•  Spilsby, Lincolnshire

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Spilsby like this:

SPILSBY, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Lincoln. The town stands on an acclivity, at the terminus of the Spilsby and Firsby railway, 16 miles NNE of Boston; overlooks a vast tract of marsh and fen land; is a seat of quarter sessions, petty sessions, and county courts, and a polling place; had the late Sir John Franklin as a native, to whom a bronze statue has been erected; consists chiefly of four streets diverging from a market place; and has a head post-office,‡ three banking offices, two chief inns, an ancient market-cross, a town hall and corn-market, a news-room and library, a county house of correction, built in 1824 at a cost of £30,000, a later English church, internally repaired in 1852, an Independent chapel of 1866, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £82 a year, a national school, an agricultural association, charities £95, a weekly market on Monday, and four annual fairs.—The parish includes the hamlet of Eresby, and comprises 2,340 acres. ...

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Real property, £7,007; of which £150 are in gasworks. Pop., 1,467. Houses, 310. The manor belongs to Lord Willonghby D'Eresby. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £105. Patron, Lord Willoughby D'Eresby.—The sub-district contains 22 parishes. Acres, 32,834. Pop., 8,421. Houses, 1,748.—The district comprehends also the sub-districts of Burgh, Alford, Wainfleet, and Stickney; and comprises 140,269 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £17,614. Pop. in 1851, 28,937; in 1861, 28,799. Houses, 6,000. Marriages in 1863, 201; births, 1,023, -of which 123 were illegitimate; deaths, 639,-of which 204 were at ages under 5 years, and 21 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,947; births, 9,818; deaths, 5,482. The places of worship, in 1851, were 64 of the Church of England, with 12,264 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 414 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 752 s.; 54 of Wesleyans, with 8,168 s.; and 13 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,566 s. The schools were 41 public day-schools, with 2,630 scholars; 56 private day-schools, with 1,007 s.; and 75 Sunday schools, with 4,667 s. The workhouse is in Hundleby, and has accommodation for 280 inmates.

Spilsby through time

Spilsby is now part of East Lindsey district. Click here for graphs and data of how East Lindsey has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Spilsby itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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