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Lincolnshire
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Lincolnshire ( or ; abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire. It also borders Northamptonshire for just 19 metres, England's shortest county boundary. The county town is the city of Lincoln, where the county council has its headquarters.
The ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire and the area covered by the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North-East Lincolnshire.
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Encyclopedia
Lincolnshire ( or ; abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire. It also borders Northamptonshire for just 19 metres, England's shortest county boundary. The county town is the city of Lincoln, where the county council has its headquarters.
The ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire and the area covered by the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North-East Lincolnshire. The county is the second largest of the English counties and one that is predominantly agricultural in land-use.
For the purposes of a general geographical classification the county can be broken down into a number of sub-regions including: the Lincolnshire Fens (south Lincolnshire), north Lincolnshire version of the Fens are the Carrs, the Lincolnshire Wolds, and the industrial Humber Estuary and North Sea coast around Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
History
Lincolnshire derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough Stamford. For some time the entire county was called 'Lindsey', and it is recorded as such in the Domesday Book. Later, Lindsey was applied only the northern core, around Lincoln, and emerged as one of the three Parts of Lincolnshire, along with the Parts of Holland in the south-east and the Parts of Kesteven in the south west, which each had separate Quarter Sessions to act as their county administrations.
In 1888 when county councils were set up, Lindsey, Holland and Kesteven each received their own separate one. These survived until 1974, when Holland, Kesteven, and most of Lindsey were unified into Lincolnshire, and the northern part, including Scunthorpe Municipal Borough and Grimsby County Borough, going to the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Humberside, along with most of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
A further local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside, and the land south of the Humber became the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. These two areas became part of Lincolnshire for ceremonial purposes such as the Lord-Lieutenancy, but are not covered by the Lincolnshire police and are in the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
The remaining districts of Lincolnshire are Boston, East Lindsey, Lincoln, South Holland, North Kesteven, South Kesteven, and West Lindsey. They are part of the East Midlands region.
A more recent event was the 27 February 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake, reaching between 4.7 and 5.3 on the Richter scale; it was one of the largest earthquakes to affect Britain in recent years.
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Lincolnshire at current basic prices (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year | | | | |
|---|
| 1995 | 5,719 | 657 | 1,769 | 3,292 | | 2000 | 6,512 | 452 | 2,046 | 4,013 | | 2003 | 8,419 | 518 | 2,518 | 5,383 |
- Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
- includes hunting and forestry
- includes energy and construction
- includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Agriculture
The county of Lincolnshire is an agricultural producer, growing large amounts of wheat, barley, sugar beet, and oilseed rape. In South Lincolnshire, where the soil is particularly rich in nutrients, some of the most common crops include cabbage, cauliflowers, and onions.
Mechanisation around the turn of the 20th century greatly diminished the number of workers required to manage the county's relatively large farms, and the proportion of workers in the agricultural sector dropped substantially during this period. Several major engineering companies developed in Lincoln, Gainsborough and Grantham to support those changes, perhaps most famously Fosters of Lincoln, who built the first tank, and Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham.
Today, immigrant workers mainly from Portugal and from new member states of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe comprise a very large component of the seasonal agricultural workforce, particularly in the south of the county where more labour-intensive crops such as small vegetables and cut flowers are typically grown. This seasonal influx of migrant labour occasionally causes tension between the migrant workforce and local people, in a county which is still relatively unaccustomed to the large scale immigration experienced by other parts of the United Kingdom.
Services and Retail
According to an IGGI study in 2000, the town centres were ranked thus (including North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire areas):-
- Lincoln
- Grantham
- Grimsby
- Boston and Scunthorpe (equal)
- Spalding
- Stamford
- Skegness
- Louth
- Sleaford
- Gainsborough
- Brigg
- Cleethorpes
- Bourne
- Horncastle and Mablethorpe (equal)
Public services
Education
Lincolnshire is one of the few counties within the UK that still uses the Eleven plus to decide who may attend grammar school. Many towns in Lincolnshire have both a grammar school and comprehensive school as a result. Lincolnshire's rural character means that most villages also have primary schools and are served by buses to nearby high schools.
