Willoughby

A village with a story to tell.

People have lived here since long before recorded history. Stone axes from Westmoreland have been found near the village centre. There was an important Bronze Age burial site about 1½ miles to the east of the church at the charmingly named Butterbump Farm (Butterbump is the traditional name of the bird of the marshes, the Bittern). Excavation has shown that it was in use about 1500 BC. Pollen analysis of nearby peat proved that, even in those distant times, many agricultural crops were being grown here.

The village probably owes its existence to a spring which still bubbles out on the Bonthorpe road near the old people's bungalows.

A great deal of Roman pottery has been found in the nearby fields, together with pieces of roof tile which indicate that a Roman villa was in the vicinity although its site has never been discovered.

There is a large and mysterious earthwork in the field on the right of the road as one leaves towards Gunby. It now serves the village as a football ground but although many suggestions have been put forward - clay pond for a Roman pottery, Danish encampment, medieval cattle pound and so on - no convincing evidence has been found.

The village probably takes its name from the willows which grow so freely here. It is a large parish of some 4,280 acres (1733 hectares) and contains as well, the village of Sloothby and the hamlets of Bonthorpe, Mawthorpe, Hasthorpe, Habertoft and Sandfield. Marsh parishes are often large in extent and in ancient times mostly given over to the raising of cattle so that small communities of herdsman and their families were common. The isolation and distance from authority appealed to those of independent spirit.

The Willoughby family sprang from this village but also took their title from Eresby near Spilsby.

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