Canwick

Canwick is a small but historic Lincolnshire parish and village two miles south of the city of Lincoln, England. It has been continuously occupied since Saxon times (the name derives from “Canna’s Farm” or “Canna’s Place” in Anglo-Saxon), but there was a significant villa here in the Roman period. The village overlooks the Witham Valley, where the River Witham follows an ice-age cut through the jurassic limestone ridge which forms the spine of the county, and has commanding views of Lincoln itself. Location is at 53:12:59N 0:31:25W

History and notable buildings

"All Saints’" church is a Saxon-era foundation, but was significantly improved by the same Norman bishops who built Lincoln Cathedral. Subsequent enlargement and restoration has not harmed the original fabric. The church is built on a Roman tesselated pavement, and a coin of the first Christian Emperor Constantine has been found in the churchyard. The church patronage is held by the Mercers’ Company, oldest of the London city Livery Companies.

Canwick Hall was the seat of the Sibthorp family from the 17thC – 20thC, with the present structure being erected in 1810. Family members included the botanist John Sibthorp and several MPs, most notably the eccentric Colonel Sibthorp. Having already angered Queen Victoria by his vocal opposition to an allowance for her consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he went on to declare that the Prince's Great Exhibition project would bring the plague to England.

Significant new housing development took place in Canwick during the 1960s and the United Kingdom Census 2001 records 339 inhabitants and 150 households. Canwick is a civil as well as an ecclesiastical parish within the North Kesteven District Council area.

External links

* [http://www.canwick.org Canwick web site]
* [http://www.canwick.org/church.htm "All Saints"' Church]
* [http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=498688&Y=369837&A=Y&Z=1 Map]