Dry Doddington

Dry Doddington means the "dry estate of a man called Dodda". There was a deserted medieval village called 'Stocking' or 'Stockyng' associated with Dry Doddington in the early 14th century; its precise location is unknown.^[2]

Dry Doddington CE School was built as a National School in 1872, but was closed between 1926 and 1929, after which it re-opened as a primary school. It closed for the last time in 1961.^[3]

Today, the village forms part of the civil parish of Westborough and Dry Doddington, which had a population of 335 in 2001. Before 1 April 1931 Dry Doddington was a separate parish when it was merged with Westborough.^[4]

The village public house is The Wheatsheaf Inn on Main Street.^[5]

The village, on a small hill called Lincoln Hill, is surrounded by the River Witham to the west and south. The village of Claypole is to the north and Westborough and Long Bennington 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south. The East Coast Main Line passes 1 mile to the north-east.

The parish church, dedicated to St James, has a west-ward leaning tower. It is a Grade II* listed building dating from the 12th century, with an early 14th-century tower. It was restored in 1876.^[6][7]

Recent restoration work, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has brought the 14th-century tower back to its former glory. The tower boasts an impressive tilt of 4.8^[8] or 5.1^[9] degrees, leaning more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, which is now tilted at 3.97 degrees.

The church contains a memorial to a No. 49 Squadron RAF Avro Lancaster that crashed near the village on 26 November 1944. The aircraft, called 'O-Oboe', was piloted by F/O Le Marquand (PB432). It had only been in the air for a few minutes before it crashed, laden with bombs and fuel. Whilst five members of the crew survived, Norman Langley, the wireless operator and air gunner, and Edward Blake, the mid-upper gunner, were killed.^[10]