Willoughton is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 330. It is 13 miles north of Lincoln just off the A15 and near to Kirton Lindsey.

It is an Estate village - Limestone Estates are the principal land owner and the landlord resides in the village.

The village is well known as a home for studs - the late Queen Mother had a stud here under Mr Nicholson and visited the stud on Northfield Lane The elderly of the village regale with memories of the royal visitor.

The church of St. Andrew was built in 1794 to replace earlier buildings on the site and restored in 1888. It is of Georgian style, rather unusual in Lincolnshire. It contains some interesting features; a fine medieval chancel arch, a vamping horn or church megaphone measuring six feet high with a mouth piece 16 ½ "and is the second largest extant in England. It is said that they can be heard 1 mile away!" On the north wall is a tomb of a merchant - Nicholas Sutton 1602.The communion rail is 17th century. In 2012 the church had a new heating system installed.

There was a Primitive Methodist church in the village for many years which closed in 1979 and has since been converted into apartments. Willoughton has a post office cum village shop, a primary school founded in 1845, village hall and a pub, The Stirrup.

Until their disbandment in 1312, the Knights Templar were major landowners on the higher lands of Lincolnshire where they had a number of preceptories Willoughton being one. The parish once belonged to the Abbey of St. Nicholas by Angiers and the Knights Templar. The Templar estates then passed to the Knights Hospitallers, who had a preceptory here. At the Dissolution, the Hospitallers property passed to the John Cock and John Thurgood, but the Abbey lands were granted to King's College, Cambridge by Henry VI.

The perceptory stood on the spot now called Temple-Garth and the land is scheduled as an ancient monument and in private hands.

From 1842 through 1912, the chief landowners in the parish were the Earl of Scarborough and King's College, Cambridge.

The village has recreational facilties and it is pro active in its Community work with the young and elderly of the parish.

Celebrated People

Ethel H. Rudkin (1893-1985) Born Ethel Hutchinson in Willoughton, Lincolnshire, daughter of Richard & Ethel Hutchinson of Rose Cotttage, Willoughton.her father was an antique dealer. In 1915, she married George Rudkin who died in 1918, Mrs Rudkin returned home to Willoughton to look after her aging parents & spent little of her long life away from her native Lincolnshire. In 1931 she joined the Folklore Society. She was a dedicated collector of Lincolnshire material, and was active in a number of fields including local history, archaeology, folk-life, and dialect, as well as folklore, working for many years with little recognition or encouragement but eventually becoming an acknowledged expert in all these subjects. Her home, which was packed with artefacts, farm implements, and memorabilia, as well as books and manuscripts, became a place of pilgrimage for researchers. Her main folklore collecting, in the 1920s and 1930s, was made directly from the people of the villages up and down the county and covered the broadest range of topics. A string of articles published in the Folklore Society's journal included her careful descriptions of calendar customs, beliefs in witches and devils, stone-lore, and an important contribution on Black Dogs. Her one book, Lincolnshire Folklore was published at her own expense in 1936, reprinted in 1973 by EP Publishing of East Ardsley, and is still in demand. Mrs Rudkin died 21st of September 1985 and is buried in the churchyard of Willoughton church.