Chapter 5:  The Victorians to the start of the 'Age of Science' - 1837 to 1637

The early 1800s and the preceding century saw the beginnings of the industrialisation to come in Victoria 's reign.   Roads were improved in the mid-1700s especially and Turnpike Trusts, charging tolls, looked after the main highways.  McAdam used a system of crushed stones to build roads (though he never used the binding agent, tar!).  The beginnings of rail transport were founded.   But the biggest enterprise to improve the carrying of goods about the country was the construction of a huge network of canals.

Ingenious inventions were abundant during the 18^th century and these saw the harnessing of steam as a driving force for engines, which was to have a great impact on farming in Skillington and elsewhere in the 19^th century as well as in the weaving trade.  A name with recent connotations in the pop music world, Jethro Tull, devised a seed ' drilling ' machine and the age of scattering seed by hand drew to a close.  This new method obtained twice the yield from only a third of the seed previously required.  Also of benefit to the farmers of Skillington, was the new crop rotation method utilising a root crop in one field.  Thought up by Lord ' Turnip ' Townshend of Norfolk, this system obviated the need for land to lie fallow.  Also, the new threshing (or thrashing) machines were circulated (rented out) to different farmers, as the even better combines are today.

Although it can be seen that farming methods were rapidly improving during the later part of this period, the 18^th century saw a critical change in the conditions of the many very small landowners.  The poor cottagers who derived a meagre living from keeping a cow on common or heath land and who were free to let their pigs roam in the woods were to suffer drastically.   This change was to drive many of them to a state of paupery and, later, for some men to leave the country villages forever to work in the towns.   This was the era of enclosures ….  See Farming below.

The change to the landscape due to this, which we see today and take for granted, was the change from huge open fields to smaller, hedged fields and highways.  There are several grass fields surrounding the village which still show signs of the so-called ridge-and-furrow pattern which the old strip system produced.  To point out a few: the field just to the north of Church Street and bordering the Grantham Road, opposite the football pitch, where sheep and horses now graze.   The furrows here are not too deep so, these fields have probably been under the plough at some time.  Clearer are the ridges in a small field up Park Lane , on the right by the gates.   Also, pasture fields bordering Back Lane show ridge-and-furrow patterns. (It has been stated that Back Lanes were so named because they separated the homesteads of a village which backed onto the first open field).  These examples are the last remaining visible signs of the "old ways" of cultivation in Skillington.

Some "milestones" as we travel back ….

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Presiding over these changes and the 200 years of the period were a succession of monarchs from differing dynasties and our only attempt at a ruling parliament.   This period of monarchy saw the Stuart dynasty change to the German, Hanoverian line.

Before Victoria came King William IV (1830 – 1837); the Georges, I to IV, with the last-named seeing the loss of our American colony.  This takes us back to Queen Anne's reign (1702 – 1727) and then to William and Mary.   Under this royal couple, religious tolerance was much greater then before.   The troubled years from, perhaps,1637 saw civil war between 1642 – 1649 when Charles I was beheaded;  Parliament under Cromwell rule from 1649 to 1660;  the monarchy restored under Charles II (1661 – 1685), then James II (1685 – 1688).

This period was a time when people, although extremely religious, believed in the dark forces of nature and in witches.   We still sometimes use the expression "hag-ridden".   This originated in those days, for people believed that witches (or hags) came into the farmers' barns at night and either got milk from a cow or borrowed a horse to ride on.   If a nag looked a bit worse for wear one morning, its owner guessed it had been ridden by a hag.   The answer to this was to hang up in the byre or stable a hag-stone to ward off such intruders.  This was a stone with a natural round hole through it.   People also wore coins, suspended around their necks, which they frequently touched ' for luck '.  [I found one of these with a metal-detector, a hammered silver coin worn so smooth by frequent touching that the king's head and reverse-side shield were barely discernible].