Transport
Being on the economic periphery of England, Lincolnshire's transport links are poorly developed compared with many other parts of the United Kingdom. The road network within the county is dominated by single roads (A roads) and local roads (B roads) rather than motorways or dual carriageways – the administrative county of Lincolnshire is one of the small number of UK counties without a motorway and up until a few years ago, it was said that there was only approximately thirty-five kilometres (twenty-two miles) of dual carriageway in the whole of Lincolnshire. The M180 motorway passes through North Lincolnshire, splitting into two dual-carriageway trunk roads to the Humber Bridge and Grimsby, and the A46 is now dual carriageway between Newark and Lincoln.
The low population density of the county means that the number of railway stations and train services is very low considering the county's large physical size. A large number of the county's railway stations were permanently closed following the Beeching Report of 1963.
A daily through train service operated between Cleethorpes and London King’s Cross via Grimsby, Market Rasen and Lincoln until the late 1980s when it was discontinued following the electrification of the East Coast Main Line, which means that passengers now have to change trains at Newark when travelling to or from the Capital. However, the East Coast Main Line passes through the county and so it is possible to catch direct trains to the capital from Grantham.
The only airport in Lincolnshire is Humberside Airport located close to Brigg. While small, it serves all of Lincolnshire.
The county's biggest bus companies are Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes (formerly Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport) and Stagecoach in Lincolnshire, the new name for the Lincolnshire Road Car. Several other small companies also operate, some of which are listed in the links below. Perhaps the best known of these is the Delaine company.
A Sustrans cycle route runs from Lincoln to Boston in the South of the county ().
Health care
The is one of the largest trusts in the country, employing almost 4,000 staff and with an annual budget of over £200 million.
Lincolnshire shares the problems of elsewhere in the country when it comes to finding an NHS dentist, with waiting lists of eight months not uncommon.
Some of the larger hospitals in the county include:
- Grimsby's Diana Princess of Wales Hospital
- Boston Pilgrim Hospital
- Lincoln County Hospital
Since April 1994, Lincolnshire has had an Air Ambulance service which was extended to also cover Nottinghamshire in 1997.
The air ambulance is stationed at RAF Waddington near Lincoln and can reach emergencies in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire within 25 minutes. From any accident in Lincolnshire an A&E hospital is only 10 minutes away by helicopter.
Politics
| General Election 2005 : Lincolnshire |
|---|
| Conservative | Labour | Liberal Democrats | UKIP | BNP | Green | Others | English Democrats | Turnout |
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| 172,332 | 165,328 | 79,532 | 22,817 | 2,363 | 1,081 | 1,011 | 774 | 445,238 |
| Overall Number of seats as of 2008 |
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| Labour | Conservative | Liberal Democrats | UKIP | BNP | Green | Others | English Democrats |
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| 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The Conservative Party actually won 6 seats in the 2005 General Election and Labour won 5, but in 2007 the Grantham and Stamford MP, Quentin Davies, defected from Conservative to Labour thus changing the majority party in Lincolnshire to Labour.
Towns and villages
The non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire is characterised by the absence of any major urban area. The principal settlements and their populations are: Lincoln (101,000), Boston (34,606), Grantham (33,243),Gainsborough (20,110), Skegness (18,910), Spalding (18,731), Stamford (17,492), Louth (17,000), Bourne (11,933), Mablethorpe (11,700), Sleaford (10,388),Holbeach (9,448), Horncastle (6,090), Long Sutton (5,037), Woodhall Spa (3,657), Coningsby (3,238), Market Rasen (3,230), Alford (2,700), Caistor, (2,601) and Spilsby (2,336). Other places of interest include Donington, Crowland, Ingoldmells, Chapel St Leonards, Sutton-on-Sea, Heckington and Wainfleet All Saints. Many of the towns in the county continue to hold a weekly market, a centuries-old tradition reinvigorated recently by the growth of farmers' markets.
