TOYNTON ST PETER AND TOYNTON ALL SAINTS - WHERE THE LINCOLNSHIRE WOLDS MEET EAST FEN
On the northern boundary of East Fen in Lincolnshire lie the two neighbouring villages: Toynton St Peter and Toynton All Saints, about one and a half miles from the nearest town of Spilsby. Toynton St Peter is about 10 metres above sea level, and Toynton All Saints at between 30 and 40 metres, on the hillside that is the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Their location is especially interesting as the Wolds directly to the north is good agricultural land, higher and dryer than what was the wetland of the East Fen to the south. This contrasting landscape was the basis of how the villagers lived off the land. So started my search for the lives of my Ascough ancestors on the edge of a vast expanse of fenland made up of East Fen, West Fen and Wildmore Fen.
On the northern boundary of East Fen in Lincolnshire lie the two neighbouring villages: Toynton St Peter and Toynton All Saints, about one and a half miles from the nearest town of Spilsby. Toynton St Peter is about 10 metres above sea level, and Toynton All Saints at between 30 and 40 metres, on the hillside that is the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Their location is especially interesting as the Wolds directly to the north is good agricultural land, higher and dryer than what was the wetland of the East Fen to the south. This contrasting landscape was the basis of how the villagers lived off the land. So started my search for the lives of my Ascough ancestors on the edge of a vast expanse of fenland made up of East Fen, West Fen and Wildmore Fen.
MAP NO’S 1 AND 2 in the section MAPS OF EAST FEN also show the location of the villages.
The two ancient settlements of Toynton St Peter and Toynton All Saints each have a church, the former is possibly 12th century and the latter is certainly 14th century and possibly even earlier. The villages have their origins in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Both appear in the Domesday Book (see below).
The name Toynton (or Toantun or Totintun) is a derivation on the word “ton” for a farmstead or village.
TOYNTON ST PETER
Toynton St Peter is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, approximately 2 miles (3 km) south from the town of Spilsby.
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's “Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales” described Toynton St Peter like this:
TOYNTON-ST. PETER, a parish, with a village, in Spilsby district, Lincoln; 2 miles S by E of Spilsby r. station. Post town, Spilsby. Acres, 2,530. Real property, £3,385. Pop 433. Houses, 97. The manor belongs to Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £199. Patron Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. The church is old. There is a Wesleyan chapel, and charities £6 and 8 cottages.
Toynton St Peter Population (Wikipedia)
Year - Inhabitants
1801-245, 1831-372, 1841-439, 1871-342, 1881-333, 1891-262, 1911-196
SETTLEMENT OF TOYTNON ST PETER – Extracts from Document MLI 85877 at lincstothepast.com
The settlement of Toynton St Peter has its origins in the late Anglo-Saxon period, and survives to the present.
The settlement of Toynton Saint Peter has its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period, and was documented in the Domesday Book. At that time there was a small area of sokeland belonging to a manor at Spilsby, which was owned by the Bishop of Durham. There were two bovates of land with one sokeman recorded. There was also a much larger area of sokeland belonging to the manor at Bolingbroke, which was owned by Ivo de Taillebois. 40 sokemen, 7 villeins and 3 bordars were recorded there. A church was also recorded.
Toynton was known as 'Totintun' at the time of the Domesday Book, and means 'the farmstead or village associated with or called after Tota' from the Old English personal noun 'Tota', with the Old English connective participle 'ing' and Old English 'tun'. Toynton All Saints and Toynton Saint Peter first appear to be referred to separately in documentary records in 1254.
The Poll Tax returns of 1377 return Toynton All Saints and Toynton Saint Peter together. At that time there were 183 households.
The Diocesan Returns of 1563 record 48 households in Toynton Saint Peter. In the late 17th and early 18th century the population had dipped to 30-32 families. The population was 245 in 1801, which rose to 323 in 1901, and peaked in 1851 at 486.