How did the village of Skillington react to the civil war?   This is hard to clarify but nearby Grantham was apparently split down the middle in the allegiances of its aldermen, yet had to endure intermittent occupation by Roundheads.   I would contend that, in these early times, nearly all the people of a village would have jumped, politically, in the same direction as the Lord of the Manor.   Where did the Skillington Lord stand?  Peter Charlesworth gave me the additional information that a Skillington man killed one of Prince Rupert 's friends occasioning that feared and dashing Royalist to come seeking revenge.  There appears to have been a skirmish, probably just over our parish border at Buckminster whence a field there came to be known as Battle Field.  I have found it hard to obtain details of how the Civil War involved the villagers of Skillington, however.

To continue our brief periodic look at prices and wages ………..

Wheat in 1801 was 131 shillings per quarter and in 1812, 150s but by 1822 had slumped to 38s.   Correspondingly, a quartern loaf of bread in 1815 cost 1s-4d but was only 7 3/8d by 1860.

Wool in 1814 was 44 shillings a ton(?) but, although going higher, had slumped to half that by 1885.

Tea crashed down from 6s/lb in 1815 as did sugar, from 91/2 d.

Agricultural wage (but variable) might have been 12s/week in 1813.

By 1770, cheese, bread and tea were the staple foods.  The poor re-used tea and sometimes added blackberry leaves to it to make it go further.    Peasants rarely took a bath as it was considered dangerous to the health.  And they did not undress between November and March for fear of catching a chill!    Chimneys, which had started to become fashionable just before this period begins, would have proliferated, replacing the ' hole in the roof ' outlet for smoke.  Those houses slow to follow this trend (the cottages or hovels of the peasants) may at least have had a smoke bay built at the side of the room instead of using a central vent-hole.   Meats would then be smoked in this bay.  

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I suspect the crime rate in Skillington was at its lowest around 1816 ……  An extract from the History of Lincolnshire Vol. II reads, "At Lincoln … six men and one woman were sentenced to death, three men for sheep stealing, one for horse, one for burglary, one for assault and robbery and the woman for the same.  Now horse and sheep stealing have practically ceased and night burglaries are rare."  Small wonder!   Upon reading through all the hangings which have taken place at Lincoln (LRO), I was not surprised to find that no-one from Skillington was listed.

But, in the late 1600s and up to the mid-1700s , when horse-drawn coach travel reached its zenith, a new form of crimewave was launched.  This was the time of the highwayman!   The one to be feared above others and to make his name in popular legend was, of course, Dick Turpin.  Now, oddly, here another famous or, rather, infamous character, makes his way into the history of Skillington – or at least, riding along our parish border! .  How is this, the reader may wonder?   It may well be that this is simply another case of a celebrity being "adopted" by a place that has no true claim.  Be that as it may, the facts about this notorious outlaw, when sorted out from the legend, put Dick, and his trusty steed, Black Bess, in this vicinity.   He and his gang, and especially his partner Tom King, are known to have plagued travellers along the Great North Road (though usually nearer to London ) and, after Dick accidentally shot his partner, he was hunted and made his famous ride from London to York .   He would not have ridden along the Great North Road , for he had to avoid the toll-stations so, the Viking Way would have been a likely alternative route for part of his journey.  There was, apparently, a re-enactment of this when someone rode along the Viking Way (I am not sure of the year this took place. See, also, Roads below).   He was certainly not too far away, as it is known that one of his pursuers gave up the chase and rested up in Grantham.   And to take this speculation further: it was known that Dick stopped over at various ale-houses which lay just off the main highways.   Did he slip off the Viking Way to an ale-house in Skillington?   As the son of an inn-keeper himself, Dick would have enjoyed a good brew.   Maybe this romanticised and fanciful dreaming is straying too far away from known truths … but, it is just possible!     

People:   It was towards the end of this period that the population of Skillington began to climb towards the peak it reached in the Victorian era.  By 1831 it had reached 389 (almost a third higher again than its present figure, yet still more than 100 below its all-time high!).   But, as we move back in time it is steadily dwindling ….

This was the first Census year in anything like the modern sense!  

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Many ways have been tried by governments to extract taxes from people.  Two such methods imposed upon Skillington and other villages across the land were the Window Tax and the Hearth Tax.   One can often see where a window has been bricked in to avoid the former but the second tax would have been more difficult to avoid, I would have thought.   It does, however, hand down to us a list of the villagers at certain times; those required to pay up for each hearth they possessed.   The following list of villagers was obtained from those records at the Lincolnshire Archives office …..

