Helpringham
Helpringham is a parish with a village of the same name. The parish is on the road between Spalding and Sleaford, about 5 miles southeast of Sleaford. Swaton parish lies to the south and Little Hale parish to the north. The parish covers almost 3,400 acres. A portion of the parish is Fenland, but that is now drained and fertile.
A book called "Lincolnshire Railway Stations" by Eric Croft (ISBN 0-946225-77-0) shows a picture of Helpringham station in 1907. At that time, the Great East and Great Northern railways ran trains by the village.
The village lies between the A17 and A52 trunk roads about six miles southeast of Sleaford. The Car Dyke passes just to the east of the village. Thorpe Latimer is a hamlet in the parish, about a mile south of Helpringham village. If you are planning a visit:
- You may want to check out our Hotels, Pubs and Inns page for your relatives.
- See our touring page for visitor services.
- Rail passenger service to the station ceased in April, 1955.
- Find out what's going on in the village with a look at their Newsletter.
- There are photographs taken around the village at Pictures of England.
- Here is a photo of the village taken from the church tower, taken in 2008 by Jill BLAIN (who retains the copyright):
- You may want to check out our Hotels, Pubs and Inns page for your relatives.
- In March, 1872, a new burial ground was formed, covering over 2 acres. It lies east of the village on Hale Road and was under the control of the Parish Council.
- The parish was in the Aswarby sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
- In 1891, the parish was reassigned to the Leadenham sub-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 / 619 |
| 1851 |
H.O. 107 / 2101 |
| 1861 |
R.G. 9 / 2346 |
| 1871 |
R.G. 10 / 3353 |
| 1881 |
R.G. 11 / 3326 |
| 1891 |
R.G. 12 / 2581 |
- The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew.
- The church appears to be of Norman origin, but the date of construction is uncertain.
- The church spire was damaged by lightening in May, 1854.
- The interior of the church was restored in 1873.
- The roof of the nave fell in on April 1st, 1890. It was restored in 1891.
- The church seats 250.
- There is a photograph of the Anglican parish church on the Wendy PARKINSON Church Photos web site.
- John BLAKESTON has a photograph of the entrance to the church at Geo-graph.
- Here is a photo of St. Andrew's Church, taken by Ron COLE (who retains the copyright):
- Anglican parish registers exist from 1559, but are not on deposit, apparently, although entries exist in the IGI from 1561 through 1843.
- We have a handful of marriages in our Parish Register Extract text file.
- The London Family History Centre has the parish register for 1559 - 1955 on microfilm for hire.
- The Lincolnshire FHS has a Loan Library service which has the parish registers on microfiche for Baptisms from 1559 to 1812 and Marriages from 1569 to 1812.
- The LFHS has published several marriage and burial indexes for the Lafford Deanery to make your search easier.
- The St. Andrews churchwarden accounts are on microfilm at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
- The Primitive Methodists built a chapel here in 1840 and rebuilt it in 1883. The Baptists had one earlier than that. The Independents built a chapel in 1846. For information and assistance in researching this church, see our non-conformist religions page.
- Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.
- The parish was in the Aswarby sub-district of the Sleaford Registration District.
- In 1891, the parish was reassigned to the Leadenham sub-district.
- Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.
- Helpringham Manor dates back to the 14th century, but was rebuilt in the 17th century and is now a Grade II Heritage building. The stone-built farmhouse was built in 1705 and a small cottage added in the early 19th century.
- You can find more about preservation issues and a few fine photographs at "Lincolnshire Heritage" web site.
- During World War 2, the Army occupied the farmhouse and used the grounds for a small prisoner-of-war camp.
- The national grid reference is TF 1340.
- 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.
- Richard CROFT has a fine photograph of the War Memorial at Geo-graph.
- John EMERSON provides the names from the Helpringham War Memorial. Some of these are hard to read on the memorial, so your corrections will be appreciated.
- The name derives from the Old English Helpric+inga+ham or homestead of a man called Helpric," and is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as Helperincham.
[A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991]
- This place was an ancient parish in county Lincoln and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
- The parish was in the ancient Aswardhurn Wapentake in the North Kesteven division of the county, in the parts of Kesteven.
- For today's district governance, see the North Kesteven District Council.
- Bastardy cases would be heard in the Sleaford petty session hearings every Monday.
- The Common Lands were enclosed here in 1773.
- An unknown donor left the rent from a rood of land for distribution to the poor.
- After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, the parish became part of the Sleaford Poor Law Union.
| Year |
Inhabitants |
| 1801 |
518 |
| 1831 |
750 |
| 1841 |
764 |
| 1851 |
829 |
| 1861 |
912 |
| 1871 |
911 |
| 1881 |
941 |
| 1891 |
758 |
| 1901 |
767 |
| 1911 |
732 |
| 1921 |
733 |
- A School Board was formed in 1876, and a school and master's house erected in 1877-78. The school could hold 150 students.
- You can visit Helpringham Primary School web site, but there is no school history posted there, nor any old student records.
- See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.
Last updated on 14-October-2012
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