PRN 64344 North and South Rauceby are returned together in the Domesday Book. North Rauceby, then, probably has its origins in the late Anglo-Saxon period. At that time it was known as 'Roscebi' which probably means 'Rauth's farmstead or village' from the Old Norse personal name 'Rauthr' and the Old Danish '-by'. {1}{2} The Diocesan Return of 1563 states that there were 21 households within the Chapel of St James, South Rauceby.{3} A village on an eminence, three and a half miles west of Sleaford, has in its township 367 souls and 2430 acres of land. It is in North Rauceby parish, but was formerly a separate parish and had a church (St James - see PRN 64267) which wasd delapidated about two centuries ago. The marquis of Bristol is lord of the manor, but a greater part of the soil belongs to Anthony Willson Esq., Sir J.C. Thorold and several smaller freeholders. Crowland, a farm two and a half miles west of the village, belongs to Mr T.Barber; and Parhamdam, an estate and ancient house east of the village, belongs to Anthony Willson Esq. Of South Rauceby Hall (PRN 64066), a large and handsome mansion, erected by him in 1841-43, in the Elizabethan style, with beatutiful pleasure grounds.{4} The greater parts of its land had belonged to Turvert before the Conquest. Subsequently his land was given to the Bishop of Durham and held of him by Aland his vassal, who had 15 sokemen, and 6 bordars; he had also half the advowson of the church. South Rauceby was valued at 70s in King Edward's time, afterwards at 60s. Subsequently Galfrid de Evermue held the third part of a knight's fee here by knight's service of the Bishop of Durham. In the time of Elizabeth I the population of North and South Rauceby was nearly alike, in the former there having been 22 families, and in the latter 21; but now, although North Rauceby is sometimes called Great Rauceby, the population of South Rauceby is by far the most considerable. South Rauceby had its own parish church, St. James, but it was pulled down before 1640 and all traces of it had disappeared by 1871.{5} In the late seventeenth century there were 60 families.{6} The population in 1801 was 137, peaking at 474 in 1861, then falling to 392 in 1901.{7} South Rauceby began the nineteenth century as an open village, but during the years which followed more and more of it came into the possession of the family at the Hall and it nearly (but not quite) became a complete estate village. Compared to North Rauceby, the village has more mixed (and indeed earlier) houses, an elaborate local government system and evidence of a boom and serious decline in population.{8}