Fillingham

The Gainsborough Library is an excellent resource with both a Local History section and a Family History section.

• The parish was in the Willingham sub-district of the Gainsborough Registration District.
   
• In an 1891 redistricting, the parish was placed in the Marton subdistrict of the Gainsborough Registration District.
   
• There was a "special census" of Fillingham in 1831. Names were recorded, but not ages or relationships. A copy is at the Lincolnshire Archives.
   
• The North Lincolnshire Library holds a copy of the parish census returns for 1841 through 1901.
   
• Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
   
• Below are the census Piece Numbers, where known:

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew.
   
• Portions of the church date back to 1200 or so.
   
• The church was partially reconstructed in 1777, and restored again in 1866.
   
• The church seats 120.
   
• David HITCHBORNE has a photograph of St Andrew's Church on Geo-graph, taken in 2004.
   
• Richard CROFT has a photograph of the church nave on Geo-graph, taken in 2008.
   
• Here's a picture of the Anglican Church:
   

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• Parish registers exist from 1661, but the Bishop's transcripts go back to 1599.
   
• The North Lincolnshire Library holds a copy of the parish register entries for baptisms 1661-1948, burials 1661-1812 and marriages 1661-1837.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has a Loan Library service which has the parish registers on microfiche for Baptisms from 1661 to 1813 and Marriages from 1661 to 1812.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage indexes and a burial index for the Lawres Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel here in 1859. For more on these chapels and their records, check our Non-Conformist Church Records page for additional resources.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

• The parish was in the Willingham sub-district of the Gainsborough Registration District.
   
• In an 1891 redistricting, the parish was placed in the Marton subdistrict of the Gainsborough Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which started July, 1837.

Fillingham is both a parish and a village about nine miles east of Gainsborough, nine miles north of the city of Lincoln and about 151 miles north of London. The parish itself is bordered on the north by Glentworth parish, on the east by the old Roman Road "Ermine Street", and to the south by Ingham parish. The parish covers about 3,590 acres. A lake near the manor house is one of the sources for the River Till. Some reports say that the Old River Ancholme rises from this parish.

Fillingham village is at the head of a picturesque valley or dale on the western side of the Wolds. In the 1800's there were several scattered farms in the vale of the Glentworth rivulet. If you are planning a visit:

• Take the A631 trunk road east out of Gainsborough and turn south at the B1398 intersection. The village will be about two miles south.
   
• Fillingham is a popular place for people to buy their Christmas trees.
   
• Fillingham is a county Conservation Area.
   
• Stop in at the Village Hall, here photographed by Kate NICOL on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2009. Ask for a schedule of forth-comingt events.
   
• Visit our touring page for more sources.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• Fossil shells have been found here, evidence of a time when this area was under the ocean.
   
• The park near Summer Castle shows evidence of being a Roman camp. Coins, broken spears, swords, fragments of armour and a stone coffin have been found there.
   
• Anglo-Saxon pottery have been found at Blacklands, a site on the north side of the lake.
   
• In 1361 John WYCLIFF was assigned as Rector of Fillingham. He was the first man to translate the Bible into English.
   
• In 1953 a ancient, probably medieval, burial was discovered in the garden of Lakeside Cottage, Chapel Road. The grave was lined with rough-hewn stones. Foundation stones nearby give evidence thjat the area was once a church cemetery. In 1982, two more graves were found on adjoining property. In July 2000, an archaeological dig conducted by Sheffield University showed that the cemetery was adjacent to an earlier Anglo-Saxon settlement.
   
• The Village Hall was originally built as a school in 1850.

• In post-Conquest times, the parish belonged to the WRAY family who had a large mansion here.
   
• In 1842, Colonel DALTON was the principal landowner.
   
• In 1872, 1900 and 1913, Mrs. PORTMAN-DALTON and the rector, William Wilton SMITH, MA, were the principal landowners.

• The 1086 Domesday Book records as many as seven manor homes in Fillingham.
   
