Place:Grantham Rural, Kesteven, England

Watchers
NameGrantham Rural
TypeRural district
Located inKesteven, England     (1894 - 1931)
Also located inLincolnshire, England    
See alsoEast Kesteven Rural, Kesteven, Englandrural district that absorbed some of its parishes in 1931
West Kesteven Rural, Kesteven, Englandrural district that absorbed two of its parishes in 1931
Grantham, Lincolnshire, Englandurban district that absorbed one parish in 1931

Grantham Rural District was located in Kesteven, Parts (division) of Lincolnshire, England from 1894 until 1931. In 1931 the rural district was abolished under a County Review Order carried out after the Local Government Act of 1929 (see Wikipedia).

The rural district surrounded the town of Grantham and had borders with Leicestershire on the west, Bourne Rural District on the southeast, Sleaford Rural District on the northeast, and Claypole Rural District on the north and northwest. The five parishes of Ancaster, Carlton Scroop, Honington, Hough on the Hill, and Normanton were in a detached portion surrounded on three sides by Claypole Rural District.

Most of the parishes of the rural district were absorbed into West Kesteven Rural District with one going to East Kesteven Rural District and one to the urban district of Grantham. In the transition a number of pairs of small parishes were immediately merged with their neighbours. See notes of individual cases below.

Parishes

ParishDescriptionDurationNotes
Ancaster parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Barrowby parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Bassingthorpe parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Bitchfield and Bassingthorpe
Belton (near Grantham) parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Belton and Manthorpe
Bitchfield parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Bitchfield and Bassingthorpe
Boothby Pagnell parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Braceby parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Braceby and Sapperton
Burton Coggles parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Carlton Scroop parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Colsterworth parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Denton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Easton township, civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Great Gonerby parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Great Ponton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Gunby by Grantham parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Gunby and Stainby
Haceby parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to East Kesteven Rural District as Newton and Haceby
Harlaxton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Harrowby Without civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without
Heydour township, parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Honington parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Hough on the Hill parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Humby civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Ropsley and Humby
Ingoldsby parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Keisby township, civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Lenton Keisby and Osgodby
Lenton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Lenton Keisby and Osgodby
Little Ponton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Little Ponton and Stroxton
Londonthorpe parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without
Manthorpe (near Grantham) civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Belton and Manthorpe
Normanton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
North Stoke chapelry, parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Stoke Rochford
North Witham parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Old Somerby civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Osgodby township, civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Lenton Keisby and Osgodby
Pickworth parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Ropsley parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Ropsley and Humby
Sapperton chapelry, parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Braceby and Sapperton
Skillington parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
South Stoke chapelry, parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Stoke Rochford
South Witham parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Spittlegate Without civil parish 1894 - 1931 absorbed by the urban district of Grantham
Stainby parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Gunby and Stainby
Stroxton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District as Little Ponton and Stroxton
Welby parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District
Wyville with Hungerton parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1931 to West Kesteven Rural District

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.