Place:Helpringham, Lincolnshire, England

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NameHelpringham
Alt namesThorpe Latimersource: hamlet in parish
Helperichamsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 171
Helperinchamsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 171
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates52.95°N 0.317°W
Located inLincolnshire, England
Also located inKesteven, England     (1889 - 1974)
See alsoSleaford Rural, Kesteven, Englandrural district in which it was located 1894-1931
East Kesteven Rural, Kesteven, Englandrural district in which it was located 1931-1974
North Kesteven District, Lincolnshire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Helpringham is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the edge of the Fens, and 5 miles (8 km) south-east from Sleaford. It is noted for its Grade I listed St Andrew's Church. No 21st century population figure is quoted. The parish includes the hamlet of Thorpe Latimer to the south.

In 1885 Kelly's Directory noted the parish area as 3,227 acres (13 km2) with principal agricultural production of wheat, barley, oats, beans, turnips and seeds. The population in 1881 was 941. Chief landowners at the time included Lord Willoughby de Broke. There were three chapels: Baptist, Congregational and Primitive Methodist, the last rebuilt in 1883. Parish occupations at the time included 30 farmers, one of whom was a maltster, a market gardener, 2 coke & coal merchants, 3 machine owners, a wheelwright, 2 blacksmiths, a harness maker, a carrier, 2 carpenters, a bricklayer, 2 millers, 2 bakers, a miller & baker, 3 draper & grocers, a butcher, 2 beer retailers, one of whom was also a butcher, a shopkeeper, 3 shoemakers, one of whom was a registrar for births and deaths, publicans at the Sun, the Willoughby Arms and the Nag's Head public houses, and 2 tailors, one of whom was also the clerk to the burial and school boards.

[Wikipedia describes the bounds of the parish in detail with 21st century landmarks. Helpringham shares its southeast border with the parish of Donington in the Holland part of Lincolnshire.]

Research Tips

Lincolnshire is very low-lying and land had to be drained for agriculture to be successful. The larger drainage channels, many of which are parallel to each other, became boundaries between parishes. Many parishes are long and thin for this reason.

There is much fenland in Lincolnshire, particularly in the Boston and Horncastle areas. Fenlands tended to be extraparochial before the mid 1850s, and although many sections were identified with names and given the title "civil parish", little information has been found about them. Many appear to be abolished in 1906, but the parish which adopts them is not given in A Vision of Britain through Time. Note the WR category Lincolnshire Fenland Settlements which is an attempt to organize them into one list.

From 1889 until 1974 Lincolnshire was divided into three administrative counties: Parts of Holland, Parts of Kesteven and Parts of Lindsey. These formal names do not fit with modern grammatical usage, but that is what they were, nonetheless. In 1974 the northern section of Lindsey, along with the East Riding of Yorkshire, became the short-lived county of Humberside. In 1996 Humberside was abolished and the area previously in Lincolnshire was made into the two "unitary authorities" of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The remainder of Lincolnshire was divided into "non-metropolitan districts" or "district municipalities" in 1974. Towns, villages and parishes are all listed under Lincolnshire, but the present-day districts are also given so that places in this large county can more easily be located and linked to their wider neighbourhoods. See the WR placepage Lincolnshire, England and the smaller divisions for further explanation.

  • Maps provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time show all the parishes and many villages and hamlets. (Small local reorganization of parishes took place in the 1930s led to differences between the latter two maps.):
  • FindMyPast now has a large collection of Lincolnshire baptisms, banns, marriages and burials now available to search by name, year, place and parent's names. This is a pay website. (blog dated 16 Sep 2016)
  • GENUKI's page on Lincolnshire's Archive Service gives addresses, phone numbers, webpages for all archive offices, museums and libraries in Lincolnshire which may store old records and also presents a list entitled "Hints for the new researcher" which may include details of which you are not aware. These suggestions are becoming more and more outdated, but there's no telling what may be expected in a small library.
  • GENUKI also has pages of information on individual parishes, particularly ecclesiastical parishes. The author may just come up with morsels not supplied in other internet-available sources.
  • Deceased Online now has records for 11 cemeteries and two crematoria in Lincolnshire. This includes Grimsby's Scartho Road cemetery, Scartho Road crematorium, and Cleethorpes cemetery, council records for the City of Lincoln and Gainsborough, and older church records from The National Archives for St Michael's in Stamford, and St Mark's in Lincoln, dating back to 1707. This is a pay website.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Helpringham. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.