Welcome to Saxilby with Ingleby
These pages have been put together to help you settle into the parish. It provides practical information on our community, its services, and its facilities.
Saxilby with Ingleby Parish contains two villages, Saxilby which is a large vibrant village with many services and facilities, and Ingleby is its quieter neighbour which has two small hamlets called High and Low Ingleby.
It is within the district of West Lindsey in Lincolnshire and is located six and half miles northwest of Lincoln and 150 miles north of London. The parish is situated on the north bank of the Fossdyke Navigation Canal between Lincoln and Torskey.
Saxilby with Ingleby has a population of around 4000 people (2011, Census) and covers 4,434 acres.
A Short History of Saxilby-with-Ingleby
Whilst the village has seen the construction of a number of green field housing sites over the past few years, and the subsequent increase in population, the centre of Saxilby retains its medieval street plan.
The layout of the deserted medieval villages of North and South Ingleby (a scheduled ancient monument) remains as it was in the 13th century.
Several buildings remain which span the centuries: St. Botolph’s Church (12th century), Saxilby Old Hall (C15th), the Manor Farmhouse (16th century), and several cottages (18th century).
The village stands on the oldest artificial waterway in the country, the Fossdyke, connecting the River Trent at Torksey to the Brayford in Lincoln. Possibly Roman in origin, the canal was vastly improved during the 18th century. The last commercial barge ceased operation in 1974, to be replaced by many pleasure boats visiting our community.
The Venerable Bede writes that Vikings invaders came to the area in 839, and plundered the district. They came again in 869, and in 873 the whole Viking army over-wintered at Torksey. Whilst the Kingdom of Mercia retook possession of the area in 918, the Danish invaders had settled here as farmers and merchants. It is from these settlers that most of our place names and dialect derive.
Saxilby ‘Saxulf’s farmstead’. ‘Ad Saxebi in Lincolescira’ (Doomsday Book 1086).
Ingleby ‘Settlement of Angles’; ‘Englebi’ (Doomsday Book 1086).
Throughout the Middle Ages, Saxilby was largely a farming community. Manor Farm at Broadholme stands on the site of the medieval nunnery of St. Mary, a priory of Premonstratensian canonesses founded before 1154 and dissolved in 1536. It was the first of only two nunneries of the order to be established in England in the Middle Ages.
The railway came to the village in 1848, bringing industry and an increase in population. By 1856, trains ran to ‘all parts’ five or six times a day.
The War Memorial Playing Field was created in memory of the 54 men lost during World War 1. The field opened in 1921, and a memorial tablet placed on the old pavilion is now preserved in the Village Hall.
A modern, expanding village with an ancient heart.
Chris Hewis, Saxilby and District History Group
www.saxilbyhistory.org/