Scopwick Trail
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Look for the path going down the E side of no 107 Main St (the barn conversion). The waymarkers will take you first N across Burnett (or Bonnet’s or Bennett’s) Close, the E between the Great Close West of 1799 (L) and Ten Acres Close (R). Look out for the view of Blankney Church, which stands near the remains of Blankney Hall. Notice the new hedges and infill of old hedges, both here and more generally on the walk. This area was mostly pasture because it is heavy land and that is why it was enclosed early from open field strips. Originally it was intended that the railway line would pass through these fields on its way from Lincoln to Sleaford, but the squire of Blankney insisted on a course further away from the Hall and his brood mares. The line was built in 1882 further E, on the other side of Kirby Green, and is still open, although Scopwick & Timberland station is long closed
After the foot-bridge between 2 fields, the last stretch of path before reaching Acre Lane is between Great Close East (L) and a field in Kirby Green ancient parish also call Ten Acres (R). The medieval farmer did not use the term ‘strips’, which is a text-book ‘invention’, using instead dialect words, often in Lincolnshire ‘acre’ or ‘land’, that is, a piece of ploughed land originally very approximately 1 acre in size. This was the amount that could be ploughed in a day by an ox-team, which walked 11 miles to do it. So Acre Lane led to the open fields of Kirby and Scopwick which here intermingled, lending support to the idea that the 2 communities started out as 1.
On reaching Acre Lane, you can see to the S the roofs of the church and Manor Farm, Kirkby Green with the super-slender church tower and spire beyond at Rowston. Eastwards is the railway line built in 1882, with a water tank beyond on Metheringham old airfield; on good days the Wolds are seen in the distance. Turn L northwards on Acre Lane; L is Great Close East in Scopwick and R is Middle Acres in Kirkby. In the distance half right is Scopwick Lowfield Farm and straight ahead across the fields is a cart shed standing on the boundary of Scopwick and Blankney. On a line between them is Brickyard Farm in front of a small wood, the big wood further away being Blankney Barff Wood on the N side of Metheringham airfield.
At the corner of Great Close turn L into Trundle Lane to get back to Scopwick. This is part of the long distance droving route which once went from the heaths of Scopwick, Blankney, Metheringham and Temple Bruer down to Martin Fen, and across the River Witham at Kirkstead Ferry. In the middle ages wool was collected at the Kirkstead Abbey woolhouse ready for export through Boston.
The water tank in Trundle Lane is a landmark for miles around as it was erected to get water to run by gravity to Lowfield Farm from a well in the field nearby, up which it was drawn by a windpump. These arrangements were made in the early 1940s, and the tank is really a secondhand boiler placed on its pedestal by only two men using a steam engine with a hoist. Nearby is a very recent sculpture - is it a Mother Earth figure, and are you small enough to sit on her knee comfortably! Other field names about here are Barley Furze (or Furrows), Cow Close, Forty Acres and North Plot (see map).
Further on one encounters high voltage power lines erected as part of the then new National Grid in the early 1930s, with help from local labourers. The supply to the village had been put in from Metheringham by the Mid-Lincolnshire Electricity Supply Co in the late 1920s, using smaller wooden poles still to be seen crossing the lane. Electrical installations and appliances were expensive in those days for ordinary people, but Scopwickians were eventually won over by a package deal from Co-op for whole-house lighting and two 5-amp sockets.
At its first corner, Trundle Lane is joined by routes from Blankney (N) and Bloxholm Lane (W); notice the replacements for small hunting gates, complete with catches designed to be used by people on horseback. At the next corner you will find yourself back in Vicarage Lane. We hope you have enjoyed a peaceful walk around some of the sights of Scopwick.
