St Botolph's Church, Skidbrooke

St Botolph’s Church stands in the flat Lincolnshire marshlands, about eleven kilometres northeast of Louth. It is built of limestone and brick with slate roofs and a west tower of stepped buttresses and battlements. The plan includes a nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, a south porch, a chancel and the tower. Early 13th-century doorways and windows survive alongside later additions from the 14th, 15th, 19th and 20th centuries. The church is recognised in the National Heritage List as a Grade I listed building and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant in 1973 after centuries of use. Inside, four-bay arcades have octagonal piers and carved capitals, and the font dates from the early 1200s. Grave slabs in the chancel and nave mark burials from the 15th and 18th centuries. The churchyard holds war graves of a Labour Corps soldier and a Coastguard from the First World War and a Merchant Navy sailor from the Second. Reports of paranormal activity have drawn visitors, but unauthorised ceremonies have damaged the stonework. Despite this, the building remains a quiet witness to the marshland’s history.