Horncastle is a market town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, England.

Although fortified, Horncastle was not on any important Roman roads, which suggests that the River Bain was the principal route of access to it.

Although this Roman name has been adopted by some local businesses and the town's secondary modern school, it is not firmly known to be original.

[3] Banovallum was merely suggested in the 19th century through an interpretation of the Ravenna Cosmography, a 7th-century list of Roman towns and road-stations,[4] and may equally have meant Caistor.

Horncastle is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book with 41 households, including 29 villagers and twelve smallholders, and had 100 acres (0 km2) of meadow and two mills, all belonging to King William.

[6] Dating from the 13th century, well before the Reformation, the Anglican parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin.

It is a Grade II* listed building in the Early English style, but was extensively restored 1859–1861 by Ewan Christian.

[8] Local legend has it that the 13 scythe blades hanging on the wall of the south chapel of St Mary's Church were used as weapons at Winceby, but this is mainly seen as apocryphal.

It was long known for its great August horse fair, a famous trading event that continued until the mid-20th century.

The fair was George Borrow's setting for some scenes in his semi-autobiographical books Lavengro and The Romany Rye.

It is a Grade II listed structure made of limestone, red sandstone and pink and grey streaked marble.

[21] Historically, the civil parish lost population from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, as urbanisation and agricultural changes drew people to cities, where more work was available.

North of Horncastle are the villages of West Ashby and Low Toynton, and to their south Milestone House and Mareham on the Hill on the eastern outskirts.

Of the findings, the ethnicity and religious composition of the ward was: The religious composition of the ward at the 2021 Census was recorded as: Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service is based at the Boston Road Industrial Estate.

Henry Haslam served as MP in the Second World War and the five years of the Churchill wartime government.

The veteran politician Sir Peter Tapsell was MP for the town in 1966–1983 and 1997–2015, being Father of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2015.

To alleviate traffic pressure in the town centre a relief road, Jubilee Way, was built in the 1970s.

Minor roads run from Horncastle to Bardney, Boston (via Revesby), Fulletby and Woodhall Spa.

The nearest railway station now is Metheringham (15 miles, 24 km) on the Peterborough to Lincoln Line.

[38] In 2004 it was suggested that the canal be renovated with the help of private capital and promoted as a route for pleasure craft, as has been done successfully in other areas.

[41] BBC East Midlands and ITV Central can also be received from the Waltham TV transmitter.

Initially on grass courts in Stanhope Road, the club moved to the current Coronation Walk location in the 1970s.

Folk belief associates the occurrence of floods with installations of new vicars in Horncastle's Anglican Church.

[56] On 7 October 1960 Horncastle entered the UK Weather Records with a "highest 180-minute total" rainfall of 178 mm.