England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Thimbleby St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of Thimbleby lies in central Lincolnshire about 1 1/2 miles west of the market town of Horncastle. Thimbleby is a rather linear village which is mainly built along the B1190 road which meanders westwards from Horncastle towards Bardney, a small sub-settlement is grouped around a crossroads nearer Horncastle. Like most Lincolnshire parishes Thimbleby would have almost totally been involved in arable farming, the light chalky soils being easy to work for cereal, beet & nowadays oilseed. A series of small streams drain the parish westwards towards the nearby River Witham which makes its way to the North Sea through the port of Boston. Thimbleby is sited at between 45 & 60 metres above the sea the eastern end being the higher, land around here is only gently undulating with local heights topping out at only a handful of metres higher. Thimbleby parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just under 2,600 acres it would have supported a population of close to 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Thimbleby was shared three ways, the largest portion in the hands of Drogo de la Beuvriere with smaller holdings with Bishop Odo of Bayeux and the King, himself; collectively the parish was able to offer 10 ploughs, extensive meadows & woodland and there was also a mill.

The Church

St Margaret's church sits on the northern side of B1190 at the eastern end of the main portion of the village and where that road performs a series of right angled bands. Sadly the church is not some mediaeval masterpiece but a Victorian replacement, indeed the present building is actually the third recorded on the site and not the building in which these events occurred. The original church must have been an early English Gothic church as reused remnants, sedilia & piscina internally, are of this period and a single reused window is 14th century Decorated. The mediaeval church was replaced in 1744 and this in turn replaced by the present building in 1879. Pevsner is still taken by the tower describing it as "willful". There is just sufficient room to park by the gates which penetrate a simple post & rail fence, the churchyard has close trees but there is just about enough room to adequately record the building.