North Somercotes

The Library at Louth will prove useful in your research.

• A one-acre cemetery was formed in January, 1880. It is located on Cemetery Road, west of the village centre.
   
• Peter ROBINSON has a photograph of the two mortuary chapels at the Cemetery on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2009.

• The parish was in the Saltfleet sub-district of the Louth 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 Saint Mary.
   
• The church was built in the 13th century.
   
• The church was restored in 1908 and a new oak pulpit was presented to the church in 1913.
   
• The church seats 450 people.
   
• The parish had a mission room that could hold 210 people.
   
• Richard CROFT provides a photograph at Geo-graph of St. Mary's Church tower, taken in 2007.
   
• Here is a photo of the Church of St. Mary taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1558.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several Marriage indexes and a Burial index for the Louthesk Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• The Wesleyan Methodists rebuilt a chapel here in 1836. The Free Methodists and the Primitive Methodists also built chapels here in 1865 and 1855.
   
• Roger GILBERTSON provides a photograph at Geo-graph of Trinity Methodist chapel, taken in December, 2006.
   
• 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 Saltfleet sub-district of the Louth Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.

North Somercotes is a village and a parish 10 miles northeast of Louth, on the coast midway between Mabelthorpe and Cleethorpes. The parish sits on the banks of the North Sea and covers about 6,000 acres. The north end of the parish was formerly a salt marsh of 300 acres called the "Fitties".

If you are planning a visit:

• There is bus service from Louth and from Grimsby. See our transport page for bus carriers.
   
• The nearest railway station is at Cleethorpes, about 16 miles away.
   
• See our touring page for visitor services.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• A Post Office has existed here since the 1840s.
   
• North Somercotes has a long tradition of a village carnival with decorated floats, usually held in mid-July. A local girl was selected as the Rose Princess. The event has not been held in recent years due to being banned in 2001 due to the Foot and Mouth crisis.
   
• Another long tradition in the village is the Pancake Race. Every Shrove Tuesday, usually at the two schools, there are individual races for different age groups.
   
• The parish had a Coast Guard station, manned in 1913 by Henry CAMPKIN.
   
• Roger GILBERTSON provides a photograph at Geo-graph of Bay Horse Public House, taken in 2006.
   
• The Bay Horse Public House was a good place to share gossip and good news. In the 1800s it provided stabling for travellers' horses and advertised for cyclists. These are the names associated with the place in various directories:
   

Susannah J. YOUHILL, above, is the daughter of Ellen CASH, and was born in North Somercotes.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF417973 (Lat/Lon: 53.453405, 0.132481), North Somercotes 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 parish is the current home of the North Somercotes Detachment of the Army Cadet Force.
   
• The RAF uses the beach at Donna Nook for target practice during the week.
   
• The war memorial is in the High Street.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of the War Memorial on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2013.

For a photograph of the North Somercotes War Memorial and the list of names on it, see the Roll of Honour site.

• This place was an ancient parish in Lincoln county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the ancient Louth Eske Wapentake in the East Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• For today's district governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Louth petty sessional hearings.
   
• The marsh of the two Somercotes was enclosed in 1630. The Common Lands were enclosed in 1841.
   
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, this parish became part of the Louth Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	601
1811	623
1831	753
1841	819
1871	1,302
1881	1,210
1891	1,125
1901	979
1911	1,031

• A National School was rebuilt here in 1854. It served both North and South Somercotes. A girls' room was added in 1875.
   
• A book mapping the history of North Somercotes CE Primary School - "300 Years of North Somercotes Primary School" was published in 1991, written by Terry ALDRIDGE and Chris STURMAN. ISBN 0 9517970 0 X.
   
• Birkbeck School & Community Arts College is on Keeling Street, LN11 7PN.
   
• See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.