The Local History of Skegness
Part 1: Skegness and District up to 1653
This is an extract from the book "Skegness Through The Years"
Early Times
For at least a thousand years up to 500 AD the Lincolnshire coastline extended much farther than it does now. It was fringed by protective sand banks with a shallow lagoon between them and the shore. It is believed that this sheltered shore remained in that state until the late 13th century. The continued sinking and erosive wave action brought the sand back below sea level, so that the waves swept in and battered the shore. So began the long struggle, which culminated in the great flood of 1953.[1]
[1] Winston Kime: Skeggy, Seashell Books, 1969, L. SKEG 9. Winston Kime was born in Skegness, and, apart from Army Service in the last war and several years in Grantham following his retirement, he has lived in the town all his life. His forebears inhabited the Skegness-Wainfleet area for many generations and the parish registers of Skegness show Kimes, or Kymes, going back to the seventeenth century. His whole working career was in theemploy of the Skegness Urban District Council, for many years under Rowland Jenkins, town engineer and surveyor, who designed the modern Skegness foreshore, and Winston Kime was actively associated with municipal developments from the late 1920s until his retirement in 1972. A keen cyclist in his younger days, he was a founder member of the local Wheelers in 1933 and is a life vice president of the County Cycling Association. In recent years he has spent much time researching the records of this area. Winston Kime is a widower, with a married daughter, Patricia, and a son, David.
The ancient inhabitants of Lincolnshire were the Coritanti or Coriceni and first known about 300 years BC.[2]
[2] Geo. H. J. Dutton: Ancient and Modern Skegness and District, 1916.
The Romans invaded England in 55 BC and stayed until AD 435. The Romans encouraged agriculture among local peoples.[3] It is known that the Romans occupied the land near Skegness, as numerous relics have been found.[4]
[3] Ibid. [4] Information taken from a pamphlet called The Pier, designed to promote Skegness and the surrounding countryside: L.SKEG.79.
While the Romans built many banks to stop sea ingress, the “Roman Bank” cannot be claimed to have been made by the Romans.[5] However, Burgh, about four and a half miles from Skegness to the west of this road was undoubtedly a Roman military station. The Rev. Tatham suggested that the Roman road from Lincoln to the coast, traceable as far as Orby Lane, just west of Burgh, led to a fort and ferry at Skegness, but its route from that point is a matter for conjecture.[6]
[5] Dutton: op. cit. [6] Comment by Mr Kime in a personal note given to the Chair of the Skegness Branch of the U3A, January 2005.
The difficulties in tracing the early history were mostly produced by natural causes:
The continual encroachment of the sea, which repeatedly altered the coastline and engulfed some towns;
The drainage of the Fens, which turned miles of barren land into rich fertile plains.
During the Roman occupancy, an elevated road made it possible to reclaim portions of the marshy land. With the withdrawal of the Romans these roads were left to fall into disuse and the land reverted to its original state, so to lie for many centuries.[7]
[7] The Pier, op. cit.; Dutton: op. cit.
Iron Age pottery from Ingoldmells and Skegness has been found. Its association is with salt making by the evaporation of brine. In Roman times, salt producing sites were under direct imperial control.
From Saxons to Roundheads
Saxons and Danes
The Anglo-Saxons invaded England in the fifth century and the kings of Mercia eventually ruled the Skegness area. The Danes, or Northmen, first attacked England in 787. In the ninth and tenth centuries Vikings and Danes invaded on to the sandy shore between Theddlethorpe and Skegness. The Danish presence is seen by the names of towns and villages. The Anglo-Saxons and Danes ruled England up to 1066.[8]
[8] Dutton: op. cit.
Derivation of Skegness
In the Domesday Book in 1086, during William the Conqueror’s reign, Skegness was known as Tric. No mention of Tric has been found before or since 1086.[9]
[9] Winston Kime: op. cit.
The name “Skegness” is of Scandinavian origin. The first part of the name could derive from “skeggi” – a beard – though it could also derive from a similar source to “Skaggenak”. The second part almost certainly is derived from “ness”– a nose or promontory. In the Middle Ages, the town of Skegness is believed to have been a flourishing and populousport, having a roadstead protected by jutting headlands. It is one of these “nesses” that gave the town the second part of its name.[10]
[10] Dutton: op. cit.; William White: History, Gazetteer and Directory of Lincolnshire, 1856.
The word “ness” is used generally, though not exclusively, as a suffix wherever the Norsemen made their way. As might be expected, the counties, which claim the greatest number of “nesses”, are Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Thus, in the county of Lincolnshire, we have Trentness, Durtness, Chowderness, Bellness, Cleeness, Skitterness and Skegness. Occasionally we find the original ness distorted into house or nest; Gunness is often written as Gunhouse, Sandness has been turned into Sandsness, just as Skegness is, sometimes, referred to as Skegsnest.
