"House, now subdivided into flats. C17, with C18 and C19 additions and alterations"

"At the front of the house is a C18 low stone balustrade with shaped balusters on a base of large pecked stone blocks.

It is open in front of the door, and was evidently intended to lend dignity to the facade"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062421 

DB 9 July 2018

"Cross base and part of shaft; C14"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062423 

Unfortunately showing signs of recent damage. 

DB 9 July 2018

Public house now converted to residential use.

Reported in Grantham Journal 29 March 2018 :-

"Hopes of saving an empty Ancaster pub have faded after plans have been approved to convert the rest of it into housing.

The Ermine Way pub on Ermine Street has been closed since 2014 and has already been partly converted, leaving just its bar area remaining"

https://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/end-of-the-road-for-ancaster-pub-1-8437016/ 

Previously known as the Butchers Arms and listed in Kelly's Directory 1930 "Dennis Thos. H. Butchers' Arms P.H"

DB 9 July 2018

Detail above main entrance to the former public house.

DB 9 July 2018

"House: early C18 with C19 additions"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062420 

DB 9 July 2018

Former Oddfellows' Hall on Ermine street, now the Parish Hall.

"Odd Fellows, or Oddfellows, also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship, is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Fellows 

DB 9 March 2019 

Hand & Heart Lodge 1900.

DB 9 March 2019

Station with signal box on left and former engine shed on right.

"Opened by the Boston, Sleaford and Midland Counties Railway, then run by the Great Northern Railway, it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923.

The station then passed on to the Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

When Sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways until the Privatisation of British Railways"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancaster_railway_station 

DB 9 July 2018

Looking east from Ancaster Station.

The line to the right is no longer connected to the network and has an abandonded brake van (?) in position.

DB 29 October 2019

Shown as the "Railway Hotel (P.H.)" on the OS 25 inch map published 1905 and Listed in Kelly's Directory 1930 "Railway (The), Geo. Edwd. Robinson, Ancaster, Grnthm". 

DB 9 July 2018

"Rectory; 1842"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1360300 

White's Directory 1872 notes "The vicarage, valued in K.B. at £6. 13s. 4d., and now at £200, is in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. John Primatt Maud, B.C.L. The tithes were commuted for land at the enclosure, and the vicar's allotment is 109A. 26P., and that awarded to the impropriators 343A. 2R. The vicarage house is a handsome mansion, erected in 1842 by the late vicar"

DB 9 July 2018

Excavated in the 1960s to make way for the modern cemetery.

DB 9 July 2018

Excavated in the 1960s to make way for the modern cemetery.

DB 9 July 2018

This enamelled copper alloy brooch, in the form of running hare, dates to the 2nd Century AD.

Hares were sacred animals in Iron Age Britain, and it is likely that these beliefs continued into the Roman period.

Brooches such as this may therefore had greater significance to their wearers than simple representations of common animals.

The brooch was found at Ancaster, the site of an important Roman town.

Courtesy of Lincolnshire County Council, The Collection

Discovered in 1831 when a grave was being dug in Saint Martin's churchyard.

Sculpture shows three seated goddesses and represents the Romano-Celtic Mother-Goddess in triple form.

https://www.thecollectionmuseum.com/assets/downloads/IS_arch_8_gods_and_goddesses_of_roman_ancaster.pdf 

This is a replica displayed in Saint Martin's churchyard wall. Original on loan to The Collection, Lincoln.

https://www.thecollectionmuseum.com 

DB 9 July 2018

This carved stone was originally part of an archway, leading into a Romano-Celtic shrine near Ancaster.

The inscription reads:

DEO VIRIDIO
TRENICO ARCVM
FECIT DE [SV]O DONA[VIT]

This translates as 'To the God Viridius, Trenico set up this arch at his own expense'.

Viridius is a deity known only at Ancaster, and represents an Iron Age deity whose worship continued into the Roman period.

His name, which includes the element 'vir' (man, in Latin) suggests that he may represent a god with connections to masculinity and virility.

Courtesy of Lincolnshire County Council, The Collection

Externally, much of St Martin's is Perpendicular, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. There is 12th century work in the chancel, however, notably the corbel table.

May 2015

Saint Martin's Church viewed from the cemetery.

"Parish Church. C11, C12, C13, C14, C15, 1713, restored in C19"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422 

DB 9 July 2018

Looking east towards the altar.

