Lincolnshire

This medium sized county, with an area of 2,274 square miles, lies to the north of the region known as Anglia and to the south of Yorkshire and located as such has much in common with it's neighbours.

The city of Lincoln is, of course, the administrative centre of the county with the resort of Skegness and the town of Grantham being the only other main towns of note. Following the re-drawing of boundaries in 1974 Lincolnshire lost the towns of Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes to the newly formed Humberside.

As the names of it's towns and villages suggests Lincolnshire was one of the areas most heavily influenced by the Danes and the Vikings on their many incursions into post-Roman Britain.

Famous people who originate from Lincolnshire include the former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher (who came from Grantham) and the famous 17th Century scientist and discoverer of gravity, Sir Isaac Newton.

Modern day Lincolnshire relies on cattle and sheep farming, horse breeding, cereal production, oil production and, something they have in common with their close neighbours the Dutch, flower bulb production for their living.

Facts on the region

Origin of name: Its early Briton name was Lindum meaning a lake (Ilyn) a widening of the River Witham - and a hillfort (dun), which would have stood above the river, which often flooded. The Romans named the place Lindum colonia: a colony or settlement for retired soldiers. Lindum colonia was condensed to make Lincoln.

Name first recorded: 1016 at Lincolnescire.

Motto: Perseverance vincit ('Perseverance succeeds').

County Town: LINCOLN A charming city running the full pageant of English history.

County Rivers: Trent, Welland, Ancholme, Witham, Brant, Glen, Bain, Steeping.

Highest point: Normanby-le-Wold at 584 feet.

Lincolnshire’s local government: The County of Lincolnshire is governed by two tiers of local government: Lincolnshire County Council at the top and 7 Districts: Boston, Eat Lindsey, Lincoln, North Kesteven, South Holland, South Kesteven, West Lindsey. There are two unitary authorities, North Lincolnshire and North-East Lincolnshire, which rule themselves and have no links with the Lincolnshire County Council.

The local landscape

Lincolnshire spreads from the flat shores of the North Sea westward to the Midlands and north to Yorkshire. It’s undulating and in places flat, especially where it joins with the Fens and the Wash in the South. But it actually has a high central chalk ridge, the Lincolnshire Edge upon which Lincoln itself perches.

The middle is ultimate farm country. Under big skies a vast open countryside broods, with vast fields and small villages. The whole county remains rural, even feudal, for if any county can claim the title, Lincolnshire is Olde England. (Although these flat fields made ideal airfields in 1940!).

It is an isolated county, remaining bypassed by new connections, and by most main roads; its rail lines lead to nowhere else but points in the county. It has little heavy industry and that is up in the north in such towns as Scunthorpe and the fishing port of Grimsby towards the coast from Skegness to the Humber, all sand, mud and marsh. Otherwise wool and fine cloth have been its making. The local stone, a warm golden limestone is used extensively in old Lincoln and some Lindsey and Kesteven villages.

A dividing line runs from the Nottinghamshire border through Lincoln and angling southeast to the western coast of the Wash. It demarcates Kesteven and Holland to the south and the larger slab of Lindsey in the north. Here are the Wolds, while at the edge the sea regularly erodes the chalk; the resulting plateau of marshy clay now provides excellent beef grazing. Holland is drained fen and the land produces good cereal and sugar beet crops. Flowers too, for the bulbfields are famous. Kesteven has hills and wood with scattered villages.

The city of Lincoln hugs the western border and is nowhere near the centre of its county (that is probably occupied by the Wolds village of Baumber, a pleasing place on the banks of the River Bain). From its point on its ridge of the Wolds on a clear day the towers of Lincoln can be seen. You will need to make a genuine effort to visit this straggling capital city.

Like Yorkshire’s Ridings the County of Lincolnshire has three ancient divisions known as Holland, Kesteven and Lindsey.

Local Towns and Villages

BOSTON A vast church with a tower reminiscent of others in the Low Countries, the Boston Stump can be seen for miles. There are good medieval buildings and a 15th-century guildhall,, though the town is a shadow of the busy port it once was long ago.

BOURNE With a considerable claim on history, Bourne sits beside the Carr Dyke, a great Roman drainage scheme, and the bulb-growing centre.

CLEETHORPES Once a sleepy fishing village, then a million visitors a year were attracted to its three miles of sand, beautiful boating lake, Marineland and Winter Gardens.

GAINSBOROUGH King Alfred married Ealswith and Canute’s father Sweyn, died at Thornock Park. The Old Hall is a fine late medieval country house.

GRIMSBY Once the greatest fishing port in England.

HOLBEACH Near the Wash, this is a place to stop and explore the famous local Fenland churches.

LOUTH With fine Georgian houses and a market, its stone spired-church looming above the marshes is a centre to explore the Wolds.

SCUNTHORPE Evolved from a group of small villages including Brumby, Crosby, Ashby and Frodingham into a large industrial town. At one time it belted out ingot steel and pig iron.

SPALDING Commercial bulb growing centre with a Dutch ambience and the air full of perfume in the spring.

STAMFORD History-packed stone-built town. Burghley House founded in 1575 by Sir William Cecil.

Barton-on-Humber

Brigg

Broughton

Crowle

Epworth

Humberton

Immingham

Mablethorpe

North Hykeham

Sleaford

Places to Visit

Belvoir Castle, Grantham, Lincolnshire

Burghley House, Stamford, Lincolnshire

Aubourn Hall, Lincoln, Lincolnshire

Baysgarth House Museum, Humberside

Belton House Park And Gardens, Grantham, Lincolnshire

Doddington Hall, Lincoln, Lincolnshire

Fulbeck Hall, Grantham, Lincolnshire

Lincoln Castle, Lincoln

Calendar

Regular race meetings at Lincoln, where racing dates back nearly 400 years, and cricket on the Lindum.

Mid-May: Festivals in the Fenland bulb fields in spring draw thousands of viewers. Spalding Flower Parade and Springsfield County Fair make up Britain’s biggest and best flower festival with a stupendous flower parade.

June: Lincolnshire Show in Scampton.

September: Burghley Park horse trials.

Famous names from the region

Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century, was born at Grantham.

John Wesley, founder of Methodism, was born at Epworth.

The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson came from Somersby.

Sir Isaac Newton formed the first local scientific society at Spalding and was born in Woolsthorpe.

Daniel Lambert the heaviest man in the country died at Stamford weighting 739 pounds!