1066 to 1653
The first written record of Skegness is in a charter granted by Richard I in the tenth year of his reign (1199) to the Abbey of Revesby, by which he confirmed to them their possessions in Skegness. In the reign of Henry III (1216–1272) quite a number of distinguished persons held land in Skegness and in 1316 we read that “John de Orreby possessed at his death 80 acres of pasture land in Skegness. The following year Sir Robert de Wylughby and Margaret his wife was seized of 40 acres of land as one of the co-heirs of John de Orreby”. Roger de Somerville, son of Edmund, died seized of the other moiety in 1338, as did his brother Philip in 1355.[11]
[11] Abel Heywood and Sons: Guide to Skegness and Wainfleet (Series of Illustrated Guidebooks).
The Courts of the Lord of the Manor of Ingoldmells were frequently held in Skegness. These date back to 1291 and continued for several hundred years.[12]
[12] Information taken from copies of Newspaper Cuttings in the Scrapbook of Mr. G.H.J. Dutton. The copies of the Scrapbooks were on display in the Church Farm Museum at Skegness in the summer of 2004.
Skegness in 1430 possessed a port or harbour because Robert Brightsance and William Coke were charged with damaging the harbour but there is nothing to show where. It was possibly situated near Gibraltar Point.[13] Kime suggests that it was situated three or four miles out to sea at the northern tip of what is now known as the Knock Sands.[14]
[13] Ibid. [14] Winston Kime: Skeggy; Mr. Kime has commented that this is by no means certain [pers. comm.].
There is a tradition that Skegness was once a place of importance, with a castle: there is a reference by the historian Leland to the existence of a castle in Skegness.[15] Investigations by the Rev. E.H.R. Tatham seem to confirm the idea that a castle or castellan existed here in the Middle Ages.[16] Most of Skegness came under the jurisdiction of Ingoldmells manor. The court rolls of 1345 mention two different transactions at the same court, concerning land at Chesterland and Castleland. These are thought to refer to land in the area of a castle at Skegness. Tatham also reported another case in 1422 in which William Scalflete surrendered four acres of land at Chesterland. As it was not mentioned by 1422 it is assumed that by then it had succumbed to the sea.[17]
[15] Mr. Kime has commented “I doubt if there was a castle in the traditional sense and think it more likely that it was the remains of a fort built by the Romans” [pers. comm.]. [16] G.H.J. Dutton: Scrapbooks, op. cit. [17] Winston Kime: Skeggy, quoting from Memorials of Old Lincolnshire, an article by H.E.R. Tatham (1910).
A marginal note in the diocesan records relating to a subsidy collection in 1526 states: “This church and a great part of the parish was submerged in the past year and so it remains”.[18] The flood finally destroyed old Skegness in 1536.[19] St. Clement’s church was built, partly with stones reclaimed from the old church, on its present site, about half a mile inland from the village.
[18] Winston Kime: The Book of Skegness, Barracuda Books Ltd., 1986, p. 84. (Ista ecclesia et magna pars parochie fuit demersa anno elapso et sic adhuc remanet.)
[19] Ruth Neller: Skegness Chronology 1526 – 1991; Skegness Library, Ruth Neller, Community Librarian, Mablethorpe.
In 1541, Leland wrote:
Skegness was at sumtyme a great haven toune. Mr. Paynelle sayid onto me that he could prove that there was ons an haven and a toune waullid, also a castelle. The old toune is clene consumid and eten up with the se. Part of a chirch of it stode a late, for old Skegnesse is now buildid a pore new thing. At low water appere yet manifest tokens of olde buildinges.[20]
[20] Quoted by Winston Kime in Skeggy.
In the sixteenth century the following, amongst others, had estates in Skegness: John Newdigate Esq., William Smyth DLL, Archdeacon of Lincoln, Michael Arongebyn Esq., Lionel Quadring, Thomas Lyttlebury Esq. and Charles, Duke of Suffolk.[21]
[21] Abel Heywood and Sons: op.cit.
At the time of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), there were 14 families in Skegness. Familiar names included:
John de Orreby
Robert de Wylughby
Lionel Quadring
Nicholas Saunderson (Viscount Castleton).[22]
[22] Ibid.; Winston Kime, The Book of Skegness.
The Civil War had hardly begun when a Royalist sloop sailed into a creek at Skegness. Boston was a Parliamentary stronghold and from thence a troop of the local militia hurried to Skegness and seized the prize. Sir William Ballingdon and ten Cavaliers, with arms and stores, were quickly hustled off to Boston.[23]
[23] Winston Kime: Skeggy, taken from Memorials of Old Lincolnshire by E H R Tatham, 1910.
Continued in Part 2: Skegness 1653 to 1872