Baston

Baston is a parish on the edge of The Fens and in the administrative district of South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England. Like most fen-edge parishes, it was laid out more than a thousand years ago, in an elongated form, so as to afford the produce of a variety of habitats for the villagers. The village itself lies along the road between King Street, a road built apparently, in the second century and Baston Fen which is on the margin of the much bigger, Deeping Fen. Until the nineteenth century, the heart of Deeping Fen was a common fen on which all the surrounding villages had rights of turbary, fowling, pasture and so on.

Baston is also a family name which probably has a separate origin.

Geology

The parish lies on a fan of gravel from the Devensian glacial period, which spreads from the upland mouth of the valley of the River Welland, to the east of Stamford, Lincolnshire. There are consequently two main forms of business in the parish: arable farming and gravel extraction. The flooded gravel pits subsequently lend themselves to development for leisure pursuits such as angling, birdwatching and watersports. The gravel was washed down from the tundra environment to the west and deposited in the periglacial lake, known as Lake Fenland, below the icy waters of which, the site of Baston then lay.

Geography

Geographically, in the fen, the parish's northern boundary lies on the River Glen, beyond which is Thurlby. To the south, is Langtoft and beyond King Street, in the west is Greatford.

History

Baston's story begins with King Street and the Car Dyke, a Roman boundary marker, canal or catchwater drain, according to one's opinion. Another significant Roman feature of Baston is the Roman road leading across the fen towards Spalding (Margary 261). Part of the modern fen road follows it.

At the end of the village, near King Street was an Anglian cemetery which was in use up to about the year 500. This coincides as nearly as can be told, with the date of the beginning of Arthur's exploits as reported by the Historia Brittonum, when Arthur fought his first battle at the mouth of the River Glen and stopped the spread of Anglo-Saxon settlement for fifty years.

Like most places in Europe, Baston suffered from visits from the plague. A few of its victims in Baston are listed here.

Local administration

• For the purpose of electing councillors for South Kesteven District Council, the parish forms part of Truesdale ward, which elects two councillors.1 2
• Details of the Parish Council are given here.

References

• Mayes, P. & Dean, M.J. An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Baston Lincolnshire The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology. (1976) ISBN 0-904680-05-3
• Phillips, C.W. ed. The Fenland in Roman Times Royal Geographical Society (1970)

External links

• Baston historical summary (UK & Ireland Genealogy page
• Baston's entry in the Parliamentary Gazetteer of 1843-4

52°42′N 0°21′W