Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology

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DOING A PARISH HISTORY

A GUIDE TO LOCAL BOOKS AND OTHER SOURCES

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6. The Parish Church

Although a special subject in its own right, the parish church encapsulates so much general parish history that it deserves attention for that reason alone.

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See also List 1a for Thorold and Yates and List 1b for vols V-VI and IX of the History of Lincolnshire; List 2 for Bennett and Bennett (maps 23 and 51), Pevsner, Listed Building Notes; List 4 for Everson et. al., Loughlin and Miller and Sites and Monuments Records.

R. W. Ambler, ed. Lincolnshire Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851 Lincoln Record Society, vol 72, 1979. Interpretation of the numbers attending places of worship is a subject of controversy, but the figures give a rough indication of size of denominations in each village in 1851 and often the date of establishment (see also directories).

Example of record in Ambler's book:

ALTHORPE: population 335 (at 1851census).

St Oswald's Parish Church, lists endowments; numbers of sittings - 80 free, 100 -other; attendance on census Sunday 141 at afternoon service. Services alternate with Amcotts. Several sentences on the lack of a school in Althorpe, children at work, tasks undertaken, wages.

Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, erected 1834, separate and entire building, 34 free sittings, 54 other. Average attendance over 12 months - morning 30, afternoon 40, evening 40, plus Sunday scholars 30 in morning and afternoon, six in the evening.

R. W. Ambler, ed. Lincolnshire Correspondence of John Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln, 1827-53 Lincoln Record Society, 94, 2006. Much social as well as religious comment and very well indexed geographically.
J. C. Cox Lincolnshire London, 1916, 1924. In the Little Guide series.
Bonney's Church Notes, being Notes on the Churches in the Archdeaconry of Lincoln 1845-48 by H. K. Bonney, edited by N. S. Harding Lincoln, 1937.
F. A. Greenhill Monumental Incised slabs in the County of Lincolnshire Newport Pagnell, 1986. A most conscientious recording in gazetteer form of the more artistic and older slabs, but excluding brasses and many ordinary ledgers (flat gravestones).
G. Holles Lincolnshire Church Notes 1634-42 Lincoln Record Society, vol. 1, 1911. Limited to memorials in a large number of selected churches - see also Monson, below.
John, 6th Lord Monson, ed. Lincolnshire Church Notes made by William John Monson, afterwards 6th Lord Monson, 1828-40 Lincoln Record Society, vol. 31, 1936. Monson's notes contain descriptions of churches before the wave of Victorian restoration, and much detail of monuments and the like since lost or now indecipherable. Monson did not visit all churches, but his list differs in some respects from that of Holles (see above). The following is an indication of the contents of the entry for Whaplode Drove, a chapel in the parish of Whaplode:

Example of record from Monson's book:

Notes taken in the chapel at WHAPLODE DROVE, 31 March, 1836 - This chapel is modern and built about 20 yards from the site of the old chapel, and to the east of it. It consists of a nave without aisles, having a bow for a chancel and a small turret for three bells at the west end. The windows are quite plain sash ones; a gallery at the west end.

The entry then goes on to list the full texts on wall tablets relating to (1) the means by which the rebuilding of the chapel was carried out in 1820 and (2) to members of the Kelk and Dinham families. He then noted the full texts of flat stones originally in the floor of the old chapel but now exposed to the air, relating to the Heaton family, c. 1700, and commented on several others which were illegible or nearly so.

J. Obelkevich Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey 1825-1875 Oxford, 1976. Relates to 237 parishes south of a line from Gainsborough to Louth: concerned with religion rather than church architecture.
E. Peacock, ed. English Church Furniture, ornaments and decorations at the period of the Reformation as exhibited in a list of goods destroyed in certain Lincolnshire churches, AD 1566 London, 1866. Arranged by parishes, though a significant proportion do not appear. A most interesting insight into the Reformation at the level of the man-in-th-pew.
H. Thorold Lincolnshire Churches Revisited Salisbury, 1989.

Individual churches and groups of churches are the subject of innumerable booklets and leaflets. Four good examples of the latter are:

S. Birch A Guide to the Churches of the Haverstoe Deanery Grimsby, n.d., c. 1994.
C. Kightly Churches of North-West Lincolnshire West Lindsey DC, n.d., c. 1990. This concerns the Corringham Deanery.
C. Kightly and R. Watts Understanding Lincolnshire Church Interiors Lincoln, 2000. Published in connection with Lincs. Heritage Open Days 2000, and therefore contains a gazetteer of 50 churches, including some non-Anglican buildings.
R. Massingberd-Mundy, ed. A Guide to the Anglican Churches in the Archdeaconry of Lindsey in the Diocese of Lincoln The South Ormsby Group of Parishes, 1991. Brief notes on 202 churches situated east of a line approximately from Immingham to Bardney.
G. Neville, ed. The Diaries of Edward Lee Hicks, Bishop of Lincoln 1910-1919 Lincoln Record Society, 82, 1993. Hicks visited many parishes, making social comments as well as on the church building and very well indexed geographically.

The Banks Collection of illustrations includes drawings of many parish churches in the period c. 1790-1805 and the Ross Manuscripts have many mid-nineteenth century church illustrations (both pre-photography and in LCL). "A Collection of Views of the seats of the Nobility and Gentry, of Castles, Churches and Chapels, the Ruins of Ancient Buildings and other objects within the County of Lincoln. Executed at the latter end of the Eighteenth Century by Claude Nattes and other Artists under the superintendence of Sir Joseph Banks. The whole, alphabetically arranged according to the Names of the respective Parishes in Four Volumes".(Vol 4). This is a collection of drawings of major Lincolnshire buildings, commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks. The originals are in the strong room at Lincoln Central Library, and may be seen only on production of photographic identification (e.g. Passport, Archives Card). Copy prints can be seen in the library without identification.

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