Obthorpe

Obthorpe is a hamlet just off the A15 three miles south of Bourne and within the parish of Thurlby. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 when the income from four acres of meadow was paid annually to Peterborough Abbey. 

Over the past 1,000 years it has been known variously as Obthorp(1075), Opetorpe (1086), Ubetorp(1204) and Obbethorpe (1331). The actual meaning is Ubbi’s secondary settlement from the Old Norse Ubbi and Old Danish thorp. The community has always been a small one and there were only seven families living here when a count was made between 1562 and 1567, but it is one with religious associations for there is evidence of a monastery in past centuries and perhaps a nunnery.

Today, it remains little more than a collection of houses and farm buildings but is now set amid a treeless landscape of large prairie style fields devoted to cereal production. The biggest house is the former Obthorpe Manor, now Manor Farm, and the stone half of the building dates back to 1580 while the red brick addition was made during the early 19th century. The farm today is owned by Mr Colin Gray and has been in his family since 1920 when it was purchased by his grandfather.