This memorial was unveiled on 17 September 2016. It was designed and built by farmer Mr Henry Smith beside the course of the former Louth to Bardney railway line.

The memorial commemorates two Polish airmen who died after a collision between two returning Mosquitos.

One plane made it to Sturgate near Gainsborough and managed to land, both men surviving. However the other plane crashed in the field behind the memorial and both men aboard were killed.

They are buried in the Polish cemetery at Newark.

http://aircrewremembered.com/madej-stanislaw.html

Jean Howard, January 1980

In Honour and Memory of the crew of 307 Squadron Polish Air Force Mosquito Plane Crash returning from Operation Market Garden Arnhem, Netherlands World War II - 18.9.1944

Pilot Fl/Lt Stanislaw Roman Madej Aged 27 years

Navigator F/O Jozef Stanislaw Gasecki Aged 25 years

Let the sky and God be their Limit and Eternity their measurement

This exhortation is adapted from a quotation of Marcus Garvey, Jamaican political activist and orator. 

The memorial's two panels were cut by Leake's stonemasons in Louth.

The insignia is the squadron badge of 307 Squadron which was made up of Polish airmen, and the squadron nickname was the Eagle Owls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._307_Polish_Night_Fighter_Squadron

Jean Howard, January 1980

The Old Rectory was built about 1850 by Teulon and altered in 1869 by James Fowler.

Pearl Wheatley, 2013

Withcall was a stop on the Louth to Bardney line but, as it was a late addition in 1882, it never had a brick-built station.

It was provided only with a single storey timber building that was used as a Methodist chapel after line closure in 1956.

The edge of the single platform can be seen although the end nearest the camera has been shortened to allow easier access to the fields by agricultural equipment.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/withcall/

Jean Howard, January 1980

This installation of rail and wheels was erected on the platform edge by farmer Henry Smith to commemorate the railway history of the village.

Jean Howard, January 1980

In the nineteenth century the edges of railway platforms were usually made of hard blue coping bricks, as shown here at Withcall station on the Bardney to Louth line (completed 1876).

Similar bricks made by Joseph Hamblet of West Bromwich were also used in station buildings, bridges and other railway structures at many Lincolnshire lines built in this period.

For example, they are seen on the Midland and Great Northern Railway between Bourne and Little Bytham, constructed in the period 1890-93.

The platforms on this line were reconstructed some time after the GNR bought the line from the original company.

Ken Redmore, 2009

This is the eastern portal to the Withcall Tunnel on the former line between Louth and Bardney and is on private land.

The tunnel lies between the parishes of Withcall and Stenigot and passes under the Bluestone Heath Road.

It is 888m (971yds) long and was opened in 1876.

SES, July 2013

This was Withcall National School opened in November 1876 for 60 pupils at a cost of £300.

The first schoolteacher was Miss Catherine Pensionate.

The school closed in April 1969 and is now a private house.

Jean Howard, December 2020

Built in 1882 at the expense of Nathaniel Clayton the Lincoln engineer and to the design of Sir Arthur Blomfield.

The windows of St Martin's, Withcall, are in the Early English lancet style.

Mark Acton, 2013

See more images of this church

The interior of St Martin's.  This could be any one of Blomfield's surburban churches.

July 2013

Enlarged photograph of the bellcote over the chancel.

July 2013

At the time when Nathaniel Clayton bought the Withcall estate the former church was said to be "in ruins".

No pictorial record of the former church is known but it was said to have been small with a turret and a bell. The present church is Grade II listed.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1307095

Jean Howard, March 2015

The 300-foot contour line lies above the church along the valley side.

This cut benchmark, on a stone at the south-western corner of the nave, was created in 1951 when the area was re-measured for the Ordnance Survey.

The height is 77.47 metres or 254 feet 2 inches.

Jean Howard, January 2021

The east window is of three stepped lancets and shows the Ascension of Christ into Heaven.

The open archway to the south of the chancel gives access into the vestry.

Jean Howard, December 2020

This figure is erected above the porch doorway.

It is thought to show St Martin of Tours dressed as a Bishop, which role he unwillingly took in later life, with the kneeling figure of the beggar of Amiens whose plight prompted the action that marked Martin's conversion to Christianity.

Jean Howard, December 2020

Minton tiles cover the sanctuary floor around the altar.

July 2013

An octagonal font dating from fourteenth century and clearly retained from the earlier church on the site.

Jean Howard, December 2020

Below the east window of the church is this foundation stone.  It reads:

THIS STONE WAS LAID BY/ NATHANIEL CLAYTON/ OWNER OF THE ESTATE/ JULY 22ND 1882/ HENRY MORRIS RECTOR/ THOMAS SOWERBY CHURCHWARDEN

Nathaniel Clayton, engineer, of East Cliff House, Lincoln, had recently bought the Withcall estate, which had previously been in the ownership of George Tomline Esq. of Orwell Park, Suffolk and Riby, Lincolnshire.

Jean Howard, January 2021

The broken head of a cast metal grave marker, unusual at Withcall.

It reads:

MARY HAWKINS DIED NOVEMBER 1916 AGED 74 JESU MERCY.

Jean Howard, January 2021

Withcall is a tiny hamlet but the church well cared for and welcoming.

Jean Howard, December 2020  

This is a detail from the window at the west end of the nave. It shows St Martin during his service as a Roman Legionary cutting his cloak in half so that he can clothe a nearly naked beggar at Amiens.

Scamblesby St Martin's church has another depiction of the same legend.

Jean Howard, December 2020  

The plate tracery at the head of the west window depicts the cathedral at Tours in France.

St Martin is usually referred to as St Martin of Tours, where he was buried on 11 November 397.

Jean Howard, December 2020