Belchford

• The parish was in the Tetford sub-district of the Horncastle Registration District.
• We have an extract of a small portion of the 1901 surname index 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:

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.
• The church was originally built some time before 1153 out of local grey stone.
• The church was rebuilt in 1781.
• The church chancel was rebuilt in 1859-60.
• The church was restored and reseated in 1883. The tower was restored in 1892, then partially taken down in 1902. In recent photographs, the tower is only a shed at the back of the church.
• A tornado hit the village in 2006 and the church was extensively damaged. Repairs and redecoration have "recently" been completed, but the webpage author has found no dates.
• The church seats 160.
• A photograph of the Anglican parish church is at the Wendy PARKINSON English Church Photographs site.
• Richard CROFT has a photograph of St. Peter & St. Paul's Church on Geo-graph, taken in January 2006.
• Here are photographs of Saints Peter and Pauls Church, taken by Patricia McCRORY (who retains the copyright):

• Here is a view of the path leading to the church, taken by Patricia McCRORY (who retains the copyright):

• And here is a side view of the church, taken by Patricia McCRORY (who retains the copyright):

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1698: Baptisms 1698 through 1985, Marriages 1698 through 1837 and Burials 1698 through 1899.
• The Bishop's Transcript cover all entries from 1561 to 1834.
• The LFHS has published several marriage and burial indexes for the Horncastle Deanery to make your search easier.
• The Society of Genealogists has Belchford burials from 1813 to 1900.
• Contact Mark in Barcelona to see if he can find your relatives in his records of Belchford.
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a small chapel here, built in 1811 and rebuilt in 1871.cx In 1984, this chapel was declared unsafe and services are now held in the village hall.
• For a photograph of the the new red-brick Wesleyan Methodist chapel, see the Tony ATKIN photograph on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2006.
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a small chapel here, built in 1811 and rebuilt in 1871. The Primitive Methodists built theirs in 1834. For information and assistance in researching these chapels, see our non-conformist religions page.
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

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

Belchford is both a village and a parish in the Wolds, nine miles south of Louth and five miles north-east of Horncastle. Scamblesby parish lies to the north and Fulletby parish to the south. The parish covers about 2,600 acres.

Belchford village is in a shallow valley. The River Waring rises in the parish and passes through the village on its way to join the River Bain. If you are planning a visit:

• The village has its own Website.
• Visit our touring page for more sources.
• Here are photographs of the village signs which greet you, taken in 2008 by Patricia McCRORY (who retains the copyright):

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• In 1858, the kennels of the South Wold Hunt Club were opened at Foxendale in this parish. They were still operating only a few years ago.
• Chris has a photograph of a Hunt horse out for exercise on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2013.
• In recent years, the parish has held a Midsummer Madness festival in June. And August is the time for the Flower and Produce Show.
• Try to find a copy of the booklet by J. N. CLARKE, "Belchford: the history of a Lincolnshire Wolds village," (Belchford, 1984). Well-referenced and indexed; published by the author.
• Paul EGGLESTON has a photograph of the Blue Bell Inn on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2009.
• Here are the proprietors of The Blue Bell Inn shown in various Directories:.

Betsy HOPKINS, above (in 1900), was born in Horncastle, LIN, circa 1841.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF295754 (Lat/Lon: 53.259805, -0.060081), Belchford 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.

There is a photograph of the World War II Memorial in the church on Flickr (Under Description and Travel)

Eric WALKER provides this list of names from the war memorial. [2000]

We do not have enough details to identify W. W. SHARP clearly.

• This place was an ancient parish in Lincolnshire and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the North division of the ancient Gartree Wapentake in the East Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• Belchford has joined with Fulletby to establish a Joint Parish Council, which you may contact regarding civic or political issues. They are NOT funded to assist you with family history searches.
   
• For today's district governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.
   

• Bastardy caseswould be heard in the Horncastle petty session hearings.
   
• The common fields here were enclosed in 1804.
   
• The poor of this parish received a dole of bread during the winter. The bread was purchased using rent charges on a field in the parish.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parish became part of the Horncastle Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	275
1811	416
1821	490
1831	517
1841	554
1851	673
1871	571
1881	488
1891	403
1911	323
1921	303
1991	275

• A school wasn't built here until 1873. In 1912, attendance was 35 students.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.