England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stainton by Langworth St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Stainton by Langworth lies in central Lincolnshire roughly 7 miles northeast of the city of Lincoln. Stainton by Langworth sits about a mile northwest of the A158 road which connects Lincoln with Horncastle. Stainton by Langworth is a small village with most properties sitting on or close by to a lane which runs northwards from the A158 toward Snelland. Like most Lincolnshire parishes it is arable farming which formed the mainstay of the parish's economy and little has changed hereabouts with large fields of mainly cereals supplemented by beet & oil seed dominating the largely flat terrain. Modern developments have come to Stainton by Langworth with the Lincoln to Grimsby railway line almost dissecting the small village without providing a station. Stainton by Langworth is drained southeastwards by the Barling Eau which soon meets the River Witham close to Bardney before reaching the North Sea through the port of Boston. Stainton by Langworth is sited at around 10 metres above the sea in terrain where a spot height of 19 metres at nearby Scothern represents the highest ground for some distance. Estimates of the parish acreage vary from 2,800 to over 3,000 acres, Phillimore's mapping however, shows a more typically sized parish of nearer 1,600 acres whereas that in Cockin's Parish Atlas of England incorporates areas shown as part of Goltho parish in Phillimore and is closer in size to those estimates, whatever its true acreage the population would have been close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Stainton by Langworth was equally small and rural, held by Earl Hugh of Chester it could offer just 4 ploughs, small meadows & woodland but did possess a mill.

The Church

St John's church sits almost at the southern edge of the village and is approached through farm buildings from the rather narrow Church Lane. Sadly Stainton by Langworth's early church met with disaster in the late 18th century and had to be replaced after it fell. Today's church was completed in 1795 utilising a style typical of the early 14th century in an unusually decorative greyish stone. The typical design of nave with lower chancel and a western tower is made unusual by the design of said tower complete with its pyramidal roof crowned by a knob. It is clear, however, that Pevsner found little of architectural interest in the building giving only a rather short account of the main features. Parking should be sought around the entrance to the farms and the church approached on foot, it stands within an open & uncluttered churchyard with no obstacles for the photographer.