Neolithic

The earliest archaeological evidence of settlement in Nocton Parish are finds of the Neolithic and the Iron Ages. A possible early Neolithic flint core was recovered in 2011 from Nocton Fen from which flint blades had been napped.^[8][9] A Neolithic polished stone axe was discovered close to the future site of Nocton Hall in its grounds opposite Manor Farm, in 1909,^[10][11]

Bronze Age

There is some limited evidence of Bronze Age occupation. A negative cropmark indicates the presence of a Bronze Age round barrow approximately 500 metres south of Abbey Hill.^[12][13] Two Deverel-Rimbury urns dating from 1600 – 1100 BC were found locally in 1882, possibly in Nocton Fen.^[14]

Iron Age

There is archaeological evidence of Iron Age (800 BC - AD 44) settlement and activity in Nocton that was then in the territory of the Brythonic Celtic tribal federation of the Corieltauvi. Iron Age scored pottery sherds containing animal bones were found both at the Neolithic site and to the south-western edge of the village^[15] along the bridleway to Dunston.^[16][17] The Archaeological and Historical Sites Index also records the presence of an Iron Age settlement and rectilinear enclosures to the north-east of the village^[18] although Iron Age Britons lived in round houses with conical thatched roofs of straw or heather that left few archaeological remains.^[19]

Roman era

The Romans were present in the area of Nocton although no sizeable occupation has yet been discovered here. Their legacy in Nocton is most strongly visible in the Car Dyke Romano-British canal that runs along the western fen edge from Lincoln to Peterborough linking the River Witham to the River Welland and forming part of an ancient fen drainage system. It is thought to have been constructed by the Romans, possibly around 125 AD.^[20] It is the dividing line between the limestone uplands of the west and the fenlands of the east of the parish, the strip between Car Dyke and the River Witham at the eastern extreme of Nocton Parish once being known as the Witham Peat Fen.^[21] Two Roman clay coin moulds were found in 1811 in the bed of Car Dyke at the north end of Nocton Wood, close to Wasps Nest.^[22] The moulds are identified as belonging to Constantine the Great (AD307–337) and his mother Helena and copies of copper alloy folles, now located at the British Museum. Other archaeological discoveries in Nocton include a beehive quern-stone,^[23] the site of a Roman settlement and cropmark and a Roman coin hoard.^[18]

A Roman road or track was thought to run South-North through Nocton. Its conjectured course starts in Metheringham and follows the course of Dunston Road to Dunston before continuing to Nocton and aligning with the western boundary of Nocton Hall's garden, then aligning with Potterhanworth Road.<^[16]

Anglo-Saxon

The Anglo-Saxon era began in the fifth century with evidence of settlement in Lincolnshire dating from as early as 450. However it is considered that the area around Lincoln continued to be culturally and/or politically dominated by its former Romano-British inhabitants with their culture and institutions only gradually declining through the fifth century with the label 'Anglo-Saxon' potentially becoming more generally appropriate towards the end of the sixth century. Dr Caitlin Green proposes^[24] that the former Romano-Britons of Lincoln continued to control a large area around the city into at least the early sixth century which would likely have included the area of Nocton.

There was an Anglo-Saxon settlement at Nocton whose name is derived from the Old English words 'hnoc tun', meaning 'village of the wether sheep'.^[17] From the early days of the Anglo-Saxon era Nocton was located close to the boundary between Anglian tribal confederations and in turn kingdoms. There is no specific evidence for the location of the southern frontier of the minor Anglian Kingdom of Lindsey in relation to Outer Mercia as mentioned in the seventh-century Tribal Hidage however by 678 control and overlordship of Lindsey passed to Mercia from the Kingdom of Deira.^[25] It is likely that elements of the Great Heathen Army passed through Nocton in September 870 after destroying Bardney Abbey, crossing the River Witham from Lindsey into Kesteven before travelling south towards Peterborough.^[26]

By the late tenth century Nocton fell within the Langoe Wapentake within the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. By the eleventh century at the time of the coming of the Normans the settlement comprised 39 families and a church. All but one of 24 carucates of taxable land was owned by Ulf of Nocton who also owned 12 carucates in Dunston that was a jurisdiction of Nocton. Oswulf of Faldingworth owned the remaining carucate^[27][28] Remains of the medieval settlement were found^[29] along Main Street and the church and churchyard^[30] were traced to the south-west of the current Nocton Hall.

Norman

In the Domesday Survey of 1086 Nochetune (Nocton) was held in its entirety by Norman de Arci (later written d’Arcy), Lord of Nocton. Nocton’s entry in the Domesday Book put it in the largest 20% of settlements recorded in England.^[31] D'Arcy was allotted 33 parishes, also holding land in Dunston, Timberland, Kirkby Green and Scopwick.^[32] The previous Anglo-Saxon landlords had given place to Norman at some time between 1066 and 1086 and d’Arcy’s descendants held the property for 23 generations until the 1600s.

