Silkby - Silk Willoughby - Lincolnshire

[Daniel Silk]

www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/SilkWilloughby/

"Silkby was a separate hamlet until 1337, but its exact boundaries are unknown."

"Manors
Anciently, this parish contained two manors, named after their families, which gave the parish their names: Silkebi and Wilgebi.
A large ancient farmhouse in the parish was reputed to be the manor house of the ARMYN family."

[Daniel Silk]

www.roffe.co.uk/earthworks/dmvs/silkby.htm

SILK WILLOUGHBY: SILKBY
TF 049430

Silkby was probably always a hamlet which was economically, tenurially, and administratively dependent on its larger neighbour of Willoughby. The settlement is not named in Domesday Book, but five parcels of land are identified as Willoughby (1). Only three of these can be traced into the thirteenth century, and Silkby is associated with that which belonged to the Gant fee (2). It is therefore possible that the settlement is included in the five carucates that Gilbert de Gant is said to have held in Willoughby in 1086, although it is equally possible that it was represented by one of the manors that were subsequently absorbed by the same fee. Silkby was enfeoffed in the twelfth century and a manor house was established there. But the lord did not hold all of the land, for an estate in Willoughby extended into the hamlet (3). Indeed, the interrelation of the two settlements was always very close. Not only was Silkby a chapelry of Willoughby and joined to it to form a single vill, the two settlements also seem to have shared a single field system, for in c.1240 a toft in Silkby was said to have had an appurtenant bovate 'in the territory of Willoughby and Silkby' (4).
In the light of Silkby's subordinate status, it is difficult to document the shrinkage and desertion of the settlement. The manor descended into the sixteenth century, but contraction probably began with a shift from arable to pastoral farming in the late fourteenth century. Former ridge and furrow has been noted abutting on the crofts along the north side of the present School Lane. In 1496 the site of the manor with the houses on it was said to be of no value, and there were only three messauges which were appurtenant to it. Various freeholders held land there, but it would seem that already the settlement was reduced to little more than a farm (5). At much the same time the place-name ceases to be used independently, and the present Silk Willoughby became the principal focus of habitation (6).
The surviving earthworks lie at the west end of the village, on the north side of School Lane (Fig 8) on a site that slopes downwards to the north. The main feature is a hollow way 12 metres wide extending more or less due north, but ending abruptly at a narrow east-west ridge, either a headland or the line of a later dry stone field boundary. Another less pronounced way branches to the west, leaving a featureless area on which is sited a disused windpump (Fig 9). East of the hollow way is a platform on which earthworks of stone buildings can be seen, some apparently disturbed by quarrying. At the north edge of this platform, 55 metres from the road, the ground drops away, suggesting a northern limit of the crofts. This is confirmed from aerial photographs, not only by the ridge and furrow to the north but also by a continuation of the line eastwards. Ploughed out crofts can be seen in the arable fields, including the field Butt Lees where the chapel site and two scheduled mounds are located (7). The manor house site, 230 metres east of the earthworks, lies under the small housing estate of Rowan Drive, and between there and the earthwork field quantities of Early Saxon to Medieval pottery have been recovered. Substantial undated stone footings have also been seen. The Tithe Map of 1839 gives no field names for these closes (8).

1. Lincs DB, 7/53; 24/102; 46/3; 48/13; 59/20.

2. BF, 179, 1031; RH i, 241.

3. RH i, 241; RA no 2131-2.

4. Trollope, 462; Lincs DB, lxv; FA iii, 189.

5. CI HVII, 502-3.

6. Trollope, 462.

7. Hunting Surveys Ltd., HSL UK 66 493 Run 14, 7591

8. LAO, Tithe Map P56.

[Daniel Silk]

www.n-kesteven.gov.uk/odennk/section.asp?catId=1370

A village with a most unusual and attractive name that comes from the combination of two Manors, Silkby and Willoughby. Silkby is now lost, it remained a separate hamlet until 1337 but its exact whereabouts, except that they were west of the village, are not certain.

There was a chapel of Silkby, standing until 1820 on the north side of School Lane. Adjacent to this, a field called Butts Lees has within it a prehistoric mound. School Lane was formally called Shuttlecocks Lane in association with this field name. Silkby may come for the old Norse name Selki meaning young seal, and Willoughby from Wilgebi, meaning the willows.

Being just south of Sleaford, the village has expanded a little in recent times, notably along School Lane and Gorse Lane. It is along the main London Road, formerly a main trunk road, now thankfully bypassed, that the old core of the village can be found.

At the north end of the village stands the beautiful medieval church, just tucked behind the road down Church Lane and the nearby old stone rectory. At the other end is a further fine house, the Old Manor with a lovely paddock in front of it. Between these two is a range of village buildings from the 18th and 19th-centuries in both red brick and stone, with some modern infill between. Houses are generally set behind small front gardens and although they are fairly tightly knit in the centre, the more spacious and green ends of the village give it an open character.

The Earls of Dysart owned the land until 1920 and many of the village dwellings are dated and crested. The red brick and stone public house is dated 1831, the rock faced ashlar cottages on the opposite side are of 1892, and the old School, now a village hall, is 1858.
At the entrance to the village from Sleaford is a most charming village pond with water lilies, bull rushes and a rustic bench with good views of the church tower and spire.

[Daniel Silk]

www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=349014

SILKBY

Medieval settlement consisting of a hollow way, enclosure and ridge and furrow, seen as earthworks.


[Area TF 0482 4299](3) The remains of the hamlet of Silkby, mentioned
in 1316, survive about 1/3 mile west of the church. Now merged with
(Silk) Willoughby.

St. Joseph's A.P. shows possible traces of earth-works in the
vicinity of existing buildings AO/LP/63/291. (1-3)

The field centred TF 049 432, the only one in the area that has not
been ploughed, is mostly rig and furrow, except at the south end
where there are amorphous earthworks suggestive of shrinkage.
In the adjacent ploughed fields to the east and south-east there
is much brick and stone indicating that the former village was
centred at about TF 0500 4300. (4)

The Medieval settlement described by authorities 1-4 was visible
as earthworks and mapped from good quality air photographs. Two
`blocks' of extant ridge and furrow, 110m and 220m in length,
are centred at TF 0495 4320. South of the ridge and furrow at
TF 0496 4305 some earthworks were visible, but only the banks
of possible enclosures could be identified. To the west of the
enclosures is a hollow way, centred at TF 0472 4309, 280m in
length.
(Morph No. LI.850.7.1-3)

This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database. (5)

[Daniel Silk]

Old map - www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord=504720&txtYCoord=343090