Hanthorpe

The road to Hanthorpe from the A15

If you leave the A15 three miles north of Bourne, you will find a hamlet so small that you are likely to miss it if you pass through at speed but a stop of a few moments is worthwhile for its two streets contain several charming vistas. 

Hanthorpe is not mentioned in the guide books and is perhaps no more than an extension of Morton village because it has no facilities of its own other than a post box and even the nearest public telephone kiosk is outside the village boundary. Many of the properties, however, are most attractive and several new developments have been added in recent years that are totally in keeping with their surroundings. Grey stone sits happily with red brick in this tiny community that has an air of permanent rural peace and there is even a village pond where farmers once washed their horses and carts but is now an environmental feature left to the toads and newts, insects, algae and other wildlife. 

In September 2004, Hanthorpe was officially designated as part of the adjoining parish and henceforth will be known as Morton and Hanthorpe.

The most imposing of the stone buildings here is Hanthorpe Farm, an early 18th century farmhouse that stands back from the road but overlooks the tiny village green. It has been in the same family for over a century, since 1897, but the present owner David Creasey says that there are no deeds to determine its exact date of construction although it is believed to be contemporary with the stone building across the road, formerly a public house, and bearing the date 1740. The house has a much older name and is referred to in the Ordnance Survey as Araucana Farm, a reference to the two monkey puzzle trees (Aracaria araucana) which once grew in the front garden, now reduced to just one, but the name is less used today and so Hanthorpe Farm has become the popular choice. 

Hanthorpe may be little more than a hamlet today but there was once a very grand mansion in the neighbourhood. Hanthorpe House was built in the Regency style in 1790 and has been attributed to Charles H Tatham, a Lincolnshire man as well as a London architect in the school of Henry Holland, pupil and son in law of Capability Brown, and it soon became the hub of this small community, dominating local agriculture and providing employment for many people who lived in the vicinity.

This late 18th century house would qualify today as a stately home and although the original owner is not known, it was occupied during much of its history by the Parker family, the first being William Parker, a lawyer and a justice of the peace who had been born at Hailsham, Surrey, in 1792, and who had previously lived at Swayfield. He is known to have been in residence with his wife Ann and their children as early as 1842 and soon became established as one of the three principal landowners in the area along with the Marquess of Exeter and Lord Aveland. Improvements were made during his lifetime and in Kelly' Directory of 1885, the house is described as "a handsome and pleasantly situated mansion". 

The Parker family were keenly interested in the village community and supported both religion and education, providing money to help support the village school at Morton where almost 140 boys and girls from the locality were taught. They were regular worshipers and benefactors of the Church of St John the Baptist at Morton, their parish church, and when major restoration was carried out on the roof and the 32 stained glass windows in 1860 at a cost of £2,000, the family paid for much of the work.

Parker died in 1883 and the house was taken over by his son, also called William, who had been born at Swayfield in 1824. He had been a lieutenant-colonel with the South Lincoln Militia and served for many years as commanding officer of the Bourne Company of Volunteers. The 1891 census, when William was 67, shows that his wife Augusta, aged 58, was also living there together with two daughters, Flora and Katherine, who were both in their twenties, two grandsons, William, aged 6 and George, aged 5, and a guest as well as a retinue of servants including a cook, lady's maid, parlour maid, housemaid, under housemaid, kitchen maid and nurse. They also employed grooms, footmen, gamekeepers, gardeners, coachmen and a butler, but these were mainly people who lived locally and would therefore have been included in the census at their own addresses.

Hanthorpe House in the 19th century and some of the staff employed there

Colonel Parker died in 1909 and the Chapel of the Resurrection in the village church was restored in his memory the following year at a cost of £400. Executors took over the running of the estate that was eventually auctioned in 1911 and included almost 1,500 acres of land, forty houses and various farm buildings, a most sizeable undertaking. Hanthorpe House was not sold at this time and remained in the family but was uninhabited for long periods during and after the First World War and soon afterwards another descendant, Geoffrey S Parker had taken up residence by 1937 and was making a living from farming.

During the Second World War, the property was requisitioned by the government for use as a prisoner of war camp, firstly for Italian and then German captives. The wooden hut that now stands on the football field at nearby Morton village where it is used as a very modest grandstand, was originally the picture house used by the prisoners at Hanthorpe.

Only the walled garden covering one acre, the coach house and a couple of estate cottages remain, while the actual site of the house is now a commercial timber yard.

See also     Morton     Colonel William Parker
 

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