Alkborough Local History Pack

• The name
• The place
• Population history
• Entry from Kelly's Trade Directory for 1900.
• Holdings in North Lincolnshire Local Studies Library.
• References in the Star Newspaper Index.
• Related websites.

The name

Known as Alchebarge in the Doomsday Book Eminson translates this 1086 name as 'the ridge-like cliff above the mooring pool of the river'. The villages name goes through various spellings such as Alchebarue, Hautebarg, Alke Bere and Awkeburgh. Mills gives a different translation of the villages name, it being; 'wood or grave of a man called Alca'.

More information can be found in:

• Eminson, T.B.F. Place and River Names of the West Riding of Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
• Mills, A.D. A Dictionary of English Place Names.

The place

The village of Alkborough stands on the cliff ridge over looking the Trent Falls where the Rivers Trent and Ouse become the Humber. The village is best known for its ancient maze, Julian's Bower. The maze, which has a diameter of 44 feet, is thought to have been cut around the year 1200 by Benedictine monks who lived locally. The parish church of St John the Baptist has a replica of the maze in the floor of the south porch and in the chancel window. The church itself dates from the eleventh century and was restored in the late 1880's by John Oldrid Scott.

Population history

Entry from Kelly's Trade Directory for 1900

Alkborough (or Aukborough) is a parish and pleasant village on the east side of Trent falls, where the streams of the Ouse and Trent unite and form the Humber, across which extensive and beautiful views of Yorkshire, including York Minister, may be obtained, 9 miles north from Frodingham station on the Doncaster and Grimsby section of the Great Central railway, 5 north-west from Winterton and 18 northwest from Brigg, in the North Lindsey division of the county, parts of Lindsey, North division of Manley wapentake, union of Glanford Brigg, Winterton petty sessional division, county court district of Barton-on-Humber, rural deanery of Manlake, archdeaconry of Stow and diocese of Lincoln. The church of St John the Baptist is an ancient edifice of stone in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles containing a clock and 3 bells, on the second of which is the inscription-

IESU FOR YI MODIR SAKE
SAVE ALL YE SAVLS THAT ME GART MAKE

The font is Norman: the church was restored and reseated in oak and the chancel rebuilt in 1887 at a cost of £1,400: there are 220 sittings. The register dates from the year 1538. The living is a vicarage, annexed to Whitton, net yearly value £250, including 117 acres of glebe, with residence, erected in 1871 at a cost of £2,000, in the alternate gift of the Bishop of Lincoln and J. Goulton-Constable esq. and held since 1883 by the Rev Benjamin Hunter BA of the University of London. The tithes of Alkborough were amongst the earliest endowments of the monastery of Spalding when founded by the Sheriff Thorold in 1052, and it was probably at this time that the church was built. There is a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1840, and a Primitive Methodist chapel, erected in 1864. A reading room was formed for the parish in 1882. An annual sum of £6, derived from the sale of the old almshouses, together with thirty-two shillings, being a charge on the manor, is distributed yearly at the discretion of trustees. The Alkborough and Whitton Dividend Society (sick and burial) was formed in 1885, and has now (1900) 132 members; meetings are held at the Reading room on the first Monday in the month at 7.30pm; Mr Charles Bray, secretary. On the hill are the remains of a Roman camp, probably the site of the Roman town of Arquis. The field which comprises the Roman camp is called the Countess Close, from the Countess Lucy, wife of Ivo Tailbois, who in the time of William the Conqueror was Lord of Holland: the whole manor of Alkborough belonged to the Countess Lucy: in the time of the Norman Conquest, or very soon after, a small monastic establishment existed in Alkborough as a cell or offshoot of the monastery of Spalding, it was inhabited by three monks and a secular chaplain, with a prior over them; this cell ceased to exist in 1220, but the farm house belonging to Magdalen College, Cambridge, stands on the site: the maze, known as "Julian Bower", was undoubtedly made by the monks while the cell existed. James Goulton-Coulton-Constable esq. JP, FSA of Walcot hall, who is lord of the manor, and major John William Dent, of Ribston Hall, W Yorks, are the principal landowners. The soil is loam; subsoil clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley and potatoes. The area is 3,034 acres of land, 1 of water, 456 of tidal water and 225 of foreshore; rateable value, £3,162; the population in 1891 was 427.

WALCOT is a hamlet half a mile south. Walcot Hall, the seat of James Goulton-Constable esq. JP, FSA is a pleasant mansion, with beautiful grounds, described in a survey made in 1649 as " built of stone and brick and containing one hall, one kitchen, two parlours, six chambers"; but of the age of this there is no record; additions were made in 1700 on the south-west side, and on the south-east in 1800 and in the latter year all the grounds and gardens round the hall were laid out and planted. The Abbey of Peterborough had at one time a chapel and burial ground in Walcot.

Parish Clerk, Thomas Foster York. Post and M O O, S B and Annuity and Insurance Office. Ernest O Booth, sub-postmaster. London and other letters are received through Doncaster via Frodingham; arrive at 9 am and dispatched at 5.10pm. The nearest telegraph office is at Whitton, 3 miles distant.

National School (mixed), built in 1874, by J Goulton-Constable esq. to hold 120 children: average attendance, 88; Leonard Winder, master.

Carriers to:

Brigg - Thos. Gunson and W Chambers, Mon, Thurs and Sat
Hull - Thos. Gunson and W Chambers, Tues and Friday

Holdings in North Lincolnshire Local Studies Library

• Constable, J.G. History of Alkborough Parish Church 1886.
• Russell, R. & E. The enclosure of Alkborough 1765 - 1763 and Whitton, 1773 - 1775.
• Thompson, I. Julian's Bower: A guide to the Alkborough turf maze, 1999.

References in the Star Newspaper Index

• Gothic coin found in Church yard LLS 30.09.1905 4e.
• Walcot & Alkborough estate auctioned LS 12.03.1927 5c.
• New cricket club formed. SFS 06.06.1931 11a.
• War memorial Tablet unveiled SFS 12.10.1946 10b.
• War memorial unveiled SFS 03.10.1950 14a.

Related websites

• Alkborough Turf Maze.