Frithville is a village and former

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 ...

, now in the parish of Frithville and Westville in the

East Lindsey East Lindsey is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England. Its council is based in Horncastle and the largest town is Skegness. Other towns include Alford, Lincolnshire, Alford, Burgh le Marsh, Coningsby, L ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

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 population of Frithville and Westville was 549 in 2001, increasing at the 2011 census to 568. It is served by the B1183 road, and is approximately north of

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 ...

, in the West Fen fenland area.

History

The name Frith 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 ...

''fyrhoe'', meaning wood or woody pasture. The first mention of Frith in historical records is in 1323 when it was called Le Frith; in 1512 it was referred to as "The Kings Frith beside Boston". Formerly extra-parochial land, Frithville was enclosed in 1802. This was one of seven new townships north of Boston that were organized in 1812. The civil townships were organized at the same time as this remote area had major projects in the three fens for installing drains to claim the land for agricultural development. This continues to be a rural area with an economy based on agriculture. Chief crops in the late 19th century were wheat and beans.''Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire with the Port of Hull'', 1885, p. 399 The Anglican church of

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

was built in 1821, much later than many churches in Lincolnshire. It is among those built after 1810, known as Fens chapels or the Georgian group, for their style of architecture. Numerous churches in the shire predate the Protestant Reformation. St. Peter's is a Grade II

listed building 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, Hi ...

. It is in the hamlet of Mount Pleasant, which was included in the township of Frithville when the latter was organized. It is one of several churches built in the area under the Fen Churches Act 1816. In 1885 ''

Kelly's Directory Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in Britain that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses ...

'' reported that the brick-built church and the vicarage were erected simultaneously. The parish also had a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

chapel. Frithville has a primary school and an agricultural shop. Because of repeated flooding in the Fens, several drains were constructed through this area in the 19th century to reduce water damage to agriculture and settlements. Before the drains, the land was used largely for seasonal pasture. Those projects crossing Frithville include the

West Fen Drain West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

, the Twenty Foot Drain, and the Medlam Drain. In the 21st century, summer boaters travel the waterways for recreation.

Governance

There is a Frithville

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 1,920. In 1961 the parish of Frithville had a population of 627. On 1 April 2005 the parish was abolished and merged with Westville to form "Frithville and Westville".

References

External links

*
"Frithville"

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

.org.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2011 {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Former civil parishes in Lincolnshire East Lindsey District