Sleaford is a market town in the English county of Lincolnshire, with a population of over 17,000 people and a history dating back to the Iron Age. When I started working on the article back in September 2014, it was 37,000 bytes long, had 44 citations and its structure and prose were inconsistent; I've largely rewritten it and it's now over 130,000 bytes long with more than 300 references. I do believe it's complete in its scope at least, and I now feel it is time to put it up for review. My aim would be to get this to FA and I am looking for any constructive feedback which might help me to get it there.

Many thanks, Noswall59 (talk) 15:39, 18 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment The opening sentence is rather confusing as Lincolnshire as a ceremonial county spans the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions. Keith D (talk) 17:53, 18 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from Rodw This is an impressive article. I know it can be a challenge to find sources etc for local history on towns in England. A few comments:

Lead

• "ceremonial county" could be wikilinked to Ceremonial counties of England for non-UK readers
• Iron Age could be wikilinked (as could Roman & Anglo-Saxon) or do we assume these are well known enough for readers not to need to find out more from the relevant article? I note Bronze Age and other periods are wikilinked later in the article)
• I think Bishop of Lincoln should definitely be wikilinked
• I'm not a grammar expert but "which grew the fastest of any town in the county during the 1990s" didn't read clearly for me.

Geography

Topography

• Civil Parish could be linked to Civil parishes in England and I'm not sure it should be capitalised.
• North East and South East shouldn't be capitalised (per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters#Compass points)
• You've told us about the soil but what is the underlying geology?

Climate

• Does Cavendish = Cavendish, Suffolk?
• Is " hail the size of golf balls were reported in Sleaford and other parts of central Lincolnshire" supported by refs 7-9 at the end of the paragraph
• Capitalisation of West and North (as above)

History

Etymology

• Any particular reason for using the informal "Testa de Nevill" rather than "Book of Fees" or "Liber feodorum"?

Early

• The word "area" is used a lot in the first two sentences.
• Should "Bourne" be Bourne, Lincolnshire? (wikilinked later)
• In the lead River Slea is wikilinked and capitalised but not here. "river Slea" is used and capitalised on 2nd use.
• The last sentence of the first paragraph (from While only... ) seems very long - although I can't see anything with the grammar I would chop it into two (or three) sentences.
• Capitalisation of East

Medieval (I think wp prefers the term Middle Ages

• Saxons & "within two centuries" in the previous sentence we have "c. 5th century–1066" so can we be more specific about which two centuries? Is the 8th & 9th mentioned later?
• Would it be worth linking watermill?
• Should it be "Britano-Roman" or "[[Romano-British"?
• St Denys' Church, Sleaford should be wikilinked
• Is a new town "planted" (or constructed or similar)?
• "and was the manor held by the bishop in 1086" something about the grammar but I'm not sure what
• Burgage should be wikilinked
• Should "demesne" be capitalised - both upper & lower case in the same sentence
• I have a concept of a wapentake as a Hundred but others may not.
• Is Hundred Flaxwell a term/place which would be recognised today?
• I see Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln is wikilinked in the note but I would do this in the text to prevent potential confusion with Lord Edward Clinton or the various other Lord Clintons.
• Would the grammar school mentioned be Carre's Grammar School?
• I see Carr baronets is mentioned and wikilinked but previously we had Carre family - I presume they are part of the same family (and lost the "E" over the years) but this is unclear.
• Cogglesford Mill should be wikilinked
• Who is Simon Pawney, is this a historian we should recognise?
• "From the Middle Ages down to then, Sleaford had been surrounded by three main open fields: North, West and Sleaford Fields." not sure what "then" refers to and capitalisation (are these capitalised as proper names of fields or directions?).
• Was it North or South Rauceby and should it be wikilinked?

If these sorts of comments are helpful I'll come back and take a look at the rest of the article.— Rod ^talk 18:16, 18 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]