Earthwork remains have been recorded from aerial photography, mostly to the south and east of the church. These remains have been interpreted as being those of medieval settlement, and include ponds, enclosures, crew yards, crofts, platforms, stack stands and parts of a field system.
A watching brief was undertaken on the Vacuum Mains Sewerage Pipeline, Toynton St Peter during groundworks. Four separate findspots were recovered within the area of Toynton St Peter settlement.
TOYNTON ALL SAINTS
Toynton All Saints is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire.
Toynton All Saints Population (Wikipedia)
Year - Inhabitants
1801-229, 1831-475, 1871-440, 1881-338, 1891-344, 1911-325
TOYNTON ALL SAINTS SETTLEMENT – Extracts from Document MLI 41082 at lincstothepast.com.
The settlement of Toynton All Saints has its origins in the late Anglo-Saxon period, and survives to the present.
The settlement of Toynton All Saints has its origins in the late Anglo-Saxon period, and survives to the present. Toynton was known as 'Totintun' at the time of the Domesday Book, and means 'the farmstead or village associated with or called after Tota' from the Old English personal noun 'Tota', with the Old English connective participle 'ing' and Old English 'tun'.
In the Domesday Book there is mention of '3 carucates of land assessed to the geld. There is land for 3 teams. 14 villeins and 13 sokemen have 3 teams there. There is a church there, and 30 acres of meadow, and 5 and a half acres of underwood'.
Toynton was the centre of a thriving pottery industry, thought to have been established some time after 1200. Toynton All Saints and Toynton Saint Peter first appear to be referred to separately in documentary records in 1254, although the Poll Tax returns of 1377 return Toynton All Saints and Toynton Saint Peter together. At that time there were 183 households.
A thick layer of 14th and 15th century pottery with signs of a clay floor was revealed by bulldozing in 1954 in preparation for a house site. This was interpreted as a kiln and waster dump site. The pottery is in Lincoln museum, where some of it was dated to around 1560.
A probable 16th century pottery kiln was found during site clearance on Peasegate Lane, Toynton All Saints. The site comprised a brick floor laid on a layer of panchean sherds, indicating that this area was the site of at least two successive kilns. An associated waster heap was also found.
A large pottery waster pit was exposed by the cutting of a drive to a new house just to the north of the church. The pit was excavated by Lincoln Museum in 1976 and a large quantity of late medieval sherds were found.
Medieval kiln material and pottery were found in 1959, when groundworks were dug to house a new septic tank, on high ground to the north of the church. Finds included pancheons, butter pots, jugs, cooking pots and green glaze sherds with applied clay strip work. A waster pit, found adjacent to the kiln, contained 15 to 20 whole or restorable jugs, ale jars and other fragments dating from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Three pottery waster heaps were discovered in 1965, during ploughing to the south of Chapel Lane. The heaps comprised material dating to the late 15th century, including a lead ampulla. Further waste heaps and similar pottery, including early post-medieval chafing dishes and flat dishes, were discovered after this land was converted to housing.
Pottery was found in the 1930s, in the field opposite Toynton All Saints church. The date of the pottery was not stated, but was presumably of the medieval period. It has since been lost.
Sherds of redeposited medieval pottery were recovered in July 1999, during the archaeological monitoring of development at 2 Fir Tree Cottages, Main Road, Toynton All Saints. The pottery was all of the locally made Toynton ware, of 14th-15th century date, and included a possible waster fragment.
A small amount of redeposited medieval pottery was recovered in October 2001, during trial trenching at Water Mill Lane, Toynton All Saints). The pottery was quite abraded, and was largely of the locally made Toynton ware.
Two ditches of probable medieval date were recorded in April 2002, during the archaeological monitoring of new development on land adjacent to Hillcrest, Main Road, Toynton All Saints. The ditches were thought to represent former field boundaries, and whilst no dateable material was recovered from their fills, they were both sealed by a subsoil layer containing redeposited sherds of 13th to 17th century pottery.
