• Horncastle was originally the Roman town of Banovallum; remains of the Roman wall can be seen in the local library. Horncastle may have existed before the Romans made it into a military base. R. G. Collingwood says of this site in his excellent work, "The Archaeology of Roman Britain," 2nd ed. London, Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1969:

"Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, may have been a Saxon Shore fort. Stukeley, in the early eighteenth century, describes its walls as 'three or four yards high, and four yards thick. ... It is a perfect parallelogram ... at the corners have been square towers, as they report ; the gates were in the middle of three sides, and I suppose a postern' in the fourth. His plan shows the area as about 31 acres (Stukeley, It. curiosum, P. 30). In point of fact the towers were probably round, and the plan is not quite a parallelogram. Although the classification of the site as a Saxon Shore Fort would be better described as a Fortified Civil Settlement or Burg, which were also prevalent at the time."

• The precise era of Roman settlement in Horncastle is not certain, but by 300 A.D. there was a considerable fort here. The purpose of the Roman fort is not clear. It is not on any of the important Roman roads, so access must have been via the River Bain. One Roman road running west from Lincoln via Wragby passes about five miles north of the town.
   
• In 1066, part of the town was held in the hands of Queen Edith, widow of Edward the Confessor, and William the Conqueror himself had lands here, though how much 'town' there was at this time is debatable.
   
• A market charter was granted in 1230 by Henry III and the town flourished until the 16th century. In the 1580s/1590s, Plague strikes Lincolnshire and checks population growth in towns like Horncastle. In the 19th century the town flourished again due to the opening of the Horncastle Navigation Canal in 1802.
   
• The town was famous for its horse fair from before the 13th century, but this was last held in 1948. It was normally held on the 21st of August, but it lasted a week. In fact, a local saying was "Horncastle for horses". In early Victorian times, the fair was said to be the biggest in the world.
   
• In 1792 an Act was passed and in 1802 the Horncastle Navigation Canal opened. This had a dramatic impact on town growth until the advent of the railways in the latter half of that same century. It was Horncastle´s link with the River Witham which enabled navigation south to The Wash, and north to Lincoln, then via the Fossdyke Canal to the River Trent. The principal cargos were corn and wool. The canal was officially declared defunct in 1889. For a good book on the subject, see: "Horncastle and Tattershall Canal," by J. N. Clarke, Oakwood Press, 1st Edition - 1990, ISBN 0853613982, priced about £5.00. Also, visit the Lincolnshire Life site.
   
• Horncastle had a reputation as a smuggler's den in the 1800's. Tobacco was often smuggled here from the coast, then distributed throughout the area.
   
• Gas lighting came to Horncastle in 1833.
   
• About 1836, Foundry Street and Union Street were formed.
   
• The town was also the home of Alfred Tennyson's fiance, Emily SELLWOOD, who lived here in the 1840's. The old Sellwood house -- which was built over the remains of a burned-down pub -- has in its turn been replaced by Woolworth's. Tennyson did not like Horncastle and once wrote: "Of all horrors, a little country town seems to me to be the greatest."
   
• The Railways came to Horncastle on 12 August 1855, when a 7.5 mile section between the town and Kirkstead opened. Later it would join the Great Northern Railway.
   
• The Corn Exchange on High Street opened on 5 July 1856.
   
• The King's Head, one of the few "mud and stud" buildings in the town, is a picturesque thatched building and is noted for its wonderful floral displays. It is known locally as 'The Thatch' and is one of local brewer's George BATEMAN and Son's pubs. Jo TURNER has a photograph of the King's Head on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2011.
   
• The Admiral Rodney Hotel has operated for more than two centuries. Dr. Neil CLIFTON has a photograph of the Admiral Rodney on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2016.
   
• Around 1869, the town sewage system was initially completed.
   
• The town clock was erected in High Street in 1890.
   
• Hangman's Corner is near the old mill on Mareham Road.
   
• A pub known as "Harpars Bar" at 6 South Street was previously the "Coach & Horses." In 1891, Jane Maddison LINGARD was the Innkeeper.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of the Red Lion Inn on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2020.
   
• David PURCHASE also has a photograph of the Red Lion Inn on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2018.
   
• Horncastle is the center of many sightings of the "Lindsey Leopard", or as the press call it, an "LAC" or Large Alien Cat. Several people describe it as a puma, others more like an ocelot, etc.
   

Pamela BENSON tells us this story about Alfred Lord TENNYSON:

A friend of my family member was a servant in a 'big house' in Horncastle. I believe it was in the Square. When Tennyson was a young boy his family visited there regularly. This servant was concerned that even on very cold days Alfred didn't wear shoes. Apparently, they said, the problem was that all the children had to learn to knit his own socks, boy or girl, and were not allowed to wear shoes without socks. What an incentive to pick up knitting needles, frosty days must have been!

• You may want to find the book "The History of the County of Lincoln" by ALLEN, publ. 1834. Found online at Archive.Org.
   
• Here's a handy website of British history which you can search by location.
   
• The Black Death or Plague swept through Lincolnshire (and all of western Europe) in 1680 through 1690.
   
• All of England suffered from a "monster" storm in November of 1703 that killed a reported 8,000 people. Seaside villages suffered greatly and their church and civil records may have been lost.
   
• In a similar storm in early 1953 flooding occurred from Mablethorpe to Skegness, reaching as far as 2 miles inland.
   
• Liz DAVIES offers a list of names from the Agricultural Workers Revolt of 1872 and a list of Farmers against the Unions of 1874. Her Great Grandfather had an employer who found him reading a newspaper one day. He was asked "Can you read then, Pennell?" "Yes, sir," was the reply. "Then you can pack your bags and be off. We don't want your sort here."
   
• For reasons that are buried in ancient history, folks who were born in Lincolnshire are called Yellow Bellies. No one knows for sure, but come find a list of possibilities.
   
• What was life like back in the "good old days"? You might try to find a copy of "Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes," written in 1698. Part 3 covers her trip through East Anglia. Another source is H. E. Bates, who began to write a regular column for "Country Life" (published by Penguin) just before WW2. Beware the authors who paint rosy pictures of the landed gentry and their great estates.
   
• The book "Life As We Have Known It," Margaret Llewelyn DAVIES, reprinted by Virago in 1977 is a selection of notes written by women around WW1, describing their lives. The chapter by Mrs. Burrows - "A childhood in the Fens 1850-1860", would shatter all of one's illusions about how life in the country really was. She left school at 8 years of age, unable to read or write. She worked 14 hours in the fields with other children younger than her. The ganger had a whip, which "he did not forget to use". They were required to walk at least 2 miles and sometimes around five miles to reach a particular field, and then home again in the evening. (Thank you, Adrian HEDGECOY)
   
• The Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 might have your village listed in its Lincolnshire section.
   
• The "big invention" of the 1800s was the steam engine and the impact it had on agriculture that century. It not only brought the railways, but also steam engines now replaced "ag labs" in the fields and replaced windmills for draining the Fens and pumping water. Oddly, many men found work in the coal mines to supply fuel for these "beasts", while others worked in the iron pits around Scunthorpe because of the demand for iron and steel.
   
• "The Lincolnshire Poacher" is a traditional English folk song associated with the county of Lincolnshire, and dealing with the joys of poaching. It is considered to be the unofficial county anthem of Lincolnshire and it is the quick march of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell. Find out more at Wikipedia
   

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