| Potterhanworth | |
Potterhanworth War Memorial |
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Potterhanworth
Potterhanworth shown within Lincolnshire |
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| Population | 648 |
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| OS grid reference | TF054663 |
| District | North Kesteven |
| Shire county | Lincolnshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LINCOLN |
| Postcode district | LN4 2xx |
| Dialling code | 01522 79xxxx |
| Police | Lincolnshire |
| Fire | Lincolnshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Sleaford and North Hykeham |
| List of places: UK • England • Lincolnshire | |
Potterhanworth is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, it is situated 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Lincoln.
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To the south the village borders Nocton, to the north-west Branston and to the east Potterhanworth Booths, which is inside the civil parish. It is at the junction of the B1202 (for Nocton to the south) and the B1178 roads. The Peterborough to Lincoln Line passes close to the west. Along the B1202 to the east is a former POW camp - the tower still visible. The civil parish stretches along the south of the B1190 road to Bardney and meets the River Witham including all of Potterhanworth Fen.
The "Hanworth" element of the place-name is from the Old English for "Hana's" farmstead and the "Potter" constituent refers to the local pottery industry that developed here in the 14th century, but only in the 1940's did the two words come together.[1]
Potterhanworth occupies a position where the Lincoln heath to the west merges with the fens of the Witham Valley and lies close to the Roman Car Dyke. Also some seven miles to the west is the Roman Ermine Street and as fragments of Roman pottery have been found locally there may well have been a Roman settlement (or at least a villa farm) in the vicinity.
The village is also home to St Andrews church. At St Andrew's we find a C14th tower attached to a Victorian nave and chancel. There is believed to have been a pre-conquest church here but, apart from the tower, anything mediaeval or earlier vanished in 1749 to be replaced by a Georgian church. That in turn was removed in the 1850s when the present one was built, albeit in replica Gothic style. One of the bells was recast for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 with a quotation from "Morte D'Arthur" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, who was by then poet laureate. The lines include the famous (and some may think prophetic) words "The old order changeth, yielding place to new".
It is rare for a small village to have its church overshadowed by an even more massive building - but that is the case here! Immediately over the road stands, or rather looms, a huge water tower built in 1903 as part of an innovative water supply system from a borehole in a nearby field.
There used to be a Post Office and village store from the early half of the twentieth century, located on Cross Street this now being a residential dwelling known as 'Black Horse Cottage'. More recently the Post Office and smaller 'village shop' was located on Middle Street.
Other now-historical amenities of the village include a Bowls club (where the new Lottery funded play park is now located) and a tennis club which was held at the tennis courts located at the village sports field.
At one time there were two pubs in the village, The Chequers and another called the Black Horse. The Black Horse has since made way for housing.
A bus shelter was erected adjacent to the village green to commemorate the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Currently within the village there is St Andrew's Church[2] and a Village Hall. There is a primary school and a peculiar water tower which has been converted into a house. The village pub is the Chequers on Cross Street. Pottergate Golf Club is close to the north, on the way to Potterhanworth Booths. The village also has a football team, Potterhanworth FC.
Potterhanworth has two small village greens. On one there proudly stands a brilliantly coloured village sign and on the other the war memorial.