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Irnham is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...
in
South Kesteven
South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Bourne, Grantham, Market Deeping and Stamford. The 2011 census reports 133,788 people at 1.4 per ...
,
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...
, England. It is situated approximately south-east from
Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town 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. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln a ...
. To the north is
Ingoldsby and to the south-west,
Corby Glen
Corby Glen is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately south-east of the market town of Grantham and 8 miles (13 km) north west of Bourne.
History
The Church of England pari ...
. 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
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Bulby is a hamlet in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, and in the civil parish of Irnham, Bulby and Hawthorpe. The village is situated west of the A15, east of the A1, and approximately north-west from the town ...
and
Hawthorpe
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Irnham is a village and civil parish in South Kesteven, 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 lime ...
. The similar extent
ecclesiastical parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
is Irnham, part of the
Beltisloe
Beltisloe is a Deanery of the Diocese of Lincoln in England, and a former Wapentake.
The Wapentake of Beltisloe was established as ancient administrative division of the English county of Lincolnshire before the Norman Conquest of 1066. 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
Corby Glen is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately south-east of the market town of Grantham and 8 miles (13 km) north west of Bourne.
History
The Church of England pari ...
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 no ...
, sharing a single priest. The
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activitie ...
is dedicated to
St Andrew
Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Pete ...
.
History

Irnham is listed as "Gerneham" 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
''. 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
In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there ...
named Georna, hence Georna's Ham (or settlement). Scenes of 14th-century life in the village are depicted in the
Luttrell Psalter
The Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Add MS 42130) is an illuminated psalter commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (1276–1345), lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire, written and illustrated on parchment ''circa'' 1320–1340 in England b ...
.
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
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...
additions, and was
heavily restored in 1858, and again in 2006. It holds the tomb and
Easter Sepulchre
An Easter Sepulchre is a feature of British church interior architecture.
Description
The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess generally in the north wall of the chancel, in which from Good Friday to Easter day were deposited the crucifix and ...
of
Geoffrey Luttrell
Sir Geoffrey Luttrell III (1276 – 23 May 1345) lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire was a mediaeval knight remembered principally today as having commissioned the Luttrell Psalter, a rare and profusely illustrated manuscript now in t ...
, who commissioned the
Luttrell Psalter
The Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Add MS 42130) is an illuminated psalter commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (1276–1345), lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire, written and illustrated on parchment ''circa'' 1320–1340 in England b ...
, a celebrated medieval manuscript now in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
, in the early 14th century.
Employment
The village
public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...
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
{{authority control
Villages in Lincolnshire
Civil parishes in Lincolnshire
South Kesteven District