Scartho () is a suburban village in the southern part of

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town in Lincolnshire, England with a population of 86,138 (as of 2021). It is located near the mouth on the south bank of the Humber that flows to the North Sea. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes dir ...

, in the unitary authority area of

North East Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...

, in the ceremonial county 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. Scartho's population is approximately 11,000. Up until the end of the Second World War it was a village; subsequent post-war expansion on the greenfield areas between Scartho and Grimsby has resulted in the village becoming an outer suburb. Its population has increased through recent urban developments such as Scartho Top.

History

Etymology

Like '

' the etymology of the word Scartho can be traced back to having

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 ...

origin, more than likely due to the ancestry of the surrounding area. In ''A Dictionary of British Place Names'', A. D. Mills identifies the elements ''skarth'' or ''skafr'' and the ending ''haugr'' to give the meaning as 'Mound near a gap' or a mound 'frequented by cormorants'.

11th century

The earliest surviving written reference to Scartho is 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 ...

of 1086 where it shares an entry with the adjoining parishes of

Laceby Laceby is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A46 road, just outside the western boundary of Grimsby. Laceby's population at the 2001 Census was 2,886, increasing to 3, ...

and Bradley. The three parishes were under the lordship of Swein, Erik brother of Tosti, and Tosti brother of Erik, in 1066, and after the Norman invasion by

Odo of Bayeux Odo of Bayeux (died 1097) was a Norman nobleman who was a bishop of Bayeux in Normandy and was made Earl of Kent in England following the Norman Conquest. He was the maternal half-brother of duke, and later king, William the Conqueror, and w ...

, a half-brother of

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

. The church, dedicated to

Saint Giles Saint Giles (, , , , ; 650 - 710), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 7th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly legendary. A ...

, retains a tower that dates to 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 ...

period, although there have been more recent changes, including the removal of the north wall for an extension as recently as the 1950s. Walter Johnson in ''Byways in British Archaeology'' considers the tower to date from the period of church building in the 1042 to 1066 reign of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

and disagrees with 19th-century suggestions that the stonework shows signs of scorch marks from having been torched during earlier Viking raids. Rather, Johnson argues, the tower, and others from the same era in Lincolnshire, were built after the period of Viking raids but in a style that reflects a memory of Church towers being used as a place of refuge during those raids.

19th century

In the first census of the United Kingdom in 1801 Scartho had 135 inhabitants, in 1831 the population was 147. In 1894, a

workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...

and

infirmary Infirmary may refer to: *Historically, a hospital, especially a small hospital *A first aid room in a school, prison, or other institution *A dispensary (an office that dispenses medications) *A clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambul ...

were built at a site on the west-side of Scartho Road to the south of

. These new buildings were opened on 9 October 1894 by the Right Honourable J Shaw-Le-Fevre. Following the

Local Government Act 1929 The Local Government Act 1929 ( 19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. 17) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales. The act abolished the system of poor law unions in England ...

, the

came under the control of

Town Council's

public assistance committee A public assistance committee (PAC), in the UK, was a body locally created after the abolition of the boards of guardians in 1930 by the Local Government Act 1929, when their powers and responsibilities for poor relief were passed to county and c ...

and was renamed Scartho Road Institution. After the introduction of the

National Health National Health were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band featured members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, including gui ...

Act in 1948 it became a general hospital. For many years it was known as Grimsby District General Hospital. Following the erection of the new

Princess of Wales Princess of Wales (; ) is a title used since the 14th century by the wife of the Prince of Wales. The Princess is the apparent future queen consort, as "Prince of Wales" is a title reserved by custom for the heir apparent to the Monarchy of the ...

' hospital to the south of the site, a number of the former

buildings have been demolished or stand empty. Others are still used for administrative or ancillary services.

