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 About SLHA Library Publications Local History Archaeology Industrial Archaeology Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology |
start A GUIDE TO LOCAL BOOKS AND OTHER SOURCES start
start Directories provide a mixture of historical, administrative and geographical information, followed by a list of the principal residents, farmers, tradesmen, etc. County directories were published every few years between 1842 and 1937 and there is a virtually complete set in Lincoln Central Library, with a large number in Lincolnshire Archives. Directories will be constant sources of reference, especially in any study focusing on that period, so this section is limited to an introduction.
end General Information One of the most useful aspects of directory information is that relating to the administrative status of various territories. Townships were territories that had their own open-field systems and administered their own rating systems, especially for the poor. Mostly townships were also parishes, that is, ecclesiastical units of administration with their own church, incumbent, parsonage house and system of tithes and glebe land. But some parishes contained more than one township, for example, Doddington, as is made clear in the entry for this parish in White's Directory of Lincolnshire of 1856. Example from White's Directory of 1856: DODDINGTON, a small village on a commanding eminence, nearly six miles W. by S. of Lincoln, has in its township 175 souls, and 2410 acres of land....The parish also includes Whisby township......
Whisby, a hamlet or township, in Doddington parish, 6 miles S.W. by W. of Lincoln, contains only 89 souls, and about 1500 acres of land......
As revealed in VCH II, p. 362, the accurate acreages were 2,527 for Doddington, 1,677 for Whisby; but White quoted the 1851 census figures precisely (see list 10 for Population). Before the rise of nonconformity, chapels were outposts of parish churches, often known as chapels-of-ease, since they made church attendance easier. Chapelries, or the territories of chapels, were therefore usually co-terminous with townships not having parochial status. With the growth of population in the nineteenth century, many chapelries and townships gained full parochial status, as did Martin in Timberland parish, and this would usually lead to another set of changes, such as the appointment of separate incumbents, and frequently the building or rebuilding of the place of worship, with a new burial ground. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century extra-parochial places were eliminated by absorption into existing parishes or by being created civil parishes. The paragraphs of general information, especially for the large parishes and in White's later directories (1882, 1892), sometimes contain much detail on many topics, as illustrated by the following entry for Long Sutton: Example from White's Directory of 1892: The entry for LONG SUTTON runs to two pages of closely set type, the first paragraph setting out administrative matters, acreages, and population, including the location of the parish within the Parts of Holland, the Holbeach Union and county court district, Elloe wapentake and Long Sutton petty sessional division. This is followed by considerable detail as to fen drainage, the building of Sutton Bridge over the River Nene, the new outfall for the latter, the former fen commons, and so on. There is then a note of several administrative and commercial matters, including the Burton and Lincoln Brewery Company, the corn exchange and public rooms, the gas works, the Local Board (for sanitary purposes), the chief landowners and their manorial administrations, and the police station. A very large paragraph is devoted to the substantial parish church, including many alterations and improvements and matters of ecclesiatical administration. By comparison, the four nonconformist chapels are dismissed in about half-a-dozen lines, but these do record dates of establishment and enlargement not so easily discovered as the architectural detail of an established church. Two paragraphs are devoted to a wide variety of charities, some as ancient as the sixteenth century. The last paragraph covers postal arrangements - three collections, etc.
Lists of Residents and Tradesmen Directories are very useful for a picture of traditional village communities in the days when they were relatively self-sufficient. A table has been constructed from the lists of tradesmen for a group of neighbouring villages to show the differences in services available between them. This table makes it clear that smaller villages depended to some extent on their bigger neighbours for some services, whilst even most of the biggest villages lacked services such as a doctor, a solicitor, and a bank, which were generally found only in the nearest market town. Lincolnshire County Directories White: 1826, 1842, 1856, 1872, 1882, 1892. City of Lincoln Directories These are included mainly for the sake of giving a complete list of directories for the county, but also because those published by Ruddock especially are useful when researching the history of villages within the Lincoln area, which included sections on the villages nearest to the city. Akrill: 1857, 1863, 1867, 1877, 1881, 1885 Also useful is Dennis R. Mills Rural Community History from Trade Directories Oxford, 2001, which gives general guidance on trade directories, with many Lincolnshire examples. Example of information obtained from a directory: Numbers of Trades/craftsmen in a group of North Kesteven parishes in 1922
Source: Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire, 1922 Note: Where a person declared two occupations, e.g., grocer and Post Office, these have been counted separately in order to show the most comprehensive picture available. Likewise, totals have been calculated for both the number of different services reported and the number of different enterprises involved. To be read in conjunction with the directories are Herbert Greens Lincolnshire Town and Village Life Press cuttings c. 1900 (LCL). These appeared in the Lincoln Gazette and Times, when Green was a reporter on that newspaper and visited a large proportion of villages in the county. His articles include both historical and contemporary information, but it is for the latter that they are recommended since much of Green's historical information is inaccurate or dated. The entry for Little Bytham includes the following points, including an explanation of the location of the school outside the village on the way to Counthorpe and Creeton: Example from Green's book: Reading room at LITTLE BYTHAM erected 1900, Wesleyan chapel 1889. A School Board district set up for Little Bytham, Counthorpe and Creeton, school built 1877 with accommodation for 120, with 74 children currently on the books. Situated on the parish boundary near the brickworks (and its cottages), where products include adamantine clinker a very hard material used for floors, and to be seen in the school playground. Much Roman pottery found in the vicinity of the school. (vol. 8, pp. 201-2).
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