Caistor

This article is about a town in Lincolnshire. For the Roman settlement in Norfolk, see Caistor St Edmund. For the town in Norfolk, see Caister-on-Sea.
Caistor

Caistor Market Place
Caistor
 Caistor shown within Lincolnshire
Population 2,601 (2001)
OS grid referenceTA1101
   – London 135 mi (217 km)  S
Civil parishCaistor
DistrictWest Lindsey
Shire countyLincolnshire
RegionEast Midlands
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town MARKET RASEN
Postcode district LN7
Dialling code 01472
Police Lincolnshire
Fire Lincolnshire
Ambulance East Midlands
EU Parliament East Midlands
UK ParliamentGainsborough
List of places
UK
England
Lincolnshire

Coordinates: 53°29′38″N 0°19′19″W / 53.494°N 0.322°W / 53.494; -0.322

Caistor is a town and civil parish situated in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. As its name implies, it was originally a Roman castrum or fortress.[1] It lies at the north-west edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, on the Viking Way, and just off the A46 between Lincoln and Grimsby, at the A46, A1084, A1173 and B1225 junction. It has a population of 2,601.[2] Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon ceaster ("Roman camp" or "town") and was given in the Domesday Book as Castre.[3]

Buildings

Only a few fragments of the 4th-century walls remain; for example, the original Roman wall is visible on the southern boundary of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul.[1] The area occupied by the fortress is now classified as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[1] The church of St Peter and St Paul, which is enclosed within the fortress, has an Anglo-Saxon tower.[4] The market square lies at the heart of a conservation area which contains 56, mainly Grade II, listed buildings. In numerical terms, the number of listed buildings makes Caistor the most important conservation area in the West Lindsey area; many of the buildings are Georgian or Victorian. Notable buildings in the town include Caistor Grammar School, founded in 1633,[5] and Sessions House, built in 1662.

In 2010 the remains of a 4th-century Roman cemetery were found during the development of a new Co-op supermarket.[6][7][8]

Education

Grammar school

Caistor Grammar School dates from the reign of Charles I. An academy with a selective pupil intake, it has specialist school status for sports and humanities. Sir Henry Newbolt, author of Drake's Drum, was educated at the school.[9][10]

Academy School

Caistor Yarborough Academy is a mixed comprehensive school named in memory of John Edward Pelham, the 7th Earl of Yarborough. Being limited to 570 pupils it is much smaller than the average British school of this type. It has Arts College status under the English specialist schools programme. In 2012 the school became an Academy.

RAF Caistor

Opened in 1940, RAF Caistor was built as a relief airfield for RAF Kirton in Lindsey, and also used for flying training from its grass runways. Closed in 1945, it later reopened as a nuclear missile base.

Between 1959 and 1963 Caistor was manned by 269(SM) Sqn. equipped with three Thor missiles. The site has now returned to agricultural use, and little remains of the military facilities.[11][12]

Audleby

Audleby is a hamlet just north of Fonaby. It is recorded in the Domesday Book with 33 households, which at the time was considered quite large. Today it is listed as a deserted medieval village (DMV).[13] Audleby House on Brigg Road is a Grade II listed building.[14]

Fonaby

Fonaby is a hamlet and deserted medieval village just north of Caistor, mentioned in the Domesday Book as having 18 households and three acres of meadow, and held by William I.[15][16]

Notable people

Local tradition

According to a local tradition, one of Jesus's 12 apostles, Simon the Zealot, came to England, where he is supposed to have been martyred somewhere in the vicinity of Casitor. He was reputedly crucified on the orders of a Roman procurator called Catus Decianus on 10 May AD61. (However, there are competing theories as to what became of Simon the Zealot.)[18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Roman remains in Caistor (80330)". PastScape. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Parish headcounts: West Lindsey". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  3. ↑ Historic England. "Caistor in Domesday and as a Borough (925982)". PastScape. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Historic England. "St Peter and St Pauls Church (80342)". PastScape. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Leach, A.F., ed. (1906). A History of the county of Lincolnshire. Victoria County History 2. p. 487.
  6. ↑ "BBC report of Co-op cemetery find". BBC News. 10 July 2010.
  7. ↑ "Co-op report of co-op cemetery find".
  8. ↑ "Archaeological contractors for co-op dig, passing mention to ongoing work. Report will be published here".
  9. ↑ Chitty, Susan (1997). Playing the Game: Biography of Sir Henry Newbolt. Quartet Books. ISBN 978-0-7043-7107-1.
  10. ↑ David Gervais (article ‘Newbolt, Sir Henry John (1862–1938)’) (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  11. ↑ "RAF Caistor", Raf-lincolnshire.info. Retrieved 8 September 2010
  12. ↑ "The Wartime Memories Project - RAF Caistor", Wartimememories.co.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2010
  13. ↑ "Audleby DMV". Lincs to the Past. Lincolnshire Archives. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  14. ↑ "Audleby House". National Heritage List of England. English Heritage. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  15. ↑ "Fonaby". Domesday Map. Anna Powell-Smith/University of Hull. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  16. ↑ Historic England. "Fonaby DMV (80359)". PastScape. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  17. ↑ Rear Admiral Nigel Malim CB LVO DL at marketrasenmail.co.uk, accessed 3 July 2013
  18. ↑ Codd, Daniel. Mysterious Lincolnshire. (Breedon Books Publishing Co Ltd). p.12-13. ISBN 978 1 85983 563 0.

External links

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