All Saints can be reached by walking on the Viking Way. St Mary's is the newer church and is located on the Market Rasen road in the village. In 1086 the village was known as Walesbi, but by 1196 it was Walebi, from the Old Norse name ‘Valr' and ‘by' which is Old Danish for farmstead or village. However there is a school of thought that it was named after the Hundred (Wapentake) where it was locat
ed that being Walshcroft. You get to the village either by driving along the Caistor High Street from the Horncastle direction passing through Bully Hill Crossroads which leads to Tealby and Binbrook carrying on and turning next left down Walesby Hill. You can also approach it from the Market Rasen direction heading along the B1203 Tealby Road and turning left onto the Rasen Road into Walesby. When you enter the village you can see several houses that are built with the local limestone, which is paler than the ironstone which was also mined locally. To visit All Saints church which is known as the ‘Ramblers church' you have to follow the signs for the Viking Way, and be prepared for a steep climb. It is said that the reason for the church being redundant is that the locals complained of the climb they had to make to go to church, so a second church was built. Mary's church was being built an iron church was erected for 140 persons and it was licensed by the Bishop of Lincoln. The iron refers to the corrugated iron from which this type of building was built, they were possibly supplied in kit form, most were demolished but the ones that remain are listed buildings. When you reach All Saints church you are rewarded with a view over the Lincoln Plains, where the Cathedral as well as the power stations along the River Trent can be seen. Directly in front of the church is open access land, there is also a beacon that was erected in 1988 as part of the 400th anniversary of the victory of the English fleet over the Spanish Armada. The Red Arrows aerial display team can sometimes be seen practising in the distant skies. It is said the church is sited on a ceremonial Viking site, there was certainly a Roman villa nearby as excavations have discovered it. The villa appears to have been built in the fourth century and may have been a centre for early Christian belief, artefacts have been found including a lead tank depicting a possible Christian baptism scene. All Saints church escaped nineteenth century restoration as it had become redundant, it later avoided being demolished. The tower is mainly thirteenth century; two of its eight bells are from medieval times. Inside the church there is a canopied Jacobean pulpit and a white painted rood-loft, with the old rood stairway behind the pulpit. The church was used as a barn during the Second World War, and various groups including The Grimsby Wanderlust Rambling Club in the 1940s, and ‘The Friends of the Old Walesby Church' in the 1970s ensured its survival. There have been some illustrious rectors for All Saints including Robert Burton (1577-1640) whose most famous work is ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy' subtitled ‘What is it, with all the kinds, causes, prognostickes, and several cures for it'. It was accepted as an exceptional piece of English prose. Burton however owned the livings at Walesby and curates carried out his parish duties. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) was also a rector of the parish. In 1819 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and was one of the ten associates of the Royal Society of Literature. In 1834 he was co-founder of the Statistical Society of London. His most famous work was ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population' published in 1798, where he argued that the increase in population would diminish the ability of the world to feed itself. He also would have had a pastor carry out parish duties. Daniel Waterland was the son of Rector Henry Waterland and was born at Walesby Rectory in 1683. He was educated at Cambridge University and took orders becoming Master of Magdalene College in 1713, Chancellor of York in 1722 and Archdeacon of Middlesex in 1730. The new parish church of St Mary is situated in the village and was the enduring legacy of Perceval Laurence who was the rector for thirty-four years. The tragic part was that although he was responsible for the project to build the church he died in 1913 on the day the building work commenced. The church itself has a central arcade with shafted pillars to the ridge, there are two fifteenth century windows set in front of newer ones in the chancel and vestry. The medieval font was brought from the old church. There are several good walks starting from the village and up to All Saints church which is a steep climb; it carries on past Risby with the herd of Lincolnshire Longwool sheep and onto Tealby. If you pass the village hall you can continue up to Highfield Farm and eventually on to Otby, this walk then loops round finishing at the Old Walesby Mill site which has an open access area. If you continue past the entrance that follows the Viking Way to the Ramblers church you will see a squeeze stile on your left; this will lead you through to Catskin Lane and then onto the Walesby Road and onto Tealby. Extract from an article by Peter Skipworth in Lincolnshire Life magazine.
