England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Kelstern St Faith

The Parish

The parish of Kelstern lies in the northeastern portion of central Lincolnshire roughly 5 miles northwest of the market town of Louth. Kelstern is located a mile to the north of the A631 road which links Louth with Market Rasen. Kelstern is the remnant of a once sizeable village now deserted and consists simply of its hall & church together with a handful of cottages gathered around a junction on the lane which runs north from the A631. Like most Lincolnshire parishes Kelstern would have, and indeed still does, earn its living from arable farming, sitting on the eastern slopes of the Lincolnshire Wolds the broad cereal fields grant an open landscape of big skies and large fields as the former hedgerows have been eroded to accommodate modern machinery. Kelstern is drained southwards by the headwaters of a tributary of the River Bain, that is joined just north of Donington on Bain whilst the Bain joins the Witham south of Tattershall before reaching the North Sea through the port of Boston. Kelstern is sited at around 100 metres above the sea in largely flat countryside, land rises gently westwards to the local high point at 140 metres to the west of Great Tows. By the standards of its county Kelstern was a larger parish than most, covering close to 2,700 acres it would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times it was a much larger place than today, shared by 3 landholders it could mutser 10 ploughs as well as a substantial acreage of meadow.

The Church

St Faith's church sits to the east of the hall isolated and alone in a field across the brook from the main village lane, it is approached, however, from the north across fields. Whilst the church has seen much rebuilding in more modern times traces of its medieval origins remain, mainly in the nave. Here contrasting styles of the 14th century are presented with Decorated style windows on the northern side from the early 14th century yet the southern side is entirely of the later Perpendicular style. Also from the later half of the 14th century is the arch connecting the nave with the brick western tower, Pevsner believes that to have been largely rebuilt in the 19th century. That major rebuilding, which fell in the late 1880s also saw the rebuilding of the low-slung chancel too, that being completed in the earlier Decorated styling perhaps reflecting the original design. St Faith is a short walk south from a field car park at the end of the dead-end lane leading from a triangular junction on the main lane, from here one must walk across the intervening fields to find the churchyard which stands due south of the large pond around which the path curves. Whilst the churchyard is compact and edged with mature trees there is sufficient space to allow most aspects for the photographer.