England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Haltham on Bain St Benedict

The Parish

The parish of Haltham on Bain, usually simply Haltham today, lies in the southeastern potion of central Lincolnshire roughly 5 miles south of the market town of Horncastle. Haltham sits on the A153 road which connects Horncastle with Sleaford. Haltham is a small crossroads village with a small presence on the A153 but with most properties lining a dead-end lane which heads for the River Bain hence its traditional qualifier. Like most Lincolnshire parishes Haltham is and was an arable farming parish with cereals the main crop, today a substantial wood remains from earliest times, Haltham Wood, which would have been managed for woodland products by coppicing. Modern developments have come to the parish, the Horncastle Canal, which would have once allowed small ships to get to Horncastle from the port of Boston, passes through having canalised the Bain in places, it is now disused. Haltham is drained southwards by the River Bain which meets the Witham at Coningsby, the latter has also been canalised as a dead-straight channel headed directly for Boston and the North Sea. Haltham is sited at around 15 metres above the sea, land rises eastwards just breaching the 50 metre contour to the north of Revesby Abbey site. Covering just over 2,600 acres Haltham parish was a little larger than many Lincolnshire parishes and would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Haltham was shared between King William and a bursar, Robert, it was a small place of just 15 households that mustered just 3 ploughs, meadows and woodland but had 2 mils, presumably alongside the Bain.

The Church

St Benedict's church sits on the northwestern edge of the village accessed by the dead-end lane of Church Lane. The church was made redundant in 1977 and is now managed by the Redundant Churches Fund. The church is a simple one of nave and chancel augmented with a northern aisle, a southern porch and a western bell-turret. The southern doorway has the earliest fabric in the church, a Norman tympanum and a roll-moulded arch both from the 12th century. The northern arcade stands next in time being from the very beginning of the Early English Gothic period, early 13th century. The chancel from the early 14th century Decorated period is the stand-out feature of the church with a glorious east window of 4-lights and elegant flowing tracery. Much else is from the later Perpendicular period of the late 14th or early 15th century and well show in the western end. Pevsner neglects to date the bell-turret but its minimal height is a result of the nave roof being heightened in the restoration of 1880 so it must certainly be earlier than that. A further restoration in 1891 refreshed the chancel but unfortunately rebuilt the chancel arch. Church Lane ends at a grassy parking area outside the churchyard gates, the churchyard has no substantial obstacles to concern the photographer.