Holbeach St Matthew is a small fenland village in the

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

district of southern

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a 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-west, Leicestershire ...

, England. It lies north-east from Holbeach, south from

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, England, Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it i ...

, and within

Holbeach Marsh Holbeach Marsh is a The Fens, fenland area in the South Holland, England, South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Holbeach Marsh is situated between the market town of Holbeach on the A17 road (England), A17 road at the south, and The ...

. In 1885 '' Kelly’s'' noted that the village was in the ecclesiastical parish of Holbeach Marsh, that a school for 72 children was about to be built, that its area was of , and had an 1881 population of 743. The hamlet's

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

, dedicated to

St Matthew Matthew the Apostle,, shortened to ''Matti'' (whence ar, مَتَّى, Mattā), meaning "Gift of YHWH"; arc, , Mattai; grc-koi, Μαθθαῖος, ''Maththaîos'' or , ''Matthaîos''; cop, ⲙⲁⲧⲑⲉⲟⲥ, Mattheos; la, Matthaeus a ...

, was built 1868-69 by

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commiss ...

in Early English style, and was capable of holding 110 persons.''Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire with the port of Hull'' 1885, p. 477 It is constructed of brick, has a combined

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 ...

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. Ove ...

, a south

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

, and an east of nave turret with bell.

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (19 ...

; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'' p. 575; Penguin, (1964); revised by Nicholas Antram in 1989, Yale University Press. The chapel, now redundant, has been converted to residential use."St Matthew's, Holbeach"
Oldchurchhouse.co.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2011

References

External links

*
Holbeach

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

. Retrieved 26 October 2011 {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Holbeach