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Creeton is a very small village or hamlet in the south of Lincolnshire, England. It forms a parish with the neighbouring (even smaller) hamlet of Counthorpe, within the local government district of South Kesteven.

The name Creeton derives from Creata (the personal name of a Saxon chieftain) and tun, meaning farmstead, enclosure, manor or estate: it is still a farming district.

The parish of Counthorpe and Creeton lies between Little Bytham to the south, Swinstead and Swayfield to the north, and Castle Bytham to the west. The eastern boundary follows the edge of Grimsthorpe Park.

The village is situated on the B1176 road, a short distance east of the East Coast Main Line railway.

St. Peter's church
The church, dedicated to St. Peter, stands on the hillside overlooking the village and the River Glen valley. Its octagonal broach spire is a notable landmark from afar. The building is mainly of the 13th century, but there are two large fragments of Anglo-Saxon stonecarving in the graveyard and other (very worn) pieces built into the church wall, suggesting that an earlier (possibly wooden) church may once have stood on the same site.

The interior of the church is quite plain: waterleaf capitals to the chancel arch probably date from the late 12th century. The church owns a so-called "Judas Bible".

Some of the gravestones in the churchyard are said to have been brought from the site of Vaudey, a Cistercian Abbey in Grimsthorpe Park: several have been used as coping stones to the wall separating the rectory garden from the churchyard.

The Anglo-Saxon "crosses"
The larger of the freestanding stones (1.66 m long) has a striking design of two large roundels, both filled with two concentric bands of saltire (x-shaped) crosses, separated by two panels of two rows of six saltire crosses: these Romanesque patterns suggest a 12th century date. However, the decoration of the other sides is interlace or Celtic knot pattern, an earlier style, suggesting the larger, most elaborately decorated face was probably recut in the 12th century. This stone is often described as part of a cross shaft, but some authorities believe it to be a reused grave cover. It may even have been both, at different times, though one face of the stone (which would have been the underside of the grave-slab) is undecorated. The stone has also clearly been reused as a lintel, as one of the carved sides has been deeply notched at a later date to accommodate the door-frame. Whether this rebate was removed at the same time as the recutting of the roundels and saltire crosses is unclear.

The second section of cross-shaft is smaller, with a narrow collar close to the top. Crudely carved on three sides with interlace and on the fourth with a vigorous coiling vine-scroll, it has been used as a grave-marker in the north-west part of the churchyard.

The small sections of cross-shaft built into the church walls are so worn as to be almost unrecognisable, though the drilled holes which marked out the repeating interlace patterns are visible.

Population decline
The population figures for Counthorpe and Creeton make interesting reading. In 1991 the combined population of the hamlets was estimated at 116, yet in the Domesday Book survey (1086), Counthorpe probably had 125 inhabitants, Creeton 105. It is estimated that the population peaked around 1300, when Counthorpe would have had about 375 inhabitants and Creeton 325 (a rough calculation, based on the Domesday figure, itself an extrapolation, multiplied by 3.5 in line with the national average, following Dodgshon, R.A. and Butlin, R.A. eds., An Historical Geography of England and Wales, 1978). However the calculations are made, it seems likely that this area supported a far larger population in medieval times than it does today.

Creeton facts and figures

 * Grid reference: TF013201
 * Postcode district: NG33 4 (xx)
 * X: 501300m Y: 320200m
 * Latitude: 52:46:11N (52.7696), Longitude: 0:29:57W (-0.4993)

Reference

 * Pevsner, Nikolaus and Harris, John, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, Yale University Press (2002) ISBN 0-300-09620-8