England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Low Toynton St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Low Toynton lies in central Lincolnshire roughly 1 1/2 miles northeast of the small market town of Horncastle. Low Toynton sits about a half mile north of the A158 road which links Horncastle with Skegness. Low Toynton is a tiny place with no real village, as such, merely a collection of farms and cottages across its meagre acreage. Like most Lincolnshire parishes arable farming was, and still is, the mainstay of the local economy with cereals the main crop. Low Toynton is drained southwards by the River Waring which soon meets the Bin at Horncastle, the latter continues southwards until reaching the Witham where matters turn southeast to arrive at the North Sea through Boston. Low Toynton is sited at around 50 metres above the sea with the gentle slopes of the Lincolnshire Wolds rising eastwards to local high points of around 130 metres. Low Toynton parish was rather small at around 1,100 acres within which it would have supported a population of around 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Low Toynton was reported together with its neighbour High Toynton as holdings of King William offering 12 ploughs and extensive meadows.

The Church

The former church of St Peter is now an ivy-covered ruin, when Pevsner visited it was a store but clearly is no longer used for worship. The building which still stands is even so relatively recent having been erected in 1811 replacing an earlier medieval version. Pevsner casts doubt around its alleged reused chancel arch which is believed by some to be Late Norman Romanesque in style and from the turn of 12th into 13th century but neglects to offer his own opinion as to the age. The church was declared redundant due to falling numbers of the congregation. Access is possible at the time of writing through the farmyard, which stands between the former church and the main lane through the parish, for how long given the state of the ruin is open to conjecture.