During January 2021, I am participating in Age UK’s ‘Run Your Age’ event by running a total of 51km. It would be great if you would SPONSOR ME to raise funds to support older people in Lincolnshire and across the UK!

On 3rd Jan, I ran from Uffington to Barholm via Casewick Hall. This was only 4.5km so I ran a little bit of the way back to bring my ‘running total’ to 18km.

[You may have noticed that I skipped the step from Tallington to Uffington. This is because I do not know of a safe, sensible and legal right of way to run between the two villages. I said in my previous post that I felt vulnerable running a stretch of the Stamford Road between Tallington and West Deeping; well, sadly, the A1175 leaving Tallington in the other direction is probably more dangerous with very little dedicated pavement for pedestrians and cycles until Copthill farm. I ran ‘there and back’ between the two villages last summer using the South bank of the river Uffington to Tallington which is not a designated public footpath and found parts were inaccessible other than across farmers’ sticky fields, certainly not a choice for January. On the way back from Tallington to Uffington I ran via Casewick Lane, Tallington, most of which I fear was private property. If anyone has a suggestion for another route, I would be happy to try it.]

So, this leg of my ‘tour’ started at St Michael and All Angels Church which currently displays a Christmas star above the village. I like Uffington Church having visited during the annual Uffington scarecrow festivals. One of the graves has some great biblical wisdom inscribed upon it.

Uffington appears to be a meeting point of the local nobility. In the church and around the village various families are celebrated: Earls of Lindsey (the 14th Earl currently lives in Ayrshire); the Trollope baronets of Casewick (the 17th Baronet and current heirs apparent all born in Australia); the Earls of Rutland (who later became Duke of Rutland residing at Belvoir Castle near Grantham); and Barons of Kesteven which I have found a bit confusing – the latest Baroness Kesteven appears to have been Margaret Thatcher but I am sure she is not related to those from Uffington. I am not really the most qualified to speak about the British aristocracy but on this particular run it is unavoidable.

Opposite the church is the school which has an inscription to George Augustus Frederick Albemarle Bertie, 10th Earl of Lindsey. Wikipedia has not been kind to him but the local pub is more friendly having been named ‘the Bertie Arms’ in honour of his family. Lady Charlotte Bertie appears to have been a particular ‘South Kesteven Woman of Achievement’ having given birth to ten children in 13 years, managed an ironworks (which produced the gates to the church), spoke or read eight languages and still found time to knit scarves for London cabbies!

There used to be another pub in the village called the Trollope Arms named after another enobled family which dominate the history of the rest of my route. The Trollope Arms was renamed the Gainsborough Lady but closed in 2006. I wonder if this name refers to the same Gainsborough Lady who is the subject of one of the magnificent oil paintings in Market Deeping Town Hall. I will edit this blog if and when I find out,

I ran through the village and up Casewick Lane which wend its way up to the gates of Casewick Hall (pronounced ‘Kasik’ or ‘Kazik’). It is said, by estate agents, that there has been a building at Casewick since the Domesday Book and by the 17th century there was a moated mansion. It was at this time that the property was adopted by the aforementioned Trollopes who had it ‘done up’ more fashionably over the next few centuries. The hall has now been split into a handful of smaller, perhaps more manageable dwellings but, from the outside at least, it still looks like a nice place to live.

After Casewick Hall, I crossed a couple of muddy fields to the railway track. The gate was locked even though the Lincs County Council Rights of Way website had no reported closure. It was clear that people were still crossing the line using a combination of the gaps in the fence and common sense, so I joined them and proceeded towards Barholm.

The footpath led to the Old Hall at Barholm which is still a Trollope family residence; inhabited by former Chair of Lincs County Council Martin Trollope-Bellew (Con) and his wife Rosemary Trollope-Bellew (Con) who is the current County Councillor for Deepings West and Rural. The couple have been so much involved in local politics that their engagement began at a Council meeting when, at the very end of his term as Chair of the Council, Martin asked Rosemary to marry him. It was very sweet and was caught on camera!

As you might expect, the Trollope family have been heavily involved in village history over the years and there are memorials in the church remembering Capt Thomas Trollope (3rd Baron Kesteven) who was killed during WW1 and to his nephew Lieut Anthony Trollope-Bellew who was a casualty of WW2 as well as the other men of Barholm who died in conflict.

The Trollope-Bellews are still supporters of the Cottesmore Hunt and though they might have disposed of Casewick Hall, they still appear to own a great deal of property in the area via the Barholm Estate including much of the village including the five horseshoes pub. The pub is a lovely traditional English pub and definitely worth a visit (after the pesky Covid has gone) although I personally prefer the Hare and Hounds in nearby Greatford.

Coun Mrs Trollope-Bellew also currently serves on South Kesteven District Council where she is Cabinet Member with portfolio for Culture. The Leader of SKDC, Coun Kelham Cooke (Con) also lives in the village so I guess, in some ways, this humble village remains a ‘seat of power’ in South Kesteven.