A151 road
Encyclopedia
The A151 road is relatively minor part of the British road system. It lies entirely in the county
of Lincolnshire
, England
. Its western end lies at coordinates 52°48.1892′N 0°36.5179′W otherwise, 1. This article attempts to deal with its several aspects by treating some separately, before integrating them with the others into an overall picture, sequentially from its western end.
with A1 as the axial route of the country, running between London and Edinburgh
. Roads with numbers beginning with 1 lie to the east of the A1, clockwise when viewed on a map. The details are explained under Great Britain road numbering scheme
.
Road building and re-thinking of the road system have meant that nowadays, its western end is on the A1 near Colsterworth, in the administrative district of South Kesteven
4, and its eastern end on the A17 near Holbeach
, in the district of South Holland(5). On the way, it passes to the north of Grimsthorpe Castle
and at TF076200, just to the south of Bourne Wood
. Then at TF095201, it bisects Bourne
. It enters The Fens
on the eastern edge of that small town. At TF154207, it passes through the hamlet of Twenty
, in Bourne North Fen. At Guthram Gowt
, it leaves Kesteven
by crossing the South Forty-Foot Drain
into Holland. The principal town of South Holland is Spalding
(TF245227), which is also the main town on the A151 route. Across the River Welland
, lie Moulton
, then Holbeach, near which the A151 ends at the A17 (TF350258). That road leads on to King's Lynn
and East Anglia
.
.
The A151 was originally designated such in 1921. Then, the roads were much as they had been forty or fifty years before, under the turnpike trusts. Since the Second World War
, there has been much building of by-passes and the like so that the precise lines have sometimes changed but they are still fundamentally the same. The main difference in the present case is that the road designation has been extended from the A15 at Bourne to the A1 at Colsterworth, while at the other end, the easternmost three kilometres have been replaced by a new part of the A17.
In the field of acts of Parliament
founding turnpike trusts, much was happening locally in 1756. The Wansford to Stamford
trust on the Great North Road had been set up in 1749 but in 1756, its sphere was extended through Stamford to Bourne. The last 1.6 kilometres of this road, as the trust left it, running down the hill to Bourne Market Place, are now part of the A151. It was freed from tolls on 1 November 1871. The half of this section which lies outside the modern town was probably built by the trust between 1756 and the Bourne Enclosure Awards of 1770-16.
The Lincoln Heath to Peterborough
Trust was also established in 1756. Its remit included the forerunner of the present A15 which crosses the end of the Stamford road at Bourne Market Place. However, also included with this was the road from the Stamford road west of Bourne (a place known locally as Stamford Hill)7, to Colsterworth. With the exception of the western extremity, in Colsterworth village, this is now part of the A151. It was freed from tolls on 1 November 1882.
The Lincoln Heath to Peterborough trust was organized in districts of which that covering the road from Colsterworth to Stamford Hill, Bourne was the ‘’West District’’. In 1860, it was re-grouped with the ‘’Middle District’’ which extended from Graby Bar (TF091295) to Market Deeping
(TF138099)8.
From Spalding, through Holbeach to Long Sutton, beyond the end of the modern A151, the road was turnpiked in 17649. It was freed from tolls on 1 November 1866. It may not be coincidental that this was the year of the final opening of the railway from Bourne to Kings Lynn, the line having been opened in stages from 1858. This road was declared a main road by the Highways Act of 1878.
The road from Bourne to Spalding was turnpiked in 1822 and freed from tolls in 1860. It was declared a main road by the Highways Act of 1878. Before 1822, this section was in three parts. One led out from Bourne onto Bourne North Fen. The Spalding end led out from Spalding to the Spalding and Pinchbeck fen edge bank. The linking section was not officially a road. There was however, some droving
traffic which was frowned upon by the drainage authorities, whose embankments it tended to erode. According to Cary's map of 1787, the official route ran via Tongue End (TF155188) and crossed the River Glen
at Gurthram (TF173224).
1" map published in 18245a. It places them as follows:
The six digit National grid References of the marked positions on the 1824 map are taken from an equivalent modern map. The four digit references are much less accurate, being taken from an Ordnance Survey map by inspection of Wright Fig.3. The Ordnance Survey does not note the Friars Bar toll gate but in the Exeter Estate book, the position is called Friers Bar though no obstruction of the road by a gate is indicated. Paterson's Roads is a road book listing the features of roads and mileages from the ends of its itineraries, sequentially.
