Billinghay 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

North Kesteven North Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The council is based in Sleaford. The district also contains the town of North Hykeham, which adjoins the neighbouring city of Lincoln, England, L ...

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. The village is situated approximately north-east from

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 lies on the B1189 Walcott road near its junction with the A153. Just south of the village towards

is North Kyme. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,808, increasing to 2,190 at the 2011 census, increasing to 2,203 at the 2021 census. The settlement is mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

''. The name originates from a Saxon name for a fishery. The topography in ancient times would have been that of a small settlement on a gravel mound surrounded by marsh which was flooded in winter. After the draining of the fens in the late 18th century the area became rich agricultural land as it is today. Billinghay parish church is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. It dates from the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with some later additions, and parts of it have been rebuilt. It is a

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

listed structure. The parish is part of the Carr Dyke group of parishes, which also includes churches at Martin, North Kyme, South Kyme and Walcott. After the phased closure of Lafford High School due to falling pupil numbers between 2008 and 2010, Billinghay Primary School remains the only school in the village. It is a voluntary controlled Church of England school, which has close ties with the Church of England, but responsibility for employing staff and maintaining the building remains with the local authority. In 1986 village was twinned with Ballon, in the

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

department of France In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the Regions of France, administrative regions a ...

Billinghay Skirth

Billinghay Skirth, which is also known as the River Skirth, is a waterway that runs through the village and ends at the River Witham. It gets its water supply from Digby Dam and Farroway Drain, two drainage channels that meet to the south-west of the village. Within the village it is crossed by two bridges. Old Bridge carries the B1189 road, and New Bridge carries Church Street. Shortly after the second bridge, it is joined by

Car Dyke The Car Dyke was, and to a large extent still is, a long ditch which runs along the western edge of the Fens in eastern England for a distance of over . It is generally accepted as being a Roman invasion of Britain, Roman construction and was, f ...

, a Roman waterway which may have been used for navigation. It winds its way towards the Witham, and near the junction, there are a pair of mitred flood doors, which close when river levels in the Witham exceed those in Billinghay Skirth, to prevent flooding of the surrounding land. Finally, a bridge carries a minor road called Witham Bank across the waterway.Ordnance Survey. 1:25000 map Since November 2008 there has been an active campaign by the Billinghay Skirth Regeneration Society to restore navigation on the River Skirth, and the project has won the support of Billinghay and other parish councils, the

Inland Waterways Association The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) is a registered charity in the United Kingdom which was formed in 1946 to campaign for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and sensitive development of British canals and river navigations. No ...

, the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

, Lincolnshire County Council and the Lincolnshire Waterways Partnership. The distance from the Witham to the village is about , and there is no navigation authority responsible for its use, although the Environment Agency are responsible for the flood defences. The river is known to have been used for the carriage of both grain and coal until the 1930s, when this traffic ceased. Following the activity of the Regeneration Society, six narrow boats attempted to reach the village in September 2009. They were able to navigate most of the way, but stopped a little short of the village, due to low water levels and silting of the channel.

References

External links

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Lincolnshire Life

Parish council

Car Dyke group of parishes

Billinghay Skirth

Ancestry query
{{authority control Civil parishes in Lincolnshire North Kesteven District Villages in Lincolnshire