'Lincolnshire' (abbreviated 'Lincs') is a
county in the east of
England. It borders
Norfolk,
Cambridgeshire,
Rutland,
Leicestershire,
Nottinghamshire,
South Yorkshire, 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, the
Lincolnshire Wolds, and the industrial
Humber Estuary and
North Sea coast around
Grimsby and
Scunthorpe.
History
Main articles: History of Lincolnshire
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.
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Lincolnshire at current basic prices
published (pp.240-253) by ''Office for National Statistics'' with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year | Regional Gross Value Added[1] | Agriculture[2] | Industry[3] | Services[4] |
|---|
| 1995 | '5,719' | 657 | 1,769 | 3,292 |
| 2000 | '6,512' | 452 | 2,046 | 4,013 |
| 2003 | '8,419' | 518 | 2,518 | 5,383 |
1. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
2. includes hunting and forestry
3. includes energy and construction
4. includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
5. Civic Heraldry visited December 22, 2006
Agriculture
The county of Lincolnshire is a major 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 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 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 (
source), the town centres were ranked thus (including N Lincs and NE Lincs):-
★ Lincoln
★ Grantham
★ Grimsby
★ Boston and Scunthorpe (equal)
★ Spalding
★ Stamford
★ Skegness
★ Louth
★ Sleaford
★ Gainsborough
★ Brigg
★ Cleethorpes
★ Bourne
★ Horncastle and Mablethorpe (equal)
Public services
Education
Main articles: Education in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is one of the few counties within the UK that still uses the
Eleven plus to decide who may attend
grammar school. Despite the bias towards selection, there are many comprehensive schools in Lincolnshire with excellent records.
Transport
Main articles: Transport in Lincolnshire
Being on the economic periphery of England, Lincolnshire's transport links are less well developed than many other parts of the United Kingdom. The road network within the county is dominated by single carriageway trunk roads (A roads) and minor 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 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.
Sleaford is now the only town in Lincolnshire with a railway station served by lines running both north/south and east/west.
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 county's biggest bus company is
Stagecoach in Lincolnshire, and other small companies also operate.
There is a local joke that Lincolnshire is the only county where most people's second car is a
Massey Ferguson (a make of
tractor).
Health care
The
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest trusts in the country, employing almost 7,000 staff and with an annual budget of over £250 million.
Lincolnshire shares the problems of elsewhere in the country when it comes to finding an NHS dentist, with waiting lists of three months not uncommon.
Some of the larger hospitals in the county include:
★ Grimsby's Diana Princess of Wales Hospital
★ Boston Pilgrim Hospital
★ Grantham and District Hospital
★ Lincoln County Hospital
★ Scunthorpe General Hospital
★ Skegness and District General Hospital
★ Louth County General Hospital
Since April 1994, Lincolnshire has had an Air Ambulance service
[1] 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 19 minutes. From any accident in Lincolnshire an A&E hospital is only 10 minutes away by helicopter.
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.
Skegness was recently voted the most popular place in Britain to retire to, with
Spalding and
Mablethorpe also recommended, by a recent study
[2]. 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, low 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 hotly debated, but is most commonly believed to derive from the uniforms of the
10th Regiment of Foot (later the
Lincolnshire Regiment) when they wore yellow lapels on their red coats. For this reason, the
coat of arms of Lincolnshire County Council is supported by two officers of the regiment.
[5]
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 (35,000),
Grantham (34,000),
Spalding (22,000),
Stamford (19,000), and
The Deepings (15,000). 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, in the unitary authorities.
Scunthorpe (including
Bottesford) in
North Lincolnshire, has a population of 72,000, and the
Cleethorpes/
Great Grimsby conurbation in
North East Lincolnshire has a population of over 120,000 (34,000 and 87,000 respectively).
For a full list of Lincolnshire towns and villages see the
List of places in Lincolnshire page.
Culture
Lincolnshire is a rural area where the pace of life is generally 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.
Language
The
accent and
dialect words of Lincolnshire are poorly known beyond the county, especially compared to more familiar accents, e.g.
Scouse 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 certainly exists, and a native 'Yeller Belly' will still easily 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 by its inhabitants.
★
Vocabulary: "'duck'" as a term of endearment or informal address, "'mardy'" meaning upset or angry, "'while'" as a substitute for standard English "until", 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.
[3]
Food
Lincolnshire has a number of interesting 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. Nothing else! The skins should be nothing other than 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 no longer commercially available.
★
Batemans ales - a
beer brewed in
Wainfleet and served in many pubs in the county and further afield
★ Grimsby is renowned for its fishing industry and historically ''Grimsby Fish'' has carried a premium price. Sadly, since the decline of the fishing industry 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 knowledgable 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
Waddington International Air Show. The two day event attracts around 100,000 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 ''Whitebread Meadow||
. 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 and Sheepmarket for a week. The following week sees them in
Grantham.
In recent years
Lincoln Christmas Market, a candlelit street market throughout the town, has been held at the start of December. Around the same time Christmas lights are turned on in
Bourne,
Sleaford,
Skegness, and many 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.
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 -
see here. 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
here which has lost even the unique pose of the carving.
Radio
The area is covered by several local radio stations including:
★
BBC Radio Lincolnshire Countywide
★
BBC Radio Humberside North Lincolnshire
★
Boundary Sound Newark
★
Compass FM North
★
Hereward FM Peterborough
★
Lincs FM Countywide
★
Priory FM Grantham
★
Siren FM Lincoln
★
Stump Radio Boston
★
Tulip Radio Spalding and South Holland
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
★
Cogglesford Watermill
★
Crowland Abbey
★
Doddington Hall
★
Donna Nook
★
Dunston Pillar
★
East Lighthouse, Sutton Bridge
★
Ellis Mill (Windmill)
★
Gainsborough Old Hall
★
Gainsthorpe
★
Gibraltar Point
★
Grimsby Dock Tower
★
Grimsthorpe Castle
★
Harlaxton Manor
★
Heckington Windmill
★
Hartsholme Country Park
★
Lincoln Castle
★
Lincoln Cathedral
★
Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
★
Metheringham Windmill
★
St James Church, Louth
★
National Fishing Heritage Centre
★
Natureland Seal Sanctuary
★
Normanby Hall
★
Gibraltar Point
★
River Ancholme
★
Stow Minster
★
Tattershall Castle
★
The Collection
★
The Humber Bridge
★
The Lincolnshire Wolds
★
The Museum of Lincolnshire Life
★
The South Common (Lincoln)
★
The Wash
★
The West Common (Lincoln)
★
The Usher Art Gallery
★
Whisby Nature Park
References
1. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
2. includes hunting and forestry
3. includes energy and construction
4. includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
5. Civic Heraldry visited December 22, 2006
External links
★
Lincolnshire County Council website
★
Visitlincolnshire.com
★
Official Lincolnshire Flag site
★
Lincolnshire Pride magazine
★
Lincolnshire Life magazine
★
Extremehorizon a local resource for surfing in Lincolnshire
★
Lincolnshire Show official website
★
Lincolnshire only search ''private local search engine website.''
★
Corby Glen sheep fair
★
Spalding flower parade
★
Stamford Shakespeare Company
★
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
★
Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire
★
Lincolnshire Directory
★
Sleaford Town Runners ''Very active Sleaford based Running Club.''
★
Sleaford Town Runners FORUM ''Chat Forum for Lincs Runners.''
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