West Deeping

West Deeping

There has been a settlement at West Deeping since prehistoric times and the present village is one of the most secluded yet picturesque in the area. It is the smallest of the three Deepings on the southern edge of Lincolnshire, lying in a crook of the River Welland and set back from the high road linking its neighbours. The best view of St Andrew’s Church is across the meadows from the one-arch stone bridge over the river while the mellow stone houses of the village line nearly half a mile of the old Roman road known as King Street which crosses the river here on its straight and narrow way northward to Bourne.

The Domesday Book, the great land survey ordered by William the Conqueror in 1086, records that there were four water corn mills at West Deeping but this probably included the mills at nearby Lolham and Maxey. The water mill that remains stands beside the church, beautifully restored as a family home and a surprise around the bend as you approach the porch.

The church is mainly 14th and 15th century and the present tower and spire were probably built around 1370 while the clerestory was added towards the close of the 15th century and the aisles rebuilt. The outstanding feature of the centre aisle is a magnificent large brass chandelier of twenty-four lights bearing the inscription:

Lammas 1770, Mr Robt White tenant to Chas Bertie Esq paid into the hands of Richard Figg Gent. £1 for leave for sixty two acres of crop to stand. 24 days after Lammas. Twenty guineas was disposed of for this branch, and £10 laid out in coates for such persons as receive no collection. The silver gilt chalice and paten, made from a chalice presented to the parish in 1774, was gilded with gold from jewellery given by the women of the parish, the thank offerings to Almighty God made by a grateful people for his bounty in the harvests of 1867 and 1868.

King Street runs the entire length of the village with very attractive cottages on either side, one thatched with the thatcher’s trademark bird perched on top. There is also a stately house with three dormer windows and a mass of Virginia creeper covering the walls nearest the road, a stunning sight for anyone driving through on a sunny autumn afternoon.

The village public house is the Red Lion Inn, built in 1795, which now attracts a far wider clientele than the farm workers of yesteryear and, like similar hostelries in surrounding villages, vies for the restaurant trade from those wishing to eat out.

Water-mills could never have survived in the fens because of their slow-moving rivers and absence of fall but there were many around the edge of this flat expanse of land, particularly adjacent to the great corn growing regions such as Lincolnshire. Some were sited on the main rivers and their tributaries and others on small streams that have virtually dried up today. Along the western edges of the fens there are several surviving mills on the main rivers although none of them is today using water power to grind corn and many have been converted for other uses, often residential.

A perfect example of such preservation can be found at West Deeping where the old water-mill on the River Welland has been beautifully converted for use as a private house. It was built in the early 19th century although there was a water-mill on this site for many centuries before that and at one time West Deeping boasted a total of four water-mills.