Horncastle


Horncastle is an English market town and civil parish in Lincolnshire, east of the county town of Lincoln. It had a population of 6,815, according to the 2011 Census. A section of the ancient Roman walls remains.

History

Romans

Although fortified, Horncastle was not on any important Roman roads, which suggests that the River Bain was the principal route of access to it.
Roman Horncastle has become known recently as Banovallum. Although the name has been adopted by several local businesses and by the town's secondary modern school, it is not definitely known to be Horncastle's Roman name. Banovallum was merely suggested in the 19th century through an interpretation of the Ravenna Cosmography, a 7th-century list of Roman towns and road-stations. Banovallum may equally have been Caistor, in fact.
The Roman walls remain in places. One section of it is on display in the town's library, which was built over the top of the wall. The Saxons called the town Hyrnecastre, from which its modern name derives.

Domesday Book

Horncastle is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as consisting of 41 households, including 29 villagers and twelve smallholders, and had of meadow and two mills, all belonging to King William.

Church

Dating from the 13th century, prior to the Reformation, the Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin. It is a Grade II* listed building in the Early English style, but was extensively restored between 1859 and 1861 by Ewan Christian.

English Civil War

Four miles from Horncastle is the village of Winceby. During the 1643 Battle of Winceby, which helped to secure Lincolnshire for Parliament, its leader, Oliver Cromwell, was almost killed. Local legend has it that the 13 scythe blades which hang on the wall of the south chapel of St Mary's Church were used as weapons at Winceby, but this assertion is generally regarded as apocryphal. The accepted historical opinion is that they probably date from the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536. Both theories about the origin of the scythes are discussed in the "Church History" Lincoln website.

Blood sports

Horncastle was once known as a centre for cockfighting and bull-baiting. A pub there, which once hosted cockfights, still bears the name The Fighting Cocks. Bull-baiting was practised in the area of town still known as the Bull Ring. One historian has estimated that the practise ended only around the year 1810. Both blood sports were banned in England and Wales under the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835.

Market and horse fair

Horncastle was granted its market charter by the Crown in the 13th century. It was long known for its great August horse fair, an internationally famous annual trading event which continued to be held until the mid-20th century. It ended after the Second World War, when horses were generally no longer used for agriculture. The town is now known as a centre for the antiques trade.
The great annual horse fair was probably first held in the 13th century. The fair used to last for a week or more every August. In the 19th century it was likely the largest event of its kind in the United Kingdom. The slogan, "Horncastle for horses", was an indication of the town's standing in this trade. George Borrow set some scenes of his semi-autobiographical books Lavengro and The Romany Rye at the annual horse fair. The last horse fair was held in 1948. Livestock markets continued to be held in Horncastle for pigs and cattle, and the last cattle market was held in the year 2000.
In 1894 the Stanhope Memorial, designed by E. Lingen Barker, was erected in the centre of the Market Place in memory of Edward Stanhope MP. Built of limestone, red sandstone and pink and grey streaked marble, it is a Grade II listed structure.

Notable buildings

The Grade II listed Old Court House, built in 1865, is in the town centre, in Louth Road.

Population

Since the late 20th century, the population has increased to 6,815 in 2011, its highest ever. Historically, the civil parish suffered a decline in population from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, as urbanisation and changes in agriculture attracted people to cities where more work was available.

Twin town

Horncastle is twinned with Bonnétable, a ville de marché in the French département of Sarthe with a population of about 4,000. The towns' relationship is commemorated by a Rue Horncastle in Bonnétable, and a Bonnetable Road in Horncastle.

Geography

It lies to the south of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where the River Bain meets the River Waring, and north of the West and Wildmore Fens. The south of Horncastle is called Cagthorpe. Langton Hill is to the west. It used to be part of Horncastle Rural District in the Parts of Lindsey, but is now in the district council of East Lindsey, based in Manby, east of Louth.
North of the town, the civil parish meets West Ashby and Low Toynton, south of Milestone House on the A153 Louth Road. The boundary skirts the east of the town, crossing Low Toynton Road, following the Viking Way, then meeting the River Waring. It briefly follows north of the A158 to a caravan park, where it meets High Toynton. Southwards on Mareham Road it meets Mareham on the Hill, east of Stonehill Farm. South of the town, and north of Telegraph House, it meets Scrivelsby, following High Lane westwards to cross the B1183, south of Loxley Farm, then the A153 and skirts the southern edge of the sewage works next to the River Bain where it meets Roughton. It follows the Old River Bain west of the A153 northwards over the river meadows], crossing the Horncastle Canal and Viking Way. Eastwards it crosses the B1191, south of Langton Hill, where at Lowmoor Lane it meets Langton. It follows Langton Lane northwards, with Mill House Farm to the west, towards Thimbleby. It meets the B1190 where the pylons cross the road, then the A158 at the B1190 junction, following Accommodation Road to the east. It skirts the north of the town, following Elmhurst Road, passing south of Elmlea Farm, and straight through to Elmhirst Lakes. At the River Bain near Hemingby Lane, it reaches West Ashby.

Economy

is based at the Boston Road Industrial Estate. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is based in Banovallum House. Mortons of Horncastle is a major national magazine publisher of classic motorcycles, aviation and road transport heritage titles, based in the industrial estate off the A153.

