Algarkirk

Algarkirk

Algarkirk Church
Algarkirk

 Algarkirk shown within Lincolnshire
Population 406 (2001)
OS grid reference TF291352
District Boston
Shire county Lincolnshire
Region East Midlands
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Boston
Postcode district PE20
Dialling code 01205
Police Lincolnshire
Fire Lincolnshire
Ambulance East Midlands
EU Parliament East Midlands
UK Parliament Boston and Skegness
List of places: UK • England • Lincolnshire

Algarkirk is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, 6 miles (9.7 km) south-south-west of Boston near the A16. Some people spell the village Algakirk. It has a population of 406.[1]

Contents

History

Before the Roman conquest the area was home to the Coritani; after Roman departure it became part of the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Mercia.[2] Algarkirk is called after Algar Earl of Mercia, who fell at Stow Green near Threekingham in 870 while resisting the Danes,[3] and is reputedly buried in the graveyard[4] of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. The "kirk" element of the name comes from the Old English "circe" meaning church, which was later replaced by the Old Norse "kirk".[5]

The 9th century church itself is Early English and Norman with a double aisle transept and a font of Purbeck marble. Under the tower are kneeling brass effigies of Nicholas Robertson (d. 1498), Merchant of the Staple of Calais, and his two wives Alice and Isabella. In 1492, he and Isabella glazed the church clerestorey.[6] The church was heavily restored in 1851.[3]

Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District, in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as parts) of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the Local Government Act of 1888, Holland had been, in most respects, a county in itself.

Population of Algarkirk Civil Parish
Year 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 1951 1961 2001
Population[7] 520 469 423 485 590 593 560 534 406

Geography

The village was once served by Algarkirk and Sutterton railway station on the now-closed line connecting Boston and Spalding. The A16 road has been rebuilt on the former railway so Algarkirk village lies between this and the old road, now the B1397. The Boston - Algarkirk Diversion opened in October 1991. The village primary school, the Fourfields school, is shared with Sutterton.

The village lies hard against the parish boundary with Sutterton, so that the two parish churches are six or seven hundred metres apart. While most of the parishes in Holland are more or less long and narrow so as to include both saltmarsh and fen, this was originally achieved in Algarkirk by having a detached fen about 12 kilometres away, in Holland Fen. This is now part of Amber Hill parish and ward.

It constitutes part of Five Villages electoral ward, one of eighteen rural wards in the borough, each comprising one or more parishes.

Destinations from Algarkirk
Sutterton, Swineshead, Heckington Wyberton, Brothertoft, Coningsby Kirton, Frampton, Boston
Donington, Threekingham, Grantham Skeldyke
   Algarkirk    
Surfleet, Pinchbeck, Spalding Weston, Moulton, Whaplode Fosdyke, Holbeach, Gedney

References

  1. ^ Census 2001
  2. ^ Algarkirk Genuki; retrieved 25 April 2011
  3. ^ a b Cox, J. Charles (1916); Lincolnshire p. 42, 43; Methuen & Co. Ltd.; retrieved 25 April 2011
  4. ^ Algarkirk UK Genealogy Archives; retrieved 25 April 2011
  5. ^ "Algarkirk". Institute for Name Studies. University of Nottingham. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aezins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=10189. Retrieved 18 September 2011. 
  6. ^ Hegbin-Barnes, Penny (1996); The medieval stained glass of the county of Lincolnshire p. 350 Oxford University Press ISBN 0197261566
  7. ^ "Vision of Britain". http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TOT_POP&u_id=10393796&c_id=10001043&add=Nhttp://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TOT_POP&u_id=10393772&c_id=10001043&add=N. Retrieved 23 August 2011. 

External links