Most of the urbanised area of Lincolnshire is on the Humber estuary, where two unitary authorities are located;
- North East Lincolnshire, where the two towns of Great Grimsby (90,703) and Cleethorpes (34,907) have become one large conurbation and between them have a population of over 120,000 to make it the largest single settlement in the whole of the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. The next largest town is Immingham (12,200) followed by Waltham (6,425) and Humberston (5,375).
- North Lincolnshire, is the geographically larger of the two unitary authorities is where Scunthorpe (75,514) (including Bottesford) is located. The next largest town is Barton-upon-Humber (9,334) and is followed by Brigg (5,076), Crowle (4,090), Epworth (3,734), Kirton in Lindsey (2,964) and Barrow upon Humber (2,745).
For a full list of Lincolnshire towns and villages see the List of places in Lincolnshire page.
Tourism
The majority of tourism in Lincolnshire relies upon the coastal resorts and towns in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Skegness is a popular UK seaside destination and attracts many visitors a year. Along with neighbouring resorts of Ingoldmells, Chapel St Leonards and Mablethorpe it provides a number of amusements, leisure activities and beaches. Caravan sites are also very popular on the Lincolnshire coast. The market towns of the Lincolnshire Wolds also attract, with several having historic links. The wolds are also relatively popular for cycling and walking, with events such as the Lincolnshire Wolds Walking Festival taking place bi-yearly.
Nature is also an attraction for tourists with the South east of the county predominantly being fenland that give home to many species of bird. This is also the case at the nature reserve, Gibraltar Point. Saltfleetby and Theddlethorpe Nature Reserve offers similar opportunities with the reserve at Donna Nook having the advantage of a native seal colony that is a large draw for those interested in wildlife.
Lincolnshire also offers shopping facilities in Grimsby and Lincoln, with Lincoln having seen significant development. The Springfields Outlet Shopping Centre in Spalding has also been extended to include new shops and a hotel. Lincoln has the attraction of a historic quarter based around Steep Hill and the 800 year old Lincoln Cathedral and a trendier area around the University and at the Brayford Waterfront.
Culture
Lincolnshire is a rural area where the pace of life is generally much slower than much of the United Kingdom. Sunday is still largely a day of rest, with generally only shops in Lincoln, larger market towns, and resorts and industrial towns of the North Sea coast remaining open. Some towns and villages in the county still observe half-day closing on Thursdays. Due to the large distance between towns within the county many villages have remained very much contained with most still having shops, pubs, local halls and local chapels and churches all of which host a variety of social activities for residents. Fishing (because of the extensive river and drainage system in the fens) and shooting are popular activities. Lincolnshire's unofficial county anthem is the Lincolnshire Poacher.
People
Lincolnshire is relatively unusual in the composition of its population, being one of the least ethnically diverse counties of the United Kingdom (98.5 percent of the population describe themselves as "white"). Over recent years inward migration by people from ethnic minority communities has increased (particularly to population centres such as Lincoln) but the absolute number of non-white Lincolnshire residents remains very low.
Recently, the county has also witnessed a growing trend towards an in-migration of retired persons from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly those from the southern counties of England attracted by the generally lower property prices and the slower and more relaxed pace of life. The relatively high proportion of elderly and retired people is reflected in many of the services, activities and events. Sleaford is considered one of the fastest growing towns in the East Midlands, with many professional people moving there in order to benefit from (relatively) low house prices, average crime rate and the selective education offered.