It is noticeable and a little surprising that according to the Ordnance Survey, it was possible in some cases to go a long way out of a town before coming to a toll gate. This is particularly noticeable eastwards from Spalding.
to Wisbech
. He wrote of it thus: In the Hundred of Skirbeck to Boston, and thence to Wisbeach, [turnpike roads] are generally made with silt
, or old sea-sand, deposited under various parts of the country ages ago, and when moderately wet are very good; but dreadfully dusty and heavy in dry weather; and also on a thaw they are like mortar. Take the county
in general, and they must be esteemed below par. What he is saying is that the turnpike roads in the Townlands were made of the same marine silt as forms the land itself in that part of the country. The heaviness in dry weather to which he refers, arose from the loose, deep, sandy surface through which wheels would have to be dragged.
According to Wheeler, 1 LT of silt was reckoned to cover 1 yard (0.9144 m) in a length of a road, 18 inches (457.2 mm) thick and 10 feet (3 m) wide, the silt costing about 8d. to 10d. per ton for digging and spreading. In some cases the road was turned over. That is a pit was dug in the road until the silt was reached then that was dug out and formed into the carriageway. The surface of the next length was dug and put into the pit as a foundation then the silt dug and placed on top of it and so on along the road.
Gravel was used where obtainable and from about 1870, Wheeler introduced granite
. By the end of the century granite and slag
were being consolidated by steam roller
-- Wheeler. pp 441–445.
Of the Bourne to Colsterworth road, Young said we were every moment either buried in quagmires of mud or racked to dislocation over pieces of rock which they term mending.
Materials and methods for repairing fenland roads are described by Wheeler. The best material available was dug locally from pits
The A151 passes across two types of country, the upland and the fen. The highest point on it lies within a kilometre of its western end at 123 metres above mean sea level. It then passes across a gently sloping dissected plateau of Jurassic
rocks capped in its highest parts by glacial clay. After about 16 kilometres, it enters the fen and is soon at about two metres, rising to three, nearer the coast.
began to take control in Britain
from the year 43. An important part of the means of control was the building of soundly-built roads, running directly between key places(6). This led the engineers to overcome all but the greatest obstacles rather than going round them. One result of this was that they built roads on soils which others would have avoided. When the Roman authorities had withdrawn from Britain and their roads wore out, people began to wander from the Roman road
lines where they could find a more secure footing by taking another line(7).
The Roman equivalent of the A1 was built to a very high standard, during the early years of Roman rule in Britain. The English
successors of the Romans in Britain, called this road Ermine Street
from their word for "soldier", compare the German
personal name, Herman(8a). The twenty kilometre length of Ermine Street, at roughly the centre of which, the line of the A151 lies, passed over chalky till (boulder clay) which is very sticky when wet. As the Ermine Street carriageway broke up, people sought easier going by moving down towards the small River Witham
whose valley had been eroded through the till, into the Jurassic
limestone
below it.
Thus, in 1756 when the Colsterworth to Bourne road was turnpiked
(9a), the toll road which was to become the A151 began at the crossroads in Colsterworth, further west than it now does, though the first toll gate noted by the 1824 Ordnance Survey map was about three kilometres from there. When the Colsterworth bypass was built, its southern half was placed virtually on the Ermine Street line so that now, while the A151 still begins at the A1, it is not at the old Great North Road but at Ermine Street, on the chalky till soil that we start our journey. Bourne Road, Colsterworth, the section removed from the A151, remains part of the B676, the road which leads westwards, towards Melton Mowbray
(10).
Once the clutter associated with a trunk road junction is left behind, the road passes through agricultural land and woods. To the north are fairly level fields and to the south, Twyford Wood
, which cloaks the remains of North Witham airfield
(11).
, where it turns a little southwards to avoid more glacial till and keep to the upper Lincolnshire limestone
(13).
The land between Colsterworth and the western edge of Bourne is a plateau, gently sloping down to the east and much dissected by erosion during periods when it was near but not under ice caps. The River Glen which we crossed at Corby Glen is also called the West Glen and is in one of the two main dissecting valleys(14).
East of Corby Glen, we are on a strip of un-dissected plateau. The surface dips very gently towards the east but the geological strata
dip more steeply so that a kilometre out of Corby Glen, the road passes onto the strata above the limestone, known as the Upper Estuarine Series, the Blisworth Limestone
, Blisworth clay, Cornbrash
and Kellaways clay, in that order.
