Coningsby.
WOOD ENDERBY AND HALTHAM
CONINGSBY
If we went west from Moorby we should pass by Wood Enderby, the only church in this neighbourhood with a spire, as Sausthorpe is in the Spilsby neighbourhood, and should reach Haltham on the road from Horncastle to Coningsby. Here the small church with its old oak seats has an early Norman doorway with a quaintly carved tympanum. Going north from Moorby we should pass Scrivelsby, but this must have a chapter to itself, so we will get back to the main road at Revesby and go through Mareham-le-fen to Coningsby, passing Tumby Wood, the home of the wild lily-of-the-valley and the rare little smilacina or Maianthemum bifolium, which also grows near Horncastle. Across the entrance to Coningsby, the Great Northern Railway Company have just built a new line from Lincoln to Skegness, by which tens of thousands of “trippers” will be taken for a shilling and turned out to enjoy the sea shore and the splendid expanse of hard sand. Skegness, once a delightful solitude, is now disfigured by all that appertains to those who cater for the hungry multitudes.
Tattershall and Coningsby.
HAVERHOLME PRIORY
From the bridge over the Bain at the other end of Coningsby village a pretty picture of water and willows is crowned by the view of Tattershall church and castle, both of which are described later. Coningsby church, built, like Tattershall, all of Ancaster stone, has a singular tower which stands on tall arches and allows free passage under it from three sides. In the west of this tower is a large circular window. Passing through Tattershall village with its open space and market cross, near which three roads meet, and where the Horncastle canal unites the Bain and Witham, we cross the Lincoln and Boston railway, and also the River Witham which, from the next station of Dogdyke, was cut straight by Rennie, and runs like a great dyke to Langrick, and then with only two bends to Boston. At Dogdyke is a bit of undrained swamp, the home of several good bog-plants, such as the bladderwort, water-violet, meadow-rue (Ophelia’s “Herb o’ Grace”) and the bog-stitchwort. The road on to Sleaford, across the fen for fourteen miles, is quite uninteresting, except for the very Dutch appearance of the village of Billinghay on the banks of a large drain called the Billinghay Skirth, near which, at North Kyme, we pass alongside the old Roman Carr Dyke, and, crossing it, arrive at Anwick, which has a pretty church with broach spire and good Early English doorway. Here, on our left, on the River Slea, is Haverholme Priory (Countess of Winchelsea), founded 1137 by Bishop Alexander, who afterwards moved the rheumatic Monks to Louth Park, and gave the priory to his chaplain Gilbert, founder of the order of Gilbertines, who had also a priory at Alvingham near Louth. There is nothing left of the priory, in which it is said that Archbishop Thomas à Becket once took refuge from Henry II. Four more miles bring us to Sleaford, whose spire has long been visible across the flats.
