All Saints

The church and the now demolished Bishop's Manor House at Nettleham was first the property of Edith of Wessex, wife of Edward the Confessor and later Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I, before passing into the possession of the Bishops of Lincoln, who enlarged it to create a Bishops Palace appropriate to one of the country's most important Sees. On 7 February 1301, Edward I was staying in the Bishop's Palace when he created his son Edward (later became Edward II) as the first Prince of Wales. The building was damaged during the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536 and completely demolished by 1650, only traces of foundations remaining on the site now called Bishop's Palace Field. Within the church's graveyard is a headstone to Thomas Gardiner, the unfortunate victim of two villainous brothers. The inscription reads: THO. GARDINER post boy of Lincoln, barbarously murdered by Isaac & Tho.Hallam, Jan 3 1732, aged 19 Thomas and Isaac Hallam had first murdered a Mr Wright near Middle Rasen on January 2nd 1732 and murdered Thomas Gardiner the following night in Nettleham South Field, near a place called Bunker's Hill. The Hallam brothers were soon caught and found guilty of the murder. Isaac was hanged in irons at Nettleham Field in March 1732 where his brother Thomas fainted at the sight, but he was taken away and hanged at Middle Rasen.