Torksey

The Gainsborough Library is an excellent resource with both a Local History section and a Family History section.

Dawn M. HADLEY, Julian D. RICHARDS, "The Winter Camp of the Great Viking Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire", Cambridge University Press, 2016. Available online at www.Cambridge.org.

• The parish was in the Marton sub-district of the Gainsborough Registration District.
   
• Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:

• The Anglican Church is dedicated to Saint Peter.
   
• The church has an ancient origin and was partly rebuilt in 1821 and restored in 1895. The existing church has a font of Norman origin.
   
• Evidence of two earlier Saxon churches have been found on the south side of the village.
   
• The parish once was the site of the Foss Nunnery of the order of Saint Benedict, endowed about 1218 by King Henry III. There is a monument in St. Peter's churchyard to Margaret de WINTON, prioress of the nunnery.
   
• King John founded an Augustine priory here, dedicated to Saint Leonard.
   
• There is a photo of the church at Wendy PARKINSON's site.
   
• Richard CROFT has a photograph of St. Peter's Church on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2005.
   
• Mr. CROFT has a photograph of the church interior on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2009.
   
• Here is a photo of St. Peter's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
   

• Parish registers exist from 1575.
   
• The North Lincolnshire Library holds a copy of the parish register entries for baptisms 1575-1890, burials 1653-1977 and marriages 1575-1980.
   
• The parish lies in the Corringham Deanery, for which there are Deanery marriage indexes.
   
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a small chapel here in Hardwick prior to 1913 and a larger chapel in Torskey as well.
   
• For more on these chapels and their records, check our Non-Conformist Church Records page for additional resources.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

• The parish was in the Marton sub-district of the Gainsborough Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.

Torksey is a village, a township and parish which sits on the edge of the Wolds about 146 miles north of London, seven miles south of Gainsborough and nine miles west of Lincoln. The Fossdyke Canal passes just south of the village and connects to the River Trent, which is the western boundary of the parish. Marton parish is to the north and Fenton parish to the south.

The parish contains three ancient townships: Torksey, Hardwick and Brampton. Hardwick is a district of scattered farms about 3 miles southeast of Torskey village on the east side of the Fossdyke Canal. Brampton is an area one mile northeast of Torskey village, known in the 19th century for its fine pottery and porcelain called "Torskey Ware". "Torksey Ware" has been found from the 12th century on. Brampton is shown on some maps as a separate parish, but the website author has found no record of this. If you are planning a visit:

• The village can be accessed off of the A156 trunk road south of Gainsborough. The A156 runs through the village itself.
   
• Bus service is provided via route 357 of the Linconshire Road Car's service between Lincoln and Gainsborough.
   
• There is a Protected Roadside Verge on the north side of the road into the village, maintained by the Lincolnshire Trust. Bird watching is a rewarding activity for visitors in the area.
   
• A popular pasttime for visitors is fishing in the Trent or playing golf on the local links.
   
• Some people pass the time by watching the boat traffic pass through Torksey Lock. Richard CROFT has a photograph of Torksey Lock on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2005.
   
• Maurice PULLIN provides a photograph and history of Torksey Lock on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2002.
   
• Visit our touring page for more sources.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• During the 9th century, Torksey was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Lindsey.
   
• Torskey is reported in White's Directory as being the Roman station, Tiovulfingacester, built at the entrance of the Fossdyke to secure navigation and as a storehouse for grain.
   
• The old Roman/Saxon town of Torskey is believed to have been south of the present village.
   
• During the Saxon Heptarchy, Torskey was an important site. It is said that Paulinus baptised the Lindisians here in the presence of Edwin, King of Northumbria.
   
• Torskey is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as a "borough town".
   
• The now Grade I listed 16th-century Torksey Castle was destroyed in August 1645 during the English Civil War; its remains are on the river side of the dike which separates it from dry land.
   
• It isn't clear who started the Fossdyke Canal between the River Trent and the city of Lincoln. It may have been Roman work or Saxon or even earlier. Some scholars date the work as a Roman project completed in 120AD. In 1121 it was made navigable again enhancing the status of Torksey as a port. The canal became a major route in the Middle Ages for transport of wool from the midland counties. It remained an important waterway link into the middle 1800s, after which much cargo was transported by rail.
   
• The Torksey Viaduct, railway bridge, was built between 1847 and 1849. The viaduct was closed to traffic on 2 November 1959, because of the cost of renovating it. It is a Grade II listed structure with English Heritage. In April 2016, the viaduct was opened to both cyclists and walkers.
   
• The parish had a station on the Retford and Lincoln branch of the Great Central railway.
   
• Look at the derelict places site  for more information on Torksey Castle.
   
• Richard CROFT has a photograph of Torksey Castle on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2008.

