 Lincolnshire is situated in Englands East Midlands and has a coastline with the North Sea. It has Lincoln as its County Town and shares borders with the counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northamptonshire. The name Lincolnshire comes from the name Lindsey, which was the title of the region in pre-Norman times and is how the County is referred as in the Domesday Book. This later changed and Lindsey became the name only of the northern area of the county that with Holland and Kesteveven became the 'Parts of Lincolnshire'. Lincolnshire as we know it was actually only formed in 1974 and today after other administrative changes, the County is the second largest in the country. Lincolnshire is associated with many legends including that of the folk hero Hereward the Wake who is traditionally believed to have been the son of an Anglo Saxon lord, Earl Leofric of Bourne in Lincolnshire and carried out his acts of resistance to the Norman invaders in the Fen Lands of the County. Having overcome this resistance, William the Conqueror built Lincoln Castle as an outpost to control the rebellious Fenlanders and by 1092 the magnificent Lincoln Cathedral had been established and consecrated in the city. Despite being the scene of a number of battles during the two Civil Wars, the county generally seems to have enjoyed a peaceful time over the centuries, becoming comfortably prosperous from agriculture and trade with the Low Countries. However, upon the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912, Lincolnshire saw the first purpose built military airfield built at Skegness on the county coastline. Then in the period of World War Two many Royal Air Force bases were built in the county including RAF Scampton, home base of 633 Squadron famously known as the 'Dambusters'. Geography Lincolnshire is unusual in that it has no major urban areas. The County Town of Lincoln has less than 100,000 residents with Boston and Margaret Thatcher's home town of Grantham being the second two largest towns, each with less than 40, 000 inhabitants. It is predominately a rural county with an unusual number of small towns and villages scattered around its flat countryside.The Fens to the south are an area of former wetlands south of The Wash. The Wolds to the North and East of the county is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty comprising of low hills and steep sided valleys. The coastline from the Wash to the Humber estuary varies from sandy beaches, mudflats to rocky outcrops. Some popular holiday resorts are sited along the coast with Skegness probably being the most well known. The county road systems are unusually underdeveloped and Lincolnshire is one of the few UK counties without a motorway. Industry Although the service industry is starting to develop in the county, Lincolnshire relies heavily on its agriculture and horticulture for its economy. Tourism is of major importance and visitors are attracted by the quiet rural areas and the beauty of the countryside. There is a large retired population in the county and many people in employment travel to the more industrial areas around the Humber for their work. |
