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Owston is a large village on the west side of the Trent, 8 miles N. of Gainsborough; but that part of it which extends along the margin of the river, is commonly called West Ferry, in contradistinction to East Ferry, on the opposite side of the river, The township of Owston comprises also the scattered hamlets of Melwood, from 1 to 3 miles N.W.; Heck Dyke, 1 mile S.; and Gunthorpe on the Trent, 2.5 miles S. of the village. It had 1563 inhabitants in 1841, and contains 4732 a. 2r. 14p. of land; but its parish includes also the township of West Butterwick-with-Kelfield. It is mostly in the manor of Epworth, and partly in the manor of Haxey Hall Garth, but the soil belongs to Thos. Lightfoot, Esq.,(lessee under the Crown) Lord Beauchamp, W. Skipworth, esq., Mr. M. Lester, R.P.Johnson, Esq., Rev. G.H. Woodhouse, Miss Sandars, Wm. Hutton Esq., and a number of smaller freeholders and copyholders, many of whom occupy their own lands. The copyholds are subject to small certain fines. Owston, or West Ferry, was anciently called Kinnairds Ferry; and the Mowbrays, the ancient lords of The Isle of Axholme, had a fortified tower here, called Kinaird, or Kinafare Castle, which commands the passage of the Trent and of which now no trace remain, except the moated site, on the south side of the churchyard. Roger De Mowbray having renounced his allegiance to Henry 11., and joined that monarchs rebellious son, repaired to this castle in 1173, and for some time set at defiance the forces sent to reduce him to obedience; but he was at length obliged to surrender to the Kings troops, who immediately razed the castle to the ground. In the 19th of Richard 11., Thomas Mowbray, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, founded a Carthusian Priory in Melwood Park, commonly called the Priory-in-the Wood, or the House of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, near Epworth. It stood on the farm now called High Melwood, but few traces of it now remain, though John Mowbray, the second Duke of Norfolk, is said to have been buried in its church. At the dissolution, it was valued at £237.15s.2d., and was granted to John Candish, who converted it into a mansion.
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