Stixwould is a small village in the civil parish of Stixwould and Woodhall, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Geography The village is situated east from Lincoln and north-east from the large village of Woodhall Spa. The River Witham runs a little over a mile to the west of the village which lies on the southern end of the Lincolnshire Limewoods. Stixwould lies on a finger of higher ground on the edge of the Witham fenland, bordered to the north by the Catchwater Drain and to the south by Reeds Beck. The historic parish of Stixwould contains numerous woodlands most notable of which are Stixwould Wood to the north-west, Halstead Wood to the west and Long Wood to the south. Nowadays the ancient parish has been adjoined with the parish of Woodhall to form the parish of Stixwould and Woodhall with a combined population of 255 in 2011. History Stixwould's name originates from the Old English Stigr and wald meaning Stigr's forest or wood, appearing in the 1086 Domesday Book as Stigeswalde. Major John Edward Almonds, a founding member of the SAS, was from Stixwould. Medieval Stixwould is recorded in the Domesday Book as having twenty-one households in 1066. To the south of the village is an area of ridge and furrow field systems. Nunnery Stixwould Priory, as it is now commonly known, was a Cistercian nunnery founded in the twelfth century and dedicated to St. Mary. It was dissolved in 1536. Almost immediately after its founding it was refounded in the Benedictine order and by 1537 was of the Premonstratensian, before being finally suppressed in 1539. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540 the property was given to Robert Dighton. The earthwork remains of the nunnery and associated fishponds are still visible. It was one of a number of monastic buildings along the sides of the Witham valley south of Lincoln. To its north is Tupholme Abbey and to the south is Kirkstead Abbey. Stixwould Ferry A ferry operated across the Witham on the site of the now disused railway station from the middle of the nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth. It was purchased by Kesteven Council in 1937. Railway In 1846 the Great Northern railway company purchased the land to build a rail link from Peterborough to Lincoln along the banks of the River Witham. Works commenced in 1847 and the line