Woolsthorpe by Belvoir, also known as Woolsthorpe is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 415. It is situated approximately west from Grantham, and adjoins the county border with Leicestershire. The neighbouring village of Belvoir lies on the other side of the border. Grantham Canal is situated to the north-east at its closest point. History Etymology According to A Dictionary of British Place Names, the name Woolsthorpe means "an outlying farmstead or hamlet (Old Scandinavian 'thorp') of a man called Wulfstan (Old English person name)". Early history In the 1086 Domesday account Woolsthorpe is referred to as "Ulestanestorp", in the Kesteven Hundred of Winnibriggs and Threo. It comprised 29 households, 6 villagers, 3 smallholders and 8 freemen, with 4 ploughlands and 3 mills. In 1066 Leofric of Bottesford was Lord of the Manor, this transferred in 1086 to Robert of Tosny, who also became Tenant-in-chief. A possible deserted medieval village lies at the southern edge of the present village just to the east off Woolsthorpe Lane, on the same site of a previous St James church destroyed in 1643 by Parliamentary forces. Of the destruction Kelly's Directory wrote in 1885: "the original church of St. James, of which some fragments of the tower remain, was burned down by soldiers of the Parliamentary Army who bivouacked there during the siege of Belvoir Castle". Further evidence of medieval and earlier occupation are finds of a stone macehead at the centre of the village, Roman coins and a Middle Bronze Age cinerary urn to the south-west, and medieval ridge and furrow earthworks, and a trackway seen through cropmarks, to the north. Approximately north from Woolsthorpe is the deserted medieval village of Stenwith, defined by moat, ditch, enclosure, hollow way and croft (homestead with land) earthworks. Stenwith is recorded in the Domesday account as "Stanwald" or "Stanwalt". in the Lincolnshire Hundred of Winnibriggs and Threo. It was part of the manor of Barrowby and comprised 21 households, 2 smallholders and 19 freemen, with 4 ploughlands, of meadow and one mill. In 1066 Godwin of Barrowby was Lord of the Manor, this transferred in 1086 to Robert Malet, who also became Tenant-in-chief. 19th century In 1885 Kelly's describes Woolsthorpe as situated on the River Devon, close to the borders of Leicestershire. It was in the wapentake of Winnibriggs