Ewerby

• The parish was in the Heckington sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
• In 1891, the parish was reassigned to the "Sleaford" sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
• Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew.
• The church reportedly dates from 1350 and a flag stone has been found with a date of 1420.
• The church spire is 172 feet high.
• The church spire was struck by lightening in 1810, then again in 1908. Both times it was restored.
• The church was thoroughly restored in 1890-95.
• The church seats 250.
• A photograph of the Anglican parish church is at the Wendy PARKINSON English Church Photographs site.
• David HITCHBORNE has a photograph of St Andrew's Church on Geo-graph, taken on a sunny day in April, 2003.
• The following history of the priory at Ewerby is provided by Den TAYLES:

An extract from 'Hidden Lincolnshire' by Adrian Gray

Ewerby
The visitor will always be struck by the gaunt ruins of Haverholme Priory. It is a lonely spot and not one that has been inhabited with conspicuous success even by its first monks, who found the site too damp and disease ridden and decamped to Louth. A small nature reserve can be found at Ewerby Pond east of the village. This is an old 'borrow pit' used in the building of the Navigation and since filled with water. Ewerby Waithe once had several 'coffin-shaped' stones, which were reputed to have been stolen by a witch from a temple which stood on high ground. Apparently the witch was flying off to the fens with the stones when she was spotted by some shepherds, who fired arrows at her, causing the stones to be dropped.

Haverholme Priory
Haverholme today is a gaunt ruin of a house. The priory is best known as a house of the Gilbertines, an order not averse to living in lonely situations or damp and unhealthy ones - as in this case. However it was the Cistercians who came here first, but they did not like it and sold out to the Gilbertines when they moved to Louth Park in 1139. It has been claimed that Haverholme kept a hermitage on the edge of the fen where Thomas a Becket hid in 1164 during one of his disputes with the king. One of the duties of Haverholme was to maintain transport links and drainage on the fens. In 1316 the priory was in trouble for not keeping a foot ferry going at the "wathermouth" - possibly across the Slea at Ewerby Waithe. The monks were in trouble again in 1360 when Alice, daughter of John de Everingham, fled from the priory but was recaptured. She told the bishop that she had never taken full vows and was held against her will, so he ordered her release. After the Dissolution, Haverholme was adopted for domestic use, being finally rebuilt in 1830 for the Earl of Winchelsea. The estate was put up for sale in the 1920s but did not attract a buyer, so much of the house was demolished in 1927.'

• Here is a photo of St. Andrew's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1562.
• We have a handful of register entries in an extract from the Parish Church Register. Your additions and corrections are welcome.
• The Lincolnshire FHS has a Loan Library service which has the parish registers on microfiche for Baptisms from 1765 to 1812 and Marriages from 1755 to 1811.
• The LFHS has published several marriage and burial indexes for the Lafford Deanery to make your search easier.
• There was also a chapel for Primitive Methodists, built in 1879. For more on researching this chapel records, see our non-conformist religions page.
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

• The parish was in the Heckington sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
• In 1890 district re-organisation, the parish was reassigned to the "Sleaford" sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which started in July, 1837.

Ewerby is both a village and a parish, about 3 miles east of Sleaford. The parish is bordered on the north by the River Slea. The parish covered about 2,800 acres in 1841 and 2.920 acres in 1900. Ewerby Thorpe is a hamlet in this parish.

The village of Ewerby is about a mile south of the river and is considered to be on the edge of the Fens. The village was once a market town in the area. If you are planning a visit:

• There is a website for the village. At last check, some of the web pages were a bit brief and undated, but you may enjoy some views of Ewerby village.
• See our touring page for more sources.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Ewerby to another place.

• Richard BROTHWELL has ancestors from this village. Check out his website for links to your kin. Turn your speakers down, first!

• The village has traces of Saxon origin. It is possible that a Saxon church once stood here.

• See our "Maps" page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF121473 (Lat/Lon: 53.01128, -0.330616), Ewerby which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

The Parish Council provides a Microsoft Word document with The Fallen of Ewerby 1914-1918 on their web site.

• The parish is often found in old records with the name as "Ywarby" or"Iwardby".
• Locals pronounce the name as "Ooerby" [Simon MEEDS, 2001].
• John LINE has heard locals pronounce the name as "You-erby".

• This place was an ancient parish in Lincoln County and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
• The parish was in the ancient Aswardhurn Wapentake in the North Kesteven division of the county, in the parts of Kesteven.
• In April, 1931, this Civil Parish was abolished and amalgamated into the new Ewerby and Evedon Civil Parish.
• You may contact the Ewerby and Evedon Parish Council regarding civic and political issues, but they are NOT funded or tasked with assisting you with family history searches.
• For today's district governance, see the North Kesteven District Council.

• In 1667, Henry PELL left £10 per year for the schoolmaster to teach poor children and for grey gowns the widows of the parish.
• There was a ROTHWELL Charity (undated) which provided £14 for coal for the poor each year.
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, the parish became part of the Sleaford Poor Law Union.
• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Sleaford petty session hearings.
• In 1875, Mr. Thomas Plumpton TINDALE left the interest from £1,000 for meat and coal for the poor annually.

Year	Inhabitants
1801	223
1841	431
1871	461
1881	451
1891	384
1901	358
1911	357
1921	321

• A National School was built here in 1841 to hold up to 140 children.
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.