Denton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

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, ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

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 population of the civil parish was 273 at the 2011 census. It is situated approximately both south-west of

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

and west from the A1 road.

History

The Denton name derives from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

'dene+tun', meaning "village in a valley," but in ''

Domesday Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' it is written as "Dentune". Denton is the site of an ancient Roman settlement. It may also be a site of the

Beaker culture The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell Beaker (archaeology), beaker drinking vessel used at the beginning of the European Bronze Age, ...

, based on some archaeological finds made.

Iron industry

Iron ore was quarried in the parish from about 1888 onwards. Quarrying began north of Woolsthorpe Road close to the boundary with Woolsthorpe, continuing south of the road and finishing there in 1910. The ore was taken by narrow gauge tramway to the Great Northern Railway branch at Woolsthorpe. Quarrying began again in 1918 close to the Harston road and the boundary with Harston in Leicestershire. Until 1930 this was south of the road. By 1918 the Great Northern branch had been extended to a point near Socketwell Plantation to serve quarries at Harston. A narrow-gauge tramway was extended to serve the new Denton quarries from the Great Northern terminus. Quarrying was carried on north of the road from 1925 to 1931 and began again in Denton Park closer to Denton village, south of the road, in 1940. The Denton Park quarry closed in February 1974. The final quarry face was close to the A607. In 1948 the narrow gauge tramway was converted to standard gauge and connected to the branch railway so that the ore no longer had to be tipped from narrow gauge wagons into standard gauge wagons. Steam locomotives were used until 1967 when a diesel took over. The first quarries were worked by hand with the aid of explosives, From 1918 steam diggers began to be introduced and from 1938 diesel and electric machines.

Geography

Denton is situated just north off the main

A607 road The A607 is an A roads in Great Britain, A road in England that starts in Belgrave, Leicester and heads northeastwards through Leicestershire and the town of Grantham, Lincolnshire, terminating at Bracebridge Heath, a village on the outskirts of ...

between Grantham and

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...

. Nearby villages include Harlaxton, Barrowby and Woolsthorpe. Denton is a 3 miles east from Belvoir Castle. The civil parish covers approximately .

Community

In 1984 Denton held its first street market, proceeds from which were equally divided between the Church, the School and the Village Hall. The street market is now held every year on the first Bank holiday Monday in May. The 2013 event was the 27th, (the 2001 and 2012 markets being cancelled because of foot and mouth and bad weather respectively) with over 150 stalls, food outlets, children's entertainment, and traditional village sports. The

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

is Denton, part of The Harlaxton Group of the

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

of Grantham. The 2013 incumbent is the Rev'd Keith Hanson. The nearest non-conformist church is the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel at Grantham. The village

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, the Welby Arms, is an early 19th-century building constructed of coursed ironstone rubble, with the side walls of red brick, and although a number of alterations were made in the 20th century, it has been

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

since 1979. Denton has a village hall, managed by a parish council, but no village shop. It is served by the daily No. 9 bus service from Grantham.

Landmarks

St Andrew's Church

Denton

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

listed

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church is dedicated to

St Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

. Restored in 1888, it is mainly

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

in style. In the south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

is a table-tomb with an effigy of John Blyth, his wife Margaret and his six children; a monument to Richard Welby (d. 1713) is in the north aisle.Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' pp. 116, 117; Methuen & Co. Ltd The church originally had only four bells, but now has six. The original bells were the now No.1, No.3, No.4 and No.5. These were augmented by two bells in 1782 by recasting four bells and adding the new No.2 and No.6 (the tenor). The bells were re-hung in 1855 by Denton wheelwright and machine-maker John Caborn. In 1994 the bells were again re-hung in metal frames by Hayward Mills Associates.

Denton Park

Denton Manor ( 52°52'58.17"N 0°43'15.72"W ) house is a Grade II listed 17th-century house standing in Denton Park. It is constructed of coursed ironstone rubble with ashlar quoins and Collyweston diminishing coursed slate roof in two storeys to an L-shaped plan with a 5 bay frontage. It was built for Sir Bruno Welby, with extensive alterations and additions in 1953 and 1965 by Marshall Sisson. Another larger house, generally known as Denton Hall, was rebuilt by the Welby family in 1879 on the site of an earlier house to the designs of architect Sir Arthur Blomfield, was restored after a fire in 1906 but demolished in 1940. At one time it was owned by Sir William Welby-Gregory, 4th Baronet, MP for

and South Lincolnshire and his well-known wife

Victoria, Lady Welby Victoria, Lady Welby (27 April 1837 – 29 March 1912), more correctly Lady Welby-Gregory, was a self-educated British philosopher of language, musician and watercolourist. Early life Welby was born to the Hon. Charles Stuart-Wortley-Ma ...

, the philosopher of language, musician and water-colour artist. She was followed in 1887 by their son Sir Charles Welby, 5th Baronet, MP for Newark and Under-Secretary of State for War. The park also houses a series of large ponds and a freshwater spring, St. Christopher's Well, which is hidden in a

grotto A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...

built from fossils and shells in 1823. Within the cave is an inscription: "faery of the well".

Denton Reservoir

The main engineering feature of the Grantham Canal, which opened in 1797, was Harlaxton Drift near Grantham. This was a deep cutting which was built just wide enough for one-way traffic. Two passing places, where the canal was made wider, were added in 1801. Two reservoirs were also needed to feed the canal, one of which was built at Denton, close to the canal, and the other at Knipton, about 3 miles away. Both were on the ''Belvoir Estate'', and the job of building them, along with the cutting, was the responsibility of William King, the agent for the

Duke of Rutland Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in whos ...

.Hadfield (1970), pp. 62, 63 File:Denton Hall - Denton Lincolnshire - 1879.jpg, Denton Hall illustration and plan, 1879 File:Denton Manor Gate House - geograph.org.uk - 67712.jpg, Denton Park gatehouse File:Denton near Grantham St Andrews Church.JPG, Church of St Andrew, Denton

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Denton Village website
(archived page). Retrieved 17 January 2014

Roman-britain.org. Retrieved 7 July 2013
"Denton"
Genuki.org.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2013
Denton village
{{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District