A substantial boundary ditch of probable medieval date was recorded in July 2003, during the archaeological monitoring of new development on land at Plot 8, Main Road, Toynton All Saints. The ditch measured at least 12m long by 2.9m wide, and was aligned on a south-west to north-east axis. Sherds of locally produced Toynton All Saints ware pottery, dating to between the 13th and early 16th centuries, were recovered from each of the three fills of the ditch. Pottery wasters and kiln furniture were also recovered from the ditch, and indicate that pottery was being manufactured in the vicinity.
Evidence of medieval activity was identified in May 2014, during the excavation of a trial trench on land at Main Road, Toynton All Saints. A number of intercutting ditches and pits were excavated and the remains of several possible floor surfaces were identified. A large quantity of mostly locally produced Toynton ware pottery was recovered from many of the features, with the assemblage being dominated by material of a domestic nature, although some of the fragments indicate that pottery production was occuring in the vicinity. The features were thought to represent domestic activity, with the ditches interpreted as former drainage channels or boundary markers, and the pits interpreted as small scale domestic refuse deposits.
Schools: A report in 1797 recorded that at Spilsby Workhouse, there is a school for 15 poor children, with a salary to the master. A Sunday school has been established for 50 scholars. There seems to be no record of when the Parish school at Toynton All Saints started. It seems unlikely that any of the Ascough children attended any school.
THE CHURCHES
In his book Lincolnshire and the Fens, M W Barley notes that the church of Toynton St Peter was far more imposing than that at Toynton All Saints, the latter whose reconstruction has severely reduced its size. Not surprisingly, the church of Toytnon St Peter used to be the lead church but no longer.
Toynton All Saints now attracts a larger congregation and it has a churchwarden. Alfread Tunnicliffe met me on the first day of my visit to Lincolnshire and let me see inside the church.
On a separate theme, Barley explains that the village green is not particularly common in Lincolnshire. Instead: “A huddle of farmhouses and cottages around a church or strung along a roadside”.
ST PETER’S CHURCH, TOYNTON ST PETER
The following photos are those I took on my visit to Lincolnshire.
The church of Toynton St Peter: extracts from lincstothepast.com.
A parish church possibly dating from as early as the 12th century with features dating from the 14th and 15th centuries.
St Peter’s Church retains a Perpendicular (1180AD to around 1520AD) west tower built of greenstone and the 14th century north arcade of four bays.
To the west of the tower is the base and shaft of the churchyard cross.
It was rebuilt in 1876 by James Fowler of Louth.
In the churchyard is the base of a 14th-century churchyard cross which is both Grade II listed and a scheduled monument.
CHURCH OF TOYNTON ALL SAINTS
Again, the following photos are from my visit to Lincolnshire.
A parish church possibly dating from as early as the 12th century with features dating from the 14th and 15th centuries.
St Peter’s Church retains a Perpendicular (1180AD to around 1520AD) west tower built of greenstone and the 14th century north arcade of four bays.
To the west of the tower is the base and shaft of the churchyard cross.
It was rebuilt in 1876 by James Fowler of Louth.
In the churchyard is the base of a 14th-century churchyard cross which is both Grade II listed and a scheduled monument.
CHURCH OF TOYNTON ALL SAINTS
Again, the following photos are from my visit to Lincolnshire.
Extracts from Document MLI 41041 at lincstothepast.com. A parish church dating from the 18th century which contains earlier features. It may have been built on the site of an earlier church, and incorporating material from this earlier structure.
Georgian brick church retaining 14th century and later features, a late Norman or Transitional four bay north arcade and three bay south arcade. It has round piers in the north arcade and octagonal piers in south arcade. The font is partly medieval and the windows date from the 15th century.
A parish church dating from the 18th century which underwent alterations in the late 19th century. It was constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and has a concrete tiled roof.
