St Mary, Thoresway
The church of St Mary dates from the Norman period. It was extensively refurbished by Fowler in 1889-90 and has an unusual (for Lincolnshire) clapper board bell cote.
St Mary is located at the centre of the village and is built of yellow sandstone. It was extensively rebuilt by James Fowler in 1889-80, incorporating into its interior the 13-century arcade of the former church. The Norman arch from the original tower can be found on the west side of the building and the northern doorway is of a Transitional (1150-1200) style.
The current clapper board bell-cote with its shingled spire would look more in place on a Parish Church in East Sussex than this part of England.
The nave arcades are late 13th century (Pevsner 1989,pp757). A little older are seven floor stones, three of them enriched with floriated crosses. One marked the grave of Johannes de Gothmvndham (John de Gothmund), who was a rector of the church around I300.The inscription actually says: ‘+ lohannes de Gothmvndham quondam rector istivs ecclesie’
The slab itself seems to be made of an English marble, probably ‘Purbeck Marble’ from Dorset. Whilst we can tell from the style of the letter-cutting that it belongs to a group of monuments that were made in London. This monument shows how wide Thoresway’s connections were at this period. We don’t know where John de Gothmund came from but Gothmund is a village in Germany, near Lubeck.
The cache is at N 53 AB.CDE W 000 FG.HJK It is a small bison type tube. Bring your own pen.
Three children of the Young family on the same monument.
A = Sarah Ann who died on the A2 Jan 1841
B = John died 183B
C = Elizabeth died in which month, numerically.
D = How old was Elizabeth when she died.
E = Sarah Ann & Elizabeth died in 184E
Kenneth Henry Middleton
FG = Date he died divided by 2
H = The year he was born 192H
Edmund Blackburn
J = His age at death divided by 22
K – Brenda May wife of Edmund died 20K6