Ancaster, Lincolnshire

Description
Ancaster, a village and a parish in Lincolnshire. The village contains the Grantham and Boston branch of the G.N.R., on the line of Ermine Street, 8 miles NE of Grantham. It has a station on the railway, with telegraph office, and a post and money order office under Grantham. It gave the title of Duke, now extinct, to the Berties of Uffington. The title has been revived, and Lord Aveland is now Earl of Ancaster. A Roman station, either Causennae or Crocolana, occupied its site, and many Roman coins, bricks, and other relics have been found. A spot in the neighbourhood was the scene of a victory in 1643 over the Parliamentarians. The parish contains also the hamlets of Sudbrooke and West Willoughby. Acreage, 2869 ; population, 600. The chief residences are Ancaster Hall, the seat of the Lucas Calcraft family, and West Willoughby Hall, the seat of the Allix family. A tract which formerly was a common, wild and barren, is now enclosed and fertile. A fine oolitic building-stone is extensively quarried; has been used for Belvoir Castle, Wollaton Hall, the Midland Railway terminus at St Pancras, and other great edifices; and is well exemplified in the parsonage, which was built in 1842. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln ; yearly value, £190 with residence. The church is a building of Ancaster stone in the Norman, Early English, and Decorated styles. There are Wesleyan and Wesleyan Reform chapels.