20th century

Scartho Road is home to the Flower Cottages. Built in 1903, they are named after the order that flowers come into bloom after Winter, starting at number 100 with Snowdrop Cottage, 98 Crocus Cottage, and finishing at number 76. The architect was Herbert Scaping. In 1916, 13 bombs were dropped on Scartho by a German

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

, but no-one was killed or injured. The site where one bomb fell is now home to a branch of

Barclays Bank Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

, an optician, a few shops and a dance school. At the side of the building is a plaque commemorating this event. A monument giving thanks that no-one was hurt can be found at a spot where another bomb fell, in the churchyard of the nearby parish church of St. Giles, itself believed to be nearly a thousand years old. The church itself was badly damaged in the attack. Scartho was a separate civil parish until 1928. Its northern boundary included part of the area that now forms the

Nunsthorpe Nunsthorpe (known locally as 'The Nunny') is a suburb and housing estate in the western part of Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England. It is situated between Laceby Road ( A46) and Scartho Road ( A1243), which respectively form its northern ...

housing estate. In that year the greater part of the village was absorbed by Grimsby, with a small part being attached to the parish of Waltham. Before the Second World War building work commenced on what had been

Green Belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...

land. These constructions include properties along Scartho Road and the roads off it, including Cragston Avenue, Limetree Avenue and Sycamore Avenue. The village saw post-war growth following the then government-policy of local councils building houses to replace those damaged in the war. This led to the development of three estates on green-belt land around the village: Springfield, Fairfield and (on a smaller-scale) the area around Edge Avenue. As part of this growth three schools were created – Springfield First and Middle schools, Fairfield First and Middle schools and Scartho First and Middle schools (in Edge Avenue). In 1958 the village opened its first

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 ...

, the Rose and Crown on Louth Road. The Seven Seas opened in 1962 in Springfield. In 1960 the local council built a swimming pool at the northernmost tip of the village boundary, next to the Barratts Playing Field. This is known locally as 'Scatha Baths'. It was closed in December 2015 and has now been demolished. In 1965 a new shopping arcade on Waltham Road was constructed in the area, followed a few years later by a similar development on the junction of Louth Road and Pinfold Lane which housed two banks and several retail premises. Between 1974 and 1982 the village saw the construction of the town's new hospital, the Grimsby District General Hospital, next to an existing smaller site. It was opened in 1982 by Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales. After her death in 1997 it was renamed the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital. The nearby Scartho Top development began in the mid-1990s.

Governance

North East Lincolnshire Council has one council ward within the area of Scartho. All of the councillors for the ward currently are Conservatives. Only in the inaugural council election of 1995, when Labour won all three seats, and in 2012 and 2014, when UKIP won one seat at either election, has it returned a councillor for another party. Scartho Ward * Cllr Charlotte Croft * Cllr Ian Lindley * Cllr Ronald Sheppard In 1921 the

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 ...

had a population of 744. On 1 April 1928 the parish was abolished to form Grimsby, part also went to Waltham. From 1974 to 1996 it was in the county of

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 ...

. Until 1996 it was in Great Grimsby district.

Community

Scartho's retail availability includes a Spar mini-supermarket on Waltham Road, surrounded by a number of other businesses including take-aways and a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

. The supermarket houses the village Post Office after the long-established facility in Pinfold Lane closed in 2000. At this time one of the villages' two banks (

Lloyds TSB Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Established in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds Bank e ...

– previously a Lloyds Bank) closed after 33 years of service. On Louth Road is a number of other businesses including a veterinary clinic, a newsagent, a

building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institution, banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage loan, mortgage lending. They exist in the Unit ...

and a pet store.

Notable people

* Richard A Collins (1966) – scientist and author, lived with his parents in

Holton-le-Clay Holton-le-Clay is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, around south of Grimsby. History Ditched enclosures and boundaries of possible prehistoric or Roman origin have been found, and earthworks of ...

and Scartho for most of his youth. * Brenda Fisher (b.1927) - long-distance and world record swimmer * Hanserd Knollys (1599–1691) - an English

particular Baptist Reformed Baptists, also called Particular Baptists, or Calvinist Baptists, are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology (salvation belief teached by John Calvin). The name "Reformed Baptist" dates from the latter part of the 20th century ...

minister was appointed rector of the church in the 1640s.

References

External links

Scartho Village WebsiteScartho Village PortalHistoric ScarthoPhotograph of the former Grimsby Workhouse
{{North East Lincolnshire (district) , state=collapsed Populated places in Lincolnshire Former civil parishes in Lincolnshire Geography of Grimsby