(16), a book which tells us so much of English everyday life in the fourteenth century(17).
The road dips into the valley of the stream which flows on to form the lake in Grimsthorpe Park. Just skirting the glacial till, it rises to the crest at the other side, on the Kellaways clay and sand and turns sharply left onto the till. It used to go straight on and pass the north front of Grimsthorpe Castle
. When the soil in the field beyond the bend is bare, its course can still be seen. The castle's owner did a deal with the turnpike trustees. He brought land on the other side of the road into his park and built them a new, though longer road around it. Once the semi-circular diversion is completed, the road turns sharp left again, through Grimsthorpe where it is on Jurassic clay. The 1824 Ordnance Survey
map shows both the old and the new roads.
At Grimsthorpe village, the A151 is in the second of the main valleys dissecting the plateau, that of the East Glen river. From its association with Edenham, this river is often called the Eden. The West and East Glens join near Wilsthorpe, at . Through Grimsthorpe and Edenham, there are numerous bends and winds across the small exposures Jurassic soils, glacial gravel and alluvium, until the road climbs out of the valley over the till-capped ridge which separates Edenham parish from Bourne. On the glacial clay soil of the till, it passes between woods, including Bourne Wood
(19).
, a road designation which ends here, having begun at Morcott, in Rutland
, on the other side of the A1, hence its beginning with the digit 6. In 1824, there was a toll gate here(20). The course of the A151 is directly down the slope into Bourne. It is clear archaeologically that the road used to run parallel with this and about 200 metres to the south. Historically, there appears to be no commonly available record as to when the move was made. It was certainly in two stages. The move of the upper part was probably made in the eighteenth century; the lower, in about 1140, when Bourne castle was built across it. Its present course is dictated by the former presence of Bourne Castle at the town end and by a desire to keep to the crest of a slight ridge in the hillside(21).
It is towards the top of this section that it is possible to detect a change in slope betraying the former presence of a shore of the Devensian periglacial
lake, which was impounded by the ice into the Fenland basin. It was more evident but the declivity of the road has been smoothed out a little(22).
Much more modern, is the bypass road which joins from the south at the entrance to the town and just below the level of the surface of the former lake. This opened for use on October 8, 2005. In the town, the A151 passes immediately outside the castle site, along the latter's northern edge. However the plots along this side of the road were first laid out for houses in around 1280, so that the castle is no longer casually apparent(23).
At Bourne Market Place, the A151 crosses the A15. This road used to be part of the Lincoln Heath to Peterborough turnpike road, whose act of parliament is dated 1756. It was this trust which, in 1820, demolished the old town hall which used to stand in the street here.
At the junction, the road to the north led directly form the main gate of the castle. The market place was positioned immediately across a moat and a pomœrium, outside the gate but those are no longer visible from the road. However, our road continues not straight ahead but on a 45° angle toward the south. This bend arose because it passed around the perimeter of the pomœrium until it met the road leading eastwards from the gate. As the A151 reaches this, it turns back through 45° and continues eastwards along that approach road, across the line of the Roman version of the A15, King Street
and past the Abbey Lawn
. This is now a picturesque cricket
ground, but was an eighteenth-century sheep lawn(24). Soon, the road leaves the twelfth century, Norman
road, heading towards the pre-Norman town. On arrival, it turns eastwards again, at the same time as crossing the now-buried course of the Car Dyke
and onto the fen-edge gravel. This is material which drifted down the slope which we have followed, while it was under the water of the Devensian periglacial lake.
The Car Dyke is generally taken as the boundary of The Fens, though here, it heralds the more commercial part of the town. At once, the road passes the former works of BRM
, the Formula One
motor racing Constructors' Champion in 1962. The firm is gone but it has left an engineering tradition in the town. Shortly, the road turns north-eastwards, following the bank of the Roman artificial river
across the fen, the Old Ea. At the edge of the town, it turns away from the now hidden river bed, almost eastwards across the black, humic soil of Bourne North Fen(25). Here we begin to see The Fens as the region more typically is, a broad, nearly flat, agricultural land.
At , the road turns due eastwards at Friar Bar, where to judge by its name, at one stage was a toll bar. The Ordnance Survey does not note it but on the Exeter Estate book(26), it is called Friers Bar. The road from Bourne to Spalding had been turnpiked in 1822(27), after the survey had begun. So it looks as though the Ordnance Survey had overlooked it. From here, the road runs 3½ kilometres, straight to Twenty
.
