Baston

Baston is a village and parish on the edge of The Fens and in the administrative district of South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England. The 2011 census reported the parish had 1,469 people in 555 households.[1]

For the weapon used in Arnis and Filipino Martial Arts, see Baston (weapon). For the surname, see Baston (surname).

Baston
Closeup of village sighn, with a blue sky and green tree in the background. The sign is framed like a medieval barn, around a low relief carving, painted in realistic colours, featuring a stream with a Roman soldier on the right and an 18th century smock mill on the left.
Signpost in Baston
Baston is located in Lincolnshire
Baston
Baston
Location within Lincolnshire
Population1,469 (2011 census)[1]
OS grid referenceTF114140
• London80 mi (130 km) S
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPETERBOROUGH
Postcode districtPE6
Dialling code01778
PoliceLincolnshire
FireLincolnshire
AmbulanceEast Midlands

Like most fen-edge parishes, it was laid out more than a thousand years ago, in an elongated form, to afford the produce from a variety of habitats for the villagers. The village itself lies along the road between King Street, a road built in the second century, and Baston Fen which is on the margin of the much bigger Deeping Fen. Until the nineteenth century, the heart of Deeping Fen was a common fen on which all the surrounding villages had rights of turbary, fowling and pasture.

History

A significant Roman feature of Baston is the Roman road leading across the fen towards Spalding. Part of the modern fen road follows it.

At the end of the village, near King Street, was an Anglian cemetery which was in use up to about the year 500. This coincides approximately with the date of the beginning of King Arthur's exploits, as reported by the Historia Brittonum, when Arthur fought his first battle at the mouth of the River Glen and stopped the spread of Anglo-Saxon settlement for fifty years. The Anglo-Saxon cemetery, of funerary urns, was found by Rev. Edward Trollope in 1851. He found around 10 burials in 1863 and traces of another 16 were found in 1963[2]

Like most places in Europe, Baston suffered from the plague. Some Baston plague victims are shown in burial lists.[3] A possible plague burial was uncovered during the building of a corn dryer.[4]

The 'Baston Pig' was a name for the Lincolnshire Curly Coat pig.

Governance

Baston is served by a Parish Council, two District Councillors who represent Casewick Ward on South Kesteven District Council and a County Councillor representing Deepings West & Rural Division on Lincolnshire County Council. The current District Councillors elected in May 2023 are Vanessa Smith (Green) and Rosemary Trollope-Bellew (Con). The Lincolnshire County Councillor elected in 2021 is Ashley John Baxter (Ind).

Geography

Geographically, in the fen, the parish's northern boundary lies on the River Glen, beyond which is Thurlby. To the south is Langtoft and beyond King Street in the west is Greatford.

Geology

The parish lies on a fan of gravel from the Devensian glacial period, which spreads from the upland mouth of the valley of the River Welland, to the east of Stamford, Lincolnshire. There are two main forms of business in the parish: arable farming and gravel extraction. The flooded gravel pits subsequently lend themselves to development for leisure pursuits such as angling, birdwatching and watersports. The gravel was washed down from the tundra environment to the west and deposited in the periglacial lake, known as Lake Fenland, below the icy waters of which the site of Baston then lay.[5][6]

Education

Independent special school Kirkstone House School has been in the village since 1964.

Baston CE Primary School was opened in the village in July 1993.

Sport

In 2002, a group of local residents decided that the village needed an area where a range of sports could be conducted. The cost of a sports hall was thought to be prohibitive, so the project was focused on a multi-use sports and skateboarding area. Following a village-wide survey, which had a 37% return rate, a public meeting was held in June 2002. As a result of both the survey and public meeting, it was decided that there was a mandate from the village to progress the project. Consequently, B-Active was formed as a sub-committee of the BPFMC.[7]

As part of this the Baston Football Club was formed in 2005, and joined the Grantham & District Saturday Afternoon League. The club runs two adult teams playing in the Peterborough & District League on a Saturday afternoon. It plays its home games at Brudenell Playing Field in Baston, and is sponsored by local businesses.[7] Baston cricket club plays in the south Lincs Division 1 league. The club won promotion last year by winning the division 2 title. Off the playing field the cricket club is advancing at a rapid pace. Last year saw the club purchase covers, and new this season is a pair of sight screens built from scratch and kindly donated by club member 'Big' Dave Ford.[7][8] There are tennis courts for year-round use.[7][9]

Both sports field and village hall are managed by the Brudenell Playing Fields Management Committee.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Neighbourhood statistics". 2001 census. Office for national statistics. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  2. Historic England. "Urn Field farm (350448)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  3. "Burials in the plague". boar.org.uk. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  4. Historic England. "Plague burial (350526)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  5. Straw, A (1979). "The Devensian glaciation". In Straw A, Clayton KM (ed.). The geomorphology of the British isles : eastern and central England. London: Methuen. pp. 21–45.
  6. Clark, CD; Evans, DJA; Khatwa, A; Bradwell, T; Jordon, CJ; Marsh, SH; Mitchell, WA; Bateman, MD (2004). "Map and GIS database of glacial landforms and features related to the last British ice sheet". Boreas. 4 (33): 359–375. doi:10.1080/03009480410001983. The authors are not entirely convinced by some of the earlier published references in this regard, but they do link to them.
  7. "About Baston". Baston Parish Council. Lincolnshire county council. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  8. "Fixture list". South Lincs and Border League. Cricket Lincolnshire. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  9. "Baston tennis club". Lawn Tennis association. Archived from the original on 15 October 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  10. "Brudenell Playing Fields Management Committee". Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.

Further reading
  • Mayes, P. & Dean, M.J. An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Baston Lincolnshire The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology. (1976) ISBN 0-904680-05-3
  • Phillips, C.W. ed. The Fenland in Roman Times Royal Geographical Society (1970)
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