Local & Family History

Also see attachments below of other Historical articles, if you have any History of the area you would like to share please contact Sheila Pearce on nspcpearce@btinternet.com

INFORMATION SOUGHT:

1. I wonder if you could help me find some information on my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother their names being John and Eliza Bell; he died in 1907 and she died in 1908. My Grandfather is buried in the cemetery – the Cemetery book lists him as an Inn Keeper who died aged 55 and was buried on 14 November 1907.  The vicar was Thomas Hill.  Eliza is entry number 486, listed as a widow, age 58, and was buried on 26th March 1908, and this time Thomas Hill is listed as ‘W Minister’ which perhaps means Wesleyan Minister?  Does anyone have any information on how many public house's there were in North Somercotes in the early 1900's and a record of who the landlords were at this time? If so I would be very grateful for any help or information.   My phone number is 01522688609 and my email is berdav@live.com.  Thank you, David Hewerdine

2. Anthony Raby is one of my great great grandfathers.  According to census returns he was born sometime around 1805-1810 at Somercotes but I've not found his baptism in North or South Somercotes parish registers nor in any surrounding parish either.  He married Ann Beedham from Worlaby (by Brigg) but I don't know where or when.  They had 10 children - some at Ulceby (by Barton) and some at Killingholme.  Anthony died 4 April 1891 at South Killingholme.  He was an agricultural labourer.  I am anxious to trace Anthony's birth and/or baptism and details of his parents and would greatly appreciate any help in either pointing me in the right direction to find this information or in putting me in touch with any Raby descendants.  My email address is rodneyagfoster@gmail.com 

3.. I am presently researching my family tree and I have traced my 3 x great grandfather to Covenham/Nth Somercotes. He was born around 1799, James Ling, he had 2 sons Edwin and John Ling and married an Elizabeth from Derbyshire. His married life was spent in Louth. I intend to visit the archives in Lincoln to further my research but I wondered if you would post this on your Family History notice board. If anyone does have any information my email address is kathgibbon@ymail.com. Thank you. Kath Gibbon      

4. Having recently purchased Bank End Stables, Bank End, North Somercotes I am keen to research the history of the property. I would be grateful for any information provided.Best regards, Gethin Thomas       Mobile   0044 (0)7789000149 Email: gethin@srsrailuk.co.uk

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A Short Guide to North Somercotes Landscape
The villages of Somercotes lie on a strip of marine silts laid down as the sea gradually rose following the last ice age.  Use of these marshes was first made from clay lands which lie immediately inland – animals grazed and salt was made, but settlement was probably not permanent.  By the 10th century the marshes were being colonized and settled.  Somercotes was recorded in Doomsday – the elements in the place name indicate the nature of early settlement this was the place of Summer Huts (Sumor, cot).  Villages grew up on the coastal strip (the causewayed tracks along the Marshland can be established from Ordnance survey maps) the low lying area adjacent to the clays were fenland and unsuitable for settlements.

North Somercotes appears initially to have developed to the north of the salt-mining sites around what was recorded in Doomsday as Mare haven (lying on the Saltfleet-Somercotes boundary behind Locksley Hall – the name mar is derived from old English (ge)maere meaning a boundary).  Salt making ceased when the haven silted up by c.1200.

Porters Marsh – Some two thousand acres of mature salt marshes were granted in 1632 to Endymion Porter one of the grooms of the bedchamber to Charles I, and were soon reclaimed.  In order to compensate the communities of North and South Somercotes for their loss of common marshland, Porter agreed to the construction of the forty foot way to the sea at Stonebridge to allow fishers and fowlers to access the beach and further allotted five hundred acres to the commoners.  In 1634 some of the reclamation works were broken down by inhabitants more serious disturbances occurred in 1641 in the wake of major drainage disputes in the Fenland; again in 1650 Porters land was occupied by the villagers. 

Public access to the foreshore at Stonebridge salt marsh development (samphire beds).  400 acres of fitties in Somercotes and Grainthorpe was reclaimed by Henry Pye (father of Victorian song writer Claribel) in 1843.  In the 1850s Pyes Hall was built and demolished in the 1960’s his marine mansion built near the sea bank from which in July 1868 he made his celebration flight to avoid his creditors by rowing into the Humber and catching a boat.

Donna Nook so called after a shipwreck on the beach.  Parish registers note the burial of bodies drowned at sea.  Many remember the Anzio wrecked at Donna Nook in  April 1966. There was a small life boat station established in 1829 until 1931.

Text taken from a booklet produced by the Parish Council and written by C.Sturman