Open every day during daylight hours • Church Street, Caistor, Lincolnshire LN7 6UGOpen daily, dawn to dusk
Bell ringers, the Mothers’ Union, music in a Victorian organ loft, and the Georgian market town the church has stood in the middle of for a thousand years.
Groups and activities
Bell ringing, the Mothers’ Union, music, and coffee after the Wednesday service. You do not need to be a member of the congregation to take part in any of it.
Caistor has a peal of eight bells and Grasby has six. What we are short of is ringers. Practice is on Friday evenings at Caistor at 7.30pm, and new ringers are always welcome — it is a good way to keep fit, and to learn a skill practised almost nowhere else.
The Mothers’ Union is a movement of over four million Christians in 84 countries worldwide. It is unique because its members work as volunteers in local communities, putting their faith into action by acts great and small — giving individuals in need a helping hand.
The organ, installed in 1885 and rebuilt in 1982, accompanies the Sunday Parish Eucharist. The church is also used for concerts and live music, the tall, resonant medieval interior lending itself well to performance.
There is coffee and conversation after the Sunday Parish Eucharist at 10.15am and after Morning Prayer on Wednesday at 9.30am. Both are open to all, whether or not you have attended the service.
The Caistor Group
Caistor is the largest of seven churches served together as the Caistor Group, in the Deanery of West Wold and the Diocese of Lincoln. Sunday mornings are shared between them, and the clergy serve all seven.
Our town
Caistor is an attractive Georgian market town with a history dating back to Roman times, situated in the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey. It is unique in its architecture and location, and is regularly described by experts as a jewel.
56
Grade II listed buildings, plus two Grade I — the most important conservation area in West Lindsey
60,000
Sheep sold at the Caistor fair in 1858, at the peak of the largest sheep fairs in England
1631
Foundation of Caistor Grammar School, now a selective academy
2,700
People living in the town today
The original town was ravaged by fire in 1681, and the present buildings in the town centre date from that time. The Sessions House, built in 1662, was one of the few to survive it. Caistor has 56 Grade II listed buildings, two Grade I listed buildings, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, two medieval fish ponds and over 160 significant archaeological finds — which in numerical terms makes it the most important conservation area in the whole of West Lindsey.
Its position on the north-western edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds places it in an Area of Great Landscape Value, on the edge of a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It could fairly be described as the Wolds gateway to the Humber.
The town has three schools: Caistor Church of England & Methodist Primary School — the first such joint school in England, created in 1957 by the merger of two smaller schools — Caistor Yarborough Academy, and Caistor Grammar School, a selective academy founded in 1631 and, with consistently high results, one of the most highly respected grammar schools in the country.
Caistor is also home to major employers including Cherry Valley Farms, the world’s leading breeder of Pekin ducks, whose breeding stock is delivered to customers in more than thirty countries; and Sealord, a dedicated seafood producer with a processing plant in the town supplying major supermarket chains.
If you would like to join one of our groups, to take up ringing, or to help in some other way, please do get in touch.
