History of Old Woodhall

Old Woodhall (sometimes simply recorded as “Woodhall”) is the older, quieter neighbour of modern Woodhall Spa – a tiny rural settlement whose roots reach back into the medieval landscape of the Lincolnshire Wolds edge. It lies a few miles south-west of Horncastle and was historically a separate parish before later administrative changes folded it into the wider parish of Stixwould and Woodhall.

At the heart of Old Woodhall’s story is the site of Woodhall Hall, a medieval moated manor that survives today as earthworks and buried archaeology. Historic records describe it as a substantial manorial complex, with the moat forming part of a larger, now-lost arrangement of buildings and enclosures. The raised interior is important because it can preserve evidence of earlier land use beneath the medieval works.

Nearby stood the parish church of St Margaret, believed to date from the 14th century (or possibly earlier) and thought to have been connected with that manorial complex. In later centuries it remained a small country church (with 19th-century restorations noted in local historical listings), but by the late 20th century it had fallen into disuse. The Diocese of Lincoln declared it redundant in 1971, and it was demolished soon after (with the churchyard retained).

Old Woodhall never grew into a sizeable village. Even in 1961 the parish population was recorded as just 123, reflecting a landscape of farms and scattered buildings rather than a dense settlement. One of the notable survivals is Darwood House, a farmhouse with 15th-century origins (later altered), hinting at the area’s long agricultural continuity.

When Woodhall Spa expanded in the 19th century as a planned “spa” village, it effectively eclipsed Old Woodhall in size and profile—leaving Old Woodhall as the historic core, and the Spa as the later, purpose-built successor community.