Great Ponton is an English village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, situated south of Grantham, on the A1trunk road, which bisects the village. The tower of the parish church is a landmark beside the road. In the 2001 Census, the population was recorded as 333, of whom all were of white ethnic origin and 87 per cent described themselves as Christian. The average age was 40. The population of the civil parish had risen to 379 at the 2011 Census.
History
The village is named in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Magna Pamptune, probably meaning "farmstead by a hill". Some material remains have been found dating back to the Neolithic age. Remains of a mid-Bronze Age round barrow cemetery were discovered between Great Ponton and Sproxton in 1959. The village belonged to the historical wapentake of Winnibriggs and Threo. The village church, dedicated to the Holy Cross, dates from the 13th century. Its tall pinnacled tower was added in 1519 at the expense of Anthony Ellys, a wool merchant living in Ellys Manor House, which is nowadays open to the public. The church weather vane depicts a gilded fiddle. The educationalist and school textbook writer Charles Hoole was briefly rector from 1642. Joshua William Brooks, who had been responsible while vicar of St Mary's Church, Nottingham for founding six new churches there, was rector in Great Ponton in 1864–1882. The Grade I church is among nine listed buildings in the village, six of them residential. Great Ponton railway station opened in 1853 and closed was on 15 September 1958. Great Ponton has a limestone quarry.
Geography
Great Ponton is on the A1 approximately south of Grantham. A footbridge provides pedestrian access from the west of the village to the east over the A1. To the east is the River Witham and the East Coast Main Line. Nearby villages include Stoke Rochford, Stroxton and Little Ponton. To the north is the parish of Little Ponton and Stroxton, and the parish boundary crosses the A1 at 200 metres south of the electricity pylons, opposite Gibbet Hill, to the west. Due east, it crosses Ermine Street south of Ponton Park Wood. It meets Boothby Pagnell west of Boothby Great Wood, and the boundary skirts the wood's western edge. East of Ponton Great Wood, on the road to Boothby Pagnell, it meets Bitchfield and Bassingthorpe, with the boundary following the road westwards, to the north of Bassingthorpe New Plantation. The boundary follows the western side of the plantation southwards to the Bassingthorpe road, west of Stoke Tunnel Farm, where it meets Stoke Rochford. It follows the road, south of Pasture Farm, to the west of the East Coast Main Line road bridge, and from the bridge runs due west to the A1 at North Lodge Plantation, and meets Cringle Brook, which meanders alongside the A1 northwards to the village. The boundary passes to the south of Cindertrack Plantation, and to the north of Halfmoon Plantation, where it meets Wyville cum Hungerton. A half mile north it meets Little Ponton and Stroxton. The small hamlet of High Dyke is situated south-east of Great Ponton, where the East Coast Main Line bridges over High Dyke, a stretch of Roman road, part of Ermine Street.
Community
Great Ponton Parish Council meets every two months. Holy Cross Anglican Church, with St Guthlac's Church at Little Ponton, is in the Colsterworth Group of parishes in the Diocese of Lincoln. The Methodist Dallygate Chapel, built in 1805, closed for worship in 1975. Great Ponton Church of England Primary School, with a roll of about 70, occupies modern premises in Mill Lane. A February 2015Ofsted inspection rated the school Grade 2, 'Good' for "overall effectiveness". The rating was confirmed in 2018. Great Ponton Village Centre, on Archers Way, is a community centre for social events and functions. The village playing fields are used by local cricket and football clubs. The Ponton Plod is an annual long-distance walk and run that raises money for charity. It starts and finishes at the Village Centre. There is a garage-cum-shop at Ponton Main Service Station on the north-bound carriageway of the A1. The Blue Horse public house facing the south-bound carriageway has been converted into flats. The village is connected by bus to Grantham, Colsterworth, Woolsthorpe, Skillington, Stainby, Gunby, North Witham and South Witham.
