Coordinates: 52°59′46″N 0°24′47″W / 52.996°N 0.413°W / 52.996; -0.413

Sleaford is a market town and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, a non-metropolitan county in the east of England. It is on the edge of the fertile Fenlands, about 11 miles (18 km) north-east of Grantham, 16 miles (26 km) west of Boston, and 17 miles (27 km) south of the city and county town of Lincoln. With an estimated resident population of 17,671 at the time of the 2011 Census, the town is the largest settlement in North Kesteven, and makes up roughly 15% of its total population. Bypassed by the A17 and the A15, it is connected to Lincoln, Newark, Peterborough and King's Lynn. Sleaford railway station is on the Nottingham to Skegness (via Grantham) and Peterborough to Lincoln Lines.

The first settlement formed during the Iron Age where a prehistoric track crossed the River Slea. It was a tribal centre and home to a mint for the Corieltauvi during the 1st centuries BC and AD. Evidence of Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement has been uncovered, and by the late Saxon period the town was an economic and jurisdictional centre with a court and market. During the medieval period, records differentiate between Old and New Sleaford, the latter emerging in the areas around the present day market place and St Denys' Church. Sleaford Castle was constructed in the 12th century for the Bishops of Lincoln, who owned the manor. Granted the right to hold a market in the mid-12th century, New Sleaford developed into a market town and became locally important in the wool trade, while Old Sleaford declined.

Sleaford was a county constituency in Lincolnshire, centred on the town of Sleaford. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, when the former Mid Lincolnshire constituency was divided under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. It was abolished for the 1918 general election.

Members of Parliament

Election results

References