Nettleton, Lincolnshire
Nettleton is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated less than south-west from the town of Caistor. According to the 2001 census the village had a population of 579.
Nettleton contains a village shop, a primary school, and a Methodist Church. The village public house is the Salutation Inn. Nearby is the Woodland Trust's Nettleton Wood, and a caravan park.
On Boxing Day, shoemakers would traditionally 'beat the lapstone' at the house of any 'water drinker', as a mocking act and practical joke. The tradition derives from an 18th-century story in which a Nettleton resident, Thomas Stickler, who had declined alcohol for twenty years, became inebriated after drinking half a pint of ale at his shoemaker on Christmas Day. When questioned by his wife, he replied that he was not drunk but had simply fallen "over the lapstone".
