Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SPILSBY

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. 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.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Spilsby Ch/CP       Spilsby SubD       Spilsby RegD/PLU       Lincolnshire AncC
Place: Spilsby

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