Bardney, Lincolnshire

Description
Bardney, a large village and a parish in Lincolnshire. The village stands on the river Witham, with a station on the G.N.R. at the junction of the Louth and Lincoln line, 9 1/2 miles E by S from Lincoln and 129 from London. It dates from ancient times, and was called by the Saxons Bardanig or Bealthanig. The parish includes also the hamlets of Southrey or Southrow, Snakehoime, and Bardney Dairies. Acreage, 5423; population, 1378. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office under Lincoln. An abbey was founded about 1/2 a mile west of the village in 697, by Ethelred, king of Mercia, who himself afterwards became abbot of it till his death. It is said to have had 300 monks, but was destroyed in 870 by the Danes ; lay in ruins upwards of 200 years; was rebuilt in the time of William the Conqueror, for Benedictine monks, by Gilbert de Gaunt, Earl of Lincoln; and passed at the dissolution to Sir Robert Tirwhit. The later abbots were styled Lords of Lindsey, and were peers in parliament. Not a vestige of the edifice now exists. A large barrow occurs in the neighbourhood, said to have been the grave of King Ethelred, and is surmounted by a modern cross erected to his memory. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln; gross yearly value, £221 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Lincoln. The church, which dates probably from 1420, was restored in 1878. There are two Wesleyan chapels and one Primitive Methodist.