The site of West Wykeham is one of the best in Lincolnshire and possibly one of the clearest in the country. Banks covering the foundations of the church and houses are clearly visible, lying on both sides of the small valley that runs down to the river Bain. The church is clearly visible and measures 15.1m long and 7.3m wide, while the churchyard is about 42m by 24m. Besides the house enclosures there is a typical series of sunken roads including a main street which was part of the road from South Cadeby to Ludford. {1}{2}{3}{4} Surviving earthworks of the village were seen on aerial photographs and plotted by the National Mapping Programme. The remains of former tofts, crofts, hollow ways and the site of the former church (at TF 2162 8858) were recorded. {5}{6}{7}{8} Some medieval pottery has been picked up from the village site. This includes Saxo-Norman shelly ware, decorated and glazed wares and sandy/gritty wares of the 13th and 14th centuries, as well as shelly wares. In addition some late Saxon shelly ware, Lincoln ware and Humberware. {9} The name of Wykeham derives from Old English Wic-ham (and Old Norse Wic-heim) which seems to have denoted a Romano-British settlement. Both East and West Wykeham are very close to the known extensive Roman settlement at Ludford (see PRN 40610). {10} West Wykeham first appears in the historical record in Domesday book where a manor is recorded in the hands of Rainer de Brimou. This manor had sokeland in Ludford. At the time of Domesday there was minimum population of 11 people. Ralf de Criol succeeded the Domesday tenant Rainer de Brimou and is recorded as holding the manor in the Lindsey Survey of 1115. {11} These lands in West Wykeham that were held by Ralf de Criol in 1115, passed to his heir, Hugh de Scoteni in about 1155, and then passed to Hugh's son, Lambert de Scoteni before 1202. In 1212 the lands were in the hands of Thomas (probably the grandson of Lambert's younger brother, Walter). It was Thomas de Scoteni who granted lands in West Wykeham to Sixhills Priory in 1228-32. {12}{13} It is known that the church at West Wykeham was dedicated to St Edward, as in about 1195-1200 the Bishop of Lincoln confirmed that half the church of St Edward at West Wykeham was in the hands of Sixhills Priory. {14} In the 1334 lay subsidy returns East and West Wykeham are combined with a joint value of £1 15s. This is below average for their wapentake. {15} In the 1377 poll tax returns for Loutheske wapentake, East and West Wykeham are combined with a total of 59 people. {16} It seems likely that the vast majority of these people were in East Wykeham, especially as in 1396/97 West Wykeham vicarage was united with Ludford Magna vicarage. The bishop of Lincoln consented to the union because West Wykeham had 'been attacked by divers pestilences, and was so destitute of parishioners that the number of households or of the persons of parishioners did not reach ten.' In addition, the bishop noted that the church and the buildings of the vicarage had become ruinous. {17} In 1563 there is only one household recorded in the Diocesan Census returns for Towes in Ludford parish. Towes [or Great Tows] Grange was a grange of Markby priory. It was listed with certain lands in West Wykham in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535. {18}{19} The boundaries of the former West Wykeham parish can be traced from the Ludford Enclosure Award of 1795. The fields of West Wykeham were already enclosed by that date. The former parish had an area of some 974 acres. {20}