Wildmore Fen

The Library at Boston will prove useful in your research.

• The parish was in the Sibsey sub-district of the Boston Registration District.
   
• It's not complete, but you may want to check our 1901 census surnames in a text file. Your additions are welcome.
   
• 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 St. Peter.
• Froghall Church was built in 1816 and seats about 150.
• A photograph of the Anglican parish church is at the Wendy PARKINSON English Church Photographs site.
• Here is a photo of the Wildmore Haven Bank Methodists on a 1920s outing to Skegness.

• Here is a photo of Saint Peter's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):

• Froghall Church registers date from 1818.
• We have the beginning of a Parish Register Extract in a text file. Your additions to this are welcome.
• The LDS Family History Library has the parish register on film 1542376, item #2, which has baptisms 1816-1936, marriages 1818-1917 and burials 1818-1945. This material is also at the Lincolnshire Archives.
• The LFHS has published several indexes for the Holland West Deanery to make your search easier.
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel at New York and another at Haven Bank. The Primitive Methodists had one at Scrubb Hill. 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 Sibsey sub-district of the Boston Registration District.
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration starting in July 1837.

Wildmore is a parish, often called Thornton le Fen, although for many years the two have been separate civil parishes. It lies 11 miles south of Horncaslte and 9 miles north-west of Boston. Originally, it was all Fenland, mostly uninhabited, with parts allocated to various other parishes as land was drained. It has been part of the Boston district as well as part of the Horncastle district over time.

There is no village of Wildmore. New York is a hamlet in the parish. Bunker's Hill and Gipsy Bridge are hamlets in the old Thornton le Fen parish. The River Witham flows toward Boston down the southwest side of the parish. If you are planning a visit:

• Take the B1192 trunk road south from Coningsby. Once past New York you are in the heart of the parish.
• Check our Touring page for additional resources.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• Wildmore Civil Parish was formed in 1880 from the Fen allotments of West Ashby, Horncastle, Mareham-on-the-Hill, Moorby, Roughton, Thimbleby, High Toynton, Low Toynton and Wood Enderby parishes, as well as detached parts of Bolingbroke, Coningsby, Haltham, Tattershall, Thornton-le-Fen, Toynton All Saints and Wilksby.
• At the same time, the ecclesiastical parish contained the civil parishes of Dogdyke, Little Beats, Frith bank, Langriville, Thornton-le-Fen and Wildmore. Politcal and religious boundaries have changed several times in this area over the centuries.

• In 1913, the principal landowners were Sir Henry Cusack Wingfield HAWLEY, baronet, and the Ecclesiastical Commission.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF266516 (Lat/Lon: 53.046373, -0.112267), Wildmore Fen 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 was in the ancient Bolingbroke Wapentake in the East Lindsey district and parts of Lindsey.
• For today's governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.
• Kelly's 1900 Directory of Lincolnshire reports, perhaps erroneously, that the parish is part of the South Lindsey division of the county.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Horncastle petty session hearings.
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Boston Poor Law Union.

Year	Inhabitants
1871	785
1881	689
1891	736
1911	633

• The Public Elementary School at Gipsy Bridge was built in 1859 to hold 76 students and later enlarged. In 1913, average attendance was 90.
• A Public Elementary School was built here in 1880 to hold 168 students. In 1913, average attendance was 140.
• Children from the hamlet of Haven Bank attended school at Gipsy Bridge and at Hundle House, Wildmore.
• See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.