Early history

Historically Firsby belonged to the Wold division of the Wapentake of Candleshoe and was in a part of ancient Lindsey.

In his History of the County of Lincolnshire written in 1834, historian Thomas Allen records "Firsby is an obscure place on the north side of the River Limb _(sic) between Wainfleet and Spilsby, being five miles distant from each".^[2]

Allen further comments that "Firsby's St Andrew's Church is an ancient crumbling edifice in a state of great decay. The single aisled church is thatched and in front of the porch is a bare pillar of stone that may have at one time held a sundial". Before the Reformation the church belonged to the Abbey at Bardney and was presented to the village by the Norman Lord of the Manor Sir Gilbert de Gaunt (1048-1094). The rectory was valued in 1834 at £12 0s 7d (£12.03). The original Norman church was demolished and a new church building erected in 1856 on the same site.

There were once two public houses in the village although both are closed. One of the public houses had its own brewery, and the other serviced the railway and doubled as the Railway Hotel. There are other records that mention a third drinking establishment around 1852, Whyley's Beerhouse, that stood adjacent to Firsby railway station. The local beer houses were introduced by the 1830 Beer Act which permitted anybody to open a licensed beer and cider house in their front room for a licence fee of two guineas, but they were not permitted to sell spirits or fortified wines. Many beer houses went on to develop as full public houses to sell a range of drinks, and still exist; by 1885 those that hadn't become pubs had died out.

At the beginning of the 20th century the village had a football team, which played its fixtures on a field behind the Railway Hotel, with a clubhouse and changing rooms next to the field. A previous village hall was situated beside the main Spilsby to Wainfleet road.

Railway connections

The railway station at Firsby opened in 1848^[3] and was a substantial structure for a country station, totally unlike the majority of small isolated rural halts. The station had three platforms each two hundred metres long, with buildings, booking offices, male, female and general waiting rooms, restaurants, toilets, baggage and goods halls, crew rooms, staff canteen and numerous railway offices. The main line tracks were crossed by a substantial passenger footbridge and most of the station was covered by an ornate cast-iron and glass canopy.^[4] The station also had signal boxes, water towers, goods sidings and engine repair sheds.

Firsby was a junction for the Skegness line and the Spilsby line on their short branches from the main GNR London to Cleethorpes railway. During the summer months holiday passenger traffic, from throughout the country alighting at Firsby for the connection to Skegness, was substantial with hundreds and sometimes thousands of passengers passing through the station at a weekend. In the Victorian era most holidaymakers travelled by train and Firsby was one of the busiest stations on the East Lincolnshire Railway. The station was the major employer in the area and between the station master and his assistants, ticket office staffs, ticket inspectors, signalmen, porters, catering staffs, drivers, firemen, guards and track maintenance staff for three separate railway companies, several hundred people worked at, or from, Firsby station on a daily basis.

Between 1943 and 1958 Firsby station was kept busy as the nearest railhead staging point for RAF and later USAF airmen travelling to and from the nearby RAF Spilsby airfield at Great Steeping.

The line was closed down in 1970^[3] due to the Beeching cuts, and the majority of the station and the platforms were demolished. Only the most southerly section of the station building remains and is now a private residence.^[3] With the old east coast main line between Firsby and Cleethorpes removed a new direct link to Skegness was installed at the junction a few hundred metres south from the old Firsby station. A common call at the station was "Over the bridge for Skegness"^[5]

Firsby to Spilsby Railway

A small local railway company built a branch line from Firsby junction to Spilsby, which it opened on 1 May 1868. The branch was just over 4 miles (6.4 km) long and connected Spilsby to the King's Cross, London to Cleethorpes main line. The only other railway station on the branch line was Halton Holegate Halt. Necessary parliamentary permission was obtained by an Act in July 1865 which incorporated The Spilsby & Firsby Railway Company with an authorised capital of £20,000 and loans of £8,333 for the construction of the four-mile-long single-track branch.^[6]

Construction of the railway began in March 1867 with the ceremonial cutting of the first turf performed by local rector, the Reverend Rawnsley who was standing in for the railway company's chairman Lord Willoughby de Eresby. The railway was expected to be opened quickly but disputes with the contractors arose over the quality of their work and several lengths of track had to be replaced. With these problems finally fixed the official opening took place. Initial traffic levels and income were promising, however by 1885 rail traffic had slumped leading to the Great Northern Railway buying out the Spilsby & Firsby Railway Company for £20,000 through an Act of Parliament on 25 July 1890.

In 1920 there was a major accident when the Spilsby engine was derailed and passengers had to be transported by road. When the locomotive was returned to the tracks it managed to reach Firsby in a record eight and a half minutes instead of the normal thirteen minutes. A few days later the train ran into the buffers of another stationary train at Firsby and several passengers were badly shaken. A 71-year-old local businessman, Mr. Welch, died the following day from the delayed effects of the accident.

Falling usage caused passenger services to be suspended in 1939 just as the Second World War began and they were never reinstated. A goods train service for grain, potatoes, livestock and other agricultural products continued through Firsby for almost another twenty years. Goods including petrol, paraffin and coal continued into Spilsby via the rail link until its closure on 30 November 1958. The Spilsby station building has been demolished but other buildings still stand, and in recent years have been used by an agricultural suppliers as a shop and store with new sections added. Between Firsby and Spilsby most of the old track route can still be seen in aerial photographs, marked by the avenue of trees and bushes, with only 5% ploughed out into fields.

Parish

Firsby is governed by the Firsby group Parish Council that covers the villages of Bratoft, Firsby, Great Steeping, Irby in the Marsh, and Little Steeping. The current (2013) chairman is Richard Kidd of Irby in the Marsh, and the vice chairman, Robert Heane of Great Steeping.

District

Firsby falls within East Lindsey District Council and in 2013 is represented by Pauline Cooper (Conservative).

County Council

Firsby's 2013 county councillor to Lincoln County Council is Neil Cooper (Conservative)

Westminster

Firsby falls within the Louth and Horncastle constituency.