Car Dyke and the modern course of the River Witham were the result of the division of wetlands that had its peak in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Common fen or marsh pasture was partitioned between tenants to provide land for grazing and arable; these long strip-like fields of enclosed fen were known as 'dales'. Before 1331 the dales on Nocton Fen belonged to Bardney Abbey, having been granted by Mabel, wife of Andrew Pincetun of Nocton. Middle Ages General Markets and fairs were held in the Middle Ages at Nocton. The first market was held in 1214. Plantagenets In the mid-twelfth century the western edge of modern Nocton Parish fell within an area known as Hanehaithe that denoted part of the great heath stretching southwards from Lincoln as far as Boothby Graffoe and Blankney. The heath was given to Kirkstead Abbey around the mid-twelfth century. Thirty-nine households were recorded in 1563, falling to 28 by 1721. The population rose to 287 people in 1801 and 482 in 1901. A charter was granted to Philip Darcy in 1257, and another was granted to Norman Darcy in 1284 to hold a fair on 21 to 22 July. In 1334 Nocton was valued at £18 14s in the Lay Subsidy Roll. Tudors Nocton Park Priory was closed in the Dissolution that began 1536, at which time there was only the prior and four canons. Henry VIII visited Nocton only five years after the Dissolution on 13 October 1541 and stayed with the Stukeleys; it is widely reputed that his fifth wife Katherine Howard planted a horse chestnut tree that still stands in the grounds of the Cottage Residential Home. However, this species was not introduced into England until the late 16th Century. During the reign of Elizabeth I the site passed to Henry Stanley (Lord Strange) who built ... ? Georgian era In the first four decades of the eighteenth century, Sir Richard Ellys of Nocton formed a collection of books which eventually went to Blickling Hall in Norfolk by inheritance in the 1740s, though most of the books were kept in London. They form the core of the library of some 12,500 books now in the care of the National Trust. Land improvement and industry Alongside changes to the village, George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire invested in the drainage of Nocton Fen. In around 1794 he paid for a