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Irnham is a village and
civil parish in
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. It covers Bourne, Lincolnshire, Bourne, Grantham, Market Deeping and Stamford, Li ...
,
Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately south-east from
Grantham. To the north is
Ingoldsby and to the south-west,
Corby Glen. The village is on a high limestone ridge that forms part of the Kesteven Uplands.
The civil parish of Irnham includes the hamlets of
Bulby and
Hawthorpe. The similar extent
ecclesiastical parish is Irnham, part of the
Beltisloe rural deanery in the
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 Leices ...
, and part of a Group which includes
Corby Glen and
Swayfield
Swayfield is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 316. It is situated just over east from the A1 road, south-east from Grantham and nor ...
, sharing a single priest. The
parish church is dedicated to
St Andrew.
History

Irnham is listed as "Gerneham" in the ''
Domesday Book''. It was probably founded by an
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
thegn named Georna, hence Georna's Ham (or settlement). Scenes of 14th-century life in the village are depicted in the
Luttrell Psalter.
Irnham Hall
Irnham Hall was the ancient seat of the Paynells and from about 1200, the
Luttrell family, Lords of Irnham until 1418. The Manor then passed by marriage to the Hilton family and similarly in 1510 to the Thimbleby family, by whom the present
Tudor house was built in about 1600. In 1430, Godfrey Hilton, a knight, was residing in "Irenham".
Mary Thimelby was born at the hall in about 1618 and became a prioress.
In 1853 William Hervey Woodhouse (d. 1859), who married Sarah Elizabeth Cole, bought the Hall, which had several further owners until purchased in 1901 by the present owners, the
Benton Jones family. A fire in 1887 destroyed much of the interior.
Thimblesby's Almshouses
The village
almshouse
An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...
s, built in 1712, are still in use.
St Andrew's Church
St Andrew's Church is late
Norman with
Perpendicular additions, and was
heavily restored in 1858, and again in 2006. It holds the tomb and
Easter Sepulchre of
Geoffrey Luttrell, who commissioned the
Luttrell Psalter, a celebrated medieval manuscript now in the
British Library, in the early 14th century.
Employment
The village
public house is the Griffin Inn on Bulby Road. Most other employment is in farming.
References
External links
*
Village website ''The villages around Bourne, Lincolnshire, England'', Homepages.which.net
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Villages in Lincolnshire
Civil parishes in Lincolnshire
South Kesteven District