The church is a small building possessing no claim to attention. The vicarage is in the gift of the Duchy of Lancaster. The rectorial tythes belong to the grammar school at Oakham, in the county of Rutland.
On under-draining a field in this parish, in the latter part of the year 1819, several heaps of ox bones were dug up, and with each heap an urn of baked clay, apparently of Roman manufacture; but unfortunately none of the urns were taken up whole. To account for these relics being found here, it is probable that on this spot a Roman sacrifice had been celebrated, in honor of some deity, on the occasion of a victory, or in the exercise of other pagan rites.
Annexed to this parish is the hamlet or manor of Poolham, anciently called Polum. It formed part of the barony of Gilbert de Gaunt until about the thirty-fifth year of Edward the first, when Robert de Barkeworthe died seized of it; [58a] and it appears to have been the residence of Walterus de Barkeworthe, who died in 1374, and was buried in the cloister of Lincoln cathedral. Afterwards it was the residence of the family of Thimbleby, a branch of the Thimblebys of Irnham, [58b] who probably built the mansion house within the ancient moat, about the time of Henry the eighth. The Savilles of Howley in the County of York, enjoyed the estate in the reign of Elizabeth, and in 1600, Sir John Saville, Knight, sold it to George Bolles, Esquire, citizen of London, whose descendant Sir John Bolles, Baronet, conveyed the same to Sir Edmund Turnor, of Stoke Rochford, Knight, and it is now the inheritance of Edmund Turnor, Esquire. [58c]
Within the moat, beside the mansion house, are the remains of a chapel, built of stone, a font, and a grave-stone with the date 1527.
In 1811, the parish of Edlington contained 27 houses, and 189 inhabitants.
SOMERSBY.
The village of Somersby is pleasantly situated on the wolds, in the hundred of Hill, at about the distance of six miles east from Horncastle.
“The Topcliffes were an ancient family at Somersby, of which family Richard Topcliffe was the representative in 1592. He was the eldest son of Robert Topcliffe, by Margaret one of the daughters of Thomas Lord Borough, and married Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Willoughby of Wollaton Nottinghamshire, and had issue Charles his heir, and three other sons who died infants, and a daughter Susannah. He was a most implacable persecutor of the Roman Catholics, so much so, that the use of the rack and other tortures were called Topcliffian customs.” [60a]