The Diocese of Lincoln is the Church of England in Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North-east Lincolnshire. The Diocese covers 2,673 square miles and has a population of 943,000. There are around 31,000 people on the Church Electoral Rolls. There are more than 220 clergy and lay workers serving 240 benefices with 514 parishes and 647 church buildings.
The Diocese of Lincoln as constituted by William the Conqueror stretched from the Humber to the Thames, covering the modern counties of Lincoln, North & North East Lincs, Leicester, Northampton, Huntingdon, Hertford, Cambridge, Bedford, Oxford and Buckingham. Cambridge was removed by the formation of the Diocese of Ely in 1109.
The rest of this great Diocese continued intact throughout the middle ages. It was divided into the eight archdeaconries of Lincoln, Stow, Leicester, Northampton (consisting of Northants, and Rutland), Huntingdon (Hunts and Herts except for the Archdeaconry of St Albans, which became an exempt jurisdiction in 1163), Bedford, Oxford and Buckingham. The Archdeaconries of Oxford and Northampton were taken away from the diocese in 1541-2 to form the dioceses of Oxford and Peterborough, leaving the diocese divided geographically into a northern and a southern portion.
In 1837 the archdeaconries of Bedford and Huntingdon, with the exception of the Hertfordshire parishes, were transferred to the diocese of Ely, the archdeaconry of Buckingham to the diocese of Oxford, and the archdeaconry of Leicester to the diocese of Peterborough. The Hertfordshire parishes were removed in 1845, and became part of the diocese of Rochester.
One addition was made: the archdeaconry of Nottingham was added in 1837, but was retained only until 1884, when it was transferred to the newly-formed diocese of Southwell. A new archdeaconry of Lindsey was created in 1933.
An interactive map, detailing parish information, is available here
See also: Who's Who