Blankney is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 251. The village is situated approximately 9 miles (14 km) south from the city and county town of Lincoln and 9 miles north from Sleaford.
Blankney is a small stone-built estate village, built around the large estate of Blankney Hall.
According to the 2001 Census, the population was 239.
Blankney has existed at least since the time of William the Conqueror, when it belonged to the major land-owner Walter D'Aincourt.
The place-name 'Blankney' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Blachene. It is listed as Blancaneia in 1157 in Early Yorkshire Charters, and as Blankenei in 1202 in the Assize Rolls. The name is the Old English blancan ēg, thought to mean 'Blanca's island'.
In the 15th century the estate passed through marriage to the Lovels of Titchmarsh. After the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487, all the estates of the Lovels were confiscated by Henry VII for the crown, and the Blankney Estate was then bought by the Thorold family. It was the Thorolds who did much to embellish the house with carved panelling of the period.
During the reign of Charles I, again through marriage it passed into the hands of Sir William Widdrington who was created Baron Widdrington of Blankney in 1643. Lord Widdrington's great grandson, William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington had the indiscretion to take part in the Jacobite rising of 1715. He was captured at Preston, convicted of high treason and his lands were confiscated in the following year.
In 1719 Thomas Chaplin, a prominent Lincolnshire landowner, purchased the land from the Crown Commissioners for Confiscated Land, and it was to remain in the family for over two centuries. The estate owes its appearance largely to the influence of the Chaplins and their care of the land. The last Chaplin, Henry, led an extravagant lifestyle and had political ambitions; this lifestyle coupled to the falling revenues from farms led him ever into debt until finally in 1892, the estate passed to the principal mortgagee William Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough.
At the start of the Second World War the Hall was requisitioned for use as billets for servicemen from nearby RAF stations. During 1945 it was badly damaged by fire and was then left as an empty shell before being demolished in the 1960s. All that remains today are the dilapidated remnants of the former stable block.
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