Description

Bigby, a village, township, and parish, in the union of Caistor, in Lincolnshire, 2 1/2 miles SSE of Barnetby station on the M.S. & L.R., and 4 E of Glamford-Brigg. The parish includes the hamlets of Kettleby and Kettleby-Thorp. Post town, Brigg, which is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 3500 ; population, 265. The living is a rectory In the diocese of Lincoln; net yearly value, £493, with residence. The church is Early English, and was handsomely restored in 1878. It contains some splendid and interesting monuments of the Tyrwhitt family, formerly of "Ketel-bye," and of the Skypwith family. The ancient font (restored to the church in 1878) is peculiar, having nine sides, one, blank, apparently having stood against the wall or a pillar; it is coeval with the church. There was an older church, as mentioned in Domesday. Bigby, originally Beche or Beke-bi, is undoubtedly so called from the beech tree which flourishes in the chalk districts here and elsewhere. It is one of four parishes out of which the ecclesiastical parish or district of Brigg (Parish of St John the Evangelist) was formed in 1872. Roman coins and fragments of a Roman pavement have been found in a field in the parish.