Horncastle, Lincolnshire

Thursday 24th August 2023

We visited Horncastle on the way to our next stopover on the Yorkshire coast. Horncastle is an ancient settlement, some of the town walls date back to Roman times. Having never visited before, we did not know what to expect and what we found was a pleasant, if unremarkable market town, with some interesting buildings which provide evidence of more prosperous times:

The ornate ex-bank building on the corner of Banks St:

In the 19th century, Overton’s Corner grocers store which has had many uses since, which are illustrated in the window. It is currently empty and in a semi-derelict condition.

St Marys Church in the town, dates from the early 13th century and is a grade II listed building:

As with many churches of this period, there are numerous “heads in the stone”. I have always been fascinated by these and wonder if they are portraits of real people of the time:

Visiting with a Motorhome:

Access is no particular problem, but parking can be. We visited on market day, so we arrived early to ensure the best chance of parking. We had identified the Tesco car park and managed to find a “drive through”, but this meant we needed to pay for 2 spaces on the pay and display, which only accepts cards. Tesco redeem your car parking charges, so we took a ticket each to the store where a minimum spend of £3.50 applied. Still not too bad really. After wandering around the town, the car park was noticeably busier on our return.