Huttoft

Huttoft is listed three times in the 1086 Domesday Book as Hotoft,^[3] in the manors of both Huttoft and Greetham in the Calcewath Hundred of the South Riding of Lindsey. The combined listings record more than 19 households and 20 villagers, 23 smallholders, 69 freemen, 20 ploughlands, and meadows of 860 acres (3.5 km²). Before the Norman Conquest Earl Harold was lord of Greetham; in 1086 it was transferred to Earl Hugh of Chester, who also became tenant-in-chief to King William I. The 1086 tenant-in-chief of Huttoft was Alfred of Lincoln.^[4]

Huttoft is an Anglo-Norse place-name derived from Old English hoh ‘decline’, ‘slope’ and Old Norse topt ‘site of a house’. The Dictionary of British Place Names defines Huttoft as a ‘homestead on a spur of land".^[5] De Beaurepaire states that it is the same name as the Hottot; Hotot (e.g. Hotot-en-Auge); Hautot (former Hotot, e.g. Hautot-sur-Seine) in Normandy.^[6]

St Margaret's Church is in the decorated style,^[7] and is a Grade I listed building of greenstone and limestone with some brick patching. Restorations took place in 1869, 1882 and 1910. The west tower is 13th century, although it was extended in the 14th century. The font is 15th century and the cover is 19th century.^[8] The churchyard cross is Grade II listed,^[9] restored in 1896 with the addition of a crucifix.^[10]

The Poet Laureate John Betjeman (1906–1984) was fond of Lincolnshire: wolds, marsh and the Georgian town of Louth. He refers to St Margaret's, Huttoft, in the second of his Lincolnshire poems, A Lincolnshire Church.^[11] This is one of his longer poems and also mentions the vicar of 1943–1959, Theophilus Caleb, whom he met.

The Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Sutton Road joined the Alford, Skegness and Wainfleet Methodist Circuit in 1997.^[12]

The Primitive Methodists also had a chapel, in Church Lane, which was on the Alford Methodist circuit until 1963 and has since been demolished, but its graveyard remains.^[13]

Huttoft windmill, in the centre of the village, is Grade II listed.^[14] It lost its sails in 1945 in a storm after a century of milling.^[15]

Huttoft School was built as a National School in 1840 and enlarged in 1874. It was known as Huttoft CE School by 1914 and became Huttoft County Primary in 1947. It became a grant-maintained school and has been known as Huttoft Primary (GM) School since 1999.^[16]

Huttoft Bank Pit, some 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of the village, is a nature reserve protected by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. It provided clay for repairs to the sea bank after the North Sea flood of 1953. It includes a large area of open water and extensive reed beds.^[18] Huttoft Bank leads to Huttoft Beach, also known as Moggs Eye. The coastal path links to Anderby and Chapel Point in the south and Sandilands to the north.^[19][20]

Huttoft is the location of the Radcliffe Donkey Sanctuary.

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  Moggs Eye
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  Primitive Methodist cemetery
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  Huttoft sign