Woolthorpe by Belvoir | |
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Bottom Lock, Woolsthorpe |
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Woolthorpe by Belvoir shown within Lincolnshire | |
Population | 415 (2011) |
OS grid reference | SK837340 |
• London | 100 mi (160 km) SSE |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Grantham |
Postcode district | NG32 |
Police | Lincolnshire |
Fire | Lincolnshire |
Ambulance | East Midlands |
EU Parliament | East Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Woolsthorpe, also known as Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir, is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 415. It is situated approximately 5 miles (8 km) west from Grantham, and adjoins the county border with Leicestershire. The neighbouring village of Belvoir lies on the other side of the border. Grantham Canal is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north-east at its closest point.
According to A Dictionary of British Place Names, the name Woolsthorpe means "an outlying farmstead or hamlet (Old Scandinavian 'thorp') of a man called Wulfstan (Old English person name)".
In the 1086 Domesday account Woolsthorpe is referred to as "Ulestanestorp", in the Kesteven Hundred of Winnibriggs and Threo. It comprised 29 households, 6 villagers, 3 smallholders and 8 freemen, with 4 ploughlands and 3 mills. In 1066 Leofric of Bottesford was Lord of the Manor, this transferred in 1086 to Robert of Tosny, who also became Tenant-in-chief.
A possible deserted medieval village lies at the southern edge of the present village just to the east off Woolsthorpe Lane, on the same site of a previous St James church destroyed in 1643 by Parliamentary forces. Of the destruction Kelly's Directory wrote in 1885: "the original church of St. James, of which some fragments of the tower remain, was burned down by soldiers of the Parliamentary Army who bivouacked there during the siege of Belvoir Castle".