South Kelsey

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

• Jean COLLINS, "South Kelsey : The history of a North Lincolnshire village," Pub. 2009, U P Publications 142 pp., ISBN: 97-80955744730.
   

The churchyard of St. Nicholas is still used as a burial ground. A mortuary chapel exists on the grounds.

Ian S. has a photograph of the Cemetery on Brigg Road on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2018.

• The parish was in the Caistor sub-district of the Caistor Registration District.
   
• Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:

• In 1083, Roger POICTEVIN founded a priory here in a place called Wenghale, as a cell to the abbey of Seez in Normandy. It was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.
   
• South Kelsey was originally two ecclesiastical parishes; Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas. St. Nicholos church fell into disuse, apparently around 1800.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to St. Mary.
   
• Portions of St. Mary's Church have been dated to 1250.
   
• The church was almost entirely rebuilt in 1795. Many of the stones were from the church of St. Nicholas, then removed.
   
• The church was renovated in 1854.
   
• The church was restored in 1889.
   
• The church is a Grade II structure with English Heritage.
   
• The church seats 300.
   
• A photograph of St. Mary's church is at the Wendy PARKINSON English Church Photographs site.
   
• David WRIGHT has a photograph of the Church of St. Mary on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2005.
   
• Here is a photo of St. Mary's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
   

• The Diocese of Lincoln declared St. Nicholas redundant. In 1982 the building was demolished and the site added to the churchyard.
   

• The Anglican parish register, including entries from St. Nicholas church, dates from 1559.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage indexes and a burial index for the Westwold Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• J. HANNAN=BRIGGS has a photograph of the north aisle window in the church on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2014. The window is a memorial to Annie Zates Rieger HEWITT, died 1943, and her mother Elizabeth MARRIOTT of the Manor, south Kelsey.
   
• In the 1800's the Wesleyan Methodists, free Methodists and Primitive Methodists all had chapels. For information and assistance in researching these chapels, see our non-conformist religions page.
   
• Bill HENDERSON has a photograph of the Methodist Church on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2009.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

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

This village and parish are 5.5 miles south-west of Caistor and 8 miles south-east of Brigg. North Kesley parish sits to the north and Waddingham parish to the west. The parish covers more than 4,100 acres and includes the hamlets of Moortown and North End.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, take the B1205 west out of Caistor. This road bisects the village.
   
• J. HANNAN-BRIGGS has a photograph of the Village Sign in Thornton Road on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2014. You might offer your artistic talent and marketing ability to present a new sign for the parish.
   
• There is weekday bus service to Brigg and Scunthorpe.
   
• Visit our touring page for visitor services.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• Kate NICOL has a photograph of the Bull Inn on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2009.
   
• The Skipworth Arms Public House in the hamlet of Moortown has a long history in the parish. These are the names associated with the place in various directories:

There was one lodger and one servant at the Skipworth Arms in 1881. Here is the census entry (RG 11/3280 folio 9):

Relationship	Name	Sex	Age	Where born
Head	Thomas SCOTT	M	40	South Kelsey, Lincolnshire
wife	Mary SCOTT	F	29	Sheffield, Yorkshire
son	Samuel SCOTT	M	13	Caistor, Lincolnshire
daugh.	Elizth SCOTT	F	11	Caistor, Lincolnshire
son	Walter SCOTT	M	0	Moortown, Lincolnshire
servant	Mary A. GLEW	F	17	Caistor, Lincolnshire
lodger	George HEALEY	M	18	Caistor, Lincolnshire

• The old manor house here was gone by 1900, leaving just traces of the moat.
   
• For centuries the manor here belonged to the ancient family of HANSARD of Walworth, but in the 16th century it passed into the posession of Sir Francis AYSCOUGH through marriage.
   
• Moortown House was the residence of the SKIPWORTH family about a century ago. It then passed to the BOYNTON family.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF042982 (Lat/Lon: 53.47027, -0.431385), South Kelsey 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.

• On the north side of the parish church is a Sicilian marble slab with the names of the men of the parish who fell in World War I.

On the south side of the Nave of St. Mary's Church is a triangular-headed white Sicilian marble tablet mounted on an enamelled black slate backboard. It lists the names of nine men lost in World War One:

1. Ashley, George
2. Brown, Jack Mitchell
3. Brown, Tom
4. Crisp, George
5. Fawcett, Herbert William
6. Fussey, George, pte. 8th Lincs Regt.
7. Glew, Robert, pte. 2nd West Yorkshire Regt.
8. Hedison, George Arthur, pte. 2nd Lincs Regt.
9. Wainwright, John

Nearby the above memorial is another for World War Two, a rectangular white marble tablet mounted on a black marble backboard with two names on it:

1. Chappell, Sidney, srgt. RAFVR. Son of Alfred Wright Chappell and Lauretta Chappell, of North Owersby
2. Tutty, Walter Henry, stoker 2nd, RN, H.M. Steam Drifter Resparko. Son of John and Elizabeth Tutty

• South Kelsey has existed as a parish in Lincoln county since at least 1795.
   
• The parish was in the north division of the ancient Walshcroft Wapentake in the West Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• Both Kelly's 1900 and 1913 Directories of Lincolnshire place the parish, perhaps erroneously, in the East Lindsey division of the county.
   
• Today's district governance is provided by the West Lindsey District Council.
   
• Chris ? has a photograph of the Village Hall on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2015. Consider stopping by when they are open and asking to see the schedule of forth-coming events.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Caistor petty session hearings.
   
• The Common Land was enclosed here in 1797.
   
• After the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reforms, the parish became part of the Caistor Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	449
1811	537
1821	623
1831	632
1851	623
1871	620
1881	615
1891	583
1901	498
1911	487
1951	473

• The Free School was erected by Lady Mary Ayscough in 1712 and rebuilt in 1812. It was later restored in 1879 and converted to a National School.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.