Walesby

The Caistor Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.

Alternatively, you can use the Market Rasen Library as a resource, also.

• The parish was in the Market Rasen sub-district of the Caistor 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 All Saints.
   
• There was an "iron church" at Walesby, erected in 1881. It was intended to be a temporary home for the church until that building could be rebuilt. Antony Berber provides this history:

"Apparently the original church of Walesby, All Saints, was situated on an eminence. In Kelly's 1896, this church being very dilapidated and inconveniently situated, an iron church has been erected in the village to hold 140 persons and is licensed by the Bishop for divine worship until the restoration or rebuilding, on a new site, of the parish Church. This iron church would be an example of what was often provided as a temporary building or for a congregation that were too poor to pay for a stone or brick one. The iron refers to the corrugated iron with which it was clad. I understand that you could buy these as a kit of parts. Although these were intended to have a short life only, some have survived to the present day and have acquired listed building status.

It was still in use in 1913, but in 1914 a new church of St Mary and All Saints was erected and presumably the old iron one was demolished or sold."

• Peter STARLING provides this addition to the history of the iron church:

"The iron church at Walesby was sold (not demolished) when the new Saint Mary's opened in 1914. It went on to have a useful life as a tempory church in Linwood and still stands there today but now in a rather dilapidated, unused state."

• There is a photograph of All Saints Church on the Wendy PARKINSON Church Photos web site.
   
• David WRIGHT has a photograph of the Church of All Saints on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2006. David notes that this is "The Rambler's Church"
   
• Here are two photos of the church, taken by (and copyright of) Ron COLE.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1580.
   
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage indexes and a burial index for the Westwold Deanery to make your search easier. At one time there was a Walshcroft deanery to which this church belonged until that deanery was amalgamated with Westwold.
   
• The Wesleyans had a small chapel here by 1881. For information and assistance in researching this church, see our non-conformist religions page.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

• The parish was in the Market Rasen sub-district of the Caistor Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.
   

Walesby is both a village and a parish in the Wold Hills, 3 miles northeast of Market Rasen and 7 miles south of Caistor. Tealby parish lies to the southeast. The parish covers about 3,600 acres and includes the hamlets of Risby and Otby.

If you are planning a visit:

• See our touring page for visitor services.

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• In 1608 a charge of witchcraft was brought against a local woman, but no record of punishment is known.
   
• In 1861 the remains of a Roman villa were discovered here.
   

• The old manor house was, by 1900, represented by part of an old wall built into a wheelwright's house.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF134924 (Lat/Lon: 53.416226, -0.295236), Walesby 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 World War Two War Memorial is the Centre light of the parish church west window in the south wall of the nave. It is dedicated to Harry JOLANDS who died 22nd August 1944, age 26. 4th Bn. Lincs. Regt., husband of Joyce Bessie JOLLANDS.

For a photograph of the Walesby War Memorials and the names on them, see the Roll of Honour site.

• The name Walesby is reputedly the origin for the name of the Hundred (Wapentake) within which it lies (Walshcroft). The Domesday Book tells us that the village lies in the "hundred of Walesbi."

• This place was an ancient parish of Lincolnshire and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was in the ancient Walshcroft Wapentake in the West Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
   
• Kelly's 1900 Directory of Lincolnshire places this parish, perhaps erroneously, in the East Lindsey division of the county, as does the 1913 edition.
   
• Today's district governance is provided by the West Lindsey District Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard on the 1st Tuesday each month at the Market Rasen petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reforms, this parish became part of the Caistor Poor Law Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1801	167
1831	223
1871	325
1881	322
1891	305
1901	267
1911	292

• A school was built here in 1854 to hold 60 children.
   
• For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.