England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Skendleby St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Skendleby lies in eastern Lincolnshire roughly 10 miles northwest of the coastal resort of Skegness. Skendleby is located about a mile west of the A1028 road, which follows an ancient Roman Road headed northwest from the crossing of the Wash, which links Burgh le Marsh with the A15 at Ulceby Cross. Skendleby is a mid-sized and rather linear village which lies largely along a lane paralleling a shallow valley in the eastern Lincolnshire Wolds. Like most small villages in this area it would have been primarily an arable farming village, a situation which prevails to this day; surrounded by large cereal fields and sitting under vast skies. The area has a long history with the ancient Giant's Hills Long Barrows, located on the eastern slope of the valley, believed to date from the Beaker folk who appeared in pre-history from the near continent, their distinct pottery having been found within. Skendleby is drained southwards by a small tributary of the Steeping River which is soon joined to head southeast to the North Sea coast arriving at the nature reserve of Gibraltar Point. Skendleby is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in the easternmost portion of the Wolds, land continues to rise from the coastal plains to reach local heights of almost 100 metres at nearby Ulceby. Skendleby parish was fairly typically sized for a southern arable parish, covering close to 1,500 acres it would have supported a population of just under 300 parishioners. In Domesday times Skendleby was a holding of Gilbert of Ghent; one must question the reported population of that time as it is unlikely Skendleby was ever in the largest 20% of settlements recorded in the book, its assets of 12 ploughs, a small meadow and 2 mills are hardly indicative of such a size.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits to the west of the main lane through the village and roughly halfway along the north to south length of the built area, the church is set behind fronting properties and accessed by footpath. Whilst the church has its origins in the 14th century and was probably a mixture of the Decorated & Perpendicular styles of that century it is to the Victorian age that much of today's outward appearance must be credited. Pevsner describes the restoration which transformed the church as making the church "very scraped looking". Of the main pieces of the church the chancel, in a local greenstone, retains more of its medieval origins whilst the rest has been restored to the detriment of determining the church's dating. A conundrum exists which is the position of the western tower which pre-supposes an arcade to the northern aisle which does not exist, yet the chancel is built supposing it did not, a puzzle for the dating experts. Parking in the main lane is perfectly achievable without causes nuisance, an un-surfaced track leads across a small green space to the churchyard which is open and uncluttered other than a line of yews which can be avoided by the photographer.