South Thoresby

The Community Library at Alford has a local history archive that will prove useful in your research.

• The parish was in the Withern 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:

Census Year	Piece No.
1841	H.O. 107 / 627
1851	H.O. 107 / 2111
1861	R.G. 9 / 2379
1871	R.G. 10 / 3398
1881	R.G. 11 / 3260
1891	R.G. 12 / 2606

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew the Apostle.
   
• The original church here had fallen into ruin by 1735.
   
• A new church was built in 1738 to replace the earlier church.
   
• The church underwent extensive repairs in 1872.
   
• The church seats 100.
   
• David HITCHBORNE provides a photograph of the entry path to St. Andrew's Church on Geo-graph, taken in 2008.
   
• A photograph of the St. Andrew's church is at the Wendy PARKINSON English Church Photographs site, taken by Paul Fenwick.
   
• Here is a photo of St. Andrew's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1660.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage indexes and a burial index for the Calcewaith and Candleshoe Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel here in 1873. For more on researching these chapel records, see our non-conformist religions page.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

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

South Thoresby is a village and a parish about 4 miles west of Alford, 8 miles north of Spilsby and about 9 miles southeast of Louth in the Wold hills. A stream called the Withern Eau runs through the parish and eventualy joins the Great Eau. The parish covers about 950 acres and includes the hamlets of Calceby and Driby.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, take the A16 trunk road south out of Louth just past Swaby. Or, from Alford, take the A1104 arterial road west to the A16, then north on that road about a mile and turn right for South Thoresby.
   
• South Thoreby Warren was declared a Nature Reserve in 2008.
   
• See our touring page for visitor services.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• For many years in the 20th century, South Thoresby was the site of a Magic Wand Factory. For some reason they were unable to make a go of it and the business has moved and the old building reverted to residences.
   
• Ian PATERSON provides a photograph of the Vine Inn on Geo-graph, taken in 2008.
   
• The Vine Inn (also called the Vine Hotel) dates back to 1508 when it was a popular stopover for coaches and men on horseback. It offered food, drink, stables, blacksmithing and wheelwright work. The Vine Inn has not always been in the same building.  At last report, the Vine Inn was for sale. Here are the names listed in various directories for the Inn:
   

Year	Person
1842	John HILTON, blacksmith
1872	Samuel WHITE, blacksmith
1882	Samuel WHITE, vict.
1900	Christopher MICHAEL
1913	Christopher MICHAEL
1930	Mrs. Caroline MICHAEL

The 1881 census shows the following people at the Inn (RG11 / 3260, folio 21):

Relationship	Name	Sex	Age	Where born
Head	Samuel WHITE	M	63	Haltham, Lincolnshire
son	Charles B. WHITE	M	36	Haltham, Lincolnshire
serv.	Sarah BONNETT	F	19	Aby, Lincolnshire
boarder	Charles GREEN	M	32	Sheffield, Yorkshire
boarder	Joseph EDESON	M	31	Worksop, Nottinghamshire
boarder	William PINNINGTON	M	20	Worksop, Nottinghamshire

• The WOOD family lived in The Hall, which was taken down in 1826.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF401770 (Lat/Lon: 53.271065, 0.100079), South Thoresby 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 wall of the church a marble tablet was mounted bearing the names of those who fell in the Great War.
   
• The Imperial War Museum has photographs of the Roll Of Honour plaque.

The names on the Roll of Honour are:

1. Ashley, Harold, priv., North Staffs Regt.
2. Oliver, Henry, priv., Lincs Regt., son of Maria B. OLIVER
3. Toddenham, Arthur (not found in CWGC database)

• The name derives from the Old Scandinavian Thorir+by, meaning "farmstead or village of a man called Thorir". It appears as Toresbi in the 1086 Domesday Book.
  [A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991].

• This place was an ancient parish in Lincolnshire and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the Marsh division of the ancient Calceworth Wapentake in the East Lindsey district and in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• Kelly's 1900 Directory of Lincolnshire places the parish, perhaps erroneously, in the South Lindsey district of the county.
   
• For today's district governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Alford petty sessional hearings on alternate Tuesdays at the Alford Police Station.
   
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish became part of the Louth Poor Law Union.

Year	Inhabitants
1801	150
1811	145
1831	142
1841	138
1871	148
1881	159
1891	139
1901	108
1911	115

• The children of this parish attended school in Aby.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.