__NOTOC__ Freiston is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, England. The population of the civil parish (including Freiston Shore) at the 2011 census was 1,306. It is situated approximately east from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. The Greenwich Prime Zero meridian line passes between the village and Hobhole Drain.

History

In 1114

Freiston Priory Freiston Priory was a Benedictine cell of Crowland Abbey founded in 1114, and became a priory soon afterwards. It was Dissolved in 1539 and was located in Freiston, Lincolnshire, England. The priory A priory is a monastery of men or women und ...

of St James was founded by Alan de Creon for

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monks – it became a monastic

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

Crowland Abbey Crowland Abbey (also spelled Croyland Abbey, Latin: ''Croilandia'') is a Church of England parish church, formerly part of a Benedictine abbey church, in Crowland in the English county of Lincolnshire. It is a Grade I listed building. History A ...

in 1130. Nothing remains of the priory buildings that stood on the south side of the present church, except for a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

doorway in the south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

that opened into the cloisters. Between 1217 and 1232 the powerful

Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester and 1st Earl of Lincoln (1170–26 October 1232), known in some references as the 4th Earl of Chester (in the second lineage of the title after the original family line was broken after the 2nd Earl), w ...

signed an agreement with the 56 free tenants of Freiston, who quite remarkably all had seals on the document. The number of seals could also suggest remarkably high literacy rates which were not previously thought to have existed in the 13th century. From what is known about the composition of medieval settlements and households there would have been between 4-6 people on average for each of these households giving a minimum population of 224–336, this not taking into the account the possibility of serfs and other peasants who were not included in the signing of the document meaning the population could have been above 500. Until 1974 the parish formed part of Boston Rural District, in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as ''parts'') of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the

Local Government Act Local Government Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom, relating to local government. The Bill for an Act with this short title may have been known ...

of 1888, Holland had been in most respects, a county in itself. Before this, Freiston had been in Skirbeck

Wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...

, Parts of Holland.

Community

Freiston is one of 18 civil parishes which, together with Boston, form the

Borough of Boston The Borough of Boston is a local government district with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Boston. The borough covers a wider area that includes villages such as Wyberton, Butterwick, Kirton-in-Holl ...

local government arrangement, in place since a reorganisation of 1 April 1974 which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972. The parish forms part of the Coastal electoral ward. The settlements of Haltoft End, north-north-west, and Scrane End (or Crane End), south from Freiston, lie within the parish On its eastern side, Freiston parish adjoins

The Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it is fed by the riv ...

. Freiston is the location of

HM Prison North Sea Camp HM Prison North Sea Camp is a men's open prison ( Category D), located on the edge of the parish of Freiston (near Boston) in Lincolnshire, England. North Sea Camp is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History North Sea Camp opened as a B ...

, a men's

open prison An open prison (open jail) is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employment w ...

St James' church

Freiston

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed Anglican parish church is dedicated to St James. The church was originally

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

with a central tower. The existing tower is of

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

style, and the parts of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

are Early English. The roof and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

were restored in 1763, and the whole building in 1871.''Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire with the port of Hull'' 1885, pp. 397, 398 An earlier rood screen was sold to the church at Fishtoft.Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' p. 129; Methuen & Co. Ltd"St James' Church"
Lincolnshire Parish Councils. Retrieved 23 December 2013

References

External links

details of the parish Council
not available at present--> *
RSPB Freiston Shore reserve information
{{authority control Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves in England Civil parishes in Lincolnshire Villages in Lincolnshire Borough of Boston