The main part of the farmhouse was built in the 1830s, possibly as a gentleman’s residence, and was made into a practical farmhouse by the addition of an extension with stables and outbuildings in the late Victorian period. The house stands on the site of earlier buildings and we have found a dating stone with a coat of arms with the date 1674 on it. The site could have been occupied for even longer as we have found pottery fragments that may date to late medieval times in one of our fields. We are also next to an ancient bridleway which may well have been a drove road and an old Roman road runs just beyond the adjacent field which was used to take salt and goods from the coast up to Lincoln.
Ranby is a Danish name, meaning Ran’s homestead, and indicated settlement in the area during the early medieval period also known as the Viking era.
From late Victorian times the farm was run as a typical Lincolnshire Wolds mixed sheep and arable farm with over 100 acres but in the 20th century the farm was acquired by the local landowners, the Booth family, and run as a tenant farm up to the turn of the millenium. It was sold off in the early part of the 21st century, the barns were sold separately to the house and converted into holiday homes and the acreage was reduced to our current 5 acres.
We are the third owners this century and we have altered the upstairs layout of the house to improve the bedrooms and bathrooms and created our market garden with polytunnel to complement the existing orchard and pasture.