During my visit to the two villages, I could see that outside the church, the graveyard was overgrown. But through a gap in the trees I could just see the fen in the distance.
THE DOMESDAY BOOK
Toynton All Saints and St Peter appear in two entries in the Domesday Book of 1086, both within the Soke of Bolingbroke, but which of the two is not clear. The third entry might be Toynton Fenside.
❧ ENTRY 1 ❧
- Head of manor: Bolingbroke.
- Taxable units: Taxable value 5.3 geld units.
- Value:
- Households: 7 villagers. 3 smallholders. 40 freemen.
- Ploughland: 6 ploughlands (land for). 6 men's plough teams.
- Other resources: Meadow 70 acres. Woodland 10 acres. 1 church.
- Lord in 1066: Stori <of Bolingbroke>.
- Lord in 1086: Ivo Tallboys.
- Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Ivo Tallboys.
- Phillimore reference: 14,81
- Head of manor: Bolingbroke.
- Taxable units: Taxable value 3 geld units.
- Value:
- Households: 14 villagers. 13 freemen.
- Ploughland: 3 ploughlands (land for). 3 men's plough teams.
- Other resources: Meadow 30 acres. Woodland 5.5 acres. 1 church.
- Lord in 1066: Stori <of Bolingbroke>.
- Lord in 1086: Ivo Tallboys.
- Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Ivo Tallboys.
- Phillimore reference: 14,75
- Head of manor: Spilsby.
- Taxable units: Taxable value 0.3 geld units.
- Value:
- Households: 1 freemen.
- Ploughland: 0.3 ploughlands (land for).
- Other resources: Meadow 6 acres.
- Lord in 1066: Eskil.
- Lord in 1086: Durham (St Cuthbert), bishop of.
- Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Durham (St Cuthbert), bishop of.
- Phillimore reference: 3,26
Extracts from “Notes on the History of Toynton All Saints and Toynton St Peter” by Ethel H. Rudkin
TOYNTON BEFORE THE DRAINING OF THE FENS
Before the enclosure of these fens, in 1810, there were stagnant pools of water dispersed over the boggy ground that lay to the west of the old shore line.
These pools were probably first formed by digging for peat, or even the clay under the peat, for clay was used extensively for a number of purposes – in making houses of mud and stud, for making earthen floors and for making pottery. Before 1631 there were sixty large pools and several smaller ones, which were drained by Sir Anthony Thomas between 1631 and 1634.
The villages bordering the East Fen had rights of common in this Fen, although on winter time it was mostly under water. This produced a crop of coarse grass called fodder after the water was drained off. At midnight on the evening before Midsummer’s Day the fodder was collected by each frontager to serve his cattle through the winter.
Divided from the West and Wildmore Fens is a series of clay islands which hold the villages of Stickford, Stickney and Sibsey, which has always been the way from Boston to the north, coming up top the mainland between West and East Keal.
And a very dangerous road it was too, at certain times of the year, when there was a lot of flood water on the fen. Travelers had to employ a native guide.
Toynton had rights on Wildmore Fen before the enclosure of 1810. Rights of Common on Holland, West and Wildmore Fens were held by Toynton All saints and Toynton St Peters – these fens were de-pastured by cattle, horses, sheep, donkeys and geese during the summer. Every frontager had the right to stock without limit, as had all the nearby towns and villages.
The pools or deeps in the East fen were all connected by “Havens” or “Rows” and it was a pleasant excursion in the summer time to row from pool to pool through the entire course to Wainfleet (J S Padley: Fens and Floods of Mid-Lincolnshire Lincoln 1882).
There is more about the Deeps in the section on Landscape.
THE SURVEY OF THE MANOR OF TOYNTON – 1614
In Lincolnshire Archives there is a record of “The Surveighe of the Mannour of Toynton ……. (All Saints) taken the twentithe of November in the xii yeare of our Soveraigne Lord King James”…..
This is fully detailed in the section about Enclosure.