William Denton (9 hearths); John Allen (7) and, perhaps, another John Allen (1); Widow Walpoole (4); Widow Christian (3); Widow Cooke (2); Robert Christian (2); Thomas Christian (2); Henry Christian (3); Mr. Smith (3); William Rookesby (1); John Howitt (2); Robert Hopkinson (1); Thomas Denton (2); Edward Rudd (1); Ralph Ewerdine (4); Nicholas Parker (2); Charles Sewell (2); Henry Snow (1); Thomas Denton iun ? (2); John Pix (2); John Parker (1).

This gives us the names of those living in a reasonable dwelling in Skillington during the reign of Charles II (1660 – 1685) with one notable exception …. where was the Newton family, which by my researches should now be a firm part of the Skillington fabric?  The Newton name is again missing from the Lincolnshire Protestation Returns for the even earlier 1641.  Below is a full transcript of this taken from Mr Cryer's History.

Robert Allen, Jonas Arnall, James Ascough, Miles Bagworth, George Bennett, Nicholas Blaze, Richard Browne, Richard Calley, Robert Christian, Thomas Christian,  Richard Cooke, Raphe Denton, Richard Denton, Thomas Denton, William Denton jun., William Denton sen., Thomas Ewerdine, Thomas Ferkin, Richard Head, Matthew Hill, Robert Hopkinson, Richard Howatt (Churchwarden), John Howet, William Ingleton, John Lawson, Richard Owsle, Francis Parker, James Parker, John Parker, Nicholas Parker (Overseer), Thomas Parker, Christopher Pip, Christopher Renald, John Sharpe, Henry Snow, James Snow, Thomas Snow, William Spencer (Curate), John Steevens, John Tinkler, John Trigg, Henry Walpole, Henry Whittaker, Edward Woolley.  The Constable, William Hopkinson, attested that all had signed.

Protestations could be of loyalty to the crown but this one seems to be against taxes.  Could it be that the Newtons were either exempt or making their own stand against this and the above Hearth Tax?

By the early 1700s the only name from our original 17 that I noticed when scanning copies of the Parish Registers was Selby.  Thus, this family name, with a long tradition in the blacksmith vocation, has seen around three hundred years of continuity at Skillington, a record to be proud of.  Other names to disappear from the village scene well before the second millennium but who stretch even further back into antiquity than Selby are the Christian and Newton names.  The Christian name may not precede Selby by too many decades but can be found in the Parish Registers of the 1600s. 

Descendent of the "Skillington Christians", Mr Robert Christian, has sent me a comprehensive family tree and photographs and, in addition, details of wills, indentures, etc.  These latter were contained in a famous "will box" bearing a plate with the legend

"T & R Christian, Skillington, 1627" (see photograph below) and which he is still de-ciphering and cataloguing.  The tree is shown in Appendix 4 and some extracts from the other papers are given below.  The Christian family finally gave up trying to extract a living from farming Skillington land in the 1930s, a bad time for farmers.

The last Newtons to live and farm in the village, Frederick and Fanny and their son, Lance, were actually related to Sir Isaac (see later).  The earliest Newton , however, is Thomas who was christened in 1542 and appears on the very first page of the earliest Skillington parish register so, it would seem that this venerable family may have farmed Skillington land by the early1500s.  Interestingly, the Newtons and Christians were linked by marriage in 1764 and again in c1814.

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The ' big two ' at this time in terms of land ownership and importance in the social structure of Lincolnshire , as well as their impact on Skillington, were not residents of this village.  However, we need to take a look at their origins.  The Cholmeley family (the most used spelling) came from Cheshire and Sir Henry Cholmeley bought the manor of Easton from the Archbishop of York in 1606.  By the late 1700s, when Skillington was enclosed, Sir Montague Cholmeley was the largest landowner and he then held title to over a quarter of the parish lands.  The family's Easton Estate is still going strong.  The Turnors came into the reckoning at a later time.  Sir Edmund Turnor (bn 1619, d 1707) married the daughter of Sir John Harrison and thus acquired land from that family, which was based at Stoke Rochford.  (Although not a Lord of the Manor of Skillington, Sir Edmund fought on the side of the Royalists in the Civil War!).  His family originated in Haverhill , Suffolk .  Both these giants of the local aristocratic scene have monuments in Stoke Rochford church and the Turnors have many gravestones there. (See photographs below and overleaf).             

