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Willingham House was a country house in Lincolnshire that was constructed in 1790 for the most prominent family in the village of North Willingham, the Boucheretts. 

The Boucheretts had initially owned a house closer to the village, but following the marriage of one of the Boucherett sons to a female heiress from the Ayscough family of Stallingborough, they too moved to that location whilst their new house was built. 

Unlike its predecessor, the new Willingham House was further out of the village, being in the area that now surrounds the ponds in Willingham Woods between North Willingham and Market Rasen. These ponds were originally also the property of this well-established family, and as the background image demonstrates lay in front of Willingham House itself; the alternative side of the ponds is now the main road which separates Willingham Woods from Dog Kennel Wood.

Although the house eventually fell into disrepair and was demolished using explosives in 1976, evidence of the house can still be seen along with the legacy of the Boucheretts themselves. Most famous of this family is perhaps Emelia Jessie Boucherett, one of the last two members of the Boucherett line after 1857 and a prominent campaigner for  women's rights during the second half of the 19th century. Not only did she help found the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women in 1859 and join another group aiming for improved rights for women, the Langham Place Group, she also founded and edited the Englishwoman's Review and then in addition helped found the Women's Suffrage Journal. 

The Boucheretts also influenced Lincolnshire in other ways, with Emelia Jessie Boucherett being a Trustee of the local Caistor Grammar School in 1905 and presenting prizes at the Speech Day that year. The Ayscough family bore an even stronger connection to the Grammar School than the Boucheretts, since an ancestor of the Ayscough heiress who married into the Boucherett line was one of the original trustees of the group, Sir Edward Ayscough. His family name was given to one of the three 'Houses'  at the school, with the other two being named after the founder, Sir Francis Rawlinson, and the benefactor, William Hansard. 

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Links:

www.walesbygroup.org.uk