Baston is a village and parish on the edge of

The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...

and in the

administrative district Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

South Kesteven South Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. Its council is based in Grantham. The district also includes the towns of Bourne, ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. The 2011 census reported the parish had 1,469 people in 555 households. Like most fen-edge parishes, it was laid out more than a thousand years ago, in an elongated form, to afford the produce from a variety of habitats for the villagers. The village itself lies along the road between King Street, a road built in the second century, and Baston Fen which is on the margin of the much bigger Deeping Fen. Until the nineteenth century, the heart of Deeping Fen was a

common Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Com ...

fen on which all the surrounding villages had rights of

turbary Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog. The word may also be used to describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from the turbary. Turbary rights, whi ...

fowling Fowling () is the hunting of birds by humans, for food (meat), feathers or any other commercially value products, or simply for leisure ("sporting") or collecting trophies. It is comparable to wildfowling, the practice of hunting waterfowls fo ...

and

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

History

A significant Roman feature of Baston is the Roman road leading across the fen towards Spalding. Part of the modern fen road follows it. At the end of the village, near King Street, was an Anglian

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

which was in use up to about the year 500. This coincides approximately with the date of the beginning of

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

's exploits, as reported by the

Historia Brittonum ''The History of the Britons'' () is a purported history of early Britain written around 828 that survives in numerous recensions from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Brittonum'' is commonly attributed to Nennius, as some recensions ha ...

, when Arthur fought his first battle at the mouth of the River Glen and stopped the spread of Anglo-Saxon settlement for fifty years. The Anglo-Saxon cemetery, of funerary urns, was found by Rev. Edward Trollope in 1851. He found around 10 burials in 1863 and traces of another 16 were found in 1963 Baston Manor House is a 16th century structure which was altered and extended in the 17th, late 18th, late 19th and early 20th centuries. The manor house has been Grade II listed since 1952. Also listed are the Manor House's two sets of 18th century stables, one to the east (now a garage) and another to the west which is listed along with a granary. In the 19th century the Manor House was owned by Robert Marriott a noted horse-breeder who won many prizes at local agricultural shows, he lived there until 1876. The house was later bought by Francis Knipe in 1888 when he had 120 bullocks and 600 sheep. Over 300 blue rock pigeons were kept in the dovecote at the Manor House in past times, and were released for sport in the days before clay pigeon shooting. Like most places in Europe, Baston suffered from the plague. Some Baston plague victims are shown in burial lists. A possible plague burial was uncovered during the building of a corn dryer. The 'Baston Pig' was a name for the Lincolnshire Curly Coat pig.

Governance

Baston is served by a Parish Council, two District Councillors who represent Casewick Ward on South Kesteven District Council and a County Councillor representing Deepings West & Rural Division on Lincolnshire County Council. The current District Councillors elected in May 2023 are Vanessa Smith (Green) and Rosemary Trollope-Bellew (Con). The Lincolnshire County Councillor elected in 2021 is Ashley John Baxter (Ind).

Geography

Geographically, in the fen, the parish's northern boundary lies on the River Glen, beyond which is Thurlby. To the south is Langtoft and beyond King Street in the west is

Greatford Greatford is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated west from the A15, north-east from Stamford, and south from Bourne. Greatford is noted for Greatford Hall, once the home of th ...

Geology

The parish lies on a fan of gravel from the Devensian glacial period, which spreads from the upland mouth of the

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

of the

River Welland The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river Source (river), rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally nort ...

, to the east of

Stamford, Lincolnshire Stamford is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber ...

. There are two main forms of business in the parish:

arable farming Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

and

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

extraction. The flooded gravel pits subsequently lend themselves to development for leisure pursuits such as

angling Angling (from Old English ''angol'', meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless te ...

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

and

watersports Water sports or aquatic sports are sports activities conducted on waterbodies and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...

. The gravel was washed down from the tundra environment to the west and deposited in the

periglacial Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing and freezing, very often in areas of permafrost. The meltwater may refreeze in ice wedg ...

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

, known as Lake Fenland, below the icy waters of which the site of Baston then lay. The authors are not entirely convinced by some of the earlier published references in this regard, but they do link to them.

Education

Independent special school Kirkstone House School has been in the village since 1964. Baston CE Primary School was opened in the village in July 1993.

Sport

In 2002, a group of local residents decided that the village needed an area where a range of sports could be conducted. The cost of a sports hall was thought to be prohibitive, so the project was focused on a multi-use sports and skateboarding area. Following a village-wide survey, which had a 37% return rate, a public meeting was held in June 2002. As a result of both the survey and public meeting, it was decided that there was a mandate from the village to progress the project. Consequently, B-Active was formed as a sub-committee of the BPFMC. As part of this the Baston Football Club was formed in 2005, and joined the Grantham & District Saturday Afternoon League. The club runs two adult teams playing in the Peterborough & District League on a Saturday afternoon. It plays its home games at Brudenell Playing Field in Baston, and is sponsored by local businesses. Baston cricket club plays in the south Lincs Division 1 league. The club won promotion last year by winning the division 2 title. Off the playing field the cricket club is advancing at a rapid pace. Last year saw the club purchase covers, and new this season is a pair of sight screens built from scratch and kindly donated by club member 'Big' Dave Ford. There are tennis courts for year-round use. Both sports field and village hall are managed by the Brudenell Playing Fields Management Committee.

References

External links

"Baston"

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

.org.uk
"The Parish of Baston"
The Bourne Archive * {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District