Governance

An electoral ward of the same name exists. It includes Thimbleby and had a total population at the 2011 Census of 7,073.

Politics

Horncastle has always been a safe area for the Conservative Party, except for two years in the early 1920s, when it had Liberal Party representation. It had an eponymous parliamentary constituency for 98 years, from 1885 to 1983. It then became Gainsborough and Horncastle, and after 1997, Louth and Horncastle. Henry Haslam served as MP during the Second World War and the five years of the Churchill wartime government. The veteran politician Sir Peter Tapsell was MP for the town from 1966 to 1983 and from 1997 to 2015, being Father of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2015. After a redistribution of parliamentary constituencies, Edward Leigh was MP from 1983 to 1997.

Education

Primary schools

Horncastle Primary School is situated at Bowl Alley Lane.

Secondary schools

was founded in 1571, and is among the top schools in Lincolnshire; it has at times been one of the top schools in the country. Its tennis, hockey, netball and cricket teams compete regionally, and the tennis team was a regional winner in the 2005 British Schools Tennis Championships. Queen Elizabeth's is a specialist Science College and Language College. Its Design and Technology department recently entered two teams in the National 4X4 for Schools engineering competition, one of which came first nationally in its age group, while the other came second nationally overall.
The Banovallum School is a non-selective community school serving Horncastle and surrounding villages; it forms a science specialist school jointly with Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School. The most recent Ofsted inspection, in 2019, judged the school to be overall Grade 2. It had a building added with facilities for cookery, woodwork, metalwork, art and music in 2010
St Lawrence School is a special-needs school with a county-wide intake. It comprises the Lincolnshire Wolds Federation with St Bernard's School, Louth.

Colleges

Horncastle College was a "lifelong-learning" adult education college that runs short and residential courses in I.T., art, languages and local history. It has now been replaced by Fortuna Horncastle Business Centre.

Transport

Roads

Horncastle sits at the crossroads of two of Lincolnshire's major roads: the east-west A158, joining the county town of Lincoln with the resort of Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast, and the north-south A153 joining Louth with Sleaford and Grantham in the south. These meet at the Bull Ring in central Horncastle.
The A158 through Horncastle becomes busy in the summer holidays with Skegness holidaymakers. To alleviate traffic pressure in the town centre a relief road, Jubilee Way, was built in the 1970s. Minor roads run from Horncastle to Bardney, Boston, Fulletby and Woodhall Spa.
Horncastle is a hub for the InterConnect rural bus service. Regular services run to Lincoln, Skegness and across the Wolds. The Viking Way long-distance footpath passes through the town.

Railway

The Great Northern Railway's Lincoln–Boston line ran through Kirkstead, from Horncastle, and a branch line from Kirkstead through Woodhall Spa to Horncastle opened on 11 August 1855. The last passenger service ran in 1954, with complete closure to goods traffic in 1971. Horncastle railway station was demolished in the 1980s and replaced by housing. The nearest railway station now is Metheringham on the Peterborough to Lincoln Line. The Horncastle Branch ran from Woodhall Junction to Horncastle, and is now part of the Viking Way footpath.

Waterways

, based on the River Bain, was begun in 1792 and opened in 1802.
In 2004 it was suggested that the Horncastle Canal be renovated with the help of private capital and promoted as a route for pleasure craft, as has been done successfully in other areas. A local kick-start programme raised money for the project.

Sport

Football

Horncastle Town FC, founded in 1873, is an amateur football club based at The Wong. It joined the Lincolnshire Football League in the 1996/1997 season.

Cricket

The town has a cricket club at Coronation Walk, with two men's and five youth teams.

Hockey

Horncastle Hockey Club is a voluntary field-hockey body set up in November 1970 at Coronation Walk, Horncastle. In 2020 it had two men's and two womens' teams and a junior section.

Tennis

Horncastle and District Tennis Club has offered tennis for over 70 years. Initially on grass courts in Stanhope Road, the club moved to the current Coronation Walk location in the 1970s.

Squash

Horncastle Community Members Squash Club in Hemmingby Lane was founded in November 2006 to preserve an existing club by buying out owners who had run it for 25 years and wished to retire.

Floods

The town has been susceptible to flooding, notably in 1920 and 1960, and with three floods occurring between 1981 and 1984.
Folk belief associates the occurrence of floods with installations of new vicars in Horncastle's Anglican Church. The vicar changed in 1919 and 1959, both less than a year before a flood. The flooding of the early 1980s was attributed to the change of vicar in 1980, but there was no flooding after the change of vicar in 1999. The River Bain and River Waring overflowed during the 2007 United Kingdom floods.
Flooding occurred again in 2012. A £15 million, 30-year-old proposed flood-defence scheme was seen as unlikely to have prevented the 2012 flood, but new flood defences are being discussed. An anti-flood pump was installed in 2013.
On 7 October 1960 Horncastle entered the UK Weather Records with a "highest 180-minute total" rainfall of 178 mm. Water levels are said to have risen as a consequence.
Real-time river levels are available from the Environment Agency:
*
*
Flood warnings for the town:
*