Lindsey

Lindsey was a unit of local government until 1974 in Lincolnshire, England, covering the northern part of the county. The Isle of Axholme, which is on the west side of the River Trent, has normally formed part of it. It originated with the Kingdom of Lindsey in Anglo-Saxon times, whose territories were merged with that of Stamford to form Lincolnshire.

Local government

When the English shires were established, it became part of Lincolnshire. It and each of Kesteven and Holland, acquired the formal designation of Parts. Thus it became the 'Parts of Lindsey'.

Lindsey was itself divided into three ridings, the North, West and South Ridings, and then into wapentakes. The West Riding covered the western part, including Gainsborough, Scunthorpe and Spital. The North Riding covered the north-east, including Barton upon Humber, Caistor, Cleethorpes, Brigg, Grimsby, and Market Rasen. The South Riding covered the rest, in the south-east, including Louth, Mablethorpe and Skegness. The point at which the Ridings touched was somewhere near Lissington. [1] Lindsey, like the other parts of Lincolnshire had long had a separate county administration (Quarter Sessions). In 1889, this division was followed in the establishment of the administrative county of Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey, which had an elected county council. Lincoln and Grimsby were independent county boroughs.

Within the rest of Lindsey there were various urban districts and rural districts, established by the Local Government Act 1894. The rural districts were Caistor, Gainsborough, Glanford Brigg, Grimsby, Horncastle, Isle of Axholme, Louth, Spilsby, Welton. A rural district of Sibsey also existed until 1936, when it was merged into Spilsby.

The Humberside phase

The Parts of Lindsey were abolished on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. The area of the administrative county was divided between two new non-metropolitan counties: the northern area of Lindsey was placed in Humberside while the remainder passed to Lincolnshire.^[1]

The original Lindsey was divided between six non-metropolitan districts, as follows^[1]

The map to the right, shows the districts of the now-defunct Humberside. The highlighted one is Glanford. To its east is Cleethorpes which surrounds Grimsby. To Glanford's west is Boothferry and the enclave within Glanford is Scunthorpe.

Present authorities

In 1996 these Humberside districts were re-grouped into unitary authorities. In other words, the new units perform the duties of both county and administrative district.

• One is North Lincolnshire (centred on Scunthorpe). This is the former districts of Glanford and Scunthorpe, as well as the Isle of Axholme which had become the southern part of Boothferry.
• The second is North East Lincolnshire comprising the former districts of Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

The two unitary authorities represent the most urbanised part of traditional Lincolnshire.

References

Further reading

• Vince, Alan (ed.) (1993). Pre-Viking Lindsey. Lincoln: City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit. ISBN 0-9514987-7-0.