South Holland District is one of a number of authorities within the County of Lincolnshire. However, the boundaries and nomenclature of local administrative areas have changed over the last thousand and more years, and will continue to do so in the future.
By the eighth century, the area we now know as Lincolnshire was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and over the next few centuries the administration of the local area grew from ancient tribal lines to increasingly sophisticated levels of administration. In the ninth century, the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England were contending with Danish – or Viking – invaders, whose ambition ultimately became to take over all the Kingdoms. In 886, the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred and the Danish leader, Guthrum concluded the Treaty of Wedmore: the Danes would confine themselves to that part of England east of Watling Street and north of the Thames. Thus the former English territory roughly east of a line running from London to Chester became the Danelaw. With Danish law came the Danish legal system and other Scandinavian institutions. At this time, Lincolnshire consisted of three distinctly administered areas (or ‘Parts’): Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland, each of which comprised a number of smaller administrative areas, called Wapentakes (a distinctly Nordic name).
Holland consisted of the Wapentakes of Elloe, Kirton and Skirbeck.
The term wapentake is of Scandinavian origin and meant the taking of weapons; it later signified the clash of arms by which the people assembled in a local court expressed assent. Wapentakes were the Danelaw equivalent of an Anglo-Saxon Hundred in most other counties. The functions of the Wapentake were substantially those of the Hundred. Each Wapentake had a court in which private disputes and criminal matters were settled by customary law. The court met once a month, generally in the open air, at a time and place known to everyone. Increasingly, courts fell into the hands of private lords. In medieval times the Wapentake was collectively responsible for various crimes committed within its borders if the offender were not produced.
These administrative areas, and their terminology, would stand the test of time, through the Norman Invasion and right on up to modern times. Under the Local Government Act of 1888, the three Parts of Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland became County Councils. In 1894, another Act created Urban and Rural District Councils in place of Wapentakes. Holland County Council had its base in Boston. It comprised Spalding Urban District, Spalding Rural District and East Elloe Rural District. The most recent change was in 1974, when the three County Councils were abolished, merging into a new Lincolnshire County Council. At the same time, the constitute Urban and Rural District Councils were abolished, and District and Borough Councils were created.
Thus, South Holland District was born. The map shows the present day District overlain on the medieval boundaries.
(Author: Stuart Henderson)
