Part of the ancient Lawress Wapentake (apparently Lawress is Old English for “lark”) the village of North Greetwell lies on the Roman highway the A158 Wragby Road heading in a North Easterly direction towards the Lincolnshire Wolds. The village comprises perhaps a hundred residential dwellings, an Indian restaurant and a roadside filling station.
Note it is my firm belief that a village is not a village without a pub. It may well have an Indian restaurant, which is a big plus and which is certainly a step up from the Little Chef that was its predecessor but a pub it is not. The petrol station, which is useful and probably ok to nip out to for a bottle of wine or a sixpack of lager is also not a substitute. I will say no more on this subject other than it can’t be that much of a lark living there.
In 1801 North Greetwell had a population of 31 people. This was quite convenient because the parish church could only accommodate 35. The population grew steadily and by 1891 reached 93 persons. Ten years later this had dropped to 51 which must surely have represented some calamitous happening in the village. By 1911 this had risen to 75 but by 1921 had only grown another by four souls to 79. The Great War had taken its toll.
The nineteen twenties saw a rapid expansion and by 1931 the population was up to 253 which from the local parish priest’s perspective would have been a nice problem to have.
We do not know how he dealt with this problem and an examination, hitherto unperformed, of the church records might well shed some light on the issue. That degree of research does not however lie within the remit of this work and the church itself lies in V9, a couple of clicks south of V5 which seals it for me. Marriage records for the Lawress Deanery do go back to the year 1700 and the Anglican parish register dates from 1723 so we could probably find out what was going on.
Perhaps they had a marquee in the garden to accommodate the extra people or maybe market forces and the availability of better transport meant that some went elsewhere for their spiritual guidance. It’s amazing the lengths people will go to for a better quality biscuit to dunk in their post sermon cup of tea or coffee. I’m only speculating here. I don’t know for sure. For all I know all the local parish priests had a pact to buy the same sort of biscuits so that this sort of thing didn’t happen. It only takes the lure of more ten bob notes in the collection plate to make a difference though…
The village does possess a Manor House which in 1912 was the residence of William Bowser but that too lies outside square V5 and so is also not being given much airtime here.
In 2005 an archaeological dig was undertaken in the area ahead of some new houses being built. Disappointingly absolutely nothing of interest was discovered beyond some medieval furrows. We could probably have guessed that.
At the time of writing there are eight properties for sale in North Greetwell four of which are bungalows. Prices range from £110k up to £250k. That seems to be a fair percentage of the housing stock on the market if you ask me and possibly down to the fact that there is no pub or maybe because it is on a busy main road. Who knows.
A quick online scout for what’s on in North Greetwell reveals nothing. So that means either they are all watching the TV, on the internet or out at the garage or the Indian restaurant. One little surprise is that the BT speedchecker shows that the residents of the village are blessed with pretty fast fibre broadband. There again BT has been known to be wrong about these things.
That’s pretty much it for North Greetwell. It would appear, and I may be wrong here, that the MP for the area is Edward Leigh (Conservative) who has no doubt made himself known to the residents in a doorstep campaign at some time or another. I note that Mr Leigh has three sons and three daughters and was President of Durham University Union. Fair play.
I will finish with the consideration that the title of this piece is “Lincoln A to Z V5 North Greetwell – one horse town and no pub”. I have no idea of the origin of the saying “one horse town” and although it seems to me it should apply to North Greetwell I am ok if someone comes back and tells me that they have a couple of horses stabled at the back of their house. I can believe it. Some of the gardens are quite big and equestrianism is a good hobby that provides one with exercise and a bit of healthy fresh air, as long as you stay away from the main road.
That’s all folks…
Oh and PS I know I said I wouldn’t say any more about the no pub bit but I did – sorry