Dowsby 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 of

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. It is situated on the western 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 ...

at the junction of the east–west B1397 road and the north–south B1177. It is north-east from

Rippingale Rippingale is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven Non-metropolitan district, district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 929 at the 2011 census. The village is situated on the A15 road (England), A15 ro ...

and just south of Pointon. The civil parish includes the hamlet of Graby. Nearby to the east, along the B1397 at Dowsby Fen, is Car Dyke. The civil parish population taken at the 2011 census was 204.

History

The name Dowsby is from the Old Scandinavian 'Dusi+by', for "farmstead of Dusi", appearing in the ''

Domesday Book 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 ...

'' as "Dusebi". Hoe Hills () was a group of round barrows dating back to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

where Roman and Medieval finds have been made. St Andrew's Church, originating from the 12th century, was mostly rebuilt and enlarged in 1864, although Norman fragments remain as part of the fabric. A recumbent

effigy An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certain ...

of Etheldreda Rigdon, and six brasses to the Burrell family from 1682 lie in the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

. Built into the outer wall of 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, ...

are parts of a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

cross.Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' p. 118; Methuen & Co. Ltd On the edge of the fen was a

decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''eenden kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to ...

used to trap ducks commercially in the 19th century. These would almost certainly have been shipped for sale by

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, probably from Rippingale railway station which was approximately a mile from the decoy.

Dowsby

Dowsby Grade II* 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 ...

. 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 part of the Billingborough Group of the Lafford Deanery,

Diocese of Lincoln The Diocese of Lincoln forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. History The diocese traces its roots in an unbroken line to the Pre-Reformation Diocese of Leice ...

. The 2013 incumbent is the Rev. Anna Sorensen. Dowsby Fen falls within the drainage area of the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board. Most employment in the parish is agricultural. The former rectory is now a care home for the elderly, providing some employment. The nearest shops are in

Billingborough Billingborough is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately north of Bourne and 10 miles south of Sleaford, and on the B1177 between Horbling and Pointon just south of ...

, to the north, the nearest

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 ...

in Aslackby, to the west.The bus service 401 operates to Bourne on Thursdays, provided by Delaine buses.

Graby

The

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Graby is situated 1 mile to the west of Dowsby, and on the line of Mareham Lane

Roman Road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

. Graby incorporates the site of a deserted medieval village, with

cropmark Cropmarks or crop marks are a means through which sub-surface archaeological, natural and recent features may be visible from the air or a vantage point on higher ground or a temporary platform. Such marks, along with parch marks, soil marks a ...

and earthwork evidence of sunken lanes, crofts, ponds and

ridge and furrow Ridge and furrow is an Archaeology, archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin: ''sliones'') and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open field system, open-field system. It is a ...

field systems.

References

Further research

* Lane, Tom "Hoe Hills, Dowsby", ''Fenland Research'', vol. 9 (1994), pp. 16–19.

External links

* *
"Dowsby"
homepages.which.net. Retrieved 22 July 2011

First series OS (1865). Retrieved 22 July 2011 {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District