"All glass and fittings C19 apart from the altar rail of circa 1700"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 18 January 2024 

Looking back through the chancel arch and into the nave.

Kelly's Directory 1930 has :-

"The church of St. Martin is a small but ancient edifice of Ancaster stone in the Norman, Early English and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with disproportionate spire containing 5 bells:

the tower was restored in 1912.

The very beautiful Norman arcade of four bays, on the north side of the nave, has circular piers with cushioned capitals, and the mouldings of the arches increase in elaboration as they approach the east:

the south arcade, of three bays, is Early English, but its walls Decorated:

portions of the old chancel screen are now incorporated into the pews:

there is a fine Norman font:

the four stained windows in the chancel and two at the west end were presented by F. W. Allix esq. and other memorial windows were placed in 1880 and 1904 by the Rev. Pemberton Lloyd M.A. vicar 1895-1903, to Stephen Pemberton M.A., B.M. Lucy Anderson Lloyd, Lucy Penelope Lloyd, and Marjorie Stote:

in 1859 the nave was refloored, refitted and other repairs effected, under the direction of Messrs Kirk and Parry :

in 1898-9 the organ and font were removed into the body of the church:

there are 220 sittings:

in the church porch are two fine ecclesiastical effigies, and in the churchyard several stone coffins; some remarkable sculptures of Roman origin have been met with near the church, including representations of the " Deæe Matres " and a small altar, together with an old Roman milestone of the time of Constantine (A.D. 306-24), which, formerly at the vicarage, are now on loan to the museum at Grantham.

By Order in Council, gazetted May 29, 1909, the churchyard was closed for burials, except in family vaults.

The register dates from the year 1722"

DB 18 January 2024 

Aumbry in the north wall of the chancel. 

"C15 square headed aumbries in north and south walls of the chancel"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 18 January 2024 

Aumbry in the south wall of the chancel. 

"C15 square headed aumbries in north and south walls of the chancel"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 18 January 2024

From left to right window depicts Christ rising from the dead, his crucifixion, and ascension.

Inscription at the bottom reads :-

"TO CHARLES ALLIX & MARY HIS WIFE IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE BY THEIR CHILDREN ANNO DOMINI : MDCCCLXVI"

DB 25 January 2024

Monument to Captain William Kent Allix, who fell at the Battle of Inkerman during the Crimean War.

Mark Acton, 2016

"C19 wall plaques to the Allix family of Sudbrook Hall in the chancel"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

"IN LOVING MEMORY OF MARY SOPHIA THE WIFE OF F. W. ALLIX, J.P., D.L. OF WILLOUGHBY, BORN 15TH JANUARY 1820, DIED 16TH SEPTEMBER 1910."

DB 18 January 2024 

"C19 wall plaques to the Allix family of Sudbrook Hall in the chancel"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry  

"SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF CHARLES HAMMOND ALLIX LIEUT: IN THE GRENADIER GUARDS, AND ELDEST SON OF CHARLES AND MARY ELIZABETH ALLIX, WHO DIED 28TH. JANY. 1830. IN THE 21ST. YEAR OF HIS AGE. FROM THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH, HE WAS THE PRIDE, THE COMFORT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF HIS FAMILY.

"The Lord gave,& the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord""

DB 18 January 2024 

"In LOVING MEMORY OF FREDERICK WILLIAM ALLIX, J.P., D.L. OF WILLOUGHBY. BORN 11TH APRIL 1816. DIED 13TH OCTOBER 1894.

BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHICH DIE IN THE LORD."

DB 18 January 2024 

South wall of the chancel. 

"IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF WILLIAM G. T. NEWTON, (LATE OF RAUCEBY LODGE IN THE COUNTY OF LINCOLN) SON OF WILLIAM AND SARAH NEWTON, OF SUDBROOKE HEATH IN THIS PARISH, WHO DIED AT THE MANOR, OLDCOTES, NOTTS, NOVEMBER 12TH 1873, AGED 38 YEARS."

DB 18 January 2024 

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF MARY CATHERINE ELIZABETH ALLIX WHO DIED MARCH ?? 1842(?) WIFE OF COLONEL CHARLES ALLIX ?? GRENADIER GUARDS BY WHOM THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED ... "

DB 25 January 2024

A monument by Thomas King of Bath for John Roe who died in 1796.

