Yellerbelly Country
Fancy wandering about Lincolnshire for a spell?
Overwhelmingly rural, Lincolnshire was often a step behind the rest of the north of England in the days of my youth, with the north of England being a step behind the south! The 'Sixties are often remembered as a colourful decade of increasing social liberality and burgeoning technology but, in fact, they were remarkably like the 'Fifties where I grew up. The countryside, though, had real charm, real peace and its own pace.
Lincolnshire is the county of my childhood vacations. Entering the county from the west (as we did) the boundary was the Trent as it flows north through the former river port of Gainsborough (as it so happens, we also passed eastward through the northern tip of Nottinghamshire en route to Gainsborough from Bawtry).
The Trent begins its journey some distance to the west, flowing south, then east as it runs around the south of the Pennine Hills, below the Peak District National Park. Along this part of its course the Trent is considered by some to be the boundary between the unofficial and nonspecific regions of The Midlands and The North of England but, since that demarcation puts Derby and Nottingham above the line, I'd personally dispute it. While I'm keen to insist that Sheffield is in The North, I personally view those two cities as being firmly in The Midlands!
Anyway, by the time the river reaches Newark(-on-Trent), its course has swung about to head north until it joins the Humber Estuary, just west/upstream of Whitton Island. The opposite bank at that point is the East Riding of Yorkshire (unlike many American states, our counties are highly irregular in their interlocking boundary relationships: there are no straight lines, though they are obviously defined in part by geographical features like rivers). West of the Trent tends (or tended) toward industry in the urban areas, East of the Trent tends still towards rurality and agriculture.
Lincolnshire is a notoriously flat county, especially in comparison to Yorkshire. The principal exceptions to Lincolnshire's flatness are the escarpment on which the county town of Lincoln is built (Lincoln Edge or Lincoln Cliff) and the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB*) that is the Lincolnshire Wolds. The county town sits on the aforementioned limestone escarpment, elevating its medieval cathedral to a prominence that makes it a significant landmark, visible from adjoining counties up to fifty miles away.
The photograph above is taken with a view to the west, the power station visible on the distant horizon lies on the river Trent, which is home to a significant number of them. Originally coal-burning, the stations were responsible for pollution contributing to atmospheric acids being present at just the wrong altitude for the good of Lincoln Cathedral. Clear from the photo is that the local soil is decidedly red.
East and south of the Wolds is prone to flooding and the extensive building of dykes (dikes/levees) is a feature of the Lincolnshire landscape (this is also true farther south of fenland Lincolnshire into Cambridgeshire, around The Wash). Some were built for the purpose of transport as well as drainage: Foss Dyke, which connects Lincoln with the river Trent, was a navigable canal first constructed by the Romans in about 120 AD. The Roman road from London to Lincoln (Ermine Street) runs in part along Lincoln Edge. While often integrated into expanded modern road systems (the A15 north of Lincoln being part of that ancient highway), other parts are reduced to rights of way for walkers or lost to all access, or even sight.
Lincoln was Lindum Colonia to the Romans and Linden to earlier Bronze Age inhabitants. Their original settlement was at the foot of the gap in Lincoln Edge through which the River Whitham passes and forms what is now known as Brayford Pool ("Linden" is derived from the Celtic for "pool" and a similar reference can be found in the name of Ireland's capital, Dublin, meaning "black pool"**). When the Normans invaded, they built on the higher ground of the cliff and gave the city its castle and its majestic Medieval Cathedral, one of the finest in the country.
Between the invasions by Romans (43AD) and Normans (1066AD) there were various incursions by Danish (Norse) and Germanic (Saxon) tribes, moving westward into the country from their east coast landings. Consequently, many places in Lincolnshire are toponymically suffixed from the appropriate languages with -ey (island), -by (a village) or -thorpe (an outlier of a larger settlement). Axholme, near Gainsborough, combines the Saxon/Old English Ax- (a river) with -holme (an island, though "holme" might also indicate the shrub holly, which—perhaps interestingly—means that Holmfirth, a small town in Yorkshire, important at the inception of the British motion picture industry, translates from the Saxon as "Hollywood"). By the way, the above also means that the rivers Exe and Axe in Devon, are named tautologically.
After the Romans there was mostly only ad hoc attention given to the mitigation of flooding until the Middle Ages. The Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th Century removed their function in the maintenance and cultivation of land, allowing flooding to again become problematic. Concerted attention to the problem didn't again come about until the 17th Century.
Expertise from the Netherlands was employed in later dyke construction when Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden (I had to look him up: I had no idea which Dutch folk were involved!) introduced techniques—and presumably workers—from his country for the drainage and reclamation of land in Lincolnshire. So, additional to the similarities of topography, there's little wonder that some reflection of Dutch character exists in the area (indeed, an area of southern Lincolnshire is known as "Holland"). Building in red brick (featuring such styling as Dutch gables), the one-time proliferation of windmills—some of which pumped water to maintain drainage—and the extensive growing of flowers such as tulips in places like Spalding, are all features that are reminiscent of the Low Countries in continental Europe.
