Miles Collins

A Walk in Hardy Gang Woods

Sounding more like an American Wild West band of brothers than a Woodland Trust site in Lincolnshire the name alone drew me to get in my car and check it out for myself.

I am always looking out for new and interesting places to visit in and around my home village. In the past I was all too eager to jump on a plane or drive to the other end of the country, I took my home county for granted and I know realise my mistake.

The large expanse of the Limewoods is but a ten minute drive from me, it is an area of deep woodland framed by acre upon acre of worked fields and small villages. Wildlife abounds, large hares dash across the fields watched by hovering kestrels seemingly oblivious to the sound of a passing car or a farmers gun. The more I search the more I realise what I have been missing.

Sean McNeaney wrote a fascinating account of the so called ‘Wild Man of Stainfield’ which I came across via the intriguing website called the ’sons of tc-lethbridge’. According to Sean’s essay there lived a wild man in the Lincolnshire village of Stainfield near Wragby, times and accounts vary, some begin in the 12th century, others between 1700 and 1850.

Legend has it that a certain Francis Tyrwhitt-Drake was promised all of the surrounding land of Stainfield if he killed the wildman that wreaked havoc in and around the area. The wildman was said to have been a nobleman who fought in the holy crusades and upon his return found he had been dispossesed of his estate thus retreating to Stainfield woods to live. There are varying accounts of how Drake killed the wildman and went on to own the land but the one which most interested me the most doesn’t involve Drake at all.

According to another local legend the wildman was killed by a band of farmer’s who were incensed at their livestock being taken and their families terrorised by this madman. The farmer’s who went on to be known as the ‘Hardy Gang’ trapped and killed the wildman in a wood between Langton and Stainfield…. 

A small wood close to Newball woods and a short drive from the local falconry centre it is easily missed. The Bardney Limewoods programme is maintaining the wood which is used for rearing pheasants. It has to be said that the legend surrounding the name is more interesting than the site itself, most of the paths are either too boggy to pass or lead to nowhere save the odd field.

Photographic possibilities were limited to the odd pile of sawn tree trunks, walking around I couldn’t help but feel that the forest workers couldn’t be bothered to finish off what they had started. I will revisit when time allows for a proper walk, my energy levels were running on empty which probably accounts for some of my negative thoughts. It would be nice if they tidied up after themselves though….

My thanks to Sean McNeaney for the background information on the Wildman of Stainfield.