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Gosberton is a village and civil parish in the South Holland District of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 9 miles (14.5 km) south-west from Boston, 6 miles (10 km) north from Spalding and 8.5 miles (14 km) north-west from Holbeach. The parish includes the hamlets of Gosberton Clough, Gosberton Cheal and Gosberton Risegate (sometimes known just as Risegate). The population of Gosberton was approximately 2500 in the 2001 UK census, increasing to 2,958 at the census of 2011. The parish church of Gosberton is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, and is under the Diocese of Lincoln. Gosberton Clough's wooden church is dedicated to St. Gilbert and St. Hugh. These two churches and that at Quadring are in the same group, based in Gosberton. The Baptist Church in Gosberton was founded in 1666, a time when non-conformist Christians had no protection from the law and, like John Bunyan, could be imprisoned for their faith. Worship takes place in the original 17th-century meeting house. The main village occupation is farming, although many commute to surrounding areas and the towns of Spalding and Boston. [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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