Algarkirk ( ) is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Borough of Boston The Borough of Boston is a local government district with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Boston. The borough also includes numerous villages in the surrounding rural area including Wyberton, Sutter ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. It is situated south-south-west from

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and near the

A16 road This is a list of road designation, roads designated A16 (disambiguation), A16. Roads entries are sorted in the countries alphabetical order. * Grand Junction Road, in South Australia connecting Port Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills * A16 motorway ...

. It has a population of 406,Census 2001
/ref> falling to 386 at the 2011 census. An alternative village spelling is 'Algakirk'.

History

Before the Roman conquest the area was home to the

Coritani The Corieltauvi (also the Coritani, and the Corieltavi) were a Celtic tribe living in Britain prior to the Roman conquest, and thereafter a ''civitas'' of Roman Britain. Their territory was in what is now the English East Midlands. They were bor ...

; after Roman departure it became part of the

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to Ge ...

kingdom of Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

. Algarkirk has been claimed to be named after

Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia Ælfgar (died ) was the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, by his famous wife Godgifu ( Lady Godiva). He succeeded to his father's title, Earl of Mercia, and responsibilities on the latter's death in 1057. He gained the additional title of Earl of E ...

, a son of

Lady Godiva Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. She is mainly remembere ...

;Cox, J. Charles (1916); ''Lincolnshire'' pp.42, 43; ''Methuen & Co. Ltd.'' he is reputedly buried in the graveyard of the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St Peter and St Paul. The "kirk" element of the name comes from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

"circe" meaning church, which was later replaced by the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

"kirk". The 9th-century church itself is Early English and

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

with a double-aisle

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

and a

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

Purbeck marble Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is a variety of Purbeck stone that has been quarried since at least Roman times as a decorative building stone. Geology S ...

. Under the tower are kneeling brass

effigies An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certain ...

of Nicholas Robertson (d. 1498), Merchant of the Staple of

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

, and his two wives Alice and Isabella. In 1492, he and Isabella glazed the church

clerestorey A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

. The church was heavily restored in 1851. Hitherto, the parish had formed part of

Boston Rural District Boston was a rural district in Holland, Lincolnshire from 1894 to 1974. It was formed from the Boston rural sanitary district by the Local Government Act 1894 and did not include the municipal borough of Boston. The part of Boston RSD which was i ...

, in the

Parts of Holland The Parts of Holland is a historical division of Lincolnshire, England, encompassing the southeast of the county. The name is still recognised locally and survives in the district of South Holland, Lincolnshire, South Holland. Etymology The place ...

. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as '' parts'') of the traditional county of

. Since the Local Government Act of 1888, Holland had been, in most respects, a county in itself until the creation of

Lincolnshire County Council Lincolnshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the latter additionally includes North Lincolnshire and No ...

in April 1974 by the combination of

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

Lindsey Lindsey may refer to : Places Canada * Lindsey Lake, Nova Scotia England * Parts of Lindsey, one of the historic Parts of Lincolnshire and an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 ** East Lindsey, an administrative district in Lincolnshire, ...

(except for those areas transferred to

Humberside Humberside () was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber, created from portions of the East Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of ...

) and

Kesteven The Parts of Kesteven ( or ) are a traditional division of Lincolnshire, England. This division had long had a separate county administration (quarter sessions), along with the two other Parts of Lincolnshire, Lindsey and Holland. Etymology T ...

County Councils. The Algarkirk Woad mill closed down after the 1932 crop. The mill owner was Mr George Nussey Snr.

Geography

The bypass was built by Amey Construction, to take two years from February 1990. It was 5.5 miles long, and cost £8,961,439. The bypass opened on 29 October 1991.''Spalding Guardian'' Friday 15 November 1991, page 5

Demography

The population was recorded as 386 in the 2011 Census, a drop from 406 on the 2001 Census.

Geography

The village was once served by Algarkirk and Sutterton railway station on the now-closed

Lincolnshire Loop Line The Lincolnshire loop line was a railway built by the Great Northern Railway, that linked Peterborough to Gainsborough via Spalding, Boston and Lincoln. It ran through the counties of Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire (then the Soke of Peter ...

that connected

and Spalding. The A16 has been rebuilt on the former railway line although the station building is now a showroom. Algarkirk lies close to the B1397. The Boston-Algarkirk Diversion opened in October 1991. The village primary school, the Fourfields school, is shared with Sutterton. The village is close to 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 A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It ...

and

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...

, 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.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire Borough of Boston

History

Geography

Demography

Geography

References

Further reading

External links