The d'Arcy family had established a deer park at some time between 1086 and the early twelfth century and it became known as Nocton Park.^[33] Norman lords imported a craze for deer parks after 1066, their number growing from 37 to as many as 3000 by the fourteenth century. Deer parks were created in an area of the manor not under cultivation, hayfields or coppiced woods.^[34]

In the early twelfth century, around 1140, Norman d’Arcy’s son Robert granted the church at Nocton to the Benedictines of St Mary's Abbey, York and some land to the Carthusians of Kirkstead Abbey. He also founded Nocton Park Priory, which stood about a mile east of the village on a hill overlooking Car Dyke, in or near the existing deer park, for the canons of the Augustinian Order who arrived in England from 1108. Its location on Abbey Hill remains evident in the shape of the ground.^[35] The grant was reconfirmed by Robert’s grandson, also called Norman, in a charter dated 17 Jun 1218.^[36] Nocton Park Priory was smaller and poorer than the other houses of the Witham Valley and never numbered more than nine canons.^[37]

The long, parallel fields of Nocton Fen between Car Dyke and the modern course of the River Witham were the result of the division of wetlands that had its peak in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Common fen or marsh pasture was partitioned between tenants to provide land for grazing and arable; these long strip-like fields of enclosed fen were known as 'dales'.^[38] Before 1331 the dales on Nocton Fen belonged to Bardney Abbey, having been granted by Mabel, wife of Andrew Pincetun of Nocton.^[39]

Middle Ages

Georgian era

In the first four decades of the eighteenth century, Sir Richard Ellys of Nocton formed a collection of books which eventually went to Blickling Hall in Norfolk by inheritance in the 1740s, though most of the books were kept in London. They form the core of the library of some 12,500 books now in the care of the National Trust.

Land improvement and industry

Alongside changes to the village, George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire invested in the drainage of Nocton Fen. In around 1794 he paid for a windmill which pumped water from the fen into the River Witham until it was superseded in 1834 by a 40 bhp steam engine powerful enough to drain the fen faster than water ingress.^[35] A windmill for grain was erected^[45] on Nocton Heath before 1824 approximately 200 metres west of the B1188 Lincoln Road / B1202 Main Street junction^[46] and was taken down in 1827 to be replaced by a new mill at Mill Corner, approximately 700 metres to the east^[47][48] at the junction of the B1202 and Old Sleaford Road. The second mill burned down after 6 years in service in October 1833; its replacement on the same site was pulled down in 1904.

Twentieth century

Nocton Estates Light Railway was constructed in 1926 and used to transfer potatoes to the railhead at Dunston and sugar beet to a factory at Bardney. The light railway rolling stock and track were originally used to move munitions and troops to the front line in the First World War. The village shared the Nocton and Dunston railway station (GNR/GER Joint) until it was closed in 1955. Trains still run on the route from Lincoln to Sleaford but do not stop for goods or passengers at the old Nocton and Dunston station. There was a rail accident on this line on 28 February 2002 when a van fell onto the railway line and was hit by an oncoming train, killing the driver.

A survey of the East Midlands Oilfields including blocks around Nocton in 1943 resulted in short-lived production from a well – Nocton-2^[49] – drilled by d'Arcy Oil Company during 1943–1945 amounting to 521 barrels in total, described as a major disappointment.^[50][51] Oil was also found in Nocton in the 1960s.

Nocton Dairies (Nocton Heath)

A planning application was submitted in December 2009, later revised and resubmitted in November 2010, to build a 3,770-cow dairy on Nocton Heath that was described as a 'battery farm' for cows.^[62] Known as the Nocton Dairies controversy it attracted significant local and national opposition including an Early Day Motion signed by 172 MPs in the House of Commons on 8 March 2010. The application was withdrawn and abandoned, citing Environment Agency objections.^[63]

Nocton Wind Farm (Nocton Fen)

In October 2013 Vattenfall Wind Power Limited proposed the construction of a wind farm of around 23 turbines reaching a maximum blade tip height of up to 149.5m, with a total installed capacity of up to 69MW at Nocton Fen.^[64] The proposal was strongly opposed by local residents citing concerns for wildlife, additional traffic and subsonic noise who organised into an action group called Protect Nocton Fen.^[65] The group canvassed 449 attendees of six public information sessions in June 2015 finding that 79% of local residents opposed the development.^[66] The application was withdrawn by Vattenfall in July 2015 citing changes in government policy introduced that "increased risk" into the project.'^[67]