Heritage Archive
(May 2012)

1 May 2012

Planning to retire on a medal high

Few twenty-five-year-olds are blessed with the sort of drive and clarity of vision to have even identified their lifetime’s ambition at such a tender age. Fewer still are able to contemplate retirement, satisfied with the achievements of a stellar, decade-long career. Yet what may turn out to be the final months of Kate Haywood’s career Read more…

Alone at Deeping Lakes

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust’s Deeping Lakes Nature Reserve lies off the B1166, in the south-western corner of the county. It is an area of wetland consisting of around 160 acres, parts of which are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The reserve contains several flooded gravel pits, the largest and oldest of which was Read more…

Along the Fossdyke: the Saxilby story

More than just a good place to see the cathedral. Saxilby, called Saxebi in the Domesday Book of 1086, begins with a Viking identity, being the place of a man called ‘Saksulfr’, and was one of a cluster of settlements by the Roman-built Fossdyke canal. Arguably it has suffered, or gained, depending on one’s opinion, Read more…

Picturesque borders

Idyllically situated along the banks of the River Welland in southern Lincolnshire is an area known as The Deepings. This includes the town of Market Deeping and the villages of Deeping St James and West Deeping. Today these are thriving communities, the ancient town of Market Deeping with its attractive old coaching inns and bustling Read more…

Putting on a party

Communities up and down the country are adding the finishing touches to their Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and for the residents of the traditional Lincolnshire market town of Spilsby, it promises to be a spectacular weekend of fun and entertainment. The town’s Jubilee Committee has worked hard behind the scenes to come up with a Read more…

The sign of the Crowne

Ye Olde Crowne public house in Lincoln is a familiar feature of the city centre, and has a fascinating history that illustrates the influence one property can have on a street, and how fascinating the investigation of a building’s history can be. The building presently situated on what is today Clasketgate is a 1930s construction Read more…

Town’s Roman roots

The Lincolnshire Wolds town of Caistor has probably been an inhabited place for at least 7,000 years and there is evidence of continuous occupation since the first century AD. Caistor was a fortified town in Roman times and was the site of a Roman camp; many vestiges of Roman occupation can still be found in Read more…

County’s livestock market in good form

Caroline Bingham went to Louth for the first annual special spring sale of store cattle and to understand what makes Lincolnshire’s Livestock Market proud if its heritage and optimistic for the future. Transporters and trailers were converging on Louth as I drove there myself; a sure sign if any were needed that this was livestock Read more…

Light and Llamas on the River Glen

The old Holland subdivision of Lincolnshire is sometimes overlooked in terms of what it can offer the walker and amateur historian. After all, it has to be recognised that few English landscapes have changed so much over the centuries. However, there’s still quite a lot of natural and historical interest in one of my favourite Read more…

A small tribute to our first Diamond Queen

High on the gable of a building in Rasen Lane, Lincoln, is a terracotta plaque. At such a height it is difficult to appreciate the detail but the profile head of Queen Victoria and the date 1897 on a scroll above reveal this to be a Jubilee memorial plaque for our first Diamond Queen. The Read more…