Public Transport
Finding Your Way
Getting Access to Churches
Setting the Scene - Lincoln
The Trail - Section 1
Stage 1. Lincoln to Washingborough
Stage 2. Washingborough to Branston
Stage 3. Branston to Potterhanworth
Stage 4. Potterhanworth to Nocton
Stage 5. Nocton to Dunston
Stage 6. Dunston to Metheringham
The Trail - Section 2
Stage 1. Metheringham to Blankney
Stage 2. Blankney to Scopwick
Stage 3. Scopwick to Digby
Stage 4. Digby to Dorrington
Stage 5. Dorrington to Ruskington
Stage 6. Ruskington to Sleaford
History | The Route
Section 1 - Stage 2
Washingborough to Branston
As we enter Branston we come first to the colourful village sign and the restored sheep wash area by the beck where there is new landscaping, seats and display panels about the restoration and the village trail. The adjacent café was once the village library and the village trail begins here at a plaque marking the site of a former fire station.
Branston has a lengthy entry in the Domesday Book as "Branztune" but had been settled since at least Saxon times, as evidenced by the Saxon masonry of All Saints tower, which occupies a commanding position overlooking the village. Like almost all old churches All Saints is very much a hybrid. The tower west door is largely Norman and the spire is in the Perpendicular style popular in the late C15th. The nave is earlier (C14th) and contains many lovely C15th benches carved with poppy heads and caricatures. And, much of the church was "restored" in 1876 by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
There is however one distinctly modern addition! On Christmas Day 1962 the chancel was very badly damaged by fire. It was rebuilt four years later in a sympathetic (but C20th) style with a striking east window, which Pevsner dismisses as "unhappily at odds" with the older church. Needless to say this opinion is hotly disputed by the locals and on the village website!
From 1680 to 1891, a continuous period of 211 years, Branston's rectors were members of the Curtois family; there were six of them in all so that is about thirty-five years apiece! They are commemorated in a plaque adjacent to the lower entrance to the church, fixed to the wall. The panel also makes a reference to the story that the family were also responsible for cock fighting in Branston. Across the road from All Saints is the grand redbrick Hainton House built by one of them, Peregine Curtois, in 1765. There are links too with "Mad" King George III. Doctor Francis Willis who treated and cured the king (who is now believed to have been suffering attacks of porphyria) was born in Lincoln where his father was a cathedral vicar and married a daughter of the Reverend John Curtois of Branston in 1749.
A short detour is described below to see Branston's waterwheel. This was constructed in 1879 to supply water to the houses of the local gentry. The first wheel was a wooden one with the present restored metal one replacing it in the early C20th; this remained in use until the 1960s when Branston got a mains water supply. One of the first houses to benefit was the "old" Branston Hall, then sited opposite the junction of Hall Lane and Waterwheel Lane. Branston seems to have been unlucky with fires for this too was burnt down in 1903. (There is a rebuilt house there now!) A "new" hall had already been built in 1884 and is now a prestigious hotel. On the way to the waterwheel we also pass the former Bertie Arms where a plaque records the meeting of the parish Enclosure Commissioners there in 1765.
DISTANCE : 2 3/4 miles : 4.5 kilometres.
REFRESHMENTS : Wagon and Horses, Branston.
Food for Thought café, Branston.
NOTES. There is room for some considerate street parking in the vicinity of the church but better is Ferry Lane, the "No Through Road" leading to the river and the old station (GR015708) or at Chapel Park (GR017708). Branston has both a village trail and an arts trail with leaflets available but details are also displayed by the restored sheep wash.
The Route
From St John the Evangelist in Washingborough continue uphill where High Street becomes Pitts Road. Cross the Park Lane junction with Pitts Road and enter the drive signed as a footpath bearing off slightly left, past the community carved seat depicting aspects of the village's story. Follow this as it becomes a surfaced path through Pits Wood and at the next road cross and turn left.
Take the first right turn (Millstream Road) and follow it as it curves to the left until reaching a footpath on the right between houses 14 and 16. Bear left behind their gardens continuing downhill until you see steps on the right up to the former GN & GEJR railway. Cross the tracks with care, descend the far side and keep forward to a road.
Walk along the footpath/cycleway parallel with the road and at the first bend bear left through a kissing gate keeping by the stream at the lower edge of a large meadow to another kissing gate, and just beyond that a 3 way footpath sign. Stay by the stream now as far as Cliffe Farm, pass a barn and continue (still by the stream) until you can cross it via a footbridge. A few yards uphill, at a path junction, go right along a field edge and into a lane (Paddock Lane) that leads into the centre of Branston. Cross the main road, pass the inn and bear left up to the church.
This short detour to the Branston waterwheel is worth doing and takes in several of the pieces created for the marvellous and informative Branston Village Trail, available as a separate walk. From the church walk along Church Road and turn right at the green into Hall Lane. On the green are three carved wooden seats by village residents who worked with artsNK's associate artist Denise Marshall. Continue along Hall Lane to pass the former Bertie Arms and you will shortly reach Waterwheel Lane on your left. Walk to the end and past a garden to see the wheel itself. Return the same way or explore more of Branston's delightful, meandering lanes.
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