Stow or Stowe (Gainsborough), Lincolnshire

Historical Description

Stow or Stowe, a village, a township, and a parish in Lincolnshire. The village stands 2 miles E from Stow Park station on the Spalding and Doncaster section of the G.N.R. and G.E.R., and 7½ SE of Gainsborough. It was known to the Saxons as Sidnaceaster; was the seat of an early bishopric, a germ of the see of Lincoln; had a college, founded by Bishop Eadnoth, and transmuted into a Benedictine abbey at Eynsham; and had also a castle, still represented by remains in Stow Park. Post town, Lincoln; money order office, Sturton; telegraph office, Stow Park. There is a fair on 10 October, chiefly for the sale of colts. The township includes the village. Acreage, 2786; population, 289. The parish contains also Sturton township and two hamlets, and comprises 4890 acres; population, 861. The manor belongs to the Cracroft-Amcotts family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lincoln; net value, £164 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Lincoln. The church, which originally served as the cathedral church of the diocese of Sidnaceaster, is a very ancient cruciform building, chiefly Norman, consisting of chancel, transepts, nave, and central tower. It was restored in 1863-65 at a cost of about £5000. There is a Wesleyan chapel.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient County	Lincolnshire
Ecclesiastical parish	Stow St. Mary
Poor Law union	Gainsborough
Wapentake	Well

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Findmypast, in conjunction with the Lincolnshire Archives, have the following parish records online for Stow in Lindsey:

Baptisms	Banns	Marriages	Burials
1673-1911	1900-1900	1673-1911	1673-1911

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Stow or Stowe (Gainsborough) from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stow (St. Mary))

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lincolnshire papers online:

Villages, Hamlets, &c

Bransby