April 2016

The single pedestal supporting the monument to John Roe bears the name of the sculptor, T(homas) King, Ft (fecit) Bath, founder of a long lasting company of west country monumental masons. His dates: 1741-1804.

April 2016

The Church Guide has "On the chancel roof there is a boss which shows an emblem of 'Mary'. Maybe the church was once called St Mary's Church or it is from a St Mary's Chapel in the field opposite - Castle Close"

DB 18 January 2024

"Altar rail of circa 1700, very chaste with elegant turned balusters"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 18 January 2024 

Window on the south side of the chancel. The name "Allix" and the date "1873" appears in the glass.

Kelly's Directory 1930 reports " the four stained windows in the chancel and two at the west end were presented by F. W. Allix esq."

DB 18 January 2024 

Window on the south side of the chancel. Script in the glass seems to read :-

"Tribute of Affection To Charles William and Wager Allix by their brother Fredk Allix Anno D. MDCCCLXVIII"

DB 18 January 2024 

Script in the glass seems to read :- 

"In token of affection by their brother Frederick ALLIX Anno Domini MDCCCLXX

Mary Allix, Charlotte Nethercote, Caroline Allix, Louisa Griffith, Juliana Brooke, & Emily Vesey"

DB 18 January 2024 

A finely decorated gravestone by the north-east corner of the church.

May 2015

This is a fine, deeply carved headstone in local limestone. Unfortunately the inscription has long since disappeared.

April 2016

"SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN TEAT ... SMITH & FARRIER ... HE DIED ... 1838"

DB 18 January 2024

The clerestory, topped by battlements and pinnacles, dates from the 15th century.

May 2015

Interior view looking west.

The Norman north arcade becomes progressively more ornate at it approaches the chancel :-

"first a step, second a step and a roll, third a large roll with billet decoration, and the fourth with deep chevrons in 2 orders" 

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422 

"A door above the tower arch has a pointed head with a corbel beneath"

DB 9 July 2018

Interior view looking east.

Early English south arcade & chancel arch.  

"South arcade of 3 bays, piers decorated with 4 angle shafts in the principal directions; the 2 piers stand on the circular base of an earlier C12 nave arcade"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422 

DB 9 July 2018

Looking across the nave towards the north aisle.

White's Directory 1872 has :-

"Ancaster Church (St. Martin) is an ancient and interesting structure, with a slender spire, rising from the tower at the west end, which contains four bells, cast more than two centuries ago.

The chief feature of this church is the massive Norman arcade of the north aisle, which increases in richness of ornament as it advances eastward, but that of the south aisle is of plain Early English design.

The chancel contains a plain recessed credence and two aumbries. The church has recently been restored, reseated and fitted up with warming apparatus at considerable cost, and contains four beautiful windows of stained glass, in memory of deceased members of the Allix family.

The vicarage, valued in K.B. at £6. 13s. 4d., and now at £200, is in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. John Primatt Maud, B.C.L.

The tithes were commuted for land at the enclosure, and the vicar's allotment is 109A. 26P., and that awarded to the impropriators 343A. 2R.

The vicarage house is a handsome mansion, erected in 1842 by the late vicar"

DB 18 January 2024

The 12th century north arcade has sturdy piers and round arcades with Norman billet and zigzag decoration.

May 2015

This capital on the pier at the east end of the north aisle shows detailed decoration of the Norman period (c.1160-70).

May 2015

Banner commemorating a 1986 pilgrimage to Lincoln Cathedral. Saint Hugh became Bishop of Lincoln in 1186 so this would have been the 800th anniversary.

https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/st-martin-ancaster 

The Church Guide explains that Bishop Hugh of Lincoln "died during a visit to London in November 1200. The journey of the cortege began on Saturday 18th November. The cortege halted each night and the final halt, before reaching Lincoln, was here at Ancaster. The story goes that in spite of severe gales and rainstorms on the way, lighted candles, which accompanied the cortege, were never extinguished during the whole of the journey".

Hugh was later canonised in 1220. 

DB 18 January 2024

The 12th century tub font has intersecting blank arcading on its sides.

May 2015

The Church Guide reports "This carved wooden lectern was brought from Norfolk to replace the brass lectern which sadly disappeared"

DB 18 January 2024

C19 pulpit?

