains of the line just to the west of the village has become a nature reserve for small wildlife under the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. [edit] Research TipsLincolnshire is very low-lying and land had to be drained for agriculture to be successful. The larger drainage channels, many of which are parallel to each other, became boundaries between parishes. Many parishes are long and thin for this reason. There is much fenland in Lincolnshire, particularly in the Boston and Horncastle areas. Fenlands tended to be extraparochial before the mid 1850s, and although many sections were identified with names and given the title "civil parish", little information has been found about them. Many appear to be abolished in 1906, but the parish which adopts them is not given in A Vision of Britain through Time. Note the WR category Lincolnshire Fenland Settlements which is an attempt to organize them into one list. From 1889 until 1974 Lincolnshire was divided into three administrative counties: Parts of Holland, Parts of Kesteven and Parts of Lindsey. These formal names do not fit with modern grammatical usage, but that is what they were, nonetheless. In 1974 the northern section of Lindsey, along with the East Riding of Yorkshire, became the short-lived county of Humberside. In 1996 Humberside was abolished and the area previously in Lincolnshire was made into the two "unitary authorities" of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The remainder of Lincolnshire was divided into "non-metropolitan districts" or "district municipalities" in 1974. Towns, villages and parishes are all listed under Lincolnshire, but the present-day districts are also given so that places in this large county can more easily be located and linked to their wider neighbourhoods. See the WR placepage Lincolnshire, England and the smaller divisions for further explanation.
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