Lincolnshire dykes are not so impressive in scale or extent as other nation's examples. Still, the openness of the landscape, in many ways, seems quite alien or surreal. It would be very easy to become lost hereabout.
The above photograph is of Tattershall Castle, taken on a trip undertaken by my brother, my son and I. Tattershall is obviously brick-built, an indicator of its 15th Century construction on the site of earlier defensive structures. Though castle-ish in character, with towers and battlements, it clearly more closely resembles a grand domestic house than a fortification, with attention paid to its appearance beyond any military function. Ralph, Lord Cromwell was the instigator of the rebuild and probably didn't foresee the Wars of the Roses, a factional civil war fought over the Plantagenet ascendency to the crown, that commenced more or less immediately after the structure's completion. The end of that scuffle saw the end of Richard III ("Get thee to a car park") and the ascent of the Tudors under Henry VII, father of the infamous Henry VIII. Anyway, it's a grand building, its interiors famous for fine tapestries and fireplaces, the latter almost lost to a wealthy American who intended to move them out of the country. Fortunately, they were located prior to shipping out, bought back and were saved for the nation and re-installed at the castle.
This next image is a fragment of the south transept of nearby Kirkstead Abbey, at Woodhall Spa. Since the abbey was colonised by monks from Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, I assume it was a Cistercian house. Little else remains but unexcavated earthworks and a small chapel, still in use, dedicated as St Leonard Without: a good 13th Century Gothic building outside the precincts of the Abbey (hence "without"). In this Early English chapel, there is a funerary monument. Lonely medieval churches surprisingly hide many such carved memorials to ancient knights, raising the question "why would sophisticated nobility elect to be buried or memorialised in so forlorn a place?" There is a shield-shaped recess in the tomb top, presumably where this unknown chap's own arms were placed at the time of burial. The chapel also features a ceiling boss (at the junction of vaulting decorated with dog's-tooth ornamentation) which depicts the same Christian symbolism that found its way into the naming of pilgrims' wayside taverns and thence into the later naming of pubs: a Lamb and Flag.
In the north of Lincolnshire are the ruins of Thornton Abbey (an Augustinian house). Again, little of the main abbey complex apart from three walls of the chapter house and its ground plan foundations remain. However, this impressive fragment is the 14th Century fortified gatehouse at its entrance.
On a recent drive into Lincolnshire, my brother and I passed many landmarks familiar from childhood explorations. This thatched cottage used to be the post office in the village of Middle Rasen (it still has the red post box set into the wall). I think it would have been the first thatched roof I'd seen in the real world.
This pack horse bridge crossing a brook at Middle Rasen, once an important medium for Medieval commercial transport, is now a disconnected 15th Century relic.
This Medieval Gothic church at Snarford is set amongst autumnal horse-chestnuts. Its early stylistic simplicity belies the elaborate, later (Stuart) funerary monuments within, shown below:
Going back to the East Coast's vulnerability to flooding, I'm not quite old enough to have experienced its inundation in February 1953, when meteorological conditions combined with high tides to cause devastation in England (as well as Scotland and the Netherlands in continental Europe), affecting Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent. 300 people lost their lives in Britain (1800 in the Netherlands) with nearly 200 lost at sea. I understand that the decision to build the Thames Barrier, to protect London, was taken as a consequence of those floods.
Between the Lincolnshire towns of Mablethorpe and Skegness, flooding extended 2-3 miles inland, but that part of the Lincolnshire coast had previous experience: in 1540, the entire village of Mablethorpe was swept out to sea, the current settlement of that name, albeit now on the coast, being somewhat inland of the original. The beach is very wide there and, when the tide is at fullest ebb, tree trunks can sometimes be seen, remnants of when the location was actually inland.
The south Lincolnshire town of Boston was badly affected in December 2013 when its flood defences were overwhelmed by similar circumstances. Boston and its environs remain the most pro-brexit areas of the United Kingdom, as revealed in a recent poll undertaken for the UnHerd news website. Much of the rest of the country is beginning to come to its senses.
Boston's prominence as a river port (five miles inland) was first achieved in the 13th Century, though it has declined since. Boston has an unusually huge parish church: St Botolph's. Being in flat fenland, the church's 80+ metre tower is a significant landmark to ships at sea and is visible in distant counties. The tower, and by extension the church itself, are together known as "the Boston Stump". It was begun in the 14th Century, the tower in the mid-15th Century and work completed in the early 16th Century. The Stump is an especially fine and impressive example of Perpendicular Gothic architecture and a personal favourite.
Although Lincolnshire—in general—was reluctant and notably slow to adopt the "new" religion at the time of the English Reformation, Boston was exposed—through its continental trading links—to many new ideas, including the Nonconformism thought extreme even in the recently formed Church of England. Illegal émigrés to the continent, escaping pressure to conform in England, were returned for trial to Boston—only to flee again on their release. A number of them are alleged to be passengers, later, on the Mayflower. A radical 17th Century vicar of St Botolph's, John Cotton, was influential in the founding of Boston, Massachusetts.
