Friskney
Friskney is both a village and a parish that lie on the sea coast 120 miles north of London, on the A52 trunk road north out of Boston, about 14 miles distant. Wainfleet St. Mary parish forms the northern border and the North Sea the eastern boundary. The parish is low-lying salt marsh, about 7,000 acres of reclaimed tidal flats and a part of the area known as "The Fens". Friskney Flats is a large sand bank off shore. Key's Toft and part of Wainfleet Bank are in the parish.
Some important points about the village of Friskney:
- The village of Friskney is home of the Fenbank Greyhound Sanctuary, a group that finds homes for these fine racing hounds.
- There is an active Friskney Bowmen Archery Club headquartered at Hansard House on Church Road (PostCode=PE22 8RF, phone 01754 820606).
- The Friskney Decoy Wood at TF 4657 is a woodland preserve. For a description of the "decoy" process, read the Duck Decoymen of Friskney by Patrick Lambe.
- If you are planning a visit, check out our touring page.
- Several Celtic graves have been found in the parish.
- Friskney Cemetery is on Church Lane just west of the village centre.
- Richard CROFT has a photograph of Friskney Cemetery on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2006.
- The parish was in the Wainfleet sub-district of the Spilsby Registration District.
- The North Lincolnshire Library holds copies of the census returns for this parish in 1841 and 1881.
- We have a surname list from the 1901 Census in a text file. It is far from complete. Your additions are welcome.
- 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 / 633 |
| 1851 |
H.O. 107 / 2109 |
| 1861 |
R.G. 9 / 2373 |
| 1871 |
R.G. 10 / 3388 |
| 1881 |
R.G. 11 / 3254 |
| 1891 |
R.G. 12 / 2602 |
| 1901 |
R.G. 13 / 3074 |
- The Church History has been moved to a separate page. It includes three photographs of the parish church.
- The Anglican parish registers date from 1559.
- We have the beginnings of a parish register extract in a text file. Your additions are welcome.
- To see which LFHS special indexes exist, check the Calcewaith & Candleshoe Deanery.
- The Wesleyan Methodists had two chapels in the parish in the 19th century. The one in the Fen was built in 1836. The Eaudyke one was built in 1839. 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 Wainfleet sub-district of the Spilsby Registration District.
- Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.
- The parish was a major producer of cranberries in the 18th century.
- In 1802, several sections of a Roman aqueduct were uncovered while digging up the foundations of the Manor House.
- In the 19th century, as many as 30,000 head of various wildfowl were taken for the London market.
- Friskney had a police station by 1912, Harry SHELBORN was the constable then.
- Friskney Hall stood about a half mile southwest of the church.
- The National Grid reference is TF 4655.
- You'll want an Ordnance Survey #274 Explorer map, which has a scale of 2.5 inches to the mile.
- See our Maps page for additional resources.
- On 17 Nov 1942 a Lancaster bomber crash-landed on the flat coast near the village. The crew survived.
- Jennie provides this story from her mother (Jun 2005):
My Mum was born and lived in Friskney until she married my Dad and moved away from Lincolnshire.
On a visit a few weeks ago to one of her brothers who still lives there, his wife was telling us about the
special service which had recently been held in the village in memory of 3 people who died
when a plane crashed into their house one night during the war. Mum said "Oh, yes, I remember that."
Apparently, Mum had seen it happen. She was cycling home from a dance in the village hall and saw
the plane fly over and narrowly miss her own home. It went on over the fields but made a direct hit
on a house in the village killing a husband and wife and their young daughter. Mum was so upset by
what had happened, that she lost her balance and fell off her bike into the dyke, knocking herself unconscious
for a couple of minutes!
My Mum used to work for the Post office delivering telegrams during the war.
The war memorial stands outside the church. To see it and the names on it, see the Roll of Honour site.
Click here to see a transcription of the Friskney War Memorial.
There are three Commonwealth War Graves in Friskney Cemetery. One from WWI and two from World War II.
- The name Friskney is from the Old English fresc+an+ea, or "river with fresh water". The name is Frischenei in the 1086 Domesday book.
[A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991]
- The parish is also known as Friskney-Bolington.
- The Surname FRISKNEY is said to be "peculiar" to (i.e. "originates in") Lincolnshire, probably around the 12th century.
- 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 Marsh division of the Candleshoe Wapentake in the East Lindsey district and parts of Lindsey.
- For today's district governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.
- Some Directories show the parish in the East Holland District. Kelly's 1913 Directory places the parish in the South Lindsey division of the county.
- Bastardy cases would be heard in the Spilsby petty session hearings every other Monday
- From time immemorial the parish has set aside about 48 acres of land for charitable uses, which were let to the poor in allotments of about one acre each.
- As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parish became part of the Spilsby Poor Law Union.
| Year |
Inhabitants |
| 1801 |
691 |
| 1831 |
1,457 |
| 1851 |
1,659 |
| 1871 |
1,668 |
| 1881 |
1,477 |
| 1891 |
1,373 |
| 1911 |
1,373 |
| 1991 |
1,372 |
| 2001 |
1,453 |
- There were four church schools in the parish by 1872. There was a school for infants at Eaudyke and at Fen, built in 1871, on land given respectively by Mr. MOWBRAY and Mr. HODSON.
- For more on researching school records, see our Schools Research page.
Last updated on 12-May-2015
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