Barkston is an English village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. The parish population was 497 at the 2001 census and 493 at the 2011 census. The village lies about north of the market town of Grantham, on the A607, just south of the junction with the A153 to Ancaster. History The village is named in the Domesday Book as "Barchestune", which probably means "the farmstead of a man called Barkr." The deserted medieval village of Ringsthorpe lay just to the west of Barkston, on the far side of the River Witham. It is mentioned in the 1087 Domesday Book. The latest archaeological discoveries at the site are from the Medieval period, and the last documentary mention of Ringsthorpe is in the 14th century. Hickson's Almshouses, built in 1640 and re-built in 1839, still provide homes for local elderly people. Barkston railway station, closed in 1955, was near the Barkston South junction of the East Coast Main Line and Sleaford railways. Military history During the Second World War, Arthur Lowe, the actor who played the main character in the television series Dad's Army, was stationed at Barkston with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, which had the task of servicing searchlights. RAF Barkston Heath was in recent years the base of the Joint Elementary Flying Training School (RAF and Fleet Air Arm) in 1995; the Army Air Corps joined in 1996, so that it became the Defence Elementary Flying Training School in 2003, when the RAF withdrew. Now the 703 Naval Air Squadron and 674 Squadron Army Air Corps are parts of the RAF's No. 3 Flying Training School. The airfield is also used for the British Model Flying Association national championships. In June 2003, the BBMF moved to Barkston Heath for four months. Geography The present route of the A607 through the village dates from the 1930s. The River Witham passes through the west of the village. At the 2001 census there were 229 households, 100 per cent of the population were white, 87 per cent declared themselves to be Christian, and 20 per cent of the population were retired. To the east, on top of the Jurassic limestone escarpment, RAF Barkston Heath stands next to the course of the Roman Road Ermine Street. The parish boundary crosses the A607 at the north end of Syston bypass. Going south, it then crosses the River Witham, the