Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HOLBEACH

HOLBEACH, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Lincoln. The town stands adjacent to the Spalding and Sutton-Bridge railway, 8 miles E by N of Spalding; is a place of great antiquity; was formerly called Oldbeche, from its vicinity to an old beach left by a recession of the sea; consists of one main street, and some smaller diverging ones; has, of late years, undergone much improvement, by the re erection of houses, and the formation of new streets; is a seat of county courts and petty sessions, and a polling place; and has a head post office, ‡ a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, three chief inns, a market house, a church, a new cemetery, four dissenting chapels, a free school, a national.school for girls, and charities £254. The market house was built in 1844, and is commodious. The church is mainly decorated English; includes a nave of seven bays, a chancel, and N and S aisles; has a spacious and magnificent later English porch; has also a square tower and an octagonal spire, of great beauty, and jointly 189 feet high; had formerly a brass chandelier of 18 lights; and has still an octagonal font and an altartomb of Sir H. Littlebury of 1420. The new cemetery was formed in 1853; lies outside the town, on the PennyHill road; and has chapels in the pointed style, connected by a spire surmounted arch. The free school was founded about 1671, and rebuilt in 1815; has £139 ayear from endowment; and had, for a pupil, Dr. Stukeley the antiquary. A market cross was built, in 1383, by Lord Egermont, and re-constructed by Dr. Stukeley; but has disappeared. An hospital, for a warden and 15 poor persons, was founded near the church, about 1351, by Sir John de Kirketon; but also has disappeared. Many urns, coins, and other relics of the Romans and the Saxons have been found, at different periods, in the town and its neighbourhood. Lawrence de Holbeche, a learned monk who died in 1410, Bishop Holbeche, a compiler of the Liturgy, who died in 1551, and Dr. Stukeley, already mentioned, who died in 1765, were natives. A weekly market is held on Thursday; and fairs are held on 17 May, 17 Sept., and 11 Oct. Pop. in 1851, 2, 245; in 1861, 2, 083. Houses, 462. The parish contains also the villages of Holbeach-Drove and H. Hurn, and the places called H. Clough, H. Bank, Penny-Hill, and Fox's-Low; it has a post office of Holbeach-Marsh, 5 miles from the town; and it extends to the sea, and is about 21 miles long from N to S, and of variable width. Acres, 35, 220; of which 14, 240 are water. real property, £52, 100; of which £200 are in gas works. Pop. in 1851, 5, 191; in 1861, 4, 956. Houses, 1, 012. The property is subdivided. The surface is fen land. There are three manors, Holbeach-Lord-D'Acre, Holbeach-Abbotts, and Holbeach-Pipwell; and the first belongs to William Butt, Esq., -the second to Richard Caparn, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £900.* Patron, the Bishop of L. H.ST. John is a separate benefice, a p. curacy, constituted in 1867. Value, £300. Patron, the Bishop. The church is about 4 miles S of the town, and was built in 1840. The sub-district excludes the small part of the parish lying southward of South Holland main drain, but includes the principal parts of Fleet and Whaplode parishes. Acres, 52, 051. Pop., 7, 409. Houses, 1, 524. -The district comprehends also the sub-district of Long Sutton, containing the parish of Tydd-St. Mary, the Principal parts of the parishes of Long Sutton and Gedney, and the two extra-parochial parts of Wingland; and the sub-district of Gedney-Hill, containing the smaller parts of the parishes of Holbeach, Fleet, Whaplode, Long Sutton, and Gedney. Acres, 107, 299. Poor rates in 1863, £12, 506. Pop. in 1851, 19, 134; in 1861, 18, 402. Houses, 3, 818. Marriages in 1862, 125; births, 605, -of which 50 were illegitimate; deaths, 337, -of which 134 were at ages under 5 years, and 6 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1, 360; births, 6, 319; deaths, 4, 006. The places of worship, in 1851, were 13 of the Church of England, with 5, 286 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 430 s.; 11 of Baptists, with 2, 160 s.; 2 of Quakers, with 530 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 70 s.; 17 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 2, 750 s.; 9 of Primitive Methodists, with 1, 092 s.; and 1 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 370 s. The schools were 16 public day schools, with 1, 255 scholars; 60 private day schools, with 1, 112 s.; 44 Sunday schools, with 3, 137 s.; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 16 s. The workhouse is in Fleet, and has accommodation for 386 inmates.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Holbeach AP/CP       Holbeach SubD       Holbeach RegD/PLU       Lincolnshire AncC
Place names: HOLBEACH     |     OLDBECHE
Place: Holbeach

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