Long Sutton
- Many parish records can be found at the Spalding Library under "Sutton St. Marys".
- The parish was part of the Long Sutton sub-district of the Holbeach Registration District.
- Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
- The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
Census
Year |
Piece No. |
| 1841 |
H.O. 107 / 611 |
| 1851 |
H.O. 107 / 2097 |
| 1861 |
R.G. 9 / 2326 - 2328 |
| 1871 |
R.G. 10 / 3326 - 3329 |
| 1881 |
R.G. 11 / 3208 |
| 1891 |
R.G. 12 / 2567 |
- There was an ancient monastic cell here, called Ketel, but physical traces appear to have vanished.
- The Anglican parish church is dedicated to St. Mary.
- The church was built in the 14th and 15th century and encloses an earlier Norman church. The tower was built in the 13th century.
- The church was restored in 1866.
- The church seats about 900.
- The church has a lofty spire which served local fishermen as a landmark for navigation.
- Here is a photo of St. Mary's church, taken by Ron Cole (who retains the copyright):
- The Anglican parish registers exist from 1561.
- We have a small Parish Register extract text file. Your additions are welcome.
- We also have a file of Norfolk Marriages in Long Sutton. Your additions here are welcome, too.
- Check the East Elloe Deanery page to see which indexes are available.
- The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel here in 1839 and the Congregationalists had one even earlier, in 1818, with 450 seating. The Baptists built their chapel in 1840. For information and assistance in researching these chapels, see our non-conformist religions page.
- Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.
- The parish was part of the Long Sutton sub-district of the Holbeach Registration District.
- Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.
Long Sutton, or Sutton St. Mary, is both an ancient market town and a parish about 107 miles north of London, about 13 miles east of Spalding and 9 miles north of Wisbech, off the A17 trunk road. Sutton Bridge parish lies to the east and Tydd St. Mary parish to the south. The parish includes the hamlet of Sutton Crosses. The area is marshy, drained by many small canals and the South Holland Main Drain.
The parish once included Sutton Bridge village and encompased the three hamlets of Sutton Saint Mary, Sutton Saint James and Sutton Saint Nicholas. The parish was roughly 25,150 acres in size, at its largest, reduced to 3,923 acres by 1912.
If you are planning a visit:
- Prior to 1800, most of this parish was inundated by high tides in the North Sea. It wasn't until dykes were raised and drains created that the land was serviceable for crops and grazing.
- F. W. & B. A. Robinson wrote "History of Long Sutton and District", published in 1981.
- In 1824, Market Day was revived on Fridays. Fair days were May 13th and 14th and the first Friday after September 26th.
- Parts of this parish were allocated to other nearby parishes as boundaries changed.
The parish held three manors:
- Sutton Holland, the property of WELCHMAN and DEWING in 1912.
- Guanock Manor, (or Gwanock) the property of Richard Peele MOSSOP in 1912.
- Cranwell, the property of Samuel Septimus MOSSOP in 1912.
- The national grid reference is TF 4322.
- You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has 2.5 inches to the mile scale.
- See our Maps page for additional resources.
- The name Sutton is from the Old English suth+tun, or "southern village".
[A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991]
- The "official" name of the parish was Sutton Saint Mary until 1932. The use of "Long Sutton" started in 1932.
- Surnames associated with the parish include ATKINSON, SUTHERBY and WHITE.
- Woad was harvested and processed in this area until the 1920's. See "Woad in the Fens", Norman T. Wills, published by L.J. Ruskin & sons (3rd Ed. 1979).
- This place was established as a modern Civil Parish in December, 1894.
- The parish became a registration/poorlaw sub-district on its formation in 1894.
- The parish was in the ancient Elloe Wapentake in the South Holland district and in the parts of Holland.
- For today's district governance, visit the South Holland District Council site.
- On 31 December, 1894, the parish was reduced in size to create Little Sutton Civil Parish and Sutton Bridge Civil Parish.
- Petty sessions for bastardy cases and other matters were held in this parish's court house.
- After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, the parish became part of the Holbeach Poor Law Union.
| Year |
Inhabitants |
| 1801 |
1,723 |
| 1811 |
1,801 |
| 1821 |
2,392 |
| 1831 |
3,510 |
| 1851 |
4,416 |
| 1871 |
4,253 |
| 1891 |
2,439 |
| 1901 |
2,524 |
| 1911 |
2,837 |
| 1921 |
3,192 |
- A Free School was founded here in 1492 by Robert PHILLIPS.
- An Infants School was built here in 1894.
- See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.
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[Last updated: 18-September-2011 - Louis R. Mills]
