STICKFORD is a village and a civil parish located adjacent to the A16 road about 6 miles (9.7km) south west from the town of SPILSBY in the East Lindsey District of the county of LINCOLNSHIRE.
The village appears to be of SAXON origin.
It is mentioned in the Great Doomsday Book as STICHFORDE.
It got its name because it was a ford on the main road, which was along the slightly higher belt of dry land separating the East and West Fens.
The ford was probably over an area of swamp.
“In Stichesford there are two caracutes and a half of land rateable to gelt. Twenty eight sokemen and two villeins have their three caracutes. There is a Church, and there are thirty acres of meadow.” That was Stickford in 1086 AD according to Domesday Book.
But Stickford is older than that. Archaeological records show that people first frequented the place we now know as “Stickford” in Neolithic times, about 10,000 years ago.
Its name betrays its Saxon origins and we know it belonged to the Saxon land-owner Alfgar.
The Black Death hit the village hard as in the summer of 1349 three priests died in Stickford, two of them lasting no more than a couple of months. Stickford escaped any direct involvement in the Civil War, although there was a company of Roundhead foot soldiers stationed in the village, possibly at the Red Lion public house, at the time of the Battle of Winceby (1643).
Much of the livelihood of the people came from fishing and wildfowling, with summer grazing on the fens for sheep and cattle. However, the draining of the East Fen in the early 1800’s had a considerable effect on Stickford as it changed the nature of much farm work and the old pursuits of fishing and wildfowling declined.
The Church Burial and Baptismal Registers give a vivid picture of village life in the early 19th century. Of the 153 burials between 1813 and 1830, 45 were of children under three years of age, and only 24 managed to reach the age of 70 or more. For a small village there was a great variety of trades and occupations, including miller, tailor, boatman, shoemaker, butcher, baker, thatcher, coal dealer, chimney sweep, wheelwright, horsebreaker, etc.
There has been a great deal of change in Stickford since then as there is little employment within the village and most people have to travel outside the village to work.
Contact details - the Clerk at stickfordparishclerk@gmail.com