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I conducted a search of the Births, Marriages and Deaths for Skillington, on the Grantham Library microfiche, back to their beginnings but confess that this was no easy task.  Those who, in researching their family tree, have successfully made the jump back at 1837 to copies of the parochial registers will understand the difficulties.   Initially the format is precise and clear and the handwriting is usually the beautiful, copperplate style of the early 19^th century.  But, as one progresses further back, one finds the writing deteriorating into a scrawl, the actual letters are not as we would expect them to be now (e.g. an s is sometimes shown like a long  f  but without the cross-stroke) and the paper or parchment used may have been attacked by mice or simply the ravages of time.   Therefore, my search was rather cursory and my limited skills as a reader of ancient script prevented a clear translation of some of the early names.  At the end of chapter 6, on page125, the very first page for Skillington is shown (from 1541) together with my attempted translation.  The reader will see the problem!

But, as we arrive at the present period, at the early 1800s, no such problem exists (see page of Skillington Parish Register overleaf).  We can trace clearly that some of the names of our stalwarts, whom we perhaps expected or hoped would feature in these earlier days, are indeed there.   The following are some of the names I found in my limited search.  [Admittedly, unless a true family tree is used, a clear connection cannot be asserted in these instances. However, there probably is a family connection as people did not often move from their home parish.  Also, of course, the female line may be there but may have been obscured by change of name due to marriage.]….  

In 1833 Sarah Tyler was born of William and Ann (?); in 1832 William Hand was born of Nathaniel and Ann (?) and, also in that year, I found the name Meads, (reaching as far back as I could trace this family), when Thomas Charlesworth Meads was born to Will and Jane.  The trades of all the three fathers mentioned here were given as labourers.  In 1825 Ann Duffin was baptised, the daughter of Thomas and Mary.   The typical page of Christenings in 1813, shown overleaf, lists several names which have continued until modern times ….  Rayson, Ingleton, and Snow (of Snow's Yard?).

A page from the parish register for 1729 (see page 93) shows the deteriorating format over this 100 years span, though this is still plainly legible.  Well-known surnames like the Allens and Christians are on that page and under ' Weddings ' at the start of that century are, in 1701 Elizabeth Allen; 1705 Joseph Raison; 1707 Rebecca Selby; 1710 Robert Clark; and 1708 Anne Newton.

Fortunately for my researches, several family histories of Skillington villagers whose ancestry stretches back this far have been recorded.  As well as the Christian family tree mentioned above, Mr John Selby gave me his, see appendix 6, (together with the superb early photograph of his grandfather on a pony and trap shown earlier).  Also, a partial attempt at the 'trees' of the fatefully linked Christian and Berridge families came into Mrs Beverley Townsley's possession and she kindly loaned me these rather delicate originals to use.  The Christian family tree has been compiled in much more detail, however, and this (see Appendix 4) was supplied by Mr Robert Christian.

I have also managed to compile a tree showing the connection of the last Newtons to farm at Skillington with Sir Isaac Newton's family. This was from the definitive family tree compiled by volunteers of the National Trust at Woolsthorpe Manor together with my own researches on the gravestones in the churchyard here, confirming some Skillington connections. (See Appendix 5).

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As previously stated, Christian and Newton reach back into the 1600s.   See under Religion, later in this chapter, just how influential the Christian family was in this early period of the village's history.   One young lady in particular was to cause profound changes to the religious and social habits of a large section of Skillington's populace which was to reverberate down the years to our present time.  