The Car Dyke marked the western boundary of the royal forest
decreed, by one of the Norman
kings. It extended south and east, across the fens to the Welland. There seems to be no precise agreement as to when the land was disafforested. It was somewhere between 1190 and 1230(28). The obvious occasion was the signing of Magna Carta
in 1215 or perhaps, on one of its re-issues. That document mentions King John's
afforestations.
Roads on the black soils tend to crumble at the edges as the soft humus collapses and oxidises. This road is typical of fen roads, in needing frequent attention to deal with that. It is typical too, in that it rises and falls as it passes over the silt banks left amongst the peat by small to medium marine creeks from the Middle Bronze Age
, 3 to 3½ thousand years ago. This was before the peat in the soil was laid down.
In the black fens, the buildings are virtually always to be found on these old creeks, known as roddons. The many small roddons in Bourne North Fen merge at Twenty. There, the road uses part of this larger roddon by turning along it towards Guthram. Nowadays, this place is called Guthram Gowt but until the steam drainage engine was erected there, in 184?, it was Guthram Cote.
In the late medieval period, people lived on the fen edge and the Townlands but the fens themselves were thinly populated. There were however, a few comparatively grand establishments called Halls, Neslam Hall at , for example. It was a grange of Sempringham Abbey on the site of the modern Mornington House round which the district boundary is still diverted as it was when the abbey, on the Kesteven fen edge, owned it. There were more but still rather few smaller dwellings called cotes. Moors Cote lay in Bourne North Fen, to the south-east of Twenty and Guthram Cote stood on the boundary between Kesteven and Holland, on an island of Devensian deposits, the Abbey sand and gravel. The road book, Paterson's Roads, of 1826, lists a toll gate at Guthram Cote, a distance of 5+1/4 mi from Bourne. Just to the east of this was the bridge over what it calls the South Forty-Foot Eau
(15).
, the main land drain of the Black Sluice Level. The present layout of the drainage dates from the Act of Parliament of 1765 but this part of the South Forty-foot is a re-use of one of the main drains of the Lindsey Level, a scheme which was declared complete in 1638. On the other side, in Pinchbeck North Fen, the road begins to wind, something quite unusual in these fens. It was laid out on the bank of a soak dike
called the Weir Dike, which was cut in about 1600. In Pinchbeck North Fen, the dike is now largely defunct. The instructions stipulated that it should be at a distance of 100 feet (33M) from the bank of the River Glen. As the river bank meandered a little, so the road does(13).
The river is the one the A151 crosses at Corby Glen and Edenham. Here the two parts are combined. Beyond the Glen, to the south, is an area of dense Romano-British
occupation. On this side, a little is known but if there is more, it is covered with post-Roman marine silt(14). It looks as though this part of the river began as a single sea bank, keeping the tide out of Pinchbeck South Fen but allowing it into the lower part of that area behind the townland to the north of the road. In the late Roman or early post-Roman period, the Glen escaped from its artificial Roman course of which the Bourne Old Ea was part. (The road follows the bank of this while leaving Bourne) and found its way to these tidal flats. Later, at some early but unknown medieval date, the marsh was turned into a polder of sorts and the Glen was directed along the old sea bank which then became one of the river banks. Thus, the course of the road was determined ultimately, by that of the sea bank.
The River Glen will have been in the phase when it flowed into the tidal marsh, with its mouth at Guthram, at around AD 500, the time when the unknown writer who goes under the name of Nennius
tells us that King Arthur
fought his first battle against the English settlers at the mouth of the River Glein. See Historia Britonum
numbered paragraph 3. See also Sites and places associated with Arthurian legend
.
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
of Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Its western end lies at coordinates 52°48.1892′N 0°36.5179′W otherwise, 1. This article attempts to deal with its several aspects by treating some separately, before integrating them with the others into an overall picture, sequentially from its western end.
The British Road Numbering System
In Britain, roads of greater and medium importance are numbered according to a system in which the smaller number of digits indicates a more major route. The motorways are prefixed by M and the principal other roads by the letter A. The roads A1 to A6 radiate from LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with A1 as the axial route of the country, running between London and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. Roads with numbers beginning with 1 lie to the east of the A1, clockwise when viewed on a map. The details are explained under Great Britain road numbering scheme
Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
.
