Lincolnshire county page

Contents

Lincolnshire Towns & Parishes

Nearby Places

Withern

Census

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

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Church History

• Stain was once a parish in its own right, but the ancient church of Saint John the Baptist was destroyed centuries ago.
  
  
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Margaret.
  
  
• The church was rebuilt in 1812.
  
  
• The church seats 250.
  
  
• There is a photograph of St. Margaret's church on the Wendy Parkinson Church Photos web site.
  
  
• The Diocese of Lincoln declared St. Margaret's Church redundant in July, 1980. In 1983 the church was sold for residential use.
  
  

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Church Records

• Anglican parish registers exist from 1558.
  
  
• Check our partial Parish Register Extract. Note the comments made by the local vicar. Your additions are welcome.
  
  
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage indexes and a burial index for the Calcewaith Deanery to make your search easier.
  
  
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel built in 1875, but had been holding services here since around 1811. For information and assistance in researching these chapels, see our non-conformist religions page.
  
  
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.
  
  

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Civil Registration

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

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Description and Travel

This village and parish is in the northeast of Lincolnshire about six miles southeast of Louth and four miles east of the A16 trunk road, bordered on the north by Gayton le Marsh parish and in the southeast by Strubby parish. It includes the hamlet of Stain, bringing the size of the parish to about 2,750 acres.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, the parish is on the Louth to Alford road, at the intersection of the A157 trunk road and the B1373 arterial road.
  
  
• See our touring page for visitor services.
  
  

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History

• A good history of the parish can be found in "Withern: The Story of a Lincolnshire Parish," ISBN 095395335, author: John Platt. You can purchase this from the Louth Museum.
  
  

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Manors

• The Manor House here, seat of the FITZWILLIAM family, was occupied as a farmhouse in 1900, but the moat still adjoined it.
  
  

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Maps

• The national grid reference is TF 4382.
  
  
• You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer #283 map, which has a scale of 2.5 inches to the mile.
  
  
• See our Maps page for additional resources.
  
  

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Names, Geographical

• The name Withern is from the Old English Widu+wudu, or "House in the Wood". In the 1086 Domesday Book, the village name is given as Widerne. Another source gives the name as deriving from ON vithr "wood" + OE aerne "house" = "the house in the wood", giving Witheren in the 14th century.
  A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991.
  
  

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Politics and Governance

• This place was an ancient parish in county Lincoln and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
  
  
• Stain used to be an ancient parish in county Lincoln but was combined with Withern when the old church of St. John the Baptist was destroyed.
  
  
• The parish was in the ancient Calceworth Wapentake in the East Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
  
  
• You can contact the local Parish Council regarding civic or political issues, but they are NOT staffed to help with family history searches.
  
  
• For today's district governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.
  
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, the parish became part of the Louth Poorlaw Union.
  
  
• The Common Lands, some 600 acres, were enclosed here in 1839.
  
  

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Population

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Schools

• A Public Elementary School was built in the hamlet of Stain in 1850 and enlarged in 1858 to hold 100 children.
  
  
• The Wesleyans had a school built in 1875.
  
  
• See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.
  
  

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