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Broughton is a small town and civil parish situated on the Roman Ermine Street, since 1996 in the North Lincolnshire District of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately 2 miles (3 km) north-west from the town of Brigg. The hamlets of Wressle, Castlethorpe, and part of Scawby Brook lie within the parish boundaries. Broughton's St Mary's Church is thought to date back to the 11th century with major alterations in the 12th, 14th and 17th centuries. Gokewell Priory was founded nearby in the late 12th century to house a community of nuns. To the west and north, Broughton has extensive woodlands that stretch toward Dragonby, Scunthorpe and Appleby. Though considered by many to be a village, Broughton became a town in 1974, although it still has a "village hall". Broughton has grown substantially since the mid-1980s, with new housing developments to the north and northwest of the town. At the 2011 Census, Broughton parish had a population of 5,629, slightly larger than its neighbour Brigg, due to housing developments at the edge of the parish in Scawby Brook. [edit] Research TipsLincolnshire 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.
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