Kirkstead, anciently called Cristed, is situated on the east bank of the Witham, in the hundred of Gartree, and is about three miles distant from Tattershall, and eight from Horncastle. Formerly it was a hamlet of Kirkby super Bane, but for many years it has been considered as a separate parish.

Kirkstead Chapel

The manor, with that of Tattershall, was among the several estates given by the conqueror to Eudo, one of his Norman followers. His son Hugh fitz Eudo, called the Breton, founded a Cistertian Abbey here in 1139, and endowed it with his possessions in this place. Afterwards the monks, considering the situation unhealthy, petitioned Robert, the son of the founder, to allow them to remove the abbey to some other place; but though they obtained permission, yet it does not appear that the affair was proceeded in any further. The abbey had subsequently many benefactors, and acquired very extensive possessions.At the dissolution of religious houses, the Kirkstead estate was given by Henry the eighth, to Charles Duke of Suffolk; and on the division of his estates after the death of his two sons, who survived him but a short time, it reverted to the king as one of the heirs general of the family, and was subsequently given to Lord Clinton and Saye, afterwards Earl of Lincoln. This estate descended to Mr. Daniel Disney, in right of his wife Catherine, the youngest daughter of Henry Fynes Clinton, Esquire, and grand-daughter of the second Earl of Lincoln. In the year 1792 it was sold by Mr. Disney Fytch, grandson of Mr. Daniel Disney, to the present possessor, Richard Ellison, Esquire, of Sudbroke Holme, near Lincoln.

Of the Abbey a small ruin only remains: but from a plate of “The Ichnography of the Monastery of Kirsted Linc.” in Stukeley’s Itinerarium Curiosum, the buildings appear to have been extensive.

South of the ruin of the Abbey is the Chapel, a very curious building, which according to tradition was built previous to the monastery. It is of early English architecture, having lancet windows at the sides and east end, and an ox-eye window over the entrance at the west end. The roof is beautifully groined, the ribs springing from corbel tables; and against the south wall on the inside, is a rude figure in stone of a knight templar, with the front part of his helmet in the shape of a cross. For many years the roof of this building was covered with thatch, but in 1790 it was removed and a covering of tiles substituted. At that time also the bell, which had previously hung in a tree, was placed over the west end of the building.

This chapel is a donative of exempt jurisdiction, but appears to have had no stipend for the officiating minister until it came into the possession of Mr. Daniel Disney, who being a presbyterian, appointed a minister of that persuasion to perform service there, with a salary of £30. per annum. [81] In order that the tenets which he professed might not want support in his parish, in 1720 he settled certain lands upon five trustees, the profits of which were to be applied to the maintenance of a presbyterian minister at this place. This gift he afterwards confirmed by his will in 1732, and in addition, bequeathed to the trustees the use of the chapel and chapel ground for the same purpose. On the death or alienation of the minister, the trustees were to present the names of two to the lord of the manor, who was to appoint one of them, and on his neglect or refusal, the trustees themselves were to make the appointment. Ministers continued to be nominated by the prescribed form until the death of Mr. Dunkley, who had for many years received the bequeathed stipend, and whose demise took place in 1794. On that occasion the present owner of the manor took possession of the estates which had been conveyed to the trustees, and appointed to the chapel a minister of the Church of England, paying him £30. per annum. The trustees, however, recovered possession of the estates, by an action of ejectment, tried at Lincoln summer assizes, 1812, but not of the Chapel. Owing to some difficulties in the arrangement of the affairs, the presbyterian form of worship is not yet re-established here.

This village gave birth to the celebrated monk Hugh de Kirkstead, who is styled by Fuller “a Benedictine Cistertian Bernardine Monk, or, as it may be termed a treble refined Christian.” He, and Serlo, one of his own order, joined in composing a chronicle of the Cistertians from their first arrival in England in 1131, to their own time, about 1210.

In the fourteenth volume of the “Archeologia of the Society of Antiquaries” is an engraving of an ancient iron candlestick of a very singular construction, six of which were found in cleaning the bed of the river Witham near this place.

This village contained, according to the returns of 1811, 26 houses and 110 inhabitants.