Those born in Lincolnshire are sometimes given the nickname of Yellowbellies (often spelt "Yeller Bellies", to reflect the pronunciation of the phrase by the typical Lincolnshire farmer). The origin of this term is debated, but is most commonly believed to derive from the uniforms of the 10th Regiment of Foot (later the Lincolnshire Regiment) when they wore a very bright yellow waistcoat for identification on the battle field. For this reason, the coat of arms of Lincolnshire County Council is supported by two officers of the regiment.
Famous People
Lincolnshire has several famous figures associated with it and notable ones include
- Scientist Sir Isaac Newton
- Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin
- Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson
- Founder of the Methodist movement Charles Wesley.
Present day figures include
Language
The accent and dialect words of Lincolnshire are poorly known beyond the county, especially compared with more familiar accents, e.g. Geordie or Cockney. The effects of modern media, education, and in-migration to the county have substantially diluted the traditional accent, and many dialect words have been lost over recent years. However, the accent exists, and a native 'Yeller Belly' will still pick out a Lincolnshire speaker, possibly even being able to distinguish where in the county the speaker is from. The northern residents of Lindsey tend towards the Yorkshire dialect, with the accent of the south-east of the county (Holland and the Fens) being more similar to that of East Anglia.
In common with most other Northern and Midlands dialects in England, "flat" a is preferred, i.e. over , and also in words like water, pronounced watter (though such a pronunciation is rarely heard nowadays). Similarly, is usually replaced by . Features rather more confined to Lincolnshire include:
- Elaboration of standard English or into a complex triphthong approximating, and often transcribed -air- or -yair-. For example: "mate" ; "beast" ; "tates" (potatoes) .
- An equivalent elaboration of standard English - commonly in Northern England - into -ooa-. For example "boat" .
- Insertion of an extra schwa into the standard English diphthong . For example, the town of Louth is pronounced (Low-uth) by its inhabitants.
- Vocabulary: "duck" as a term of endearment or informal address, "mardy" meaning upset or angry, "mowt" (pronounced like mout) for might,"while" as a substitute for standard English "until", "frit" meaning frightened, and the inimitable salutation "now then!?" (hello), sometimes written nairn to reflect pronunciation, but often drawn out into a sing-song nyEEEAaairn-myeeeaaairt!!! in the mouth of the more rural and traditional speaker.
- In the north east of the county, around Grimsby and Immingham, the 'ur' sound is identical to that in Liverpool, so that bear, bare and burr all rhyme.
Lincolnshire has its own dialect 'champion', a farmer from the village of Minting called Farmer Wink (real name Robert Carlton), who has produced videos about rural life, narrated in his broad Lincolnshire accent, and who has a regular slot on BBC Radio Lincolnshire. A resident of Woodhall Spa, ironically one of the Lincolnshire settlements least aligned to the county's architectural style, has published a dictionary of words once prevalent in parts of the county.
Food
Lincolnshire has a number of local dishes:
- Stuffed chine - this is salted neck-chine of a pig taken from between the shoulder blades of a pig, salted for up to ten months and stuffed with parsley stuffing (other ingredients are normally kept secret). Served cold, it's considered by many in the county to be an acquired taste
- haslet - a type of pork loaf, also flavoured with sage (pronounced HAYSS-let in Lincolnshire but HAZ-let in many other parts of the county)
- Lincolnshire pork sausages - most butchers in Lincolnshire have their own secret recipe for these and a competition is held each year to judge the best sausages in the county
- Traditional Lincolnshire sausages are made entirely from these ingredients - Minced Pork, stale bread crumb (rusk is used nowadays) pepper, sage and salt. The skins should only be natural casings which are made from the intestines of either sheep or pig.
- Pork pies - the same pork butchers will take a pride in their unique recipe for pork pies.
- Plum bread - as with plum pudding, plum refers to dried fruit in this context, namely currants, raisins and sultanas sometimes soaked in tea.
- Grantham Gingerbread - a hard white ginger biscuit.
