Fosdyke
Fosdyke is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2021 census was 510. It is situated approximately south from Boston, just off the A17, and east from the junction of the A17 with the A16.
History
The name derives from the Old English and Old Norse "fotrs dic", meaning Fotr's ditch.Fosdyke's Grade II listed Anglican church is dedicated to All Saints. In 1871–72 the church was entirely rebuilt in brick on the site of an older church, in an Early English style. The architect was Edward Browning.
In 1885 Kelly's Directory reported the existence of a Primitive Methodist chapel, a coastguard station, and a row of 400-year-old almshouses, founded by Sir Thomas Middlecott for the Fosdyke and Algarkirk parishes.
Geography
The village is near the mouth of the River Welland, and the parish extends across the river to include both ends of the hamlet of Fosdyke Bridge.Fosdyke Wash, the marshy area at the mouth of the Welland, is shown by Ordnance Survey as the nearest coastal location to Coton in the Elms in Derbyshire, which is the furthest point from the sea in Great Britain, away.
Fosdyke is one of eighteen civil parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston local government district, in place since a reorganisation of 1 April 1974 which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972. Fosdyke parish forms part of the Five Villages electoral ward, along with Algarkirk, Bicker, Sutterton and Wigtoft. Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the Local Government Act 1888 Holland had been, in most respects, a county in itself.