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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1. General Histories

Although these general works are set out first, local historians will find themselves going back to them at many stages of the work. They set the context in which individual parish histories have developed, and help the parish researcher to judge whether events in his village were typical or unusual. They are mostly well illustrated, often with archive material depicting scenes or people long since gone. Check the indexes to see if your parish name occurs. The titles are arranged in two lists, the second being volumes of the standard county history - the History of Lincolnshire series in 12 volumes.

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List 1 (a)

M. W. Barley Lincolnshire and the Fens London, 1952 and Wakefield, 1972
S. Bennett A History of Lincolnshire Chichester, 1999. (This is a replacement for Rogers, see below, although it is advertised as the third edition.)
R. H. Bewley, ed. Lincolnshire's Archaeology from the Air SLHA, 1998
P. Everson, C. C. Taylor and C. J. Dunn Change and Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-west Lincolnshire London, 1991. (This very considerable body of archaeological fieldwork embraces the 125 parishes of the West Lindsey District Council area.)
J. W. F. or Sir Francis Hill, four volumes on Lincoln are worth consulting for the considerable background of county history, and to check the many specific references to country parishes: Medieval Lincoln 1948; Tudor and Stuart Lincoln 1956; Georgian Lincoln 1966; Victorian Lincoln 1974 (All published in Cambridge)
H. Healey A Fenland Landscape Glossary for Lincolnshire Lincoln, 1997
J. R. Ketteringham Lincolnshire People Barnsley, 1995
J. R. Ketteringham Lincolnshire Women Lincoln, 1998
M. Lloyd A Portrait of Lincolnshire London, 1983
W. Marsden Lincolnshire London, 1977
A. E. B. Owen, ed. The Medieval Lindsey Marsh; select documents Lincoln Record Society, 85, 1996. (Contains documents about many individual places stretching from Somercotes to Wainfleet)
W. T. Pike, ed. Lincolnshire at the Opening of the Twentieth Century Brighton, 1907. (An account of the great and good in Lincolnshire a century ago)
C. K. Rawding The Lincolnshire Wolds in the nineteenth century SLHA, 2001. (A must for anyone studying a Wold village, or with an interest in landownership types)
A. Rogers A History of Lincolnshire Henley-on-Thames, 1970, 2nd ed. Chichester, 1985
D. Start and C. Cruickshank Lincolnshire from the Air Sleaford, 1993. (Has many photos of modern features, but also very strong on archaeology)
H. Thorold and J. Yates A Shell Guide: Lincolnshire London, 1965. (Very brief descriptions of numerous places, often of churches, but also of country houses, etc.)
E. Trollope Sleaford, And the Wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn, In the County of Lincoln 1872, new ed., Heckington, 1999. (An excellent Victorian exemplar of parish history, covering a large number of parishes in mid-Kesteven)
J. Varley The Parts of Kesteven: Studies in Law and Local Government (Sleaford, 1974)

Additionally there are several useful texts on how to study English local history, to be found in most of the larger libraries. The three following titles are suggested as look-up texts for many problems of detail:

J. Bristow, ed. The Local Historian's Glossary and Vade Mecum Nottingham, 2nd. ed., 1994
C. R. Cheney, ed. Handbook of Dates Cambridge, 2nd. rev. ed., 2000
J. Richardson, ed. The Local Historian's Encyclopedia Barnet, 1974, with later reprints and editions

List 1 (b)

The History of Lincolnshire is the standard history of the county published by the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, Jews Court, Steep Hill, Lincoln, LN2 1LS. The books are well indexed, so references in the text to individual parishes can be easily checked, but the many maps should be studied separately, since places marked on them are not mentioned in the indexes.

J. May Prehistoric Lincolnshire (Volume I) 1976
J. B .Whitwell Roman Lincolnshire (Volume II) 1970, revised edn., 1992
P. Sawyer Anglo-Saxon Lincolnshire (Volume III) 1998

Examples are given here of the information afforded by volumes I-III of the History of Lincolnshire on a random selection of individual parishes:

GREAT PONTON: vol. I, pp. 44-45 and fig. 23, and p. 214 on the Neolithic settlement; p. 75 on the barrow cemetery; vol. II, p. 80 on the Roman villa.

HOLBEACH: vol. I, p. 152 on salt-making; p. 209 Stukeley born there; vol. III, pp. 233-34, references to Holbeach in probably spurious Anglo-Saxon charters; p. 243, property at Holbeach belonging to Crowland Abbey.

BURGH-LE-MARSH, vol. I, p. 9, connection with Bluestone Heath Road; vol. II, p. 75, Roman road, p. 139, Roman settlement; vol. III, p. 85, significance of the burh name.

G. Platts Land and People in Medieval Lincolnshire (Volume IV) 1985
D. M. Owen Church and Society in Medieval Lincolnshire (Volume V) 1971, rep. 1981 and 1990
G. Hodgett Tudor Lincolnshire (Volume VI) 1975
C. Holmes Seventeenth-Century Lincolnshire (Volume VII) 1980
T. W. Beastall Agricultural Revolution in Lincolnshire (Volume VIII) 1978
R. W. Ambler Churches, Chapels and the Parish Communities of Lincolnshire, 1660-1900 (Volume IX) 2000
R. J. Olney Rural Society and County Government in Nineteenth Century Lincolnshire (Volume X) 1979
N. R. Wright Lincolnshire Towns and Industry 1700-1914 (Volome XI) 1982). (Whilst this has little to say on rural parishes, many of the topics covered illuminate rural life. For example, there are useful appendices on the setting up of turnpikes and the opening of railways.)
D. R. Mills, ed. Twentieth Century Lincolnshire (Volume XII) 1989

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