Whitton, North Lincolnshire
Whitton is an
English village of about 170 inhabitants in
North Lincolnshire. It is located at the northern termination of the Cliff range of hills, on the south shore of the
River Humber, about 3 miles below Trent Falls, and 9 miles west of
Barton upon Humber. The parish is bounded on the west by
Alkborough, on the east by
Winteringham and, to the south, by
West Halton.
Whitton may have originated at the time the
Romans crossed the Humber northward in
71 AD; first as a military camp and then later as a
Roman villa, overlooking the river, with its temple a few yards to the east, where the Church now stands. It is perhaps possible that Whitton was a landing stage on the south bank for the Roman fort and
civitas of
Petuaria Parisorum at
Brough across the river.
Roman Coins of
Claudius Gothicus (268-270 AD) and
Constantine I (the Great) (309-337AD) have been found in the fields.
Nikolaus Pevsner tells us (
The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, London, 1989, p.797) that the Church tower 're-uses massive blocks of Roman stone', but these blocks of millstone grit which are to be found in several local churches (for example neighbouring
Winteringham) may have been sailed down the
Ouse and the
Humber from
York where Roman buildings were being dismantled or may even have come from some sort of triumphal arch or structure (perhaps like the
Arch of Constantine), which might have stood at the end of
Ermine Street.
*
Notes on the History of Whitton Village*
North Lincs Council*
Whitton, St John the Baptist Church
