Corby Glen

The market cross in Corby Glen

This is a sizeable community seven miles north west of Bourne on the A151 and the first thing you see on entering the square is the ancient market cross, erected in the reign of Edward III (1312-1377), while around the corner is the old village pump, although heavily restored. Corby Glen once had the status of a small market town and even now is big enough to boast two medical practices and three public houses. 

The Church of St John the Evangelist dates back to the 12th century and is famous for its mediaeval wall paintings discovered under nearly 1,200 sq ft of plaster when the church was being restored in 1939. These paintings are among the most significant mediaeval remains in the country and preservation work was carried out in 1992, financed with funds from English Heritage. The original church had no aisles but they were added 200 years later when the chancel was enlarged and a short tower built. The nave roof was raised during a major rebuilding programme in the 15th century and the tower was then heightened. Much of the chancel was rebuilt in 1860 while the altar was given in 1976 in memory of John Hedley Lewis, landowner, sportsman and the first chairman of the Lincolnshire County Council. It stands behind 17th century rails erected as a safety barrier for communion tables after William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, decreed in 1634 that they should be moved against the east wall and protected in order "that doggs may not gett in". 

The nave of the parish church at Corby Glen

Methodism has had a presence in Corby Glen since the early 19th century although there were only ten worshippers in 1840 with a service at 2 pm every Sunday in private homes. But membership grew and in 1846, land was purchased to build a chapel which was erected in West Road [now Station Road] the following year at a cost of £150. This impetus, however, was not sustained and membership had dropped rapidly to only five by 1850 and to just one the following year. 

There was an active Sunday school but this closed in 1986 through lack of support although there is still sufficient interest in Methodism in the village to keep the chapel going and members celebrated its centenary with special services in September 2002.

Trade has always been a feature of life in Corby Glen and the church registers reveal a variety of occupations down the ages, apothecaries, peruke and stay makers, saddlers and tailors while the village once boasted nine public houses to cater for a busy trading community but the market has long since gone and only three of the hostelries survive, the Fighting Cocks, the Glaziers Arms and the Woodhouse Inn, renamed the Coachman in September 2001, which appears to be quite sufficient for a village of under 600 electors. 

The Fighting Cocks is 18th century although it is almost certain that there has been an inn on this site for a thousand years because the name survives from the days when cock fighting was a popular sport and many taverns had a cock-pit on the premises.

Cock fighting was banned as far back as 1366 but the law was not effectively enforced and the sport continued until new and more effective legislation was passed in 1849 although even now there are whispers that matches are held from time to time in remote country districts. 

The village has had several schools in the past, the most illustrious being Reads Grammar School, a picturesque stone building founded in 1669 under the will of Charles Read, a Nottinghamshire merchant who bequeathed a yearly rent of £48 15s. 5½d. to pay for the instruction of village children in reading, writing, arithmetic and Latin. In 1880, Queen Victoria approved a scheme for Read's Grammar School which provided for boarders and fixed the headmaster's yearly salary at £25 plus a fee for each boy attending the school. Boys were to be of "good character and sufficient health" and they were taught the "principals of the Christian faith, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, English grammar, composition and literature, mathematics, Latin, at least one foreign European language, natural science, drawing, drill and vocal music".

For 240 years, this school educated the more prosperous sons of the countryside until it closed in 1909, being unable to compete with larger schools made accessible by modern transport. The building is still in a fine state of repair having been restored and rededicated in 1965 and it now houses the Willoughby Memorial Library and Art Gallery. The new school that replaced it opened in 1963 and has developed into a successful comprehensive serving a wide area of South Lincolnshire from Grantham in the north to Stamford in the south and from Bourne in the east to the west of the A1 and was renamed the Charles Read High School in September 1999. Many modernisations and improvements have been made over the years and there was a major investment in modern equipment during 2001. The school now has a network of computers that are available in every classroom, all linked to the Internet and each student has his or her own e-mail address. 

Corby Glen Primary School occupies the old stone-built premises that once housed the village Board School, built in Station Road in 1878 and still the focus of primary education in the parish. It currently has a staff of five and over 100 pupils aged from four to eleven. The declared approach to discipline is: "We live by a shared code of conduct, respecting each other's persons, feelings and property."

Pauline's General Stores at Corby Glen is one of those incongruities of life, a blue-painted wooden building in the market place of a predominantly stone built village, yet looking as much a part of the place as any of its ancient companions.

It was originally the village scout hut but for over a quarter of a century has been selling the necessities of life to those who have either not been to the supermarkets of nearby towns or have forgotten one or two essentials and the warm and welcoming interior is a cornucopia of domestic wants from washing powder and polish to sauce and sweets and ice cream. Pauline will even accept your dry cleaning.

There have been adverse comments in the past about Corby Glen but anyone who criticises the village does so at their peril and is likely to end up in the stocks and be pelted with rotten vegetables. Such was the fate of the radio producer Wilfred De'Ath who spoke disparagingly about the village in a B B C Radio Four series some years back and suffered such a fate, albeit voluntarily as a form of contrition but his public indignity was no less embarrassing. 

See also Corby Glen Sheep Fair

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