Blankney

Jo TURNER has a photograph of St. Oswald's Lychgate on Geo-graph, taken in October 1998.

• Blankney was in the Billinghay sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
   
• 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 Saint Oswald.
   
• The church is on the Sleaford Road.
   
• The church was rebuilt in 1820 and again in 1879-80.
   
• The church seats 150.
   
• There is a photograph of St. Oswald's Church on the Wendy PARKINSON Church Photos web site.
   
• David HITCHBORNE has a photograph of St. Oswald's Church on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2013.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of St. Oswald's Church tower on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2015.
   
• Here is a photo of St. Oswald's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):

• Anglican parish register entries start with burials in 1558, baptisms and marriages in 1560. Copies can be found in the Lincoln Archives.
   
• The Family History Library has the Bishop's Transcripts on microfilm, covering 1562 thru 1854, but there are gaps in the 1830s.
   
• We have a handful of ROSSINGTON entries in our parish register extract file. Your additions would be welcome.
   
• Shelley CLACK provides a list of names from the churchyard memorials. This is a Portable Document File you can search for your ancestors.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage indexes and a burial index for the Graffoe Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.
   

• Blankney was in the Billinghay sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.
   

This village and parish is ten miles north of Sleaford and ten miles south-east of Lincoln. The parish is a long, narrow structure, one mile wide and 11 miles long, running east to west. The east end of the parish is the River Witham. The parishes of Temple Bruer, Scopwick and Martin lie to the south and Metheringham to the north. Linwood, 3 miles east of the village, is a hamlet in the parish, as is Barf  or Barff. The parish covers some 6,800 acres of Fen and black moorland.

Modern-day visitors to Blankney often come for the golf. If you are planning a visit:

• While there, visit the 106 acre Metheringham Delph nature preserve on the northeast corner of the parish. This former "drain" was left to silt up and has become a wildlife refuge.
   
• The A15 trunk road skims the west edge of the parish, but the B1188 passes through the heart of the village as it makes it way north to Metheringham which is just a mile north where the B1188 crosses the B1202.
   
• Ian PATERSON has a photograph of the village on Geo-graph, taken in 2007.
   
• Jo TURNER has a photograph of Village Hall on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2011. Stop in when they are open and request a copy of the schedule of forth-coming events.
   
• Photographs of the village are available at: Blankney Picture Gallery.
   
• Visit our touring page for more sources.
   

• Geograph
• Flickr

• You can read White's 1882 Directory for Blankney parish.

John Marius WILSON's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870-72:

"BLANKNEY, a parish in Sleaford district, Lincoln; 6 miles SW of Stixwould r. station, and 9 N of Sleaford. It includes the hamlet of Linwood; and has a post office under Sleaford. Acres, 6,000. Real property, £7,324. Pop., 560. Houses, 90. The property is divided among a few. Blankney Hall is the seat of H. Chaplin, Esq. Much of the surface was formerly a waste, over which travellers were guided by the Dunston pillar; but is now good turnip land. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £821. Patron, H. Chaplin, Esq. The church is good; and there is a national school "

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

• The parish was long a haven for fox hunting. A "Court of Foresters" (Foxhunters) was established here in 1840 and met at the Tally Ho Inn. They had about 160 members. The parish also housed the "Kennels of the Blankney Hunt," consisting of some 50 couples.
   
• The Blankney foxhounds were still kenneled here in 1930.
   
• In the late 1800's, there was a Blankney Station three-quarters of a mile north of the village on the Spalding to Donacaster branch of the Great Northern and Great Eastern railways.
   
• Jonathan THACKER has a photograph of a typical Cottage in Blankney on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2012. The "trim" coloring is consistent with Blankney cottages.
   
• Richard BROTHWELL lost a relative here in April, 1879. A report appeared in the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury newspaper.
   

• Blankney Hall was the seat of the CHAPLIN family, who bought the property in 1719. It was an impressive estate, unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1945.
   
• Jonathan THACKER has a photograph of the Garden Wall at Blankney Hall on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2012.
   
• The remains of the Hall were demolished in 1960 and the grounds have been turned into a golf course.

• The national grid reference is TF 0659.
   
• You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has a scale of 2.5 inches to the mile.
   
• See our Maps page for additional resources.
   

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF067602 (Lat/Lon: 53.128297, -0.406795), Blankney 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.

• In 1940 the escort destroyer Blankney, "L30" hull number, was launched. She served with distinction during the war and was broken up in 1959.
   
• The RAF opened an airfield here in either late 1939 or early 1940 and designated it "Blankney Hall".
   
• The airfield operated as the Digby Sector Operations unit from November 1941 until 1945.
   
• The male staff members were billeted in the Blankney Hall stables. The WAAFs were billeted in the Hall proper.
   
• In March, 1945, a Lancaster and a Spitfire collided over Blankney. There was a report in the East Midlands News about a rememberance of the incident.
   
• The airfield closed shortly in 1945 and re-opened as the Lincolnshire Sector HQ in November.
   
• The airfield closed finally in April, 1946.
   

• The name Blankney is Old English Blanca+n+eg, or "Island of a man called Blanca". In the 1086 Domesday book, the village is given as Blachene and in 1157 appears as Blancaneia.
  [A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991]

• Here's a partial list of surnames found in White's 1871 Directory: ATKIN, BAKER, BAVIN, BLOW, BOTT, BRIDGES, CARTWRIGHT, CHALLANS, CHAMBERS, CHAPLIN, COTTINGHAM, ETCHELLS, FLETCHER, GILBERT, GRAVES, GREENHAM, HAIRE, HAWTIN, KNOTT, LILL, PAWLEY, PEARS, PEARSON, POTTERTON, ROSSINGTON, SHARPE, SMITH, SUMPTER and TYLER.
   
• Kelley's 1913 Directory lists these surnames: BAILEY, CAPELL, CARTWRIGHT, CHALLANS, CLEAVER, COOK, DAULTON, FAULKNER, FLETCHER, FLINTHAM, GILBERT, GODSON, GOOSE, HOUGHTON, HUTCHINSON, JOLLY, LILL, LILLEY, MALTBY, OVERTON, ROSSINGTON, SEWELL, SHARPE, SMITH, TREFFRY, WEST, WILKINSON, WILLOWS and YOUNG.
   

• This place was an ancient parish in Lincoln county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the second division of the ancient Langoe Wapentake in the North Kesteven division of the county, in the parts of Kesteven.
   
• You may contact the local Blankney Parish Council regarding civic or political issues. Be aware that they can NOT assist with family history research.
   
• For today's district governance, see the North Kesteven District Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Sleaford petty session hearings every Monday.
   
• After the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reforms, the parish became part of the Sleaford Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	410
1831	543
1841	640
1871	568
1881	658
1891	627
1901	579
1911	617
1921	600
1991	262

• A National School was built here in 1821 by the CHAPLIN family. It was apparently abandoned when the new school was opened.
   
• A Public Elementary School was built here in 1848 for 100 children. Average attendance in 1913 was 41.
   
• Jonathan THACKER has a photograph of the former village school on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2012.
   
• Jonathan THACKER has a second photograph of the former village school on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2012.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.