The A151: Summary
In the early nineteenth century, the A151 would have been called a cross-road2 since it runs across the pattern of these radial routes. As originally designated, it ran from the A15 at Bourne Market Place (TF095201), eastwards to Fleet Hargate, three kilometres east of Holbeach (TF393250), on the A17. Its present western section, between Colsterworth and Bourne, was part of the B676 road3.Road building and re-thinking of the road system have meant that nowadays, its western end is on the A1 near Colsterworth, in the administrative district of South Kesteven
South Kesteven
South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Grantham, Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping.-History:...
4, and its eastern end on the A17 near Holbeach
Holbeach
Holbeach is a fenland market town with in the South Holland district of southern Lincolnshire, England. The town lies from Spalding; from Boston; from King's Lynn; from Peterborough; and a by road from the county town of Lincoln. It is on the junction of the A151 and A17...
, in the district of South Holland(5). On the way, it passes to the north of Grimsthorpe Castle
Grimsthorpe Castle
Grimsthorpe Castle is a country house in Lincolnshire, England four miles north-west of Bourne on the A151. It lies within a 3,000 acre park of rolling pastures, lakes, and woodland landscaped by Capability Brown...
and at TF076200, just to the south of Bourne Wood
Bourne Woods
The woods near Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. In particular, Bourne Wood.National Grid reference TF0821. Co-ordinates: O°24'W, 52°46'N.Bourne Wood is owned by The Forestry Commission England. It is managed by Forest Enterprise as part of Kesteven Forest...
. Then at TF095201, it bisects Bourne
Bourne, Lincolnshire
Bourne is a market town and civil parish on the western edge of the Fens, in the District of South Kesteven in southern Lincolnshire, England.-The town:...
. It enters The Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
on the eastern edge of that small town. At TF154207, it passes through the hamlet of Twenty
Twenty, Lincolnshire
Twenty is a small, somewhat remote hamlet, east of the market town of Bourne, in Lincolnshire, England. Agriculture is the major industry.-Location:...
, in Bourne North Fen. At Guthram Gowt
Guthram Gowt
Guthram Gowt is a small settlement between Bourne and Spalding in Lincolnshire, England, at a bend in the River Glen.-The Location:Guthram Gowt is at the southern, upstream end of the South Forty-Foot Drain...
, it leaves Kesteven
Kesteven
The Parts of Kesteven are a traditional subdivision of Lincolnshire, England. This subdivision had long had a separate county administration , along with the other two parts, Lindsey and Holland.-Etymology:...
by crossing the South Forty-Foot Drain
South Forty-foot drain
The South Forty-Foot Drain is the main channel for the land-drainage of the Black Sluice Level in the Lincolnshire Fens. It lies in eastern England between Guthram Gowt and the Black Sluice pumping station on The Haven, at Boston...
into Holland. The principal town of South Holland is Spalding
Spalding, Lincolnshire
Spalding is a market town with a population of 30,000 on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Little London is a hamlet directly south of Spalding on the B1172 road....
(TF245227), which is also the main town on the A151 route. Across the River Welland
River Welland
The River Welland is a river in the east of England, some long. It rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. For much of its length it forms the county boundary between...
, lie Moulton
Moulton, Lincolnshire
Moulton is the primary village of an extensive Fenland parish, over in length, and encompassing the smaller hamlets/villages of Moulton Chapel, Moulton Seas End and Moulton Eaugate....
, then Holbeach, near which the A151 ends at the A17 (TF350258). That road leads on to King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
and East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
.
Turnpike roads
As elsewhere, roads in England have developed over many years. Perhaps some of the A151 lies on lines which are pre-Roman. In other words, parts are two thousand or more years old. However, change is constant and little of the road is that old. In the nature of things, these changes are poorly or not at all documented, so will be treated generally, in that light, in an overview below. The historical part of the story begins with the turnpike roadsTurnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
.
The A151 was originally designated such in 1921. Then, the roads were much as they had been forty or fifty years before, under the turnpike trusts. Since the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, there has been much building of by-passes and the like so that the precise lines have sometimes changed but they are still fundamentally the same. The main difference in the present case is that the road designation has been extended from the A15 at Bourne to the A1 at Colsterworth, while at the other end, the easternmost three kilometres have been replaced by a new part of the A17.
