The settlement of Obthorpe has it origins in the late Anglo-Saxon period. The name of the village means the secondary settlement of Ubbi (named in relation to Thurlby), and comes from the Old Norse personal name 'Ubbi' and Old Danish 'thorp'. {1} There are two land holdings at Obthorpe recorded in Domesday Book, both are dependent on other manors. The smaller one, of two bovates and four acres of meadow, is dependent on Wilsthorpe and was in the hands of Ivo Taillebois. The second larger one, of 13 bovates, 20 acres of meadow and 20 acres of woodland, was dependent on a manor at Edenham and was part of Gilbert of Gant's holdings. There was a minimum population of 19 people each of whom was probably the head of a household. {2} Obthorpe is not separately recorded in later medieval taxation documents but is usually amalgamated with Thurlby. In 1334 the Lay Subsidy returns assigned a value of £10 19s.11d. to Thurlby-with-Obthorpe. This total was more than half as much again as the average for the area although this valuation did not include any ecclesiastical land. {3} The population of Obthorpe is recorded in the Diocesan returns for 1563 when there were 7 households in 'Obthorpe and chapel' compared with 51 households in Thurlby, and a further 22 in Northorpe in the same parish. {4} In the early 18th century the Diocesan census mentions Obthorpe within Thurlby parish where there was formerly a Chapel of Ease that is now [about 1705] demolished and with but two families remaining in the hamlet. {5} Obthorpe, as mapped in the 19th century, was a hamlet and only a few farm buildings and dwellings remain. {6}{7}