South Witham is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,533. It is situated south of Grantham, 10 miles east of Melton Mowbray and north of Oakham. The village is close to the Leicestershire and Rutland borders.
History
The village takes its name from the River Witham which rises nearby. But the origin of the word Witham is still unknown. The village has until recently also been spelt as "South Wytham".
Richard Troughton was the Bailiff of South Witham; he was imprisoned by charges brought against him by Thomas Wymberley, partly due to Troughton's part in the Duke of Northumberland's attempt to put Lady Jane Grey, Northumberland's daughter-in-law, on the throne. Instead of Lady Jane, Mary I of England became Queen, when Edward VI of England died in July 1553. John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland was accused of treason for his plot.
In 1966, the Royal Air Force built a large housing estate on the opposite side of the River Witham. The houses were intended for servicemen at RAF Cottesmore, but were taken instead by personnel at RAF North Luffenham. The village trebled in size virtually overnight, and the primary school was similarly increased in size. A NAAFI was provided for the forces' families.
1973 Canberra crash
On Thursday 2 August 1973 at around 11 pm, Canberra B2 WJ674 of 231 OCU crashed in the field east of The Fox public house, near Woodbine Farm in North Witham parish.
Three sets of fire crew from RAF Cottesmore arrived, with three other civilian sets from Grantham, Stamford and Corby. The first RAF fire crew had exited the airfield from the crash gate 1 near Greetham, Rutland.
John Stafford heard two distinct bangs (the ejection seats being fired) and an intense flash of light, and called emergency services. Flt Lt John Dennis was killed, aged 26, the pilot, and married from Crantock near Newquay, with a 10-month old baby; he was on attachment on the No.50 course at Cottesmore from RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall. Flt Lt Max Murray, the survivor aged 38, was a navigator, with a 13 year old son, and a daughter.
Vincent Davies, who owned The Fox also called the police, and ran to the scene, and spoke to the pilot before he died, a few minutes later. Pathologist Trevor Spencer said the pilot died from multiple fractures, mainly to the ribs, legs, and pelvis. The dead pilot was found by policeman Brian Parrish, and taken to the RAF Medical Centre at RAF Spitalgate in Grantham. The ejection seats were fired when the aircraft was at 700 feet.
John Dennis's wife Michèle died in 2012. WJ674 was the first of the last batch of Canberras made by Handley Page, and entered service on 26 October 1954.
Super dairy
In 2010 a plan for a super-dairy with almost 3,000 cows was withdrawn after concerns expressed by residents.
Geography
South Witham is bisected by the River Witham, about to the east of its source. It is the point on the A1 where it enters Lincolnshire from the south, near The Fox Inn. The parish of acres borders Thistleton and Rutland to the south, and the boundary to the west meets Wymondham, Leicestershire at Thistleton Gap. The parish includes the Forty Acre Wood to the north-west, where it borders Gunby. The boundary goes due east to meet North Witham parish at the first undulation in the road northwards.
Crossing the road, the boundary goes due eastwards to meet the A1, which it then follows due south on the east side of the road. The boundary goes through The Fox, with North Witham parish to the east, to a point just south of the A1 interchange. The A1 was upgraded in early August 1971, through Rutland, to Tickencote (built by Rutland County Council). Before the road was improved, the South Witham crossroads on the A1 lay at the point where the sliproads join today.
Nearby to the south was RAF Cottesmore, and the village was the centre of the flight path circuit.
Quarrying
Quarrying began in the village when the railway was built in the 1890s. The geology of the area is 40 cm of topsoil, 32 metres of brown clay (Oadby Till, from Anglian glaciation), 10 metres of limestone (Lincolnshire Limestone Formation), 4 metres of Lower Estuarine Clay (Grantham Formation), 6 metres of ironstone (Northampton Sand Formation), then 7 metres of Upper Lias Clay (Whitby Mudstone).