PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



SAINTON 



The plate consists of a silver communion cup and 

 cover paten of 1650, a silver paten of 1887, and a 

 pewter paten and alms-dish. 



There are four bells : the treble hy Tobie Norris 

 of Stamford, 1 604. ; the second by Alexander Rigby, 

 1702 ; the third by Thomas Norris, 1652 ; and the 

 tenor by Henry Jurden, a London bellfounder of the 

 1 5th century. It is inscribed ' In Multis Annis Resonet 

 Campana Johannis.' 



The registers for baptisms, marriages, and burials, 

 begin in 171 3; before this date entries for Bainton 

 appear in UfFord registers. The first book at Bainton 

 contains baptisms, marriages, and burials from 17 1 3 



to 1743, the second, baptisms and burials from 1744 

 to 1 8 1 2, and marriages from 1 744 to 1 754 ; the third, 

 marriages from 1754 to 1812. 



The Rev. Richard Haw,before 1684, 

 CHARITIES left to the parish rents from real estate 

 of about £51 per annum. In 18 19 

 schools were built with the accumulation plus an 

 advance of ;f 279 made by Sir John Trollope, one of 

 the trustees, who gave as site a part of the waste 

 belonging to him as lord of the manor. 



The estate in 1 901 produced £61 12s., of which 

 £jo was contributed to the schools, and the rest 

 devoted to poor relief. 



BARNACK 



Bernac (xi cent.) ; Bernake (xiii cent.) ; Bernak 

 (xiv cent.). 



The ecclesiastical parish of Bamack includes the 

 hamlets of Pilsgate and Southorpe and comprises al- 

 together an area of 4,842 acres, of which 25 are 

 covered by water. Southorpe is a separate civil parish, 

 but the church school in Bamack is attended by the 

 children of Southorpe and Pilsgate as well as those of 

 Bamack. 



Bamack lies in the valley of the Welland ; the 

 ground rises gradually to the south and west but is 

 never more than 100 ft. above the ordnance datura. 

 The soil is light on a mixed subsoil, four different 

 formations meeting at Bamack village : cornbrash, on 

 which is the hamlet of Pilsgate ; Oxford clay to the 

 east of Pilsgate between Bamack and the Welland ; 

 great oolite and inferior oolite which extend to the 

 east and south. Arable land covers 2,703^ acres, 

 pasture 1, 274J, and woodland 275. The chief crops 

 are barley, wheat, and oats. The parish includes 

 about a third of Burghley Park, and Walcot House, 

 south of Bamack village, also stands in a fair-sized 

 park. The population is entirely agricultural. 



The Roman Ermine Street ' crosses the parish in 

 a north-westerly direction towards Stamford, but is 

 very little used, and part of it is almost obliterated. 

 Roads converge at Bamack from Stamford, Bainton, 

 UfFord, and Wittering. 



The celebrated stone quarries' are scattered over a 

 wide area, principally in the south of the parish. 

 Between Bamack village and Walcot Hall is a tract 

 of broken ground, with the descriptive local title of 

 ' Hills and Holes,' the site of the largest quarries; but 

 there were also a large number in Southorpe parish on 

 either side of the Ermine Street. 



The parish was enclosed in portions in 1800, 1806, 

 and 1843. Among the place-names found in Bamack 

 are. The Puzzles, Addcrly Moors, Brokenthrough, 

 Gresho, Portewey, and Dalhawe. 



The vilLige lies for the most part along a street 

 running east and west, which after making a short 

 turn to the south, and running along the south boun- 

 dary of the churchyard, turns north again and joins 

 the road which passes along the north side of the 

 village towards Bainton. The church and manor- 

 house stand in the rectangle thus formed, the manor- 



house being to the north of the church. North-east 

 of the church is a Wesleyan chapel built in 1898, 

 and to the east of the village is the station on the 

 Wansford branch of the Great Northern Railway. 



The rectory, south-west of the church, was formerly 

 a very interesting mediaeval building, figured in 

 the GeiJtkman's Magazine, vol. lixx, pt. i, 9 : only the 

 north end of this building now remains, and except 

 for a 16th-century fireplace has no ancient features. 

 In the rectory grounds, south-east of the house, are 

 outbuildings which are in part ancient, and near them 

 stands the doorway of a destroyed mediaeval stone 

 barn.' There is also part of an ancient cross in the 

 garden, brought from the churchyard. In the village 

 several houses have remains of mediaeval masonr)', and 

 on the north road, near the railway station, is a small 

 14th-century house with its ancient gable-ends and a 

 two-light window on the first floor. An arched head 

 is built into the wall below, with well-carved rosettes 

 of 13th-century style. The next cottage to the east 

 has a feature which must be nearly unique in a cot- 

 tage — a pre-Conquest stone window, built into its west 

 wall. It is a round-headed light with a small rib 

 framing its opening, and doubtless came from the 

 church, but is smaller than any in the tower, and 

 may be a relic of the ancient nave. 



The small hamlet of Pilsgate lies rather less than a 

 mile north-west of Bamack. Pilsgate House, the 

 residence of Mrs. Fowke, is the most considerable 

 building. 



The houses composing the hamlet of Southorpe to 

 the south of Bam.ick are built irregularly down 

 one long street. There was a hospital at Southorpe 

 in the 13th century belonging to the abbey of Peter- 

 borough.* The population of Bamack and Pilsgate is 

 614, and that of Southorpe 192. 



The ' viU ' of BJRNACKwAs included 

 MANORS in the grant of Wulfhere to Peterborough ' 

 in 664. But Ingulphus states that the 

 manor of Bamack was part of the possession of the 

 monastery of St. Pega. According to the same his- 

 torian, the manor passed to Walthcof son of Siw.ird, 

 who, suffering 'remorsum in conscientia sancta quod 

 possessio erat aliquando ecclesiastica,' and also because 

 there were in that place famous stone quarries very 

 suitable and necessary for the monasterj', in 1061 



' Locally known aa the Forty Foot 

 Way. 



^ See an account of them in the article 

 on Industries in tliis volume. 



8 A fine mediaeval stone barn still 



stands in a farmyard at the east end of the 

 village. 



* Pcfe Nkk. Tax. (Rec. Com.), p. 53. No 

 confirmation has been found of Bridgcs*8 

 statement that the abbots had a summer 

 residence at Southorpe. Possibly the 



ruins in existence in his time, south of 

 the village, which he took to be those of 

 an abbot's palace, were those of the 

 hospital. 



^ Birch. Cart. Sax. i, No. 22. See in- 

 troduction to Soke* 



