Pinchbeck

The civil parish population was 5,153 at the 2001 census, increasing to 5,455 at the 2011 census

The name Pinchbeck is derived from either the Old English pinc+bece (Minnow Stream) or pinca+bece (Finch Ridge). A family long associated with the area took its name from the village, one member of which was Christopher Pinchbeck, a watchmaker responsible for the invention of the Pinchbeck alloy, which was once used for imitating gold in cheap jewellery.
The Anglican village church is dedicated to Saint Mary, and is over 1,000 years old. It has a wide nave with mid-12th-century arches, and a 15th-century single hammer-beam roof supported by large gilded angels carrying the heraldic escutcheons of the Pinchbeck family. The chancel is by restorer Herbert Butterfield.