DB 18 January 2024 

C19 nave roof.

DB 18 January 2024 

"C14 roof fragments repositioned in C19 nave roof are flattish figures in a rustic style"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 25 January 2024

"C14 roof fragments repositioned in C19 nave roof are flattish figures in a rustic style"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 25 January 2024

"C15 figured corbels to nave roof"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry

DB 25 January 2024

"C15 figured corbels to nave roof"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 25 January 2024

East end of the north aisle.

DB 18 January 2024 

Looking west, towards the organ, from the east end of the north aisle. 

DB 18 January 2024 

Looking west.

DB 18 January 2024 

Looking east towards the organ.

DB 18 January 2024

"Sacred to the Memory of Mr WILLM. BROWN GENT late of this Parish. He departed this Life Sepr, 1st, 1781 ... "

DB 18 January 2024

"In Memory of THOMAS BROWN, GENT. late of Willoughby Cottage in this Parish, who died the 13th of August, 1822, in the 66th Year of His Age"

DB 18 January 2024

"Sacred to the Memory of BENJ. TOWNE (?) late of Grantham who departed this life the 14th. of Sep 1759 Aged 78"

DB 18 January 2024 

This tablet with fine trumpeting angel is on the wall of the north aisle and commemorates Elizabeth Long who died in 1743. She was wife of Edward Long.

April 2016

A plaque on the organ reads "W.E.RICHARDSON & SONS MANCHESTER". The present organ was installed in 1922.

DB 18 January 2024 

A press clipping preserved nearby reads :-

"Ancaster relic in Grantham garden

HOW did a metal tablet, which apparently came from an organ in St. Martin's church, Ancaster, find its way into a Grantham garden?

This is the question facing not only the owner of the Grantham property, where the discovery was made, but many of the villagers.

The tablet was unearthed from land adjoining Welham House, situated at the junction of Avenue-road and Welham-street, when workmen were digging "deep" preparatory to putting in foundations for a surrounding wall.

Said the owner of the premises Mr. Matt Bland: "When they first brought it up I thought it was a piece of tin, but it was copper and inscribed, so I gave it a wash."

DIED

The inscription reads: "This organ was built at the expense of the Rev. Ebenezer Ware. M.A., to be presented to the parish church of Ancaster, of which he was curate in the years 1825-6. Before the work was completed his pious and benevolent purpose was interrupted by a premature death, but has been carried into effect by his surviving relations."

Then follows the name of the Rev. John Jowett, Vicar at the time.

Enquiries by the "Journal" reveal that the plaque did not come from the present organ, which was installed shortly after the First World War.

It has been established that there was an organ, prior to the present one, but in a different part of the church. This was under the tower, and a reporter was told that all that was known about this was that it was sold to the Methodists. So it is assumed that it came from that instrument.

The Rev. John Jowett was Vicar of the parish from 1814 to 1830, and it is presumed that the organ from which the plaque came was installed in the church between 1826 and 1830"

DB 18 January 2024 

Roman sculpture displayed in the church.

White's Directory 1872 comments "There has been at Ancaster an important Roman Station, which was either the Causennis of Horsley, the Crococaluna of Antoninus, or the Segelocum of the geographer Salmon.

Stukeley, who wrote about 1750, says, " What was its Roman name I know not, but it has been a very strong city, entrenched and walled about, as may be seen very plainly. The bowling green behind the Red Lion Inn is made in the ditch.When they were levelling it, they came to the old foundation.

At this end of the town, where a dove cote stands, is Castle Close, full of foundations, appearing everywhere above ground, the ditch and rampire encompassing it. Here prodigious quantities of Roman coins are found. Many people in the town have traded in the sale of them these thirty years. These coins are of various emperors, and one of them is a denarius of Otho.

In a field to the south-west of Ancaster, called the Twelve Acre Close, a Roman stone coffin, containing a male skeleton was discovered a few years ago, and a very rare and interesting specimen of the personification of the Dea Matres, or protecting mothers, with a small incense altar before it, was found in digging a grave in the churchyard in 1831.

Tesselated pavements have also been found in the parish, but the plough and the spade exhausted this storehouse of antiquities some years ago"

DB 18 January 2024

West window with a figure in the glass.

DB 18 January 2024

Window in the north wall of the north aisle "In memoriam proam Stephani Pemberton ... "

DB 18 January 2024 

The Porch is 13th century, though its roof was rebuilt in 1713.

