www.lincolnshire.gov.uk
Tel: 01522 550990
thecollection@lincolnshire.gov.uk

The Hub is a National Centre for Craft and Design.
www.thehubcentre.org
Tel: 01529 308710
E-mail: hub@leisureconnection.co.uk

www.doddingtonhall.com
Tel: 01522 694308
E-mail: info@doddingtonhall.com

www.gainsborougholdhall.co.uk
E-mail: officalfoha@hotmail.com

www.lincolncathedral.com

www.lincolnshire.gov.uk
Tel: 01522 511068
E-mail: lincoln_castle@lincolnshire.gov.uk

www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Tel: 01526 342543
E-mail: tattershallcastle@nationaltrust.org.uk

www.castleuk.net/castle_lists_midlands/121/torkseycastle.htm

Torksey is an ancient village on the River Trent, near the junction of the Fossdyke Navigation with that River 11½ miles south of Gainsborough.  Its Parish is divided into the three townships of Torksey, Hardwick and Brampton, containing 3311 acres, and having 367 inhabitants in 1891.

Torksey is supposed to have been the Roman Station “Tionvulfingacester”, being the “Torchasium” of old chronicles, and the “Turkseige” of later Saxon times, and was built at the entrance of the Fossdyke to secure the navigation, and also as a store house for grain.  About the end of the first century In the Christian Era the Parish of Torksey was an important Roman Station, commanding the great river communication System which the Roman Conquerors of Britain opened up between Ipswich and Hull through the “Fossa” or canal, by means of which they connected the River Trent and the River Witham from Torksey to Lincoln.  During the Roman occupation and until the end of the fifth Century, it bore the name “Tionvulfingacester”, probably after the Centurion under whose direction the canal was built.

During the Saxon period it was called “Tunceris”, and in the reign of Edward the Confessor it was the second largest town in eastern England.  It was a burgh of considerable importance during the Saxon heptarchy.  Here Edwin, the Saxon King of Northumbria held His court when the Bishop Paulinus, in the presence of King Edwin and Queen Ethelburga, baptised his first five Saxon converts in the overflowing waters on the east bank of the Trent in the early part of the seventh Century.

In 1014 when the Danish King Sweyn was on his death bed at Gainsborough, in the presence and with the approbation of his chiefs, he nominated his son Canute (or Knut) to succeed him as King of England.  Later on, the Prince returned from Denmark with a powerful force, and in 1016 by the murder of the Saxon King Edmond Ironside, he made himself King of all England.  Canute’s commander, by name Tork (or Turk) took possession of the fortified island (about 10 acres in the River Trent) in the borough of Tunceris, and it is from his name it became Torksey or the Island of Tork.  Thus, its successive names contain the three great epochs of English history, the Roman, Saxon and Danish conquests.

The old town of Torksey is supposed to have been south of the present village, and to contain two churches.  A priory of Augustine Canons was founded here by King John and dedicated to St Leonard upon condition of the offering of a palfrey (a saddle horse) to the King.  Later Henry III bestowed upon it during the 19^th year of its reign 498 acres of land.

St Peter’s Church was formerly the same Chapel of St Leonards, and was built and endowed by King John about the year 1220.  In the church are preserved some stone coffins that were dug up on the old Priory site, also a stone on which is carved the effigy of Margaret de Multon who was Lady Abbess of St Mary’s Abbey, Torksey.