ViewsWatchers |
Blankney is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The village is situated approximately 9 miles (14 km) south from the city and county town of Lincoln and 9 miles north from Sleaford. Blankney is a small stone-built estate village, built around the large estate of Blankney Hall. According to the 2001 UK Census, population was 239. [edit] History
Blankney has existed at least since the time of William the Conqueror, when it belonged to the major land-owner Walter D'Aincourt. The place-name 'Blankney' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Blachene. It is listed as Blancaneia in 1157 in Early Yorkshire Charters, and as Blankenei in 1202 in the Assize Rolls. The name is the Old English blancan ēg, thought to mean 'Blanca's island'. In the 15th century the estate passed through marriage to the Lovels of Titchmarsh. After the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487, all the estates of the Lovels were confiscated by Henry VII for the crown, and the Blankney Estate was then bought by the Thorold family. It was the Thorolds who did much to embellish the house with carved panelling of the period. During the reign of Charles I, again through marriage it passed into the hands of Sir William Widdrington who was created Baron Widdrington of Blankney in 1643. Lord Widdrington's great grandson, William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington had the indiscretion to take part in the Jacobite rising of 1715. He was captured at Preston, convicted of high treason and his lands were confiscated in the following year. In 1719 Thomas Chaplin, a prominent Lincolnshire landowner, purchased the land from the Crown Commissioners for Confiscated Land, and it was to remain in the family for over two centuries. The estate owes its appearance largely to the influence of the Chaplins and their care of the land. The last Chaplin, Henry, led an extravagant lifestyle and had political ambitions; this lifestyle coupled to the falling revenues from farms led him ever into debt until finally in 1892, the estate passed to the principal mortgagee William Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough. At the start of the Second World War the Hall was requisitioned for use as billets for servicemen from nearby RAF stations. During 1945 it was badly damaged by fire and was then left as an empty shell before being demolished in the 1960s. All that remains today are the dilapidated remnants of the former stable block. [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.
|