Evidently a real good fellow though he was plain.
CHURCHWARDEN’S ACCOUNTS
The following extracts from the churchwarden’s accounts between the years 1540 and 1580 are curious.
| Itm payde to the Scolemʳ (Schoolmaster) of Allforde for wryting of Thoms Jacson Wylle | iiijᵈ | |
| Itm payde unto Thoms Wryghte for dressynge the crosse | ijᵈ | |
| Itm payde for a horsse skyne for bellstryngs | ijˢ | iᵈ |
| Itm payde to the players | iiijᵈ | |
| Itm reseuyd (received) for ye Sepuller lyghte gatheryd in ye cherche | iiˢ | iᵈ |
| Itm reseuyd for ye wyttworde[18] of Rycharde Grene | xijᵈ | |
| Itm Receuyd of Anthony Orby for his wyffs yereday [19] | xijᵈ | |
| Itm payde un to Wyllm Craycrofte for the rente of ye Kyrke platte | ijˢ | vᵈ |
| Itm payde for washing the corporaxys[20] | iiijᵈ | |
| Itm payd for a ynglyghe sultʳ [an English psalter] | xxᵈ | |
| Receuyd of Thomas Thorye for o̅n̅ thrughestone | iijˢ | iiijᵈ |
| Itm payde for the Sepulcre | xˢ | |
| Itm for a paire of Sensors | xˢ | iiijᵈ |
| Receuyd of John Curtus for his Wyff lying in ye churche | viˢ | viijᵈ |
| Receuyd[21] of ye said John for o̅n̅ thrughstone | xxᵈ | |
| It Recd for ye sowll of John Dodyke | xiiiˢ | |
| It Recd for ye sowll of Syr Gregory Wylk | viᵈ | |
| Impmus [In primis] payd for certeffyenge of ye Rodloffe | xijˢ | |
| Itm payd for dyssygerenge [query dressing] of ye Rod loffte | iijˢ | iiijᵈ |
| It given to ye men of mumbye chappelle for carryinge of ye lytle belle to Lincolne | xijᵈ | |
| It Layde oute for a lytle booke of prayer for Wednesdays and frydayes | iijᵈ |
The church has six bells.
From the account of the charities left in Addlethorpe we find that in 1554 a gift of land was sold for £4 an acre, but in 1653 an acre situated in Steeping let for 15s.
INGOLDMELLS
The adjoining parish with its mellifluous name of Ingoldmells, (pronounced Ingomells), has had its suffix derived from the Norse melr, said to mean the curious long grass of the sandhills. It might perhaps be more correctly considered as the same suffix which we have on the Norse-settled Cumbrian coast at Eskmeals, or Meols, where it is said to mean a sandy hill or dune, a name which would well fit in with the locality here. Thus the whole name would mean the sand-dunes of Ingulf, a Norse invader of the ninth century. A farmer we met at Winthorpe, next parish to Ingoldmells, alluded to these sandhills when he said, “It is a sträange thing, wi’ all yon sand nobbut häfe a mile off, that we cant hav nowt but this mucky owd cläy hereabouts: not fit for owt.” But the Romans found the clay very useful for making their great embankment along the coast.
Ingoldmells church, though good, is not so fine as Addlethorpe; but it has a very interesting little brass, dated 1520, to “William Palmer wyth ye stylt,” a very rare instance of an infirmity being alluded to on a brass. The brass shows a crutched stick at his side. The porch has a quatrefoil opening on either side, and a niche; and a curious apse-like line of stones in the brick paving goes round all but the east side of the fine front. Round the base of the churchyard cross is a later inscription cut in 1600, J. O. Clerk. “Christus solus mihi salus,” and figures run round three sides of the base, beginning on the north 1, 2, 3; and on the east 4, 5, 6; none on the south, but on the west 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, at the corner 10; and again on the north, 11, 12. Doubtless it was a form of sundial, the cross shaft throwing its shadow in the direction of the figures. Of the four bells one has fallen and lies on the belfry floor. One has on it, according to Oldfield, “Wainfleet and the Wapentake of Candleshoe, 1829,” “Catarina vocata sum rosa pulsata mundi” (I am called Catherine, the beaten rose of the world); and on another is the rhyme—
“John Barns churchwarden being then alive