Edenham


Edenham is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately north-west of Bourne, and on the A151 road. While the civil parish is called "Edenham", the parish council is called Edenham, Grimsthorpe, Elsthorpe & Scottlethorpe Parish Council. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 291. The parish is principally located in the valley of the East Glen which flows through the village.

Geology

The broad valley is incised into a gently sloping and much dissected plateau of glacial till which is more graphically described by the older term, boulder clay. The till caps the ridges to either side, the one clothed by the Bourne Woods and the other by the park of Grimsthorpe Castle. All the solid geology is Jurassic. The valley sides are of Kellaways clay, Kellaways sand and Oxford clay while its bottom is of cornbrash and Blisworth clay. In the south and west of the parish are much greater exposures of this solid geology with extensive areas of Blisworth Limestone and the Upper Estuarine Series. In the valley, there are also strips of alluvium and patches of glacial sand and gravel.
Although Grimsthorpe Castle is on higher ground to the west, the village of Grimsthorpe shares the geology of the rest of the parish.

Constituent settlements in the parish

The main village is:
The parish includes a number of outlying hamlets:
The parish is associated with two lost settlements:
Aislestorp is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as belonging to Alfred of Lincoln and having a mill, 5 villagers, all Freemen; 2 ploughlands. 1 lord's plough team, 2 men's plough teams; 18 acres of Meadow, and 240 acres of Woodland. Sunken roads, building plots, and a fishpond have been located at the site of the original settlement.
Sudtorp is mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Guy of Craon and having a mill, 10 villagers, of whom 6 were smallholders; 2 ploughlands. 2 lord's plough teams, 2 men's plough teams; 16 acres of Meadow, and 200 acres of Woodland. The village is mentioned from the time of the Domesday Survey onwards. There was a chantry chapel here in the 12th century. A priest was last instituted at Southorpe in 1521, and, by 1563, only one family remained.

Administration

Once part of the Beltisloe Wapentake in Kesteven, the parish is now part of South Kesteven District. Its obligations under the 19th century poor law were undertaken by the Bourne Poor Law Union from 1835 onwards.
The present electoral arrangements are as follows:
The Ecclesiastical parish follows the same boundaries, and is part of the Deanery of Beltisloe, preserving the old Wapentake boundaries.

History

The Edenham name derives from the Anglo Saxon ham, meaning "homestead". The rest of the name probably derives from dene, a "vale in woodland" and ea, "river", though "Eada's homestead" and "Eada's hemmed-in-land" have also been suggested. The river East Glen which flows through it is sometimes called the "Eden" by a process of back-formation from the name of the village.
Edenham appears in the Domesday Book as having 32 villagers, 4 smallholders, 24 freemen, 5 lord's plough teams, and 9 men's plough teams, with of woodland and 29 acres of meadow.
The parish was the site of the Cistercian abbey of Vaudey, founded in 1147 by William, Earl of Albemarle. It was dissolved during the 1536 Suppression.
Documents of 1307 mention the existence in Edenham of "a hospital".
Since 1516 parish land and villages have been owned by the de Eresby family of Grimsthorpe Castle. This major ancestral seat to the north-west of the village influenced Edenham's estate village character. The de Eresby baronetcy has continued in an unbroken line since 1313, and heads of the family have been Earls and Dukes of Ancaster and the Earl of Lindsey.
The 19th-century Baron Willoughby de Eresby built the Edenham and Little Bytham Railway which connected the village to the East Coast Main Line at Little Bytham. Apart from crossing a road in near Little Bytham station, it ran exclusively on his estate.
The Australian poet and novelist Frederic Manning stayed at the vicarage after he arrived in the country in 1903. He returned there after the First World War and began writing The Middle Parts of Fortune, a novel which he completed in the neighbouring parish, Bourne.

Community

The Grade I listed church retains some Anglo-Saxon fabric from the earlier building. The Saxon church was dedicated to the 'Holy Cross', but the dedication is now to St Michael, or St Michael and all Angels. It has an Angel Roof, the beams supported on the back of carved and painted angels. Family monuments were moved from St Matthew's church in Normanton when that church was affected by the construction of Rutland Water.
The ecclesiastical parish is Edenham. The church, dedicated to St Michael and all Angels, is part of the Edenham with Witham On The Hill Group of the Beltisloe Deanery of the Diocese of Lincoln. The 2013 incumbent is Rev Canon Andrew Hawes.
The vicarage, unlike other vicarages and rectories in rural parishes, has never been sold to a private buyer. It remains the spiritual centre of three parishes and eight small villages, and is run by the Diocese of Lincoln as a retreat for contemplation and prayer.
A cedar tree overhangs the road from the churchyard, and nearby are the remains of a Saxon cross, a Grade II listed building and Scheduled Monument.
The village Church of England primary school, also a Grade II listed building, has a roll of just over one hundred pupils.
Apart from agricultural employers, businesses in the village include The Five Bells public house and the local school. The coal merchant and post office having closed

Businesses

Apart from agricultural employers there are a pub, school and agricultural dealer.