Blankney
- 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:
Census
Year |
Piece No. |
| 1851 |
H.O. 107 / 2100 |
| 1861 |
R.G. 9 / 2341 |
| 1871 |
R.G. 10 / 3347 |
| 1891 |
R.G. 12 / 2577 |
- The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Oswald.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Photographs of the village are available at: Blankney Picture Gallery.
- Visit our touring page for more sources.
- 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.
- 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.
- The national grid reference is TF 0660.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- For today's district governance, see the North Kesteven District Council.
| 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 2012.
- For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.
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[Last updated: 28-November-2012 - Louis R. Mills]
