England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Skidbrooke with Saltfleet Haven St Botolph

The Parish

The parish of Skidbrooke, which includes Saltfleet & its Haven, lies in northeastern Lincolnshire and forms part of Lincolnshire's North Sea coastline. Skidbrooke is located about 10 miles northeast of the market town of Louth. Of the two settlements included within the parish Saltfleet is by far the larger, it sits on the A1031 coast road which connects Grimsby with Skegness. Skidbrooke, itself, is a mere hamlet just over one and a half miles southwest. Skidbrooke parish has extensive portions which have been reclaimed from the North Sea, a coastal defence of dunes protecting large areas of grazing marshes at or even below sea level. The area would have been largely pastoral at the time of this transcript but today modern machinery enables rich cereal crops to be grown on former pastures. Most of the parish drainage has been influenced by the hand of man, drains and dykes channeling the water through the nearby haven and the North Sea. Skidbrooke is sited at around 2 metres above the sea with Saltfleet rising to 5 metres, it is many miles before a contour other than zero is reached in a largely flat landscape. Skidbrooke parish was fairly typically sized covering 2,200 acres and it would have supported a population of around 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Skidbrooke was largely held by King William, smaller portions being with the Bishop of Durham and one William Blunt, collectively their lands could offer 11 ploughs and some small meadows.

The Church

St Botolph's church has been deconsecrated in 1973 and is now maintained by the Redundant Churches Fund. The church sits in fields accessed from Sea Lane by a gated footpath and with only a few trees for company. The church has its origins in the 13th century, both the doorway and the arcades show the early English Gothic style of this century. A few windows show the Decorated style but the western tower and clerestory are characteristic of the Perpendicular period , the style was current from mid-14th to mid-16th century and Pevsner declines to give a date to these features. The footpath to the church is only a couple of hundred metres long and there is room to park a single car by the gate. The churchyard sits flush to a drainage ditch surrounded by immense fields. Those trees are mainly restricted to the northern and western sides of the churchyard and do not unduly restrict photography.