Wrawby
| Wrawby | |
 St Mary the Virgin, Wrawby |
|
  Wrawby Wrawby shown within Lincolnshire | |
| Population | 1,293 (2001) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | TA019086 |
| - London | 145 mi (233 km) S |
| District | North Lincolnshire |
| Shire county | Lincolnshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Brigg |
| Postcode district | DN20 |
| Police | Lincolnshire |
| Fire | Lincolnshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Brigg and Goole (UK Parliament constituency) |
| |
Wrawby is a small village in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 2 miles (3.2 km) east from Brigg and close to Humberside Airport on the A18. The 2001 Census recorded a village population of 1,293. Wrawby is most noted for Wrawby Postmill.
History
The village was known as "Waregebi" in the Domesday Book, with the name thought to derive from Old Danish. It means 'Wraghi's farmstead'. The Domesday Book tells us that the village comprised a church with a priest and farming land, meadow land and woodland at the time of the Norman Conquest.
The oldest surviving building in the village is the church of St Mary, which is probably Anglo-Saxon in origin. The current structure has a 13th-century tower and pillars. The font is 14th century with a carved Jacobean cover. The advowson of the church (the right to nominate a new priest) was donated to Clare Hall at Cambridge by Elizabeth de Burgo in 1348. There is an altar tomb of the Tyrwhitt family, lords of the manor until the mid-17th century (a role subsequently assumed by the Elwes family). A tapestry of "Christ blessing little children" hangs in the church. Its manufacturer, Thomas Tapling of London, who was born in the village, donated it. He also endowed the Parish Reading Room (now demolished), hoping to provide all the villagers the opportunity of an education.
The Tyrwhitts held the lordship from late medieval times, and in 1542 Robert Tyrwhitt is believed to have entertained Henry VIII lavishly at the manor house in nearby Kettleby. At the north-eastern boundary of Wrawby parish with Melton Ross is the site of an old gallows, reputedly placed there on the order of King James I as a warning to prevent bloodshed between the feuding Ross and Tyrwhitt families.
The parish of Wrawby was enclosed in 1800–1805, with the land being divided between 43 owners, including the Earl of Yarborough, Clare Hall, Cambridge (replacing the title of advowson), and the Elwes family. The greatest of the landowners, the Elwes family, held their estate in Wrawby until 1919.
Although education had been provided for some of the Wrawby boys from the foundation of an old grammar school (now within the town of Brigg) in Tudor times, education for all the children of the village was not readily available until the building of the National School in 1842, at a cost of £433. It was enlarged to accommodate the greater population of the village in 1895. The population had risen from 283 in 1801 to around 1400 in 1891. The school and master's house (now a private house) along with several other houses of the 18th century built of distinctive local brick remain. The local brick kilns on the outskirts of the village were finally demolished in the 1960s.
The graveyard surrounding the church was closed in 1857 when a new cemetery was opened on a larger site on the outskirts of Brigg. The original vicarage house was burnt down in 1713, when all the parish records were lost. The oldest register in existence dates from 1675. A new vicarage was built in 1839; this was demolished in the 1960s.
Wrawby church originally also served the township of Brigg until a new church was built there in 1872. There were additionally in the village an Independent Chapel (built 1802), a Wesleyan Chapel (built 1827) and a Temperance Hall (built 1849). A new Methodist Chapel was built in 1895 and served the village for over a century, finally closing in 2005 to become a residential property.
Wrawby post mill
Wrawby post mill stands on a small hill and can be seen on the approach to Brigg from the A18. The earliest record of a mill in Wrawby is 1585; in the 19th century there are known to have been two. The remaining mill, restored to a working condition in the 1960s, is Lincolnshire's last surviving post mill. The mill, high on the Lincolnshire Wolds, is the last surviving post mill in the north of England. It was built around the year 1760 on the site of an earlier mill and part of the Elwes estate until 1910, when it was sold. It continued working until 1940 when the loss of a sail brought the it to a standstill. By 1961 the mill was ready to collapse when it was saved by a locally-formed Preservation Society. The restored mill was re-opened in 1965 and ground its first bag of corn in 25 years. The mill has since been refurbished, the first new sail was added on 1 June 2007, with a second, later. There is an intention to replace all four sails.[citation needed]
Community
The village has a Methodist church, post office and garage, and a village hall which was opened in the late 1990s. One of the few remaining retail stores in the village is a 1967-established farm shop. In recent years farm buildings and farmland have been sold to provide new homes.[citation needed] Wrawby has a junior football team, Wrawby Rovers.
Notable people
- Michael Wigglesworth, was a clergyman in New England in the late 17th century. In 1661 he wrote the poem The Day of Doom. He was born in the village, and moved to New England when he was seven.[citation needed]
- Revd Richard William Enraght (1837–1898), religious controversialist, Curate of St Mary's Church, Wrawby, 1866–1867.[citation needed]
External links
Media related to Wrawby at Wikimedia Commons
Footnotes
| |||||||||||||||||