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Sometime in the years just after1647, a young boy began to make the regular trek of about a mile, across the footpath or bridleway, from Woolsthorpe to the church at Skillington.  The object of his visits was to receive a basic schooling by some learned lady of the village.   This was a so-called Dame School, often the classes being held at the tutor's house but this one was held at the church.   The boy was to grow up to be one of the greatest scientific geniuses that the World has ever produced.  For his contributions to science he was knighted by Queen Anne and became Sir Isaac Newton.  What prompted his schooling at Skillington in these formative years?   It may well have been because he had three aunts living here at that time.   They may have recommended that he use the services of the learned Skillington lady.   He would possibly have been a regular visitor to them anyway.

What type of boy was he?   He was apparently quite normal in his boyhood pursuits but, perhaps, rather difficult to get on with.  Although his genius did not ' shine out ' during his childhood, his undoubted intellect may have made it difficult for him to relate to other village children …. and, also, it is recorded, with the servants at his home, Woolsthorpe Manor.

In a religious period, later on as a young man, Newton recalled the unforgivable ' sins ' of his earlier years.  These included … 

Making a mousetrap on a Sunday.

Punching his younger sister.

Robbing his mother's box of sugared plums.

Denying (he had) a crossbow to his mother and grandmother.

Stealing cherry cobs from Edward Storer.

Having unclean thoughts …

Peevishness with his mother. 

And other sins …. Sounds quite normal, actually!   Apart from his intellect, another factor which may have set him apart from his peers, was the developments which took place during his first few years.  His father died just before he was born and then, when Isaac was only three, his mother re-married and went to live at Boothby Pagnell, leaving the young child with his grandmother Ayescough at the manor house in Woolsthorpe.  Later, he was to experience the further trauma of his mother and half-siblings' return when his stepfather died (Isaac was then ten).   Before looking at his Skillington relatives, let us run briefly through Newton 's achievements….

After going on to Cambridge University , Newton returned, because of an outbreak of the plague in that town, to his home.   His age now was but twenty-two yet it was at this time, and in only two short years, that his latent genius burst forth.   In his own words he was, "In the prime of my age for invention and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since."   He was now to devise a theory of optics and also, incredibly, new laws concerning the movements of bodies, especially the paths of planets and comets, which incorporated a new look at the force of gravity.

The publication of these revolutionary theories came later in his life, as did his own development of calculus.  Newton was a brilliant yet intuitive mathematician.  He made, also, an incredible penetration into any subject which interested him, reading and then writing up his own ideas prodigiously.   As well as his better known scientific labours (which are, of course, outside the scope of this History, but the definitive book about Newton is Never at Rest by Richard S. Westfall), Newton explored Alchemy and,

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because he was a very religious man, Religion itself.   In 1936 his writings on this latter subject were sold at Sotheby's and were estimated at a quarter of a million words!   He, no doubt, found more in Skillington's church to interest him than merely the early schooling.   Newton , although living in an age of mysticism and superstition, did far more than anyone to launch the true age of science … hence, the title of this chapter.  

He died in London at the age of 85 and the Woolsthorpe manor house was eventually mortgaged to the Cholmeley family and later (1773) bought by Edmund Turnor.

Newton 's connections with Skillington families I obtained from several sources and perhaps need even more thorough investigation.  However, I was pleased to establish a definite family connection between the line of the Woolsthorpe genius and the Newtons who farmed in this village, Frederick and Fanny, who so tragically lost their youngest son in WW2, and their surviving son, Lance. These two generations did so much for the village community in recent times.  The connection goes back to Sir Isaac's great, great grandfather, John Newton.   He had two sons among others; eldest son Richard whose line of decent led to Sir Isaac and youngest son William whose line of decent to the Skillington Newtons is shown in the Newton family tree.   Most of this has been recorded handsomely and much more fully by the National Trust volunteer group at Woolsthorpe manor.   The rest was confirmed by my examination of the gravestones in Skillington's churchyard. 

In addition to the link shown above, Robert Westfall's biography of Sir Isaac Newton, Never at Rest, states that he had three aunts living in Skillington, all with young children.  Also, another book about Newton , Footsteps of the Lion, states that one of his father's sisters married a Joseph Woodrough of Skillington.   This sister, Elizabeth, is undoubtedly one of the aunts but she married William not Joseph.  The other two may well be Anne, the second wife of uncle Richard, and Isobel, who married John Cook of Skillington.

