Place:South Stoke, Lincolnshire, England

South Stoke and North Stoke were originally townships in an ecclesiastical parish named Stoke which became a civil parish after 1776. The civil parish continued until 1866 and until that date also contained the township of Easton.

William the Conqueror granted this parish to the Rochford family and it remained in the family's possession until 1663. This association prompted the the renaming of the parish to Stoke Rochford, originally on an informal basis but gaining popularity over time.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

When Rochford Park was expanded to about 400 acres in 1843 North Stoke was removed and the village of South Stoke was laid out to complement the architectural scheme of the new hall, built for Christoper Turnor by William Burn.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of South Stoke from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"STOKE-SOUTH, a township and a parish in Grantham [registration] district, Lincoln. The township lies on the river Witham, 2 miles SSW of Great Ponton [railway] station, and 6 S of Grantham; is sometimes called Stoke-Rochford; and has a post-office, of that name, under Grantham. Real property: £1,414. Population: 140. Houses: 32.

"The parish contains also North Stoke and Easton townships, and comprises 5,270 acres. Population: 394. Houses: 83. The manor, with Stoke-Rochford Hall, belongs to Turnor, Esq. Easton Hall is the seat of Sir M. J. Cholmeley, Bart. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lincoln. Value: £785. Patron: the Bishop of Lincoln. The church is Norman and early English, and was restored in 1847. Charities, £40."

South Stoke church was originally dedicated to St. Mary while the church in North Stoke was dedicated to St. Andrew. The North Stoke church burned down before 1913 and subsequently worship was carried on at St. Mary's church for both parishes. This resulted in the re-dedication of the church to St. Mary and St. Andrew.

In 1931 South Stoke and North Stoke again became one civil parish under the name Stoke Rochford. The associations with the neighbouring parish of Easton are maintained although both Stoke Rochford and Easton remain separate parishes.

Some of the information gathered above was from [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/Stoke/ GENUKI.

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.):

• Lincolnshire Ordnance Survey Map of 1888 with Poor Law Union divisions
• Lincolnshire Ordnance Survey Map of 1900 with early Rural District divisions
• Lincolnshire Ordnance Survey Map, revised 1937 with later Rural District divisions

• 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.