The name ‘Hamby’ came from Hamby, now Hanby, a hamlet in the parish of Welton Le Marsh (Welton-on-the-Marsh) in Lincolnshire, England. The name Hamby means Hundi’s farm in old Norse/Danish. The ‘m’ and ‘n’ were interchangeable. The site in Lincolnshire, where the original motte and bailey castle stood, still has the remains of a moat. The large manor, known as Hanby Hall or Hanby farm, was probably built around the 14th century.
The following is from Historic England/Pastscape:
“The lost village of Hanby was represented by Hanby Hall, an ancient farm-house surrounded by a moat within which foundations of earlier buildings have been traced. Hanby Hall which stood within a manorial moat. In the NE corner of the moated area are the remains of associated fishponds. About 300 yards from Hamby Hall is a large tumulus or barrow, called Castle Hill, “which is supposed to be of Celtic origin.”
The moat now encloses the island on two sides. The eastern moat arm was infilled and ploughed in late 1988 or early 1999. The northern arm and north eastern corner of the moat lay to the north of the present track, in an area now under cultivation and are no longer evident. The extant sections of the moat measure up to 10m in width and 1m deep in places and now serving as a drainage ditch.
A series of outbuildings were located to the north west of the the Hall and obscured the north western corner of the moat. The Hall was demolished together with the surrounding outbuildings leaving one extant group of buildings, part of Hanby Hall Farm, to the north west of the moat.
Other cropmarks in the vicinity indicate boundaries, enclosures and the remains of ridge and furrow. The area is now under cultivation and only slight earthwork remains of the square enclosure are now visible.”
The following is from Castle Hill: a motte castle from Historic England.
“Motte castles are medieval fortifications introduced into Britain by the Normans. The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a medieval motte castle, known as Castle Hill, located 250m east of Hanby Hall Farm. In 1086 land at Welton le Marsh was held by Gilbert de Gant, and during the 13th century, by Jolanus de Hamby. The motte is associated with the medieval manor of Hanby.”
This is an 1889 map of the area from Old-Maps.co.uk. The current large U shaped building appeared before 1950.
This map is from a recent geographic map.
This photo of Hanby Hall Farm, grid reference TF4769, was taken by Chris in 2015.
These two arial views of the Moated site and Castle Hill, grid reference TF4769, were also taken by Chris in 2017. “Castle Hill is above the disused railway. Moat is in the main collection of trees.” This view is looking east.
This view is looking west-southwest.
The following pictures were taken on a visit to Hanby Farm in August 2019. This first one was taken while walking east along the road away from Hanby Lane and toward the only building still standing.
Continuing along the road and facing what was the front of whatever buildings used to be there.
Continuing past the shrubbery to a better view of the buildings. It’s easy to imagine that a house or houses once stood where the shrubbery is now.
This is standing in the same spot and looking to the right. The left fork leads to the building, the right fork goes through the trees.
The left fork in the road takes you to the open center area of the U-shaped building. These old outbuildings were probably used for storing farm equipment.
This is a view standing in the same spot looking slightly to the right.
This is a 360 view taken while standing on the other side of the wall on the right above. It begins looking west. Castle Hill appears in the distance as a round clump of vegetation at 10 seconds.
In this view Castle Hill is the dark mound to the right.