While looking at the people of Skillington during this period, I will keep the promise I made in the earlier chapter on the Victorians - when looking at the history of Skillington's alehouses – to list those people who welcomed villagers into their cottages for a refreshing drink and, perhaps, some victuals.  These were the people who paid, in the early 1800s, £10 for an annual license and promised to obey the statutes regarding good, lawful behaviour.  They were ….  

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As can be seen, some of these names were very difficult to read but there were certainly some of Skillington's foremost families keeping what was referred to in one record as a "common victualing house".  Of course, farming a crop of barley, malting it and producing ale is only one step away from selling it.  

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With regard to the contents of the Will Box of the Christian family, mentioned previously:

In 1716, an indenture, or contract of apprenticeship, was signed between Thomas Christian and a John Stoovens (Stevens?) of Whissendine, Tallow Chandler [candle-maker].  For the sum of £5 Thomas, son  of Henry Christian, was to learn this trade over a period of seven years.  From the family tree, see appendix 4, Thomas was sixteen years old.  I do not know whether this was usual – perhaps as Thomas was not the eldest son, he needed to have some trade other than farming at his fingertips.  In a later draft will of his below, dated 1748 and pre-dating his death, he calls himself a Tallow Chandler but, in his final will dated 1764 he has reverted to "farmer" …..

Probat of the Will of Thomas Christian late of Skillington deced 1764, " In the name of God Amen.  I Thomas Christian of Skillington in the county of Lincoln , farmer being of sound memory do make and ordain this my last will and testament … all my just debts and funeral expenses be paid and discharged.  I give unto my daughter Mary Blake Ten pounds … my daughter Ann Shepherd Ten pounds … my daughter Elizabeth Tooty Ten pounds … my daughter Isabella Christian One Hundred Pounds … my daughter Lydia Christian One Hundred Pounds … unto my daughters Isabella and Lydia Christian all the furniture in the room wherein I now lye (Except one Desk which I give to my Son Thomas Christian) and also all the furniture in the parlour to be equally divided btween them share and share alike ... unto the poor of Skillington Forty shillings ... all the rest residue ... I give devise and bequeath unto my Son Thomas Christian ... I have hereto set my hand and seal this Twentyeighth day of October in the year of our lord One thousand Seven hundred and Sixty …"

[The bequest to Skillington's poor a nice touch, typically Christian in whichever sense the name is used, and in the next will extract, a similar concern]

This from the above Thomas's son, also called Thomas ….

Dated 1773, "I give unto my beloved wife Ann Christian all those three closes in Sewtern Lordship …… and at her decease to son Robert Christian …"  He also leaves Ann £300; Robert £200; daughters Ann and Elizabeth £150 each when they attain age of 21.  And in addition "give five shillings each unto all the poor widows living in Town houses to be paid the Xmas following."  The residue was to son William.  He died in 1781 and it was his children, especially Ann, who were the prime instigators of Skillington's Methodists.

Of the final will, I will make only a brief comment.  This is of  yet another Thomas Christian, farmer of Skillington but here seen holding possessions at Buckminster and Sewstern.  Dated 1782, in addition to his family's bequests, he leaves "to the poor of the parish of Skillington the sum of Five Pounds".

Other papers come under appropriate headings.      

Dwellings:    The area map on page 99, c1760, as well as showing the road system to be dealt with below, seems to indicate that there were dwellings along Church Street on both sides!    If this detail from the map is taken as shown, then a substantial part of the village

must have existed nearer to the church than presently is the case.   This is also born out from work by the Archaeological Department of Leicester University when exploring earthworks in the paddock.   This found "A stone and brick well, which may be 17^th century or earlier; possibly a medieval stone wall; and possibly 18^th century or earlier building remains."  Plus, sherds of pottery from the period we have now arrived at in our travels.     

There were two Lords of the Manor at Skillington at one time and this could explain why we have two manor houses.   The manor house adjacent to the church was a moated house and was built or re-built in 1637.   Now named The Abbey, this manor house is

almost certainly the oldest remaining dwelling in Skillington, although that honour may well be shared by Home Farmhouse.

