Caistor

Caistor is a town and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. As its name implies, it was originally a Roman castrum or fortress.[1] It lies at the north-west edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, on the Viking Way, and just off the A46 between Lincoln and Grimsby, at the A46, A1084, A1173 and B1225 junction. It has a population of 2,601.[2] Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon ceaster ("Roman camp" or "town") and was given in the Domesday Book as Castre.[3]

Not to be confused with Castor.
This article is about a town in Lincolnshire. For the Roman settlement in Norfolk, see Caistor St Edmund. For the town in Norfolk, see Caister-on-Sea.

Caistor

Caistor Market Place
Caistor
Location within Lincolnshire
Population2,601 (2001)
OS grid referenceTA1101
• London135 mi (217 km) S
Civil parish
  • Caistor
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townMARKET RASEN
Postcode districtLN7
Dialling code01472
PoliceLincolnshire
FireLincolnshire
AmbulanceEast Midlands
UK Parliament

Buildings

Only a few fragments of the 4th-century walls remain; for example, the original Roman wall is visible on the southern boundary of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul.[1] The area occupied by the fortress is now classified as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[1] The church of St Peter and St Paul, which is enclosed within the fortress, has an Anglo-Saxon tower.[4] The market square lies at the heart of a conservation area which contains 56, mainly Grade II, listed buildings. In numerical terms, the number of listed buildings makes Caistor the most important conservation area in the West Lindsey area; many of the buildings are Georgian or Victorian. Notable buildings in the town include Caistor Grammar School, founded in 1633,[5] and Sessions House, built in 1662.

In 2010 the remains of a 4th-century Roman cemetery were found during the development of a new Co-op supermarket.[6][7][8]

Education

Grammar school

Caistor Grammar School dates from the reign of Charles I. An academy with a selective pupil intake, it has specialist school status for sports and humanities. Sir Henry Newbolt, author of Drake's Drum, was educated at the school.[9][10]

Caistor Yarborough Academy School

Caistor Yarborough Academy is a mixed comprehensive school named in memory of John Edward Pelham, the 7th Earl of Yarborough. Being limited to 570 pupils it is much smaller than the average British school of this type. It has Arts College status under the English specialist schools programme. In 2012 the school became an Academy.

RAF Caistor

Opened in 1940, RAF Caistor was built as a relief airfield for RAF Kirton in Lindsey, and also used for flying training from its grass runways. Closed in 1945, it later reopened as a nuclear missile base.

Between 1959 and 1963 Caistor was manned by 269(SM) Sqn. equipped with three Thor missiles. The site has now returned to agricultural use, and little remains of the military facilities.[11][12]

Transport

Nearby station include Barnetby railway station, with TransPennine Express and East Midlands Railway services, plus Northern services on Saturdays.

Humberside Airport is located a short distance to the north of the town.

Audleby

Audleby is a hamlet just north of Fonaby. It is recorded in the Domesday Book with 33 households, which at the time was considered quite large. Today it is listed as a deserted medieval village (DMV).[13] Audleby House on Brigg Road is a Grade II listed building.[14]

Fonaby

Fonaby is a hamlet and deserted medieval village just north of Caistor, mentioned in the Domesday Book as having 18 households and three acres of meadow, and held by William I.[15][16]

Notable people

Local tradition

According to a local tradition, one of Jesus's 12 apostles, Simon the Zealot, came to England, where he is supposed to have been martyred somewhere in the vicinity of Caistor. He was reputedly crucified on the orders of a Roman procurator called Catus Decianus on 10 May AD61. (However, there are competing theories as to what became of Simon the Zealot.)[18]

References
  1. Historic England. "Roman remains in Caistor (80330)". PastScape. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  2. "Parish headcounts: West Lindsey". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  3. Historic England. "Caistor in Domesday and as a Borough (925982)". PastScape. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  4. Historic England. "St Peter and St Pauls Church (80342)". PastScape. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. Leach, A.F., ed. (1906). A History of the county of Lincolnshire. Victoria County History. 2. p. 487.
  6. "BBC report of Co-op cemetery find". BBC News. 10 July 2010.
  7. "Co-op report of co-op cemetery find". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011.
  8. "Archaeological contractors for co-op dig, passing mention to ongoing work. Report will be published here". Archived from the original on 16 March 2012.
  9. Chitty, Susan (1997). Playing the Game: Biography of Sir Henry Newbolt. Quartet Books. ISBN 978-0-7043-7107-1.
  10. David Gervais (article ‘Newbolt, Sir Henry John (1862–1938)’) (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  11. "RAF Caistor", Raf-lincolnshire.info. Retrieved 8 September 2010
  12. "The Wartime Memories Project - RAF Caistor" Archived 10 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Wartimememories.co.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2010
  13. "Audleby DMV". Lincs to the Past. Lincolnshire Archives. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  14. Historic England. "Audleby House (1166088)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  15. "Fonaby". Domesday Map. Anna Powell-Smith/University of Hull. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  16. Historic England. "Fonaby DMV (80359)". PastScape. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  17. Rear Admiral Nigel Malim CB LVO DL at marketrasenmail.co.uk, accessed 3 July 2013
  18. Codd, Daniel. Mysterious Lincolnshire. (Breedon Books Publishing Co Ltd). p.12-13. ISBN 978 1 85983 563 0.
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