Billingborough 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

South Kesteven South Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. Its council is based in Grantham. The district also includes the towns of Bourne, ...

district of

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 approximately north of Bourne and 10 miles south of

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. On the edge of the The Fens, Fenlands, it is north-east of Grantham, west of Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston, and sou ...

, and on the B1177 between Horbling and Pointon just south of the A52.

History

The village is named after the post-Roman Billings tribe of invaders. The village was formerly served by the Billingborough and Horbling railway station on the Bourne and Sleaford Railway, giving the village connections to nearby Bourne and

. The former high school name, Aveland, is taken from a pre-conquest wapentake of that name, dating to 921. The wapentake extended from Bourne to Threekingham. The area was populous in the Middle Ages, and included the lost village of Ouseby as well as the shrunken village of Birthorpe. St Andrew's Church dates to the 13th century and is in a mixture of

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

and Decorated styles. On a Saturday in 1791 a six-hour football match between the 'bachelors' of Osbournby and Billingboroough was played at Osbournby field. Billingborough won and were distinguished by the wearing of blue ribbons.

Community

Billingborough is positioned at the edge of

The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...

. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,098 in 461 households. By 2011 both figures had risen, to 1,401. The village has a single

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

. There formerly existed a

secondary modern school A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupil ...

, The Aveland High School, which opened in 1963 but closed in January 2010 to merge with a Sleaford school to form St George's Academy. The high school was later demolished and the site redeveloped for housing. The parish church is dedicated to

St Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

. Under the Diocese of Lincoln, the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

is part of The Billingborough Group in the Lafford Deanery. As of 2014, the priest-in-charge is Rev Rebecca Rock. Billingborough has a small number of shops on High Street as well as a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

called the "Fortescue Arms". There is also an Army Cadet Force detachment next to the St George's Academy site. It is part of the Lincolnshire Army Cadet Force and wears the cap badge of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

. The village Billingborough Horbling and Threekingham Cricket Club gained entry into the ECB Lincs Premier League in 2013.

Notable people

* Richard Nauyokas, of Lads Army lived in the village * Eric Houghton, Aston Villa and England footballer and Villa manager, was born in the village."Eric Houghton"
Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 14 April 2012 * Robert Gordon Latham, ethnologist and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

was born in Billingborough in 1812

References

External links

*
Portrait of the village

Photographs of the village

Cricket Club
{{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District