• The parish is the ancient seat of the JERMYN family.
   
• In 1881, all the township of Torksey was owned by the Hon. R. C. H. CUST. Alexander HUNTER owned most of the land in Hardwick township.
   
• In 1900 and 1913, the chief landowners in the parish were the Misses CUST of the Isle of Wight.

• The BBC tells us: Torksey Hall was built in the middle of the sixteenth century, by the wealthy JERMYN family of Suffolk, some say as a gift to an elder son, or maybe as a convenient resting place on the road to York. Whatever the reason for its building, it was to be a home for less than one hundred years before it was almost totally destroyed. The West front and part of the kitchen range is all that remains of this once impressive country house; yes, house, for it never was a Castle, nor could it have coped particularly well with any sort of attack. Maybe it was so named because of the angular projecting towers still evident today, or the crow stepped gables capping it off, giving it that crenellated 'castley' look. The Hall was constructed along the line of an earlier flood bank, close to the river but not as close as it appears today. In modern times, this area is prone to flooding every winter, the present one included. The hall was destroyed by military action during the English Civil War in the summer of 1645.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK838788 (Lat/Lon: 53.299851, -0.74441), Torksey 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 873 AD, the Danes wintered at Torskey, and were visited there by Burhred, King of Mercia, who purchased from them a short peace. These invaders settled in Lincoln and Stamford, among two of the five principal towns which they occupied, and they were not expelled until the year 941 in the reign of Edmund the Elder.
   
• There is a World War One Memorial Plaque in st. Peter's Church with ten names on it.
   
• There is a plain white marble World War Two Memorial tablet in St. Peter's Church.
   
• In World War II, a fuel depot in Torksey supplied most of the fuel for the RAF in Lincolnshire.

The names on the World War One Memorial Plaque are:

1. Baines, Fred W.
2. Denman, George W.
3. Frow, Charles H., pte., 5th Bn. Yorkshire Regt., husband of Harriet FROW.
4. Hurst, Leigh
5. Jubb, Sydney Frederick, pte., 13th Bn. York and Lancaster Regt., son of George and Kate JUB.
6. Lister, Arthur
7. Lister, George
8. Nelson, Edward W.
9. Sharpe, Walter B.
10. Ward, Harry

The plain white marble WW2 Memorial tablet holds these names (all deceased in combat):

1. BURNETT, Frederick Richard Thomas, Lieut., RAMC, husband of Raney BURNETT.
2. MARSHALL, Willliam H.
3. MAXEY, John William, corporal, 22 Sqdn. RAF,
4. WILKINSON, Kenneth Henry, gunner, RA, 13 Anti-Tank Regt., son of William and Edith Annie WILKINSON.

There is a Commonwealth War Grave in Torksey cemetery for F. R/ T. BURNETT.

• The name Torksey is from the Old English Turecr+eg, or "Island of a man called Turec". In the 1086 Domesday Book the village is given as Torchesey. It's Latinised name has been rendered as Torchasium and the Saxon as Turkesige.
  Anthony D. MILLS, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991.

• Kelly's 1900 Directory lists the following surnames in the parish: ABRAHAM, AUCKLAND, BAXTER, BINGHAM, BURDALL, DAWBER, DAWSON, DENMAN, DICKINSON, GILBY, GOURLEY, HOPKINSON, LAMING, LANGLEY, LISTER, OLIVER, SAXBY, SEMPERS, SIKES, TOMLINSON, TOULE, TURNBULL, WALLACE and WILDSMITH.
   
• Kelly's 1913 Directory lists the following surnames in the parish: AUCKLAND, BAXTER, BOWE, BURDALL, BURTON, CADE, COTTINGHAM, DAVENPORT, DENBY, DENMAN, DICKINSON, ENGLISH, GILBY, GOURLEY, HESSELL, HODCHKIN, LAMING, LANGLEY, MALTBY, MATTHEWS, PEACOCK, SCARBOROUGH, TOMLINSON, TOULE, TURNBULL and WILDSMITH.

• This place was both an ancient township and an ancient parish in Lincoln county and it became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The village of Torksey lay in the ancient Lawress Wapentake in the West Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• Brampton was in the Well Wapentake.
   
• Today's district governance is provided by the West Lindsey District Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Lincoln (Lindsey) petty session hearings.
   
• The common fields at Brampton were enclosed in 1778.
   
• Local charities in 1913 amounted to £4 yearly left by Mr. MAKINS of Treswell.
   
• After the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parish became part of the Gainsborough Union Workhouse.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	329
1831	404
1841	615
1851	438
1861	379
1871	203
1881	160
1891	195
1901	202
1911	183
1991	506

• A Public Elementary School was built here in 1870 in the Hardwick township, founded by C. H. CUST. In 1913 it had 50 students attending.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.