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West Butterwick is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. It lies in the Isle of Axholme, approximately north-east from Epworth and 4 miles north from Owston Ferry, on the western bank of the River Trent opposite its neighbour East Butterwick. The name 'Butterwick' comes from the Old English butere-wick meaning 'butter farm'. West Butterwick Grade II listed Anglican parish church is dedicated to St Mary. It was built in 1841 of beige brick, with a thin octagonal west tower. A further Grade II listed building is The Old Vicarage, built in 1863 by James Fowler of Louth. An 1824 listed windmill tower is at Mill Farm on North Street. In 1885 Kelly's Directory recorded a Primitive Methodist and a General Baptist chapel. Within a parish area of were grown potatoes, wheat, oats and beans. Originally a township in Owston parish, West Butterwick was made an ecclesiastical parish in its own right in 1841. The 2001 Census found 776 people in 312 households, increasing to a population of 795 in 341 households at the 2011 census. It lies in the Isle of Axholme, approximately 4 miles (6 km) northeast of Epworth and 4 miles north of Owston Ferry, on the western bank of the River Trent opposite its neighbour East Butterwick. [edit] Research Tips
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.
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