Beesby

The Community Library at Alford has a local history archive that will prove useful in your research.

• Peter WOOD has a photograph of St. Andrew's churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2019, showing gravestones and a picnic table.
   
• Jonathan THACKER has a photograph of some Headstones at St. Andrew on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2013.
   

• The parish was in the Withern sub-district of the Louth Registration District.
   
• We have an extract of a small portion of the 1901 Census which you are welcome to review or add to.
   
• Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:

Census Year	Piece No.
1841	H.O. 107 / 627
1851	H.O. 107 / 2111
1861	R.G. 9 / 2379
1871	R.G. 10 / 3399
1891	R.G. 12 / 2606
1901	R.G. 13 / 3082

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew.
   
• St. Andrew's church was originally built in the 12th century.
   
• The church was nearly completely rebuilt in 1841.
   
• The church was restored in 1888-89.
   
• The church is a Grade II structure with English Heritage.
   
• The church seats only about 90.
   
• Richard CROFT has a photograph of St. Andrew's Church on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2006.
   
• Here are two photographs of St. Andrew's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
   

• Anglican parish registers date from 1561 for baptisms and burials; from 1565 for marriages.
   
• The London Family History Centre has Beesby's Bishop's Transcripts for 1562 thru 1836.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage and burial indexes for the Calcewaith Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• The Primitive Methodists had a small chapel here, built prior to 1900. For information and assistance in researching this chapel, see our non-conformist religions page.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

• The parish was in the Withern sub-district of the Louth Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.

Beesby is both a village and a parish that lies about 30 miles east of the City of Lincoln in the marshy area about a mile south of Maltby le Marsh and 3.5 miles NE of Alford on the A1104 trunk road that runs from Alford to Mablethorpe on the coast. This has always been a small, rural parish. The parish covers only 1,171 acres, much of which is converted salt marsh.

Beesby is also on the edge of the Wolds. Many of the homes built in the 18th and 19th century were Mud and Stud style buildings.

If you are planning a visit:

• For folks on holiday, there is a caravan park west of the village.
   
• Visit our touring page for more sources.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Beesby to another place.

• In March of 1845, Sir Charles DARWIN purchased a 325 acre farm in Beesby as an investment for about £12,500. It was called, naturally enough, Beesby Farm.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF464802 (Lat/Lon: 53.29853, 0.19529), Beesby which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Just northwest of Beesby is the former RAF Strubby airfield which is still in operation for gliders and some sports aircraft.

• The name Beesby is of uncertain origin, most likely from the Old Scandinavian Bees+by, or "village of Bosi". It appeared in the 1086 Domesday Book as Besebi.
  ["A Dictionary of English Place-Names," A. D. Mills, Oxford University Press, 1991]

• This place was an ancient parish in Lincolnshire and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the Wold division of the ancient Calceworth Wapentake in the East Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• In recent times the Civil Parish has merged with another to create the modern Civil Parish of Beesby with Saleby. The combined parish does not have a formal Parish Council, but has a Parish Meeting from time to time to deal with civic and political issues.
   
• For today's district governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Alford petty sessional hearings.
   
• After the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reforms, the parish became part of the Louth Poorlaw Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	131
1811	126
1831	159
1841	157
1871	159
1881	145
1891	127
1901	117
1911	126
1991	235

• A National School was built here in 1843 and rebuilt in 1864-5 to house 50 students. Average attendance in 1911 was 12.
   
• See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.