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A brief history of Ancaster (by Richard Tyndall)

The village of Ancaster sits in a gap - to which it gives its name - in the Jurassic limestone ridge which runs roughly north south through Lincolnshire. The gap was formed by the River Trent which cut through the ridge some 450,000 years ago on its way to low lands now covered by the North Sea. 

Prehistoric finds around the village are few, although some Mesolithic flint scatters have been found and a number of Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have also been uncovered. A Bronze Age golden torc was found by metal detectorists in the nearby village of Sudbrook in the 1990s. However, it is not until the Middle Iron Age – around 500BC - that we have any proper evidence of settlement in the area. The first settlement was a small farming community on the southern side of the Ancaster Gap around what is now the Castle Quarry. In the Later Iron Age settlement moved down into the valley bottom around the area now occupied by the Church and Ancaster Hall.

The Romans arrived in Ancaster only a few years after their invasion of Britain in 43AD. The first occupation was in the form of a marching fort which was located on the northern side of the gap and is now cut by the railway line. This was probably only occupied for, at most, a few weeks. As they advanced the Romans constructed Ermine Street which would become the main route from London to Lincoln and on to York. To guard the point at which this important route crossed the Ancaster Gap, the Romans then built a permanent fort on the Western side of Ermine Street and the Romano-British settlement or vicus grew up around it. As the town became more important and threats to its security grew, in the early 3rd century, ditches and banks were built around the main centre of the Roman town and these can still be seen in Castle Close and the grounds of the old vicarage at the southern end of the village. In the second half of the 4th century these were reinforced with walls and towers and the town continued to be occupied into the very early years of the 5th century. When, in the early 20th century, the new cemetery was being created near the Church, it was found that the site had already been used as a cemetery by the Romans some 17 centuries earlier.       

The 800 years after the end of Roman occupation are something of a mystery in Ancaster. There is some evidence of Anglo-Saxon presence in the form of a cremation cemetery just south of the crossroads but the village does not appear in the Domesday Book and the first reference in the Medieval period is not until the late 12th century in a Danelaw charter during the reign of Henry II. The oldest visible parts of the church date to a similar period – around 1170AD – but it is possible that there are traces of an earlier Saxon church to be found as well. The only other feature in the village dating to the Medieval period is the remains of the cross on the main street. Otherwise, the oldest buildings in the village date to the late 17th century and even they were significantly remodelled in the Georgian Period which is when many of the other houses lining Ermine Street were built.

Contact information
Lincolnshire Police
24 hours non-urgent number to be used when reporting crimes or incidents: 101
Local office: 
Sleaford
Police Station address
The Hoplands
Boston Road
Sleaford
NG34 7LZ

Police Station opening times
Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
www.lincs.police.uk    Surgery Caythorpe & Ancaster Medical Practice
https://villagedoctor.co.uk/
12 Ermine Street, Ancaster, Grantham, NG32 3PP 
Tel: 01400 230226 
Fax: 01400 230729

Local bus information https://www.centrebus.info/bus-services/lincolnshire/27/
https://www.sleafordian.co.uk/S156S-Grantham

School
Ancaster Church of England Primary School
https://www.ancasterprimary.org.uk/

Ancaster Church of England Primary School
Mercia Drive
Grantham
NG32 3QQ

Tel: 01400 230871
Email: enquiries@ancaster.lincs.sch.uk

Ancaster Parish Hall
Booking Clerk 
Carol Bradford Telephone: 01400 250744 
Email: ctbradford@btinternet.com    Post Office
70 Ermine Street, Ancaster, Grantham, Lincolnshire
NG32 3QW

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/branch-finder/1522108/ancaster

Mobile library
https://prism.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/lincolnshire/assets/-/docs/mobile_timetables/A.pdf    Church
https://eastlovedenchurches.co.uk/

Rev'd Georgie (rectoreastloveden19@gmail.com)
01400 230722

Train
https://www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk/trains-stations/at-the-station/station-facilities/anc    

Defibrillator:
Ancaster Parish Hall
Sudbrook Phonebox