Humberston

Humberston is a village and civil parish south of Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire, England.

Boundary and population
The village's boundary with Cleethorpes runs along North Sea Lane and Humberston Road. Its population, 5,384, in the 2001 Census increased to 5,634 at the 2011 Census. The Prime Meridian runs east of Humberston, through the Thorpe Park caravan site.

History
The Danes landed at the site of the village in 870. Humberston (or Humberstone, as the village was first known) takes its name from a large boulder, the "Humber Stone", which was deposited on the site of the former Midfield Farm during the last Ice Age. The boulder may be seen at the entrance to the village library, near St Peter's Church. The boulder was discovered in the winter of 1956/7 while deep ploughing was taking place at Midfield Farm. Two years later it was moved to Wendover Paddock in the village, and when the new library was built it was moved there. There is no evidence that this is the stone from which the village gets its name, but it was described by Professor H H Swinnerton and Sir William Pugh of Hull University as a glacial boulder of Scottish origin of the type from which the village may have got its name. The "e" at the end of the name was dropped to avoid confusion with a place with the same name.

The oldest and tallest building in Humberston is St Peter's Church. The church was rebuilt about 1710 but its tower is over seven hundred years old. At the rear of the church is the site of the former Humberston Abbey, a monastery of Benedictine monks, which was founded during the reign of Henry II and dedicated to Saints Mary and Peter. Nearly all that remains is the monks' mound in the manor-house garden, stone sarcophagi have been excavated. The Wesleyan Methodists built a small chapel on Humberston Avenue in 1835, and a larger replacement chapel was built in 1907. An early wireless station was built in 1910.

Education, sports and government
A comprehensive school, Humberston Academy (formerly Humberston School and the Humberston Maths and Computing College) is located on Humberston Avenue. Next to the academy is Humberston Cloverfields Primary School. The village has at least two football teams based out of it, Coach House and Fosse Water Treatment FC. Both teams play in the Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Sunday League. Because of a lack of facilities both teams regularly play in nearby Bradley village. An extinct team Humberston FC also played in the Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Sunday League.

Governance
Humberston and New Waltham is an electoral ward of North East Lincolnshire Council. The councillors for the ward currently are Conservatives.

Humberston is in the Cleethorpes parliamentary constituency, and has been represented by Martin Vickers of the Conservative Party since 2010.

The total population of the ward at the 2011 census was 10,848.

Places of interest
A man-made lake off North Sea Lane is in the centre of Cleethorpes Country Park. The park has picnic benches, fishing jetties and dog-swimming and wildlife areas. It is home to Canada geese and other wild birds.

The Humberston Fitties conservation area, known as Fitties Field during the late 1940s and early 1950s, is in the village. Also in Humberston is Thorpe Park, a Haven Holidays caravan park.