Harmston

infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Harmston
latitude= 53.1492
longitude= -0.5457
map_type= Lincolnshire
population = 453 (Parish)
shire_district= North Kesteven
shire_county= Lincolnshire
region= East Midlands
constituency_westminster=
post_town=
postcode_district =
postcode_area=
dial_code=
os_grid_reference= SK9762

Harmston (population approx. 800) is a small rural village in Lincolnshire approximately 8km (5 miles) south of the English city of Lincoln.

Geography

Despite being only a modest 80 metres (260 ft) above sea level, the village enjoys a surprisingly dramatic setting being perched on the Lincoln Cliff escarpment with commanding views over the valley of the River Witham.

History

The village is a documented settlement in the Domesday Book of 1086 and according to local historians originated as a 'toft village', a settlement composed of small relatively closely packed farms (tofts) with the surrounding land owned and farmed by those dwelling in the village buildings. It is possible to see the site of one of these tofts in the village towards the western end of Chapel Lane. Harmston's nucleated pattern of rural spatial development can be contrasted with the pattern of farming in, for example, Norfolk, where scattered farm buildings are the more common feature of the landscape.

Harmston's most impressive building, Harmston Hall, is a manor house erected in 1710 for Sir Charles Thorold and also the one-time home of Sir George Thorold who was Lord Mayor of London in 1719. In 1930 Harmston Hall became part of a new mental health hospital complex, and functioned as the headquarters for the (now distinctly un-politically correctly named) organisation, the 'Lincolnshire Joint Board for Mental Defectives'. The hospital site finally closed down in 1990 and was soon redeveloped to become a private home once again.

Harmston remained a very small village until the mid-1990s when the new owner of Harmston Hall (a local property developer) made plans for a new housing development on the former hospital site at the northern perimeter of the village. The new housing estate (completed in 2006) has brought many new people into the community and has transformed Harmston from an agricultural to a mainly commuter village for workers in nearby Lincoln.

Other information

Harmston has a village pub, The Thorold Arms, situated close to Harmston All Saints, the small parish church.

Harmston all Saints church is an Anglican church and was thought to have been built in the Norman period.