• Summer Castle is a large square Gothic castellated mansion with a circular bastion tower at each corner. It was built in 1760 by Sir Cecil WRAY. It stood on a rise and had a view into five counties. There is an stone old manor house nearby, built about a century before.
   

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK948859 (Lat/Lon: 53.361484, -0.576939), Fillingham 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 monument to Major John N. DALTON of the 95th Regiment near the Church of St. Andrew. The inscription reads:

"He served with distrinction in India with the 61st Regiment during the Punjab campaign of 1848 and 1849, taking part in the defence of Ladoolapore, Chillienwallah and Gooszerat, for which he recived a medal and two clasps. Following his Indian feats of arms and successes he distinguished himself also in the Great Crimean War, taking part in the battle of Alma and being killed while leading his men in a charge of the Russian position at Inkerman on November 5th, 1854."

The Imperial War Museum tells us that there is a stone tablet with indented border in the parish church. It includes five names from World War One:

1. John BELL
2. George ALbert MOUNTCASTLE
3. Enoch THOMAS
4. Fred THOMAS
5. Herbert WOODCOCK

• The name Fillingham comes from the Old English Fygla+inga+ham for "homestead of the family of a man named Fygla". The name appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as Figelingeham.
  Anthony D. MILLS, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991.

• The WRAY family of Fillingham are descended from Lord Chief Justice WRAY who settled at Glentworth in the reign of Elizabeth I.
   
• White's 1842 Directory lists the following surnames in the parish: BROODBENT, BROUGHAM, CLAYTON, COX, DALTON, DAWBER, EMMINGHAM, FOX, GLOVER, GODFREY, HARRISON, PEARSON, POOLE, ROBERTS, STORR, WALKER, WELLS and WOODHEAD.
   
• White's 1872 Directory lists the following surnames in the parish: ACKRILL, ATKINSON, BELL, BROUGHAM, BROWN, CARTER, CLAYTON, COX, DALTON, EMMINGHAM, GLOVER, GODFREY, GREEN, JENKINS, LAIDLOW, MELBOURN, OVERING, POOLE, ROBERTS, STORR and WALLER.
   
• Kelly's 1900 Directory lists the following surnames in the parish: ACRILL, ATKINSON, BELL, BUTLER, CARTER, CLARKE, HEATH, HUTCHINSON, LAIDLOW, MELBOURNE, PORTMAN-DALTON, ROBERTS, SMITH and STORR.
   
• Kelly's 1913 Directory lists the following surnames in the parish: AKRILL, BELL, CARTER, CLARKE, CODD, CROSS, DIXON, EMMINGHAM, HUTCHINSON, JUBB, LAIDLOW, MARGRAVE, PAGE, PORTMAN-DALTON, PRIESTLY, ROBERTS, SMITH and STORR.

Sir Cecil WRAY, 13th Baronet, died at Fillingham or Summer Castle, Lincolnshire, on 10 January 1805, and was buried at Fillingham churchyard. He was born 3 September 1734, presumably in Lincolnshire, as the eldest and only surviving son of Sir John WRAY, 12th Baronet. From 26 December 1755 to 20 December 1757, he was a cornet in the 1st dragoons, and on 17 June 1778 he was appointed captain in the South Lincolnshire militia. He was also captain of a troop of yeomanry.

• This place was an ancient parish in Lincoln county and it became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the ancient Aslacoe Wapentake in the West Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• Filingham has elected not to have a formal Parish Council, but does conduct periodic Parish Meetings to discuss civic and political issues.
   
• Today's district governance is provided by the West Lindsey District Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Lincoln petty session hearings.
   
• In 1739 the common lands were enclosed.
   
• After the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Gainsborough Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	242
1831	308
1851	326
1861	316
1871	307
1891	283
1911	232

• John DALTON erected the first school here. That school was replaced in 1860 with a building designed to hold 60 children. It was expanded in 1895 with an additional classroom.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.