The effect that property taxes had is revealed to some extent in a further paper from the Christian Will Box.  This is a hand written list, dated 1757, concerning charges for "Houses Windows and Lights for the Town of Skillington …

Thomas Christian, 2 houses with 14 windows, rates 7s, total 9s, half-yearly payment  4/6

John Boyfield, 2 houses with 6 windows, rates £1-6s, etc"

The list of 27 names is headed by these and also (with two houses each), William Christian; Robert Newton; and Henry, Thomas and Thomas Christian again.  Thomas Christian and John Boyfield were the "Assessors and Collectors"

Other buildings:   The stone dovecote near to the church has been dated to between 1600 and 1699.   I cannot imagine that it should be built before the manor house, however, and it is my assumption that it was built shortly after 1637 as an adjunct to the manor, perhaps to supply birds for the table.   It was certainly a pretty fancy building for that purpose but, as already stated, this earned it its present listed building status.

The church was already a very old ' lady ' by the early years of this period and probably required quite a lot of upkeep but, perhaps from the mid-17^th century, it had the patronage of the wealthy Turnor family, as well as having a flourishing congregation.  The Church of England was a very wealthy body at this time with a huge income from farming and tithes.  This would have ensured that it was well maintained.   When we reach this era in our passage back through time, the church only had three bells.   A peal would have been distinctly lacking, I feel.   An interesting feature in the church dating to this period is the incorporation into the chancel wall of two medieval stone grave slabs engraved with "crosses fleury".   The purpose of this, for one at any rate, was for it to be

re-used in memory of John Boyfield, who died in 1730 (see photograph page 111).

Roads, fields and features:   The map of  c1750, facing, as well as giving us an insight into where the dwellings of this period were placed, shows some startling changes in the roads system compared with the later Victorian times and with that of today.  There were only two main roads leading out of the village.  The north road led directly to South Stoke, which was then split into a North and South, being divided by the hall and its grounds.   From there the traveller would have turned in a slightly southward direction to meet the Great North Road where the journey may have proceeded to Grantham, passing through Great Paunton (as it was then called).   The odd thing about this as shown, if its accuracy is reliable, is that this road seems to have left the village much closer to Cringle Brook than the present route.   Only thirty-four years later, the Enclosure Map on page 103 shows the more familiar route. The south road was no doubt the road which has long since deteriorated into a trackway (or stayed as a trackway, for this was then the nature of main roads!) to Buckminster.  The south-west bound traveller would have reached the Viking Way – then a reasonable road and very well-used – and, unless bound for the villages of Stainby or Buckminster off to the left and right, would have reached Suiston (Sewstern), perhaps turning right then for Melton.   The Sproxton Road seems to have been at this time little more than a footpath or bridleway.   The Colsterworth Road also seems to peter out just above Cringle Brook, as does a road heading west out of Woolsthorpe.  These probably connected, once again as a footpath/bridleway.  

But what of the Viking Way in the 1700s?   In the 1994 Lincolnshire Life (which, as already acknowledged, was loaned to me by Margaret Hallam) is an article by Jim McPherson about " Sewstern Lane ".   The Viking Way (or Drift), of which Sewstern Lane forms a part, is, he surmises, extremely old, dating back, perhaps, to the pre-history of the Bronze Age.   Being on higher ground than the lands to the east, it would have afforded early man a safer route above the swampier territory of Kesteven .   He says that it suffered a decline in use during Roman times, as they would have preferred their own Ermine Way (mostly Great North Road ).   In the 1700s, however, the turnpike road improvements to the latter – and the accompanying tolls! – soon led the not-so-rich to look for an alternative, cheaper route.   This body of travellers largely comprised the drovers of sheep and cattle.   Through Mr McPherson's article we can see why this was so … London was expanding at a phenomenal rate and needed meat!   Much of that meat lay to the north, as far away, even, as Scotland , so, they came, drovers bringing along their herds of cattle and sheep.  (Mr McPherson says that 100,000 cattle and 700,000 sheep converged upon London in a year by the end of this century).   The Viking Way at this time must have been like the Chisholm Trail in America !   Imagine the noise and bustle created by these herds right on the edge of Skillington parish – did the village benefit or suffer in any way, I wonder?   Perhaps, due to the Enclosures of this era, the good people of Skillington had other things to worry about.   As well as the drovers avoiding the Great North Road , so too, perhaps, did some highwaymen …. ??        

