KIRKSTEAD, anciently called Cristed, is situated on the east bank of the
Witham, in the hundred of Gartree, and is about three miles distant from
Tattershall, and eight from Horncastle. Formerly it was a hamlet of
Kirkby super Bane, but for many years it has been considered as a
separate parish.
The manor, with that of Tattershall, was among the several estates given
by the conqueror to Eudo, one of his Norman followers. His son Hugh fitz
Eudo, called the Breton, founded a Cistertian Abbey here in 1139, and
endowed it with his possessions in this place. Afterwards the monks,
considering the situation unhealthy, petitioned Robert, the son of the
founder, to allow them to remove the abbey to some other place; but
though they obtained permission, yet it does not appear that the affair
was proceeded in any further. The abbey had subsequently many
benefactors, and acquired very extensive possessions.
At the dissolution of religious houses, the Kirkstead estate was given by
Henry the eighth, to Charles Duke of Suffolk; and on the division of his
estates after the death of his two sons, who survived him but a short
time, it reverted to the king as one of the heirs general of the family,
and was subsequently given to Lord Clinton and Saye, afterwards Earl of
Lincoln. This estate descended to Mr. Daniel Disney, in right of his
wife Catherine, the youngest daughter of Henry Fynes Clinton, Esquire,
and grand-daughter of the second Earl of Lincoln. In the year 1792 it
was sold by Mr. Disney Fytch, grandson of Mr. Daniel Disney, to the
present possessor, Richard Ellison, Esquire, of Sudbroke Holme, near
Lincoln.
Of the Abbey a small ruin only remains: but from a plate of “The
Ichnography of the Monastery of Kirsted Linc.” in Stukeley’s Itinerarium
Curiosum, the buildings appear to have been extensive.
South of the ruin of the Abbey is the Chapel, a very curious building,
which according to tradition was built previous to the monastery. It is
of early English architecture, having lancet windows at the sides and
east end, and an ox-eye window over the entrance at the west end. The
roof is beautifully groined, the ribs springing from corbel tables; and
against the south wall on the inside, is a rude figure in stone of a
knight templar, with the front part of his helmet in the shape of a
cross. For many years the roof of this building was covered with thatch,
but in 1790 it was removed and a covering of tiles substituted. At that
time also the bell, which had previously hung in a tree, was placed over
the west end of the building.
[Picture: Kirkstead Chapel]
This chapel is a donative of exempt jurisdiction, but appears to have had
no stipend for the officiating minister until it came into the possession
of Mr. Daniel Disney, who being a presbyterian, appointed a minister of
that persuasion to perform service there, with a salary of £30. per
annum. {82} In order that the tenets which he professed might not want
support in his parish, in 1720 he settled certain lands upon five
trustees, the profits of which were to be applied to the maintenance of a
presbyterian minister at this place. This gift he afterwards confirmed
by his will in 1732, and in addition, bequeathed to the trustees the use
of the chapel and chapel ground for the same purpose. On the death or
alienation of the minister, the trustees were to present the names of two
to the lord of the manor, who was to appoint one of them, and on his
neglect or refusal, the trustees themselves were to make the appointment.
Ministers continued to be nominated by the prescribed form until the
death of Mr. Dunkley, who had for many years received the bequeathed
stipend, and whose demise took place in 1794. On that occasion the
present owner of the manor took possession of the estates which had been
conveyed to the trustees, and appointed to the chapel a minister of the
Church of England, paying him £30. per annum. The trustees recovered
possession of the estates, by an action of ejectment, tried at Lincoln
summer assizes, 1812; but not of the chapel. A new chapel was erected
and the presbyterian form of worship re-established here in 1822.
This village gave birth to the celebrated monk Hugh de Kirkstead, who is
styled by Fuller “a Benedictine Cistertian Bernardine Monk, or, as it may
be termed a treble refined Christian.” He, and Serlo, one of his own
order, joined in composing a chronicle of the Cistertians from their
first arrival in England in 1131, to their own time, about 1210.
In the fourteenth volume of the “Archeologia of the Society of
Antiquaries” is an engraving of an ancient iron candlestick of a very
singular construction, six of which were found in cleaning the bed of the
river Witham near this place.
This village contained, according to the returns of 1821, 24 houses and
132 inhabitants.