Luddington is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

, part of the civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Luddington with Haldenby, on the Isle of Axholme

Isle of Axholme

The Isle of Axholme is part of North Lincolnshire, England. It is the only part of Lincolnshire west of the River Trent. It is between the three towns of Doncaster, Scunthorpe and Gainsborough.- Description:...

 in North Lincolnshire

North Lincolnshire

North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber in England. For ceremonial purposes it is part of Lincolnshire....

, England. The nearest towns are Scunthorpe

Scunthorpe

Scunthorpe is a town within North Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 72,514 in 2010. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre,...

, Goole

Goole

Goole is a town, civil parish and port located approximately inland on the confluence of the rivers Don and Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England...

 and Doncaster

Doncaster

Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...

.

Early history

After the last Ice Age Luddington was covered by Lake Humber until about 9,000 BC. When this melt water lake finally disappeared, the Luddington area was an area of dry land, surrounded by wetlands, on a branch of the River Don. Luddington was amongst the last of a chain of 'islands' in the marshlands of the Isle of Axholme, stretching from Epworth northwards. The church of St. Oswald's is a pre-conquest foundation. It sits on an island separate from the rest of the village and River Don, in a circular enclosure, suggesting it might have been a ritual site well into the first millennium.

The route of the name Luddington is Anglo-Saxon, is settlement or estate belonging to Luda, however the area was settled before the English settlement of the area in the 5th century.

Medieval

The River Don was an important transport link between the Humber and the Yorkshire hinterland. A drowned sailor is reported to have come from Luddington, suggesting that some people worked the river. Nearby Crowle developed as a market town, leaving Luddington, like Haldenby (a nearby deserted Medieval Village) as way stops on the river.

Late Medieval decline

The Isle of Axholme as a whole went into decline in the late Medieval period. Climate change (the Mini Ice Age) saw the advance of marshlands, the dying of woodlands (which became bog oak) and the reduction of pasture. The river trade went into decline, partly because the river silted, party because of the development of Hull, which took trade away from inland settlements, like Beverley. The Black Death did not help. The Northern Isle of Axholme has two deserted Medieval settlements, Haldenby and Waterton

Waterton, Lincolnshire

Waterton is a Deserted Medieval Village on the River Trent near Garthorpe and Luddington in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, England. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Before the Norman Conquest it was held by one Fulcric who held one carucate of land with a hall.At the time of the Domesday...

, both within sight of Luddington. When Vermuyden drained the Isle he removed productive marshland and the River Don, leaving behind badly drained arable land.

Victorian revival

The warping of the Isle improved the fertility of the soil. Steam pumps made the drainage of the Northern Isle effective. This led to a growth in farming in the area and an increase in population. Luddington farmers developed crops for the growing urban market, particularly potatoes. The need for labour was partly met by the migration of Irish workers to Luddington, following the Famine, in the 1840s. Providence Row - a collection of earth floor cottages - housed 'Irish' labourers into the 1930s.

Post war

The village Post Office closed at the turn of the 21st century when a buyer couldn't be found for it. The village public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 is the Luddington Arms, which recently closed.

Luddstock

In 2006, the village played host to the Luddstock music festival

Music festival

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

. Bands included Silent Film Project, The Hitchcock Rules and Leatherat.

Population overview

1801 407,
1811 402,
1821 462,
1831 470,
1841 511,
1851 588,
1861 684,
1871 775,
1881 628,
1891 495,
1901 532,
1911 527,
1921 431,
1931 429,
1941 N/A,
1951 425,
1961 414,
1971 379,
1981 351,
1991 360,
2001 402

External links

• "Luddington", Genuki
  GENUKI
  GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. Its aim is "to serve as a "virtual reference library" of genealogical information that is of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland"...
  
  .org.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2011
• The Isle of Axholme, Isleofaxholme.net. Retrieved 18 November 2011