May 2015

"The Historical Church Building Society

GRANTED £25 A.D. 1894 TOWARDS ENLARGING AND RESTORING THIS CHURCH. ALL THE SEATS ARE FOR THE FREE USE OF THE PARISHIONERS ACCORDING TO LAW"

According to one inflation calculator £25 in 1894 would be worth £4,072.23 today.

DB 18 January 2024

This board in the porch of St Martin's church is undated. (Fees are likely to have remained unchanged for a long period of time in the 19th and early 20th centuries.)

April 2016

Within the porch stand two 14th century grave covers depicting priests. This one has his hands clasped in prayer.

May 2015

This 14th century grave cover stands in the porch and depicts a priest with a chalice.

May 2015

"South door has a bizarre trefoil head with pointed chamfered hood mould"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422 

DB 9 July 2018 

World War 1 memorial in the porch of Saint Martin's Church.

DB 9 July 2018

Looking east towards St Hugh's Chapel.

DB 18 January 2024

Chapel dedicated to Saint Hugh in1960. At the east end of the south aisle.

DB 18 January 2024

Looking west back towards the church entrance.

DB 18 January 2024

"Near this place lyeth the Body of JOHN BLAGG Gent. (who was Grandson to Mrs, MARY BLAGG, and Nephew to the late JOHN HERRING Esq.) who departed this life the 22 Day of March 1742 In the 21 year of his Age"

DB 18 January 2024

West end of the south aisle.

Elizabeth Brown d.1764 and her husband John Brown "of Willoughby in this Parish Yeoman"

DB 18 January 2024

In Memory of Thomas Brown d.1796 and Mary Brown d.1765

DB 18 January 2024

"IN MEMORY OF JOHN CHARLES LUCAS CALCRAFT ESQRE OF ANCASTER HALL, WHO DIED 29TH OF MARCH 1851, IN THE 81ST YEAR OF HIS AGE. 

AND ALSO OF HIS WIFE SOPHIA LUCAS CALCRAFT, WHO DIED 30TH OF MAY 1837, IN THE 69TH YEAR OF HER AGE"

DB 18 January 2024

East end of south aisle above the altar.

"In Memory of MRS CHRISTIAN LUCAS, the WIFE of ANTHONY LUCAS Esq. Of Ancaster-Hall: the Former of whom died 24 Jan, 1784 Aged 49: the Latter 29June 1789 Aged 63.

Also of their Sons, GEORGE and ANTHONY LUCAS-CALCRAFT, Esq. the Former of whom died the 29 Aug. 1789 Aged 23: the Latter, 25 April 1792 Aged 23.

And of JOHN the Son of Lieut General THOMAS CALCRAFT, who died 10 March 1767 Aged 1"

DB 18 January 2024

"Ancaster is situated on the Ermine Street - the Roman road leading to Lincoln. On the way from London, the body of St HUGH rested in Ancaster Church on the night of 22nd November, 1200. The candles carried, never went out"

DB 18 January 2024

World War 2 memorial in the south aisle of Saint Martin's Church.

DB 9 July 2018

"MATILDA ELIZABETH MAUD: OBIT NOVR 9TH: 1879

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE MEMORY OF A DEARLY BELOVED MOTHER BY HER CHILDREN WHO MOURN HER LOSS"

DB 18 January 2024

"Tower arch is very tall, C14, with triple shafts connected by continous hollows with annular capitals and heavily moulded head. A door above the tower arch has a pointed head with a corbel beneath"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062422?section=official-list-entry 

DB 18 January 2024

The name "Allix" and the date 1869 appears in the script at the bottom of the window.

White's Directory 1872 reports "Frederick William Allix, Esq., is lord of the manor, and resides at West Willoughby Hall, a neat mansion, with well-wooded grounds

DB 18 January 2024 

This substantial house in Flemish style was built for the Allix family by William Watkins in 1873 in West Willoughby, one mile west of Ancaster.

Ancaster stone was used from the nearby quarries.

A succession of tenants lived at the hall, but it was largely unoccupied after World War 1.

In ruinous condition, it was demolished in 1964.

More details about this house and its owners can be found in T R Leach and R Pacey's book, 'Lost Lincolnshire Country Houses: Volume 2', published by SLHA.  Buy a copy.