Place:South Kesteven Rural, Kesteven, England

Watchers
NameSouth Kesteven Rural
TypeRural district
Coordinates52.78°N 0.45°W
Located inKesteven, England     (1931 - 1974)
Also located inLincolnshire, England    
South Kesteven District, Lincolnshire, England     (1974 - )
See alsoBourne Rural, Kesteven, Englandrural district covering part of the area prior to 1931
Uffington Rural, Kesteven, Englandrural district covering part of the area prior to 1931
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

South Kesteven Rural District was situated in Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven in England from 1931 to 1974.

It was formed under a County Review Order in 1931, by the merger of the Bourne Rural District and the Uffington Rural District.

It continued in existence until 1974, when it was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972, going on to form part of a larger South Kesteven non-metropolitan district.

The whole of Kesteven was redivided into a new set of four rural districts named by the points of the compass in 1931. At the same time a number of neighbouring parishes were merged with the names of the new civil parishes made by combining the names of the earlier parishes.

Parishes

ParishDescriptionDuration within Rural DistrictNotes
Aslackby and Laughton parish 1931 - 1974 established in 1931 from the parishes of Aslackby and Laughton
Barholm and Stowe parish 1931 - 1974 established in 1931 from the parishes of Aslackby and Laughton
Baston parish 1931 - 1974
Billingborough parish 1931 - 1974
Braceborough and Wilsthorpe parish 1931 - 1974 established in 1931 from the parishes of Aslackby and Laughton
Careby Aunby and Holywell parish 1931 - 1974 established in 1931 from the parishes of Careby and Holywell-with-Aunby
Carlby parish 1931 - 1974
Castle Bytham parish 1931 - 1974
Corby parish 1931 - 1974
Counthorpe and Creeton parish 1931 - 1974 established in 1931 from the parishes of Counthorpe and Creeton
Deeping St. James parish 1931 - 1974
Dowsby parish 1931 - 1974
Dunsby parish 1931 - 1974
Edenham parish 1931 - 1974
Folkingham parish 1931 - 1974
Greatford parish 1931 - 1974
Haconby parish 1931 - 1974
Horbling parish 1931 - 1974
Irnham parish 1931 - 1974
Kirkby Underwood parish 1931 - 1974
Langtoft parish 1931 - 1974
Little Bytham parish 1931 - 1974
Market Deeping parish 1931 - 1974
Morton parish 1931 - 1974
Pointon and Sempringham parish 1931 - 1974 established in 1931 from the parishes of Pointon and Sempringham
Rippingale parish 1931 - 1974
Swayfield parish 1931 - 1974
Swinstead parish 1931 - 1974
Tallington parish 1931 - 1974
Thurlby parish 1931 - 1974
Toft with Lound and Manthorpe parish 1931 - 1974 established in 1931 from the parishes of Toft and Lound and Manthorpe
Uffington parish 1931 - 1974
West Deeping parish 1931 - 1974
Witham on the Hill parish 1931 - 1974

Research Tips

  • 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.):
  • The National Library of Scotland [1] also provides a large number of maps for all the counties and districts of England as well as those of Scotland. Their maps of England only cover modern placenames, but they do allow the user to view a parish in relation to its neighbours. These maps are very easy to read.
  • 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 of information 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.

The south of 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 (in the southeast), Parts of Kesteven (in the southwest) and Parts of Lindsey (in the north of the county). 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.