Castle Bytham
- A Cemetery was laid out in 1898.
- The parish was in the Corby Sub-district of the Bourne Registration District.
- Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
- The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
Census
Year |
Piece No. |
| 1841 |
H.O. 107 / 615 |
| 1861 |
R.G. 9 / 2315 |
| 1871 |
R.G. 10 / 3311 |
| 1891 |
R.G. 12 / 2555 |
| 1901 |
R.G. 13 / 3023 |
- The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint James.
- The church dates from about 1115.
- The church was restored in 1857 and again in 1900.
- The church seats 280.
- The church sits on a rise in the centre of the village.
- Richard CROFT has a photograph of St. James' Church on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2008.
- Here is a photo of St. James' Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
- The Anglican parish registers exist from 1567 (Kelly's 1900 Directory gives 1650).
- Parish marriages are in Boyd's Marriage Index, covering 1567 - 1751.
- The LFHS has published several indexes (marriage and burial) for the Beltisloe Deanery to make your search easier.
- The parish had a Wesleyan Methodist chapel erected in 1836. This chapel was enlarged in 1866 and restored in 1899. The parish also held a chapel for Plymouth Brethren. For information and assistance in researching these chapels, see our non-conformist religions page.
- Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.
- The parish was in the Corby sub-district of the Bourne Registration District.
- Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which started in July, 1837.
Castle Bytham is both a village and parish which lies just east of the A1 trunk road, 94 miles north of London, 9 miles north of Stamford, and 5 miles south-west of Corby, adjoining the border with Rutland County. The parish includes the hamlet of Counthorpe. Swayfield parish lies to the north and Creeton parish to the north-west. The parish sits on a branch of the River Witham and covers about 4,100 acres, but was once considerably larger.
If you are planning a visit:
- There is a caravan park just east of the village.
- You will klnow when you're there when you see the Village Sign, here photographed by Bob HARVEY.
- Stop by the Village Hall on Pinfold Lane and get a schedule of current events.
- Visit our touring page for more sources.
- The ancient name of the village was West Bytham, changed to Castle Bytham after the castle was built.
- Castle Bytham may have been where the first Norman castle was built. By 1086, it was held by Drew de BEURERE, the Lord of Holderness.
- There is a book entitled 'The History of Castle Bytham (update 2000)' by Richard FOERS MBE JP. It is published by the Castle Bytham Parish Council and runs to some 200 pages. Cost £12.50 when published in 1999. No ISBN, therefore I assume it's a limited publication. To see if copies are still available, write to: Castle Bytham Parish Clerk, Mrs J Gascoyne, 2 St Martins, Castle Bytham, Grantham, NG33 4RH, United Kingdom.
- The national grid reference is SK 9818.
- You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has a scale of 2.5 inches to the mile.
- See our Maps page for additional resources.
- Bytham is from the Old English bythme or "valley bottom," and the name first appears in 1067 as Bytham and in the 1086 Domesday Book as Bitham.
A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991.
- Castle Bytham is often listed as "Bytham Castle".
- Locals pronounce the name as "Bye-Tham".
- 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 Beltisloe Wapentake in the South Kesteven district in the parts of Kesteven in the 19th century.
- For today's district governance, contact the South Kesteven District Council.
- Bastardy cases were heard in the Bourne petty session hearings.
- The Common Lands here, about 2,151 acres, were enclosed in 1801.
- As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Bourne Poor Law Union.
| Year |
Inhabitants |
| 1801 |
506 |
| 1831 |
781 |
| 1841 |
853 |
| 1871 |
721 |
| 1881 |
654 |
| 1891 |
815 |
| 1911 |
553 |
- A Public Elementary School (mixed) was built here in 1860 to hold 160 children. A new classroom was added in 1890.
- For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.
Last updated on 17-November-2015
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