Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is the second largest county in England and borders seven other counties – eight if you include the 20 yards that it shares with Northamptonshire. It covers an area between the Humber and the Wash, and it doesn’t matter that the authorities have meddled with the north of the county to split it up into North Lincolnshire and North-East Lincolnshire, it’s all still part of the same ceremonial county.
Apart from the two unitary districts mentioned above (which aren’t included on the Google map of Lincolnshire opposite), the county has seven other county council areas. They are – the City of Lincoln, Boston, North and South Kesteven, East and West Lindsey and South Holland.
Geographically, it has four distinct areas: The Wolds (rolling hills in the north-east), the Fens (drained land in the south-east), the Marshes (along the coastal area), and Lincoln Edge (an escarpment running north-south in the western half of the county). This landscape has favoured agriculture and horticulture more than anything else, but the areas around Scunthorpe and the Humber Estuary are more industrial.
Historically speaking, the region was inhabited by the Celtic Corieltauvi tribe before the Romans arrived. The newcomers improved communications and built a fortress at Lindum (Lincoln) which they converted into a legionnaire’s retirement home (Colonia), renaming the town, Lindum Colonia, in the process. After the Romans departed, Angles and Saxons from the continent filled the void and developed a kingdom of their own which they called Lindsey. With the arrival of the Vikings, the Danelaw territory of Stamford was merged with Lindsey creating the county we now know as Lincolnshire, although it was still called Lindsey for quite a while before the name was changed.
The three largest towns are Lincoln, the county town with an estimated population of 105,000, Grimsby, a former large fishing port (88,000) and Scunthorpe, home of a major steelworks (82,000). People who come to visit the county spend their time in either Lincoln, one of the coastal resorts, the Wolds or one of the historic small towns such as Stamford, Boston and Grantham.
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A Hundred Years of History and Changes at Scampton
Where’s Scampton? I hear you ask, and the short answer is Lincolnshire, but it’s not the village I’m talking about, but its next door neighbour – RAF Scampton – which may not mean very much to many of you either, but this airfield not only has a remarkable history, it also reminds us of how […]
Lincoln Cathedral
At the time of William the Conqueror’s arrival in England, Lincoln was one of the largest towns in the country, and so it was understandable why he would want to subjugate it as quickly as possible. Within two years, Lincoln Castle was built on the same site as the old Roman fortress, but the success […]
Anarchy and Sieges at Lincoln Castle
In Celts, Romans, Vikings and Jews I mentioned that Lincoln was surprisingly hilly and that it was unofficially divided into two areas – Uphill and Downhill. Downhill, if you remember, was originally a marshy area where the settlement was first established, and where, thanks to a succession of interlopers, it had become a significant inland […]
Lincoln – A Town of Celts, Romans, Vikings and Jews
Lincoln is not the easiest place to get to from where I live, but on returning from a trip to the North-East we were able to make a detour and spend some time in a city that I’d always wanted to visit, but thought I never would. The main reason that I was keen on […]