St Boltoph

About

St Botolph's is the Grade I listed Anglican parish church of Newton, a small hamlet in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, about 8 miles east of Grantham and 7 miles south of Sleaford. It sits within the Church of England parish of South Lafford, in the Diocese of Lincoln, and today is in the care of the Rector of Folkingham.

The church is dedicated to St Botolph, the Anglo-Saxon patron saint of travellers — one of a chain of St Botolph dedications thought to have marked the old route between London and Lincoln, spaced to give wayfarers a resting point roughly every few miles.

History

A church existed on this site as early as 1086, recorded in the Domesday Book on land belonging to Odo the Crossbowman. By around 1180 the church had passed into the possession of Alan, a canon of the Cluniac priory of St Andrew in Northampton, who received it from his brother. In the early 1230s, the Bishop of Lincoln, Hugh of Wells, formally confirmed the priory's possession of the church. The earliest visible trace of this Norman-era building survives as a carved shaft and capital inside the base of the tower.

The present building is largely medieval: a 13th-century west tower (with a later bell-stage added on top), a three-bay nave with side aisles dating from the late 13th or early 14th century, and a chancel of around 1300 with a slightly earlier south chapel. The chancel has a double piscina, and the south chapel has its own piscina and squint. The church's stained glass dates from the 14th and 15th centuries.

The building underwent significant restoration in the 19th century — chancel arch and clerestory work by Kirk and Parry in 1865–66, followed by a further restoration in 1869 that rebuilt the roof and south aisle. After later falling into disrepair, it was extensively restored again in 1987, when five bells were hung in place of the previous three.

St Botolph's was designated a Grade I listed building on 1 February 1967. Its surviving Anglican parish registers date back to 1612.