windmill which pumped water from the fen into the River Witham until it was superseded in 1834 by a 40 bhp steam engine powerful enough to drain the fen faster than water ingress. A windmill for grain was erected on Nocton Heath before 1824 approximately 200 metres west of the B1188 Lincoln Road / B1202 Main Street junction and was taken down in 1827 to be replaced by a new mill at Mill Corner, approximately 700 metres to the east at the junction of the B1202 and Old Sleaford Road. The second mill burned down after 6 years in service in October 1833; its replacement on the same site was pulled down in 1904. Twentieth century Nocton Estates Light Railway was constructed in 1926 and used to transfer potatoes to the railhead at Dunston and sugar beet to a factory at Bardney. The light railway rolling stock and track were originally used to move munitions and troops to the front line in the First World War. The village shared the Nocton and Dunston railway station (GNR/GER Joint) until it was closed in 1955. Trains still run on the route from Lincoln to Sleaford but do not stop for goods or passengers at the old Nocton and Dunston station. There was a rail accident on this line on 28 February 2002 when a van fell onto the railway line and was hit by an oncoming train, killing the driver. A survey of the East Midlands Oilfields including blocks around Nocton in 1943 resulted in short-lived production from a well – Nocton-2 – drilled by d'Arcy Oil Company during 1943–1945 amounting to 521 barrels in total, described as a major disappointment. Oil was also found in Nocton in the 1960s. Military activity Between 1917 and 1995 Nocton Hall was used variously by the United States Army, Royal Air Force and United States Air Force as the site of a convalescent home and military hospital. The ruins of the Hall and hospital buildings remain to the present day. In the early twentieth century, particularly during World War II, there were numerous close to Nocton; the level of training and operational flying resulted in a number of crashes within the parish: 9 September 1930. Avro 504N J9007 of 2 FTS from Digby hit a tree on Nocton Heath. 4 April 1941. Defiant N3333 of 225 Sqn crashed on Nocton Fen near Glebe Farm following