Nocton

Coordinates: 53°09′54″N 0°25′08″W / 53.165020°N 0.418838°W / 53.165020; -0.418838

Nocton is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the B1202 road, 7 miles (11 km) south-east from Lincoln city centre. To the east of the village is Nocton Fen with its small settlement of Wasps Nest. At the south of the village are the remains of Nocton Hall, and 1 mile (2 km) to the east the earthwork remains of Nocton Park Priory.

History

Historically Nocton fell within the Langoe Wapentake of Kesteven until the wapentakes were abolished by the Local Government Act of 1888.

In the first four decades of the 18th 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.

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.