Aslackby

The manor house at Aslackby

A quiet and scattered farming village called Aslackby can be found seven miles north of Bourne on the A15 although its own people call it Azelby. It may be connected with another settlement in North Yorkshire that was also spelt Aislaby in the Domesday Book but is now written as Azleby. This village lies where the high land begins to drop down to the fens and on a fine autumn afternoon, the sun is in the right position in the heavens to bathe the countryside with mellow light and create a colourful landscape portrait of the village from afar with the parish church of St James the Great as the centrepiece. There is also a quaint-looking public house, memories of monastic buildings, a castle site and abundant shady trees but there are no community facilities because the post office closed on Wednesday 27th March 1991 followed by the village shop the following day.

The church of St James the Great dates from the 14th century but has an 1856 chancel that has blended well with the mediaeval parts. Inside, the light streams unhampered through many windows, the east window containing three emblems which tell much of the village's history. On the left is the red Maltese cross of the Knights Templar, on the right the white on black Maltese cross of the Knights of St John and in the centre is the scallop shell, the badge of pilgrims to the shrine of St James at Compostella in Spain.

The simple walls are unadorned except for a tablet here and there to a soul long departed while in the chancel are more up-to-date insignia in two kneelers: one to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 and the other the Royal Wedding of 1981. There are lofty and graceful arcades with moulded arches and tall clustered piers, a narrow tower arch reaching almost to the roof timbers, an old font enriched with tracery, shields and Tudor roses, and a piscina and an aumbry in each of the wide aisles while the south aisle has a doorway to the former rood loft. 

The magnificent parish church at Aslackby, standing on rising ground and dominating the village scene, with a view of the interior (bottom).

On the west wall of the nave are three drawings of a building which was demolished in 1892. In 1843, the gazetteer William White described it as "a square embattled tower of two storeys. The lower storey is vaulted and at the meeting of eight groins in the centre are eight shields of arms, one charged with a cross". He was referring to the 14th century gatehouse tower of the Preceptory of the Knights Templar, founded here about 1154 by Hubert of Rye who gave them their chapel ten years later.

Like other Templar buildings, this was taken by the Crown in 1312 and subsequently passed on to the Knights of St John in 1338. The preceptory church was dedicated to St John and was still being served in 1514 and part of this church survived into the last century. There is a feeling of spaciousness inside the church because there are no pews, only chairs. There have never been pews here and this allows a more flexible use of space. Near to the door is an old stove, a reminder of the way the church was heated in earlier times.

There was also a Methodist church here which was particularly popular during the 19th century. The cause first arrived in 1800 when John Burrows and his wife moved to the village from Skillington, near Grantham, having been bequeathed a grazing farm by Lord Harborough who was appreciative of their faithful work while in his service. They were devout Methodists and it is from their initiative that local Methodist communities were subsequently established at Billingborough, Rippingale, Pointon and Bourne. Burrows invited visiting preachers to address meetings at his home and by 1802, there were 27 members of the congregation. The first chapel was built in 1863 at a cost of £92 on a plot of land bought for £8 and by 1888, the Sunday School had 37 pupils which had risen to 51 in 1920.

By this time, a second larger chapel had been opened in 1903, the property having been bought from Mr Smith of Aslackby for £200, and a board of trustees appointed to run it while the old chapel was subsequently sold on 7th October that year for £51. 5s. 0d. The new chapel was unique in Methodist circles because it possessed a full-sized baptistry under the floor. The building was badly damaged by fire in 1952 and services were temporarily transferred to the village church. But due to a re-appraisal of resources, the Methodists eventually decided to concentrate their money elsewhere and the chapel was closed and offered for sale with restrictions on the supply of alcohol, gambling and religious activities, and in 1986 it was acquired by a private buyer and converted into a cottage.

A mediaeval earth floor was found beneath the village hall during a major renovation scheme in 2010. The discovery was made by builders while relaying the stone floor and consisted of layered deposits of straw believed to date back to Saxon or Norman times. Two other floors had since been laid on top, a 14th century stone crushed floor and another, also of crushed stone, completed in Victorian times. Details of the discovery were recorded for church records before being carefully covered over. Parishioners had been fund-raising for seven years to modernise the building at a cost of £6,000 which included the installation of a boiler, kitchen, toilets and new meeting room.

Temple Farm that can be found to the south west of the village stands on the site of the Knights Templar establishment and there are legends too of an underground passageway existing between here and the church and an even longer one to the priory.

One of the oldest properties in the village is Monk's Cottage, previously known as Stone Cottage, and thought to stand on the site of an old Christian burial ground, perhaps for the Knights Templar, and bones and artefacts are continually being unearthed in the vicinity, mostly dating back to the 13th century. One theory is that the cottage once formed part of a chapel but markings on the stonework indicate that it was from a later period, probably between the 14th and 17th centuries, while horseshoes and nails that have also been unearthed, suggest that it may have been used as a forge at some time. Four skeletons were unearthed during excavations for a kitchen extension in 2000 and they were dated at between the 11th and 13th centuries and in June 2004, the present tenants, Rob Andrew and Sharon Paul, found four human skulls while building work was underway for a new conservatory. The two best preserved contained near-full sets of teeth and a dental expert identified one as a male in his mid-thirties and the other as a female in her mid-twenties, both around 800 years old.

The village pub at Aslackby, the Robin Hood and Little John, stands alongside the main A15 road at the turning off into the village. This ancient inn dates back to Regency times and was a regular watering stop for coaches plying between London and Lincoln. A favourite verse of past times, often quoted by customers, was:

All you men who think it good
Come have a drink with Robin Hood.
If Robin Hood abroad has gone
Then have a drink with Little John. 

One of the most interesting manor houses in South Lincolnshire can be found at Aslackby, to the west of the village church. This is a very attractive property of ancient origin, the rear stone wing surviving from an earlier mediaeval manor house while the other shorter east wing was added circa 1650 and is finished in the wildest artisan mannerism decoration with Dutch gables, pilasters and hood-moulds, changing into crenellation and shields, all in crudely cut red brick. The term "artisan mannerism" was coined by the English architectural historian Sir John Summerson (1904-92) whose study Architecture in Britain 1530-1830 is still regarded as the definitive work on the subject. 

During the mid-17th century, the appearance of many major country houses departed radically from the vernacular of preceding centuries in this way and the style soon spread throughout the fens and surrounding area as builders of lesser houses followed the fashion for adding pediments and other uncoordinated details, such as brick quoins and string courses, often on the slightest excuse and with little regard for their propriety. The gardens here are an added delight and the public now has a chance to take a close look at this manor house in all of its glory and to learn something of its past as part of the Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days held annually to give visitors the chance to see places of cultural and historic interest in the county. 

A grand Victorian house of 1865 (left) and the Georgian rectory (right).

The old rectory, now a private house, stands between the manor house and the church and is also in red brick but is late Georgian with attractive blank arcading on the ground floor. This is also taken up in the adjacent stable block. These three buildings, church, rectory and manor house, standing on a rise overlooking the main street, constitute the most attractive part of the village.  

See also

One of the best churches in England

 John Bigley     Aslackby flooding in July 2007

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