Mavis Enderby

Mavis Enderby, the unusual name for a tiny hamlet nestling in the rolling hills of the Lincolnshire Wolds, east of Horncastle, is a corruption of Malbis Enderby, probably taken from the name of 14th century French landholders. Around the time of Domesday Book, it was called Endrebi.

History

Standing just north-east of Old Bolingbroke, it was the family seat of John of Gaunt, whose son became Henry IV, or Henry Bolingbroke. The 1643 Battle of Winceby was fought four miles to the south.

The modern village has a population of less than 100.

Mavis Enderby church is dedicated to St Michael.^[1] Set into the floor near the nave is an 18th century Italian black marble memorial slab to Thomas Skepper.

Literary references

Mavis Enderby has also had a peal of bells named after it, called "The Brides of Enderby" which is mentioned in Jean Ingelow's poem "High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire 1571". According to "The High Tide" this was a tune was rung as an alarm.

Douglas Adams used the name "Mavis Enderby" in his spoof dictionary "of things that there aren't any words for yet", The Meaning of Liff. Adams assigned meanings to placenames based what he imagined them to mean.

MAVIS ENDERBY (n.)

The almost-completely-forgotten girlfriend from your distant past for

whom your wife has a completely irrational jealousy and hatred.

Helen Fielding also used the name "Mavis Enderby" in her 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary.

See also

• Bag Enderby
• Wood Enderby
• Enderby, Leicestershire

References