But, in those far off times before the turnpike acts (1637 to early 1700s), there simply was not the need to travel so, why build or improve roads?   However, by the mid-1700s, some major roads had been improved enough for coach travel to connect the towns and cities along their path.   A fast coach could do 38 miles in 3 1/2 hours.   Note on the map on page 99 the route through Colsterworth of the Great North Road , branching off from the older Roman Road (Ermine Way) a few miles to the south of that village.

Before 1797, huge, mostly open fields surrounded the village of Skillington .  The pre enclosure map shows a North Field and a West Field, separated by a belt of land containing park land, a moor and a pasture field.  The north-west corner of West Field was a heath.  To the south of Cringle Brook was Mill Field containing, of course, Skillington's windmill, standing on suitably high ground (approximately on the site where the windmill once stood is our thoroughly modern short wave relay tower).  A part of Mill Field lay to the north of the brook and this was separated from the larger part by a wedge of marshy ground suitably called Rush Ley.   Rushes were quite valuable in these times as, coated in animal fats, they were used as lighting.  To the east of Mill Field, and once again divided by the brook, was more heath land.   The strip along the brook, being too low-lying and marshy to till, was known as Cringle Meadow, Full Beck Meadow and West Beck Meadow.   Between the southernmost part of the village and the brook lay the appropriately named Little Field.  The map on pages 112 and 113 (copied from a map in the possession of Peter Selby and kindly loaned to me) shows all the field names of Skillington parish.  

At this time the rights of use of common land were …  Herbage – the right to pasture;  Estovers – the right to tree loppings, gorse and brushwood for fires etc.; Turbury the right to take turf or peat;  Pannage – the right to collect beech nuts, acorns etc.; Pisary – fishing rights; and Common in Soil – the right to use sand, gravel, stones and minerals.

The Enclosure saw a huge change and the small cottagers hardly realised what was to be lost to them!   Society as a whole, though, was quickly to bear the burden of a substantial number of destitute people.   As late as the 1891 census, quite a few Skillington villagers were labelled in this document as "Pauper".   There may have been many more shortly after the enclosures.  Certainly many people would lose their independence and become dependant on others for work. 

The enclosure map of 1797 (page 103) showing the Awards gives (Sir) Montague Cholmeley as being the owner of by far the biggest area of land - with the Reverend John Hopkinson being given a surprisingly large acreage (perhaps Church rather than private) which incorporated the parkland, moor and pasture. Henry Christian, Edmund Turnor and Mary Newton were other major landowners.  Below is the list of awards.  I obtained these and other information regarding numbers of livestock, etc from a small account book (see page 104) in which the details were listed in a neat but often minuscule handwriting [This at Lincolnshire County  Archives].   Mr Cryer in his History of the village seems to have used another source for his information on the enclosure but my listing below (and my maths) seems to agree pretty well with his account

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6 stone pits…. At numbers 3, 7, 22, 27, 34 and 44 (3 is the cross-roads mill pit, I believe)

Other awards not included under numbered fields are … 
John Boyfield (6 acres); William Huckerby (5 acres); John Hawley (2 acres) and Thomas Marriott (1 acre). 

Further very small land awards are made to John Atter and James Cottingham.

The valuations book gives some figures, in addition to the columns shown on page 104, which cannot be acreages because the total acreage of the parish is little more than 2,000.  What these are I am not sure (?)  ….  

Arable land as 1,359.   Grass 38,907  
Pasture and moor 63,505.  Fullbeck meadow 19,931

It lists the number of ox-gangs as 110, beast 256 and sheep 1,100.   Also, "beast common reduced to sheep" 770.

I wonder how long it took before the new owners of fields began to plant the hedges around them?

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