Wilksby is a hamlet in the

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 authority ...

Wood Enderby Wood Enderby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of 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 ...

, in the

East Lindsey East Lindsey is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The population of the district council was 136,401 at the 2011 census. The council is based in Manby. Other major settlements in the district include Alford, Wragby, Spilsby ...

district of

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 ...

. A former civil parish in itself, it was merged with the parish of Wood Enderby in 1936.

History

Wilksby was mentioned in ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' of 1086 as "Wilchesbi", with the Lord of the Manor being

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

. The name is derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

"Vilgeirr's/Vilgerth's" + "by", meaning the farmstead of Vilgeirr/Vilgerth. In 1931 the parish had a population of 30. On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished and merged with Wood Enderby.

Church

The church is dedicated to All Saints, though it may once have been St Mary, and is Grade II listed. Built of greenstone and red brick, It was renovated in 1895. A church has known to have been on the site for at least 800 years, with the first recorded rector was Simon de Tynton in 1230. The stone font dates from the reign of King John (1166-1216), with the earliest written records from the church from 1563.

Geography

Wilksby lies in the foothills of the

Lincolnshire Wolds The Lincolnshire Wolds are a range of low hills in the county of Lincolnshire, England which run roughly parallel with the North Sea coast, from the Humber Estuary in the north-west to the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens in the south-east. They a ...

, an area of limestone and sandstone hills forming the highest ground between

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The village itself is in the valley of Mareham Beck at about 25-30m above sea level, whilst the church sits atop the hill to the north of the village. The roads leading to and from the North and East of the village are wide suggesting their use as ancient

droving Droving is the practice of walking livestock over long distances. It is a type of herding. Droving stock to market—usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs—has a very long history in the Old World. An owner might entrust an agent to deli ...

tracks.

References

{{Authority control Hamlets in Lincolnshire Former civil parishes in Lincolnshire East Lindsey District