- Batemans ales - a beer brewed in Wainfleet and served in many pubs in the county and further afield
- There are several small breweries, such as (behind the in Little Bytham)
- Grimsby is renowned for its fishing industry and historically Grimsby Fish has carried a premium price. Since the decline of the fishing industry following entry to the European Economic Community in the 1970s this is no longer the case, with the majority of fish sold at the town's fish market being brought overland from other ports. However Grimsby Fish is still a recognised product, one associated with a particular area that specialises in and is knowledgeable of a particular trade (such as Sheffield steel or Nottingham lace).
Events
Every year the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, which was founded in 1869 stages the Lincolnshire Agricultural Show. It is held on the Wednesday and Thursday of the last whole week of June at its Showground at Grange de Lings, a few miles north of Lincoln on the A15, which first held the show at this site in 1958. First held around the year 1884, it is one of the largest agricultural shows in the country, and is attended by around 100,000 people over its two days. The Showground is in regular use throughout the year for a wide range of other events and functions.
Each year RAF Waddington is the home to the RAF Waddington Air Show. The two day event attracts around 40,000 people and usually takes place during the last weekend of June.
On the Monday before Easter, an unusual auction takes place in Bourne to let the grazing rights of the . Bidding takes place while two boys race toward the Queen's Bridge in Eastgate, the end of which dash is equivalent to the falling of the gavel. The whole affair dates back to the 1742 will of William Clay.
Corby Glen sheep fair has been held every year since 1238.
The Haxey Hood village competition takes place every January, as it has for over 700 years.
Stamford Mid-Lent fair sees showmen converge on the town the week after Mothering Sunday, rides and sideshows filling Broad Street, the Sheepmarket and the Meadows for a week. Stalls selling Grantham gingerbread and nougat are a traditional feature. The following week sees them in Grantham.
The villages of Tetford and Salmonby hold an annual Scarecrow Festival in May every year.
Also there is a Belchford Downhill Challenge which is held every two years where soapbox racers race down the hill at up to 30 km/h. The turnout have been up to 1,000.
In recent years Lincoln Christmas Market, a street market throughout historic area of the city, has been held at the start of December. Around the same time Christmas lights are turned on in Bourne, Sleaford, Skegness, and other towns.
Throughout the summer The Stamford Shakespeare Company presents the Bard's plays in the open air theatre at Tolethorpe Hall, which is actually in Rutland.
Spalding Flower Parade is held in late spring every year. Colourful floats decorated with tulip heads compete for a cup. The tradition was started in 1959, and draws coach tours from across Britain.
Sport
In Lincolnshire the main sports that are played in the county are football, cricket and rugby union. Lincolnshire does not have high sporting profile mainly due to the lack of facilities. Probably the most well known sporting venue in Lincolnshire is Cadwell Park near Louth where a round of the British Motorbike Championship is held on the last Monday of August every year.
- In football there are three football teams from Lincolnshire that play in the Football League. Scunthorpe United play in League One whilst Lincoln City and Grimsby Town play in League Two. In non-league football the highest ranked team from Lincolnshire is Boston United who play in the Blue Square North Division.
- In cricket Lincolnshire are a minor county and play in the Minor Counties Championship.
- In rugby union there is no major team from Lincolnshire however the sport is played in many schools throughout the county.
- Lincolnshire is home to only one racecourse at Market Rasen.
- Cadwell Park is the only motor racing course in Lincolnshire.
Symbols
The unofficial anthem of the county is the traditional folk song, 'The Lincolnshire Poacher', which dates from around 1776. A version of the song was the theme to BBC Radio Lincolnshire for many years.
According to a 2002 marketing campaign by the charity Plantlife, the county flower of Lincolnshire is the Common Dog-violet.
In August 2005, BBC Radio Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire Life magazine launched a vote for an official flag to represent the county. Six competing designs were voted upon by locals. The winning submission was unveiled in October 2005 - . Lincoln has its own flag - St George's flag with a Fleur-de-Lys.
