Entry from Kelly's Trade Directory for 1900
THORNTON CURTIS is
a parish and scattered village with a station called Thornton
Abbey station, 1 ½ miles east from the village, on the
Brocklesby and Hull branch of the Great Central (late M. S.
and L.) railway and is 5 miles south-east from Barton-on-Humber
and 4 south from New Holland, in the North Lindsey division
of the county, parts of Lindsey, northern division of Yarborough
wapentake, Glanford Brigg union, petty sessional division and
county court district of Barton-on-Humber, rural deanery of
Yarborough No. 1 archdeaconry of Stow and diocese of Lincoln.
The church of St. Lawrence is a building of stone, in the early
English style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch
and an embattled western tower with eight pinnacles and containing
5 bells: there is an Early Norman font, square in plan, the
bowl, which is curiously carved, resting on a large central
shaft, with a smaller one at each angle; the whole surface is
enriched with sculpture in low relief; the oaken pulpit and
communion table are of the 17th century: there is a singular
monument near the south porch to Mr. Skinner, ob. 1626, and
near to it is a very ancient and rude female bust: the church
was restored in 1883-4, at a cost of over £3,000: an organ
was erected in 1889 at a cost of £300: there are sittings
for 300 person. The register dates from the year 1568. The living
is a vicarage, net yearly value £152, including 108 acres
of glebe, with residence, in the gift of Lord St. Oswald, and
held since 1885 by the Rev. Charles Bailey Goodacre B.A. of
Hatfield Hall, Durham. Here is a Wesleyan chapel, erected in
1850. About a mile and a half east of the village are the ruins
of the Abbey of St. Mary, founded by William-le-Gros, Earl of
Albemarle, on the festival of St. Hilary, January 13, A.D. 1139,
and in the following year, on the same day of the same festival,
the founder brought hither an establishment of twelve Augustinian,
or Black Canons, from Kirkham Priory; one of the number being
then constituted prior: in 1148 the monastery was raised by
Pope Eugenius III to abbatial rank, and in 1517 became a mitred
abbey: in 1541 it was dissolved and refounded by Henry VIII
as a college for a dean and twenty prebendaries, in honour of
the Holy Trinity; it was visited by the king in person in the
same year, when he stayed several days: this new foundation,
however, lasted only till 1547, when the site was granted to
Henry Holbeach, Bishop of Lincoln, the clear yearly income being
estimated at £594: the remains of the Abbey church are
insignificant, the only existing portions being the end of the
south transept and a fragment of the adjoining chapter house:
within the area of the nave and the north transept are a number
of stone coffins and incised slabs, and outside the east wall
of the choir a slab with a very rich cross and marginal inscription
to John Girdyk, 1363, and Johan, his wife: the ruins are generally
of the Early Decorated period, the chapter house dating from
1282-1308, choir 1315, and the presbytery 1443-73: the remains
of the Abbot's house is now a farm: the entrance gatehouse is
one of the finest existing specimens in England of the Early
Perpendicular style, and was built about 1382, the general plan
being that of a parallelogram of two storeys, with octagonal
towers at the angles and on either side of the entrance; the
front is enriched with several canopied niches, from some of
which the figures have disappeared; the three largest, however,
remain, and are in a perfect state, the centre figure representing
the Virgin Mary, to whom the abbey was dedicated, and over her
head may be discerned a very rare and remarkable representation
of the Holy Trinity; the Father is crowned, and holds in his
hand the orb, the emblem of kingly power; the Son wears the
crown of thorns, and they are both in the act of sending down
the Holy ghost, in the form of a dove, upon the Blessed Virgin;
to the left of the Virgin is the figure of an abbot holding
a book and a pastoral staff; the figure to the right of the
Virgin probably represents William-le-Gros, the founder: the
roof of the gateway is handsomely groined, and there are some
remains of the original oaken doors: the second storey is reached
by a winding newel staircase, which has an elegant stone roof,
with eight cusped ribs springing from corbels and meeting in
the centre: the whole area of the abbey, surrounded by a wall
and moat, was 100 acres. The principal landowners are the Earl
of Yarborough P.C. the representatives of the late John Ferraby
esq. and William Maw esq. The soil is light loam; subsoil, clay.
The chief crops are wheat, barley and potatoes. The population
in 1891, including the hamlet of Burnham, 2 miles west, was
489. The area is 4,932 acres; rateable value, £6,332.
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