Greatford

Dr Francis Willis, who was famous for curing George III of his madness in 1788, lived in and maintained a private asylum at Greatford Hall. He was one of the foremost physicians of his day in the treatment of "persons of distinction and respectability" and the King was his most illustrious patient. His mental hospital was later transferred to Shillingthorpe Hall, a mile away, built in 1833 for his son John, but this building was demolished in 1949. 

There is a monument to Dr Willis, a Nollekens bust, in the transept of the Church of St Thomas à Becket which stands nearby. He lived to be almost 90 and was laid to rest here in 1807 but by then the king had been cured a second time by the doctor's two sons, John and Robert Willis. The inscription reads:

There are three pronunciations for the name Greatford. The older inhabitants call it Gritford, the rest of the village call it Gretford while visitors invariably say Greatford, as it is spelt. Both local pronunciations appear to be correct because Greatford appears in the Domesday book of 1086 as Griteford and Greteford, the meaning of the name being the grit or gravel ford on the West Glen River. Gretford is still found in the school records until 1900.

Greatford Hall was a large 16th century house, built during the reign of Elizabeth I, but was burned down in 1922 and sympathetically rebuilt by the then owner, Major Cuthbert Fitzwilliams, in the straightforward vernacular style. Today, the hall hides its light under a bushel because it cannot be seen from the road, being hidden by trees and hedges and stone walls, while "Private" notices deter the curious from venturing into the grounds. By the side of the hall is a 16th century barn, often erroneously called a tithe barn, but which was used as a wool collecting centre for South Lincolnshire. From here, the bales were transported by fenland rivers and sea to Flanders to be woven into cloth.

In the churchyard, close by the porch, is the grave and headstone of a later parishioner and owner of Greatford Hall, Harry Lyttelton Dowsett (1907-1986), wealthy businessman and benefactor of the church. After his death, when the peal of five bells had become unsafe to ring, his widow Mary had them restored in his memory and a service of thanksgiving and re-dedication was held in May 1988. A grant from the Lottery Millennium Fund helped finance the addition of another bell in 1999 and thirty subscribers in the village donated the difference, their names being inscribed on the bell that was installed in time for the ring of six to celebrate the millennium.

So often when visiting a church, one finds very little information about the saint to whom it is dedicated but this is not so at Greatford. The first thing to be seen on entering is the last scene in the life of the patron saint, Thomas à Becket (1118-1170), English saint and martyr and one-time Archbishop of Canterbury. The picture was painted by a former rector of the parish, the Rev R Burman, and shows Thomas standing in front of the high altar in Canterbury Cathedral facing his four murderers sent by Henry II. Mr Burman studied the life of Thomas for several years and in 1959, while holidaying in Maidenhead, painted this picture, 48 inches X 29 inches, and framed it in local oak as a visual aid or label for the church, there being no other indication of the dedication. It was hung by the rector on All Saints' Day, 29th December 1959.

Presenting the bell to Greatford, Captain H Murray-Clark told the congregation: "HMS Greatford was a small warship and in this it had at once an affinity with this small village after which she was named. The smallness in size of a ship or a community is no measure of the service which they give their Queen and country and although the ship's service in the Royal Navy was not a long one, be assured that it was faithful. Much value is placed by the navy on close links with the varied communities with which they have associations and it is both pleasant and fitting that a part of this ship should come to safe keeping here as a permanent token of this link."

The West Glen River runs through the village and was originally crossed by a ford which disappeared in 1837 when the waterway was bridged and a new road constructed to the north. Records of the locality for the last 100 years show that the village has suffered frequently from flooding with two feet of water in the post office and beer barrels floating in the cellar of the Hare and Hounds public house. But the sight of the river in full flood sending water rushing down the main street is now an unlikely occurrence because the water levels are maintained by electrically controlled sluice gates installed between 1955 and 1957. The Greatford Cut was also dug across country to the River Welland at Market Deeping, a shallow and embanked channel varying from 16 to 24 feet in width and designed to take discharge water from the river in times of flood which in the past has inundated large tracts of arable land in the locality. This is a most attractive spot and my photograph above, taken in February 2001, shows that winter fails to dull the landscape here at Greatford Sluice where there is almost as much green on a February morning as there is in springtime.

A big farming tragedy occurred in Greatford on 21st October 1892 in which four people lost their lives when the first floor of a granary where they were working fell through. The accident occurred on the farm owned by Messrs J H and A Dean where the four men were winnowing barley, separating the grain from the chaff. Part of the barn floor above them gave way and the immense weight of the grain fell through, crushing them to death. Those who lost their lives were Ambrose Cooke of Langtoft and his 19-year-old son John, Charles Charity, aged 49, and Kate Arden (or Harding), aged 21, both of Greatford. A twelve-year-old boy, Robert Curtis, who was working in the upper storey shovelling barley down the chute to the workers below, fell with the grain but miraculously escaped injury. An inquest jury subsequently returned a verdict of accidental death and subscriptions were opened in Langtoft and Greatford to assist the families of the deceased who are buried in the churchyard. The tragedy aroused so much interest that a poem written by Mrs Edith Joy, wife of the Rector of Greatford, the Rev Henry Joy, was printed in a leaflet with a black border and distributed throughout the locality. It read:

The original room of the village school at Greatford was built in 1761, according to an inscription on the adjoining school house, and was probably a barn. It was extended in 1874 and in 1904, provisions were made for the admission of children from Barholm and Braceborough. Until 1958, this was an all-age school but senior pupils were then sent to the new secondary modern school at Deeping St James. The village school subsequently closed in 1976. The school was particularly prone to flooding by the West Glen River during times of inclement weather and during the previous 100 years before its closure, pupils were sent home three times before the waters rose and threatened their classrooms.

The village hall has been the centre of community activities for almost a century after being given to Greatford in 1913 by Lady Kesteven but major restoration work costing £100,000 is now required and fund-raising is underway to raise the necessary finance to ensure that this popular amenity remains in use.

In the autumn of 2003, Greatford was named as one of Lincolnshire's Best Kept Villages after coming top out of 123 entries in the category for villages with a population of 100-500. The competition, organised by the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), was founded 40 years before and the parish council received a framed certificate to mark their success.

See also Major Cuthbert Fitzwilliams MC
for an account of the Greatford Hall fire

Harry Dowsett

REVISED JUNE 2005

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