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Crowle Town Council
Fieldside, Crowle
Tel: 01724 712776

Opening Times;
Tuesday & Thursday 9am - 2pm

History of Crowle & Ealand

The English Place Name Society suggests that Crowle was so called after the winding river - the River Don which, until Vermuyden's Drainage, flowed along the western edge of the town.

Archaeological evidence, including finds from the reconstruction of the Market place, show that Crowle has been inhabited since the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age.

In 1086 the Domesday Book described Crowle as having 34 households. There were 31 fisheries - more than any other settlement in Lincolnshire - and the only church in the Isle of Axholme.

The town developed between the River Don and Crowle Hill and the church could have been established as early as the 8th century. This would have been a simple structure, probably built of wood, dedicated to St. Oswald, King and Martyr, of Northumbria. This was replaced after the Norman Conquest by a stone building, comprising the present nave in about 1150. A richly carved Norman style doorway gives entrance to the church.

Within the church one can now find the Crowle Stone, a richly carved runic stone. On one side there is a carved Celtic knot pattern and on the other side are the images of three men, the two upper men are facing each other and could be dancing. Below the third man is riding upon an ass or perhaps a horse. At the bottom of the stone there is a runic inscription. Dating back to possibly the 8th century and standing nearly seven feet high there is much speculation about the stone's origins - it may have been part of a stone cross or possibly a viking beacon stone. The preservation of the stone is almost certainly as a result of the Norman masons reusing it as a door lintel when the church was built. It was only removed from the wall and set up within the church itself in 1919.

At the time of the Domesday Survey the Lords of the Manor of Crowle were the Abbots of Selby. The town appears to have prospered and in 1305, Edward 1st granted the first market charter to the Abbot of Selby to hold a weekly market on Wednesday and an annual fair on the feast of St Oswald (5th August). A second charter was granted in 1441 by Henry VI and allowed the market to be held on Monday instead of Wednesday and for an additional fair to be held on St Martin Day (11th November).

In the 1620s, Vermuyden drained the land, turning a productive marsh-based peasant economy into a less productive arable system. Crowle, along with the whole of the north Isle of Axholme, thrived in the 19th century. Effective drainage, the steam pump, and warping the land (controlled flooding to deposit silt and nutrients) to increase fertility, saw a massive growth in population to 1871 to just over 3000 inhabitants. The Towns prosperity was built on agriculture and crops grown included flax, hemp, corn wheat, peas and potatoes. Corn Mills were located on Mill Road and Godnow Road and a steam flax mill was built on Chancery Lane in the mid 19th Century.

From 1871 the population declined as Crowle was affected by the depression in Agriculture caused by increased foreign competition and poor harvests.

Although its economy was based on agriculture Industry has not passed Crowle by and there have been brick and tile works, two breweries, a number of rope walks, a gas works and a small engineering works producing agricultural machinery.

Although mainly seen as a dormitory town for Scunthorpe and Doncaster there is still a surprising number of small businesses operating from Crowle.