Branston, Lincolnshire

Branston

All Saints' Church in April 2005
Branston
 Branston shown within Lincolnshire
Population 4,019 (2001 Census)
OS grid referenceTF021673
   – London 120 mi (190 km)  S
Civil parishBranston and Mere
DistrictNorth Kesteven
Shire countyLincolnshire
RegionEast Midlands
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town LINCOLN
Postcode district LN4
Dialling code 01522
Police Lincolnshire
Fire Lincolnshire
Ambulance East Midlands
EU Parliament East Midlands
UK ParliamentSleaford and North Hykeham
List of places
UK
England
Lincolnshire

Coordinates: 53°11′40″N 0°28′18″W / 53.1944°N 0.4717°W / 53.1944; -0.4717

Branston is a large village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The village is situated approximately 4 miles (6 km) south-east from the city and county town of Lincoln. It is the principal settlement in the civil parish of Branston and Mere (where is population is currently recorded).[1]

In the 2001 Census the population of the parish was recorded as 4019.[2]

History

The 1086 Domesday Book records a village population as 350, a figure which stayed relatively stable until the beginning of the 20th century when the population began to quickly increase to the current total. The character of the village has changed much over the second half of the 20th Century but the village has retained much of its historic centre – where the majority of buildings are constructed from local limestone.[1][3][4]

The village's most notable buildings are Branston Hall[5] and Branston All Saints' Church.[6] There is a rectory house, built in 1765. A now redundant Methodist chapel, built in 1847, is of Gothic style and previously seated 300. A Methodist chapel with seating for 110 was built to the north-east of the village at Branston Moor in 1911.[7][8]

A war memorial to men of the parish killed in the First World War was erected on the village green in 1920.[7]

The village used to have a railway station which was in the parish of Heighington.[9]

The civil parish of Branston was merged in 1931, with that of Mere, to form the present unit.[10] In the early 1930s parish occupations included twenty-one farmers and one smallholder, two poultry breeders, a horse dealer, a haulage contractor, two coal dealers, a motor bus proprietor, a cycle dealer, a fried fish dealer, three blacksmiths, a wheelwright, a plumber, two carpenters, a boot maker, two butchers, two grocers, three shopkeepers, two tailors, one of whom ran the post office, and landlords of the Waggon and Horses, Plough and Horses, Green Tree, and Anchor public houses.[7]

In July 1977 more than fifty children from the junior school had to go to Lincoln County Hospital after a crop spraying aircraft inadvertently sprayed their playground. The insecticide was a mixture of meta-systox and aphox; organophosphate and carbamate compounds designed to clear crops of aphids.[11]

Geography

Main article: Branston and Mere

The village of Branston is on the B1188 road, from Canwick near Lincoln, to Holdingworth near Sleaford. It is built around the shallow valleys of two limestone steams that flow northwards toward Washinborough, to join the River Witham. Most of the village is around 45m above sea level.[12]

Amenities

Signpost in Branston

Branston has one public house, the Waggon and Horses, a modern building which stands on the High Street close to the historic centre of the village. About 110 yards (100 m) farther along the High Street is the Home Guard Club, a private members club.[13] Two other public houses were once located in the village. The Plough which stood on the High Street opposite the Waggon and Horses, which was demolished in the 1970s to straighten a dangerous bend at the centre of the village, and the Bertie Arms, a small public house on Rectory Lane, long ago converted into a private dwelling.[3] Pottergate Golf Club is on Moor Lane.[14]

Education

Branston's secondary school is Branston Community Academy, situated on the outskirts of the village on the road to Heighington; the public library is situated in the school. On the same road next to the Co-op is Branston Junior School, the village primary school. Branston C of E Infant School is located on the Valley Estate, which lies on the northern side of the village, close to the main road to Lincoln.

References

  1. 1 2 "Branston and Mere parish council". Lincolnshire county council. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Neighbourhood statistics". 2001 census. Office for national statistics. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Welcome to the Branston History Group website". Branston History Group. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  4. ↑ "History of Branston, in North Kesteven and Lincolnshire". a vision of Britain through time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth.
  5. ↑ Historic England. "BRANSTON HALL AND OUTBUILDINGS (192299)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  6. ↑ Historic England. "All Saints Church (349378)". PastScape. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire 1933, p.103
  8. ↑ "Branston Chapel (Wesleyan Methodist)", Lincolnshire Archives. Retrieved 6 July 2014
  9. ↑ Historic England. "Branston and Heighington railway station (506987)". PastScape. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Branston and Mere CP through time, Census tables with data for the Parish-level Unit,". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  11. ↑ "AERIAL CROP SPRAYING: BRANSTON INCIDENT". Hansard. House of Lords debates. 386: 612–4. 22 July 1977. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  12. ↑ Lincoln:Sleaford, Metheringham & Navenby (Map) (A1 ed.). 1:25 000. OS Explorer. Ordnance survey of Great Britain. 3 April 2006. § 272. ISBN 9780319238202.
  13. ↑ "Branston Home Guard Social Club".
  14. ↑ "Branston golf club". Retrieved 23 November 2013.
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