The Lincoln Imp has symbolised Cathedral, City, and county for many years. In 2006 it was replaced as the 'brand' of Lincolnshire County Council by the stylised version seen on the header which has lost even the unique pose of the carving.
Press
The county is home to three daily newspapers. The Lincolnshire Echo is published from Lincoln and covers the majority of the county, reaching as far north as Louth.
The Grimsby Telegraph, as the name suggests is published in the town and its circulation area ostensibly covers North East Lincolnshire, although it reaches as far south as Louth and Alford. Its sister title is the Scunthorpe Telegraph and covers North Lincolnshire. All three are ultimately owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust.
There are also a number of weekly papers serving individual towns published in the county by Johnston Press.
Television
The area is covered by two TV networks: north and midlands. With the exception of a small area to the south-west of the county, Lincolnshire is served from the Belmont transmitter, receiving programmes from ITV1 Yorkshire and BBC One East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions.
The BBC has, since 2003, provided the area with its twelfth regional service: BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, carrying a local "Look North" news programme from the main studio in Hull, with input fromother studios in Lincoln and Grimsby.
The ITV's service is ITV Calendar (south) as there are two sub-regions North and South, South if for South Yorkshire, Humberside and North and East Lincolnshire and North for West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and North Yorkshire.
From 1959 to July 1974 ITV programmes were provided by Anglia Television (although some coverage could be received from the Manchester-based Granada and ABC Weekend). Based in Norwich the company had news offices in Grimsby and Lincoln. Following a transmitter change ITV services were provided by Yorkshire Television. This company kept open the offices in Grimsby and Lincoln, although these closed in the mid-1990s.
The majority of West and South Lincolnshire receives BBC East Midlands Today and ITV Central (East) as there are two sub-regions East and West. Which are broadcast from the Waltham on The Wolds Transmitting Station. Although Lincolnshire is part of the East Midlands none of the East Midland TV regions cover Lincolnshire fully.
Although subject to co-channel interference from the Waltham transmitter, a small number of households in the southern tip of the county are able to receive BBC Look East and ITV Anglia Tonight news programmes.
Radio
The area is covered by several local radio stations including:
Places of interest
- Alford Manor House *Alford Windmill
- Alkborough Turf Maze
- Ayscoughfee Hall *Belmont Mast (tallest construction in the European Union)
- Belton House *Bolingbroke Castle *Boston Stump *Bourne Abbey *Boultham Park *Branston Hall *Burghley House *Crowland Abbey *Dambusters Inn and Heritage Centre *Doddington Hall *Donna Nook
- Dunston Pillar
- East Lighthouse, Sutton Bridge
- Ellis Mill (Windmill)
- Fantasy Island, Ingoldmells *Gainsborough Old Hall *Gainsthorpe Deserted Medieval Village *Gibraltar Point
- Grimsby Dock Tower
- Grimsthorpe Castle *Gunby Hall *Hartsholme Country Park *Harlaxton Manor *Heckington Windmill
- Kesteven Forest *Lincoln Castle *Lincoln Cathedral *Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre *Lincolnshire Wolds Railway *Maud Foster Windmill, Skirbeck, Boston
- Metheringham Windmill
- Mount Pleasant Mill, Kirton in Lindsey
- Mrs Smith's Cottage, Navenby*National Fishing Heritage Centre *Natureland Seal Sanctuary
- Normanby Hall *Pleasure Island, Cleethorpes *River Ancholme
- Snipe Dales *St. James Church, Louth *St. Peter's Church, Barton upon Humber *Sibsey Trader Mill
- Stow Minster *Tattershall Castle *Tattershall College *The Collection (The Usher Art Gallery)
- The Humber Bridge
- The Lincolnshire Wolds *The Museum of Lincolnshire Life *The South Common, Lincoln *The Wash
- The West Common, Lincoln *Thornton Abbey *Waltham Windmill
- Whisby Nature Park
- Woolsthorpe Manor
See also
External links
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