Martin

• The parish was in the Billinghay sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
   
• 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 the Holy Trinity.
   
• The church was built from 1876 through 1878 on a site given by the Reverend J. W. KING. A tower was added in 1911.
   
• The church seats 237.
   
• A photograph of Holy Trinity Church is at the Wendy PARKINSON English Church Photographs site.
   
• Another photograph of Holy Trinity church was taken by Richard CROFT and is at Geo-graph.
   
• Here is a photo of Holy Trinity Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):

• Parish register entries start in 1876. For prior entries, search the Timberland registers.
   
• The parish lies in the Graffoe Deanery, for which several marriage indexes exist.
   
• The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel here in 1832, but replaced it with a larger one in 1860.
   
• The 1860 Wesleyan Methodist Chapel is now the Village Hall as photographed by Richard CROFT.
   
• The Primitive Methodists built their chapel here in 1837. 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 Billinghay sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which started in July, 1837.
   

This village and parish is twelve miles north-north-east of Sleaford and 14 miles south-east of Lincoln. The parish is a long, narrow structure, generally one mile wide and six miles long, running east to west. The parish was formed on 1 August 1882 from a portion of Timberland parish. Timberland parish lies to the south and Blankney parish to the north. The Car Dyke forms the eastern border. The parish covers some 3,780 acres of Fen and black moorland.

The village of Martin was in ancient times known as Merton. Long a township in Timberland parish, this status changed after a surge in population in the mid 1800's. The local Anglican Church was built and the village became the center of the new parish of Martin. The older town of Martin near Horncastle was renamed Martin Dales by the railways to differentiate the two. If you are planning a visit:

• You can either take the B1191 arterial road west out of Horncastle and pass through Woodhall Spa, or you can take the B1191 off of the A15 north of Sleaford and pass through Scopwick.
   
• Visit our touring page for more sources.
   

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• In 1871, the Reverend J. W. KING owned the greater part of the land in what was then the township of Martin. The remainder was owned by the CARTWRIGHT, BINKS and CAWDRON families.
   
• In 1913, the principal land holders were the Earl of Londesborough and Mrs. CROWDEN of Peterborough.
   

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF239668 (Lat/Lon: 53.183877, -0.147321), Martin 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.

• The RAF field that lies partly in this parish is documented as RAF Metheringham. Please see that parish profile for more information.

• The name Martin is Old English mere+tun, or "farmstead near a pool". In the 12th century, the village name is recorded as Martona. It is also often listed as Merton in older records, relecting Old English origins of the name.
  [A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991]

• This place was an ancient township in Timberland parish in county Lincoln.
   
• The Civil Parish, as such, is a relatively recent political entity. For centuries, until the late 1800s, it was simply a township in Timberland parish. In December, 1866, it was formed as a modern Civil Parish.
   
• The parish was in the first division of the ancient Langoe Wapentake in the North Kesteven division of the county, in the parts of Kesteven.
   
• For today's district governance, see the North Kesteven District Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Sleaford petty session hearings every Monday.
   
• In 1753, Mrs. Mary KING bequeathed two houses and 8 acres of land for the education of poor children of Martin.
   
• The common fields were enclosed here in 1789.
   
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, the parish became part of the Sleaford Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	303
1831	640
1841	926
1871	914
1881	822
1891	777
1901	723
1911	719
1921	667

• The first school in this village was founded in 1753 by Mrs. Mary KING who endowed it with 33 acres of land for revenue. The school was rebuilt in 1842 and converted into a Public Elementary School. It was enlarged in 1874. Enlarged again in 1898, it was renovated in 1912 to hold up to 130 children.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.