Keadby Local History Pack

• The name
• The place
• Population history
• Entry from Kelly's Trade Directory for 1900.
• Holdings in North Lincolnshire Local Studies Library.
• References in the Star Newspaper Index.
• Related websites.

The name

Texts disagree about the origins of Keadby's name. Cameron suggests the villages name means, 'Kaeti's to Keti's farmstead, village' while Eminson believes it to mean 'settlement at the mooring haven' referring to the time when Keadby was a port supplying ships and seamen for the kings service.

More information can be found in:

• Cameron, Keith The Place-Names of Lincolnshire.
• Eminson T.B.F. Place and River Names of the West Riding of Lindsey Lincolnshire.

The place

Keadby is located in the Isle of Axholme on the western bank of the River Trent. The only bridge to the Isle is at Keadby, its official name being the King George V Bridge. Opened in 1916 it has a lifting span of 165 feet and carries the railway and A18 across the Trent. This impressive bridge was designed by James Ball and built by Sir William Arrol and Company. The bridge was built to replace the railway only 1866 swing bridge which was inadequate for the increasing traffic through to the docks at Immingham.

Population history

Entry from Kelly's Trade Directory for 1900

KEADBY is a township in Althorpe parish and pleasant village, and is a creek in the Port of Gainsborough (from which it is 18 miles north), in the Isle of Axholme, on the West bank of the Trent., 1 mile north of Althorpe and Keadby station of the Great Central (late M.S and L.) railway, and 5 south-east of Crowle station, in the West Lindsey Division of the county, parts of Lindsey. West division of Manley wapentake, Epworth petty sessional division, Thorne union and county court district. The Stainforth and Keadby canal here joins the Trent, and has a large wharf for the shipping of coal and other goods. The Hull and Gainsborough steamers stop here daily. The New Idle River also joins the Trent 6 miles from here. The roads are under the control of the Epworth Rural District Council. The inhabitants attend the church at Althorpe. Here is a Weslyan chapel built in 1861; a Primitive Methodist chapel, built in1875, and a Temperance Hall erected in 1883. Dixon's charity, now £36 yearly, in the hands of trustees, is distributed in money. Mrs. D. Frazer-Allen, of Stainfield Vicarage, Wragby, who is lady of the manor. Mr.Richard Coggon and Mr Jonathan Bean are the principal landowners. The soil is loam; subsoil, peat. The chief crops are wheat and potatoes. The area is 1,534 acres of land, 57 of water, 31 of tidal water and 4 of foreshore; rateable value, £4,080; the population in 1801 was 592.

Holdings in North Lincolnshire Local Studies Library

• Read's History of the Isle of Axholme 1858. pp 380-384.
• Stonehouse, W.B. History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme. pp376-378.

References in the Star Newspaper Index

• Banks burst due to strong gales & high tides LLS 14.01. 1905 3c.
• Mill sails to be removed - unsafe SFS 07.09. 1929 4d.
• Whale stranded on bank of Trent SFS 20.08. 1938 4b.
• New Power Station to be built SFS 13.12. 1947 7a.
• Bridge to lift no more - Photograph SFS 04.07. 1953 14c.

Related websites

• Althorpe (Isle of Axholme Family History Society).