Fosdyke

The Library at Boston will prove useful in your research.

• Fosdyke Cemetery is administered from the cemetery office at Boston. The small village cemetery dates from 1952, and is located in Bell Lane, Fosdyke, within the Borough of Boston.

Malcomb NEAL has a photograph of the church Graveyard on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2019.

• The parish was in the Kirton sub-district of the Boston Registration District.
   
• We have a handful of 1891 census entries. You 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 All Saints.
   
• The church was built in 1812, but burned down around 1870.
   
• The church was rebuilt in 1871 in the early English style by the Rev'd. Basil BERIDGE. This is the third church known to have existed at this site.
   
• The church seats about 350 people.
   
• There is a photo of the church at Wendy Parkinson's site.
   
• Here is a photo of All Saints Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
   

• Parish registers exist from 1559.
   
• The LFHS has published several marriage indexes for the Holland West Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• The Primitive Methodists had a chapel in Fosdyke. The original was built in 1826 and was replaced in 1861. It was enlarged in 1936, but closed in 2010.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of the former Primitive Methodist chapel on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2020.
   
• Check our Non-Conformist Church Records page for resources.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

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

Fosdyke is both a village and parish almost 100 miles north of London, near the mouth of the River Welland, where that river empties into The Wash. The parish lies about 6 miles northwest of Holbeach and about 8 miles south of Boston. The parish is bounded on the north by Kirton parish, to the west by Algarkirk and by the River Welland on the south. The area is flat fenland, drained by many small canals and covers 2,356 acres.

The "sea bank" protects the village from high water on the River Welland. A Fosdyke Fen also exists near Holland Fen on the River Witham to the north.

If you are planning a visit:

• The village is about two miles off the A16 trunk road. Take the A17 trunk road toward Holbeach and it passes along the south edge of Fosdyke village before crossing over the Fosdyke Bridge.
   
• For a bus schedule from nearby cities, check the Bus, Coach and Train page on this site.
   
• Local coach hires are available at Cropley Brothers, School Lane, Fosdyke, Boston, PE20 2BU.
   
• Fosdyke is a local archeology site.
   
• Bicycling and bird watching are popular local pastimes. And, the village hosts a local National Council Metal Detecting chapter.
   
• Fosdyke is one of the villages included in Michael J. ELSDEN's book, "Aspects of Spalding Villages," priced about £20.
   
• Visit our touring page for more sources.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• In ancient times, Fosdyke often served as a port for Boston and the surrounding area. The land was hard loam and made good cattle pasture.
   
• In 1812, construction started on a beautiful English Oak bridge to cross the Welland and it was finished in 1815. It was replaced in 1911 by a new iron bridge.
   
• A small Coast Guard station was established here prior to 1900, manned by one officer and two men.
   
• In recent history, the 1963 winter was very severe. 8mm film of a ship trapped in the ice near Fosdyke Bridge is at: LincsFilm.
   
• John BAKER takes us back to 1986 in his photograph of Fosdyke Bridge in 1986 on Geo-graph, taken in September, 1986.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of the Ship Inn at Fosdyke Bridge on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2020.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF316332 (Lat/Lon: 52.880268, -0.045662), Fosdyke 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.

Jonathan THACKER has a photograph of a WWII Type 26 Pillbox at Fosdyke Bridge on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2020.

Inside All Saints church is this War Memorial:

In memory of our glorious dead 1914-1918:

1. J. Ashton
2. pte. Frederick Sydney BETT
3. lcpl. J. W. BOSNELL (Inits are W. J. in CWGC database)
4. J. Buck
5. pte. A. E. BURKS
6. W. Hallam
7. G. Higgins
8. J. S. Johnson
9. pte. Harold Ernest KITCHEN
10. gnr. George Albert LANE
11. G. Lineham
12. J. W. Nicholls
13. E. Royce
14. G. E. Smith
15. J. W. Smith
16. E. M. Thompson
17. F. H. Thompson

Their name liveth for evermore

In memory of those who died 1939-1945 War:

1. N. Blakeley
2. T. Burdall
3. J. Mudd
4. W. Sands
5. J. Smith
6. T. Snaith
7. W. Suckling
8. L. Sutherill

• Pronounced "Fozdike" by the locals, the village is first recorded as Fotesdic in 1183, literally meaning "ditch of a man named Fotr". There is also a Fossdyke Canal between the city of Lincoln and the River Trent.
  A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991.

• The parish was in the ancient Kirton Wapentake in the Boston Borough district in the parts of Holland.
   
• In December of 1880, the Fosdyke Fen allotment, with 123 inhabitants, was transferred to Brothertoft parish.
   
• You may contact the current Parish Council regarding civic or political matters, but they can NOT help you with family history lookups.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of the Village Hall on Old Main Road on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2020.
   
• For today's district governance, visit the local Boston Borough Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Kirton and Skirbeck petty session hearings.
   
• In 1684, Ann WADDINGHAM donated four tenements and a half acre of land for the poor here.
   
• Another house and garden were donated by a Mr. LADDINGTON.
   
• Around 1813, Sir Thomas MIDDLECOTT donated an almshouse for the poor of this parish and Algarkirk, endowing it with 98 acres of land. Four of the ten beds were allocated to Fosdyke parish poor.
   
• BERIDGE's charity donated about £20 for coal for the poor.
   
• After the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Boston Poor Law Union.

Year	Inhabitants
1831	401
1871	631
1881	477
1891	433
1911	449
1991	486

• The first school was erected in Fosdyke in 1867 by the Reverend Basil BERIDGE.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.