Welbourn 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

North Kesteven North Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The council is based in Sleaford. The district also contains the town of North Hykeham, which adjoins the neighbouring city of Lincoln, England, L ...

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. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 647. The village is situated on the

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 ...

, south from

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

and north-west from

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. On the edge of the The Fens, Fenlands, it is north-east of Grantham, west of Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston, and sou ...

, and between the villages of

Leadenham __NOTOC__ Leadenham is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 410. It lies north of Grantham, south of Lincoln and north west of Slea ...

and

Wellingore Wellingore is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 356. It is situated on the A607 road, approximately south from Lincoln, Lincolnshire, L ...

. To the east lies the course of

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earninga ...

, now the

Viking Way The Viking Way is a long distance trail in England running between the Humber Bridge in North Lincolnshire and Oakham in Rutland. History The route was officially opened on 5 September 1976 at Tealby, by the Deputy Chairman of Lincolnshire C ...

. The name 'Welbourn' 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 ...

''wella-burna'' meaning 'stream with a spring'. Castle Hill - geograph

The village church is

St Chad Chad (died 2 March 672) was a prominent 7th-century Anglo-Saxon monk. He was an abbot, Bishop of the Northumbrians and then Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. After his death he was known as a saint. He was the brother of Bishop C ...

's, part of the Loveden

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 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 Leice ...

. 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 ...

is the Joiners Arms. At Castle Hill to the north of the village are the earthwork remains of Welbourn Castle, a medieval

ringwork A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles without the motte. Defences were usually earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank surrounding the site ...

. The site was purchased in 1998 by Welbourn Parish Council, with the help of a grant from the Heritage Memorial Fund, and is now maintained as a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

and community open space. Memorial to Field Marshal Sir William Robertson - geograph

In 1598 Francis Trigge, Rector of Welbourn, arranged for a library to be set up in the room over the south porch of

St Wulfram's Church, Grantham St Wulfram's Church, Grantham, is the Anglican parish church of Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. The church is a Grade I listed building and has the second tallest spire in Lincolnshire after St James' Church, Louth. Vicars The Reverend W ...

for the use of the clergy and the inhabitants of the town; the

Francis Trigge Chained Library The Francis Trigge Chained Library is a chained library in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England which was founded in 1598. Located in the parvise, over the south porch of St Wulfram's Church, it has been claimed to be the first English public library ...

is claimed as the first public library. The anti-slavery campaigner and academic

Peter Peckard Peter Peckard (c. 1718 – 8 December 1797) was an English Whig, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Church of England minister and abolitionist.

was born in the village, the son of the Rev. John Peckard.

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

Sir William Robertson, who served in the First World War, was born in Welbourn. The village

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Sir William Robertson Academy Sir William Robertson Academy (formerly Sir William Robertson High School) is a coeducational secondary school of around 1000 pupils, situated in Welbourn, near Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. The school is sited on a former WWII munitions du ...

, is named after Robertson. On 23 October 1666 a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

rated an estimated T8 or T9 on the

TORRO scale The TORRO tornado intensity scale (or T-Scale) is a scale measuring tornado intensity between T0 and T11. It was proposed by Terence Meaden of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), a meteorological organisation in the United Kingdo ...

struck the village before moving north towards

Navenby Navenby is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Lying south from Lincoln, England, Lincoln and north-northwest from Sleaford, Navenby had a population of 2,361 in the 2021 census. In March 2011 ...

, and

Boothby Graffoe Boothby Graffoe is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 223. It is situated approximately south from the city and county town of Lincoln, ...

. Thomas Short described it:

Saperton

The village is associated with the site of the lost settlement of Saperton. The exact location of the site is unknown.

References

External links

*
William Robertson High School
{{Authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire North Kesteven District