More recent history is represented in Lincolnshire by the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, a display of aircraft taking to the air for special occasions consisting of Spitfires, Hurricanes, and a Lancaster bomber. Stationed at RAF Conningsby, one can also take a guided tour of the 'planes on the ground. There are fewer in Lincolnshire, now, but the county was home to many airfields during WWII. In those days they were referred to as aerodromes, but I think we all now say airfield or airbase (this adoption may have come about because of the presence of American-run bases in the country). But I kind of like old-fashioned terms like "aerodrome"!
Further contrasting with rural surroundings and ancient history, from 1959, nuclear-tipped Thor IRBM missiles were deployed at a number of RAF bases, about half a dozen of which were in Lincolnshire (they were deactivated in 1963). The spillage of the entire contents of one missile's LOX tank at RAF Ludford Magna (only a few miles from Lincoln) made things quite hairy on one occasion, evaporating fuel enveloping the launch area and threatening a potential conflagration which, if the worst had happened, would have meant significant radioactive contamination to a wide area.
However, Britain mainly relied upon its V-bomber aircraft for its 'plane-delivered deterrent in those days. The Avro Vulcan entered service in 1955 and was deployed in Lincolnshire (amongst other counties) at RAF bases at Waddington, Coningsby and Scampton (known as Brattleby during WWI, RAF Scampton was base for 617 "Dambusters" Squadron. Until recently it was the home of RAF aerobatic team, the Red Arrows). The V-bombers' part in nuclear deterrence ended in 1969, the year of our last family holiday in the region. As kids, we'd look out for occasional Vulcans in the air, little realising quite what they might be lofting into the skies (Blue Steel missiles with nuclear warheads!). We would sometimes park up to watch take-offs from RAF Manby and RAF Strubby, the nearest bases to where we stayed, the main road at one of them passing between the runway's landing lights. However, we mainly saw Provost jet trainers there, Manby being home to the RAF's College of Air Warfare, with no Vulcans on site. Apparently, they had a display team (though we never saw them): The Macaws (derived from Manby College of Air Warfare).
All this in the Lincoln green countryside.
Near Spilsby is the village of Old Bolingbroke, birthplace in 1367 of John O' Gaunt's son, Henry, known as Henry Bolingbroke. A partly excavated foundation of ruined Bolingbroke Castle, Henry's place of early residence, remains with some evidence of its moat. John O'/of Gaunt had held a great deal of kingly power when a very young Richard II ascended the throne in 1377 at 11 years old. Unsurprisingly, Richard and Henry had been childhood friends. Later, as an adult under admittedly difficult circumstances, Richard proved an inadequate but authoritarian monarch, famously going back on his word when Wat Tyler surrendered in London at the end of the Peasant's Revolt in 1381 (many rebels being consequently hanged). Prey to rebellion from both prince as well as peasant, Richard was often ruthless. He never-the-less forgave Bolingbroke for his part in a lordly rebellion, making the Earl of Derby (as Henry B then was) a Duke (of Hereford). They fell out again and so, when John O' Gaunt died in 1399, Richard took his property instead of allowing Henry's inheritance of it. On returning from campaign in Ireland, Richard was arrested by a supporter of Henry (who had himself returned from exile to wage war). In captivity Richard abdicated and was imprisoned, and Bolingbroke became King Henry IV. A counter-rebellion by Richard's supporters was suppressed by Henry, after which Richard died a prisoner in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire, aged 33, possibly of starvation. Some maintained that Richard had been murdered on Henry's instruction but there's neither incriminating nor exculpatory evidence.
Richard left a difficult situation for Henry to deal with, having bolstered his power while king by taking property and prestige from his enemies and giving them to his favourites, many of whom had associations with Wales (Richard's father had been Edward, Prince of Wales—known as the Black Prince, a distinguished commander in the Hundred Years' War with France—who had pre-deceased his own father, Edward III). There was a consequential Welsh uprising in 1400, sometimes referred to as the Last War of Independence by the Welsh, famously led by Owain Glyndwr. Like his kingly predecessor, Henry was beset by various rebellions but died from natural afflictions to his health in 1413. The Welsh rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful and Glyndwr died in 1415.
All that from Old Bolingbroke. Not bad for a village in Lincolnshire with a recently measured population of 323 souls.
If the above thumbnail sketch of the political situation in late 14th and early 15th Century England seems familiar, I probably don't need to state that those events lie at the core of Shakespeare's three "historical" plays, Richard II, Henry IV Part I and Henry IV Part II, but without throwing in Falstaff. My version's more concise, obviously.
About the term "yellerbelly": just as "tyke" is the common nickname in England for Yorkshire folk—and as "Geordie" is for inhabitants of Tyneside (especially Newcastle), and "Scouse(r)" is for Liverpudlians—so is yellerbelly (or yellowbelly) for the people of Lincolnshire. I don't know the origin of the appellation.
* There are 46 designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the British Isles, each a protected environment. In addition, there are 15 National Parks, the first being the Peak District National Park, so designated in 1951.
** On our own side of the Irish sea there is another Blackpool, known as a lively but relentlessly downmarket holiday resort on the Lancashire coast, famous for its (shorter) Eiffel-like tower (topped with a ballroom), autumn illuminations, and various piers, trams, gardens, and amusements.