In the field of acts of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
founding turnpike trusts, much was happening locally in 1756. The Wansford to Stamford
Stamford, Lincolnshire
Stamford is a town and civil parish within the South Kesteven district of the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately to the north of London, on the east side of the A1 road to York and Edinburgh and on the River Welland...
trust on the Great North Road had been set up in 1749 but in 1756, its sphere was extended through Stamford to Bourne. The last 1.6 kilometres of this road, as the trust left it, running down the hill to Bourne Market Place, are now part of the A151. It was freed from tolls on 1 November 1871. The half of this section which lies outside the modern town was probably built by the trust between 1756 and the Bourne Enclosure Awards of 1770-16.
The Lincoln Heath to Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
Trust was also established in 1756. Its remit included the forerunner of the present A15 which crosses the end of the Stamford road at Bourne Market Place. However, also included with this was the road from the Stamford road west of Bourne (a place known locally as Stamford Hill)7, to Colsterworth. With the exception of the western extremity, in Colsterworth village, this is now part of the A151. It was freed from tolls on 1 November 1882.
The Lincoln Heath to Peterborough trust was organized in districts of which that covering the road from Colsterworth to Stamford Hill, Bourne was the ‘’West District’’. In 1860, it was re-grouped with the ‘’Middle District’’ which extended from Graby Bar (TF091295) to Market Deeping
Market Deeping
Market Deeping is a market town in Lincolnshire, England, on the north bank of the River Welland and the A15 road.-Geography:It is the second largest of The Deepings and its eponymous market has been held since at least 1220. The river here forms the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border with...
(TF138099)8.
From Spalding, through Holbeach to Long Sutton, beyond the end of the modern A151, the road was turnpiked in 17649. It was freed from tolls on 1 November 1866. It may not be coincidental that this was the year of the final opening of the railway from Bourne to Kings Lynn, the line having been opened in stages from 1858. This road was declared a main road by the Highways Act of 1878.
The road from Bourne to Spalding was turnpiked in 1822 and freed from tolls in 1860. It was declared a main road by the Highways Act of 1878. Before 1822, this section was in three parts. One led out from Bourne onto Bourne North Fen. The Spalding end led out from Spalding to the Spalding and Pinchbeck fen edge bank. The linking section was not officially a road. There was however, some droving
Drover (Britain)
A drovers' road, drove or droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture...
traffic which was frowned upon by the drainage authorities, whose embankments it tended to erode. According to Cary's map of 1787, the official route ran via Tongue End (TF155188) and crossed the River Glen
River Glen, Lincolnshire
The River Glen is a river in Lincolnshire, England with a short stretch passing through Rutland near Essendine.The river's name appears to derive from a Brythonic Celtic language but there is a strong early English connection.-Naming:...
at Gurthram (TF173224).
Toll gates
The principal source of information about the positions of toll gates is the Ordnance SurveyOrdnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
1" map published in 18245a. It places them as follows:
- Corby Toll Bar. SK969234 (also 1834-6)
- T[urn] P[ike]. SK991247
- T P. TF062210 (also 1834-6)
- T P. TF079198 (also 1834-6 but there shown as on the Stamford road)
- Friers Bar. TF117206 (Exeter Estate book but no gate shown.)
- T P. TF169223 (corroborated by Paterson's Roads) (also 1834-6)
- T P. TF198244 (corroborated by Paterson's Roads) (also 1834-6)
- T P. TF2724. (also 1834-6 and the O.S. map of 1890 shows "The Gate" public housePublic houseA public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
)5b. - T P. TF466217. (also 1834-6)
The six digit National grid References of the marked positions on the 1824 map are taken from an equivalent modern map. The four digit references are much less accurate, being taken from an Ordnance Survey map by inspection of Wright Fig.3. The Ordnance Survey does not note the Friars Bar toll gate but in the Exeter Estate book, the position is called Friers Bar though no obstruction of the road by a gate is indicated. Paterson's Roads is a road book listing the features of roads and mileages from the ends of its itineraries, sequentially.
It is noticeable and a little surprising that according to the Ordnance Survey, it was possible in some cases to go a long way out of a town before coming to a toll gate. This is particularly noticeable eastwards from Spalding.
The Condition of the turnpike roads
We have a few references to the condition of parts of the turnpike forerunners of the A151. Arthur Young's book on the Lincolnshire economy(50) was published in 1813, while the first Fosdyke bridge was still under construction. He therefore, will have taken the future A151 between Spalding and Fleet Hargate on his journey from BostonBoston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...
to Wisbech
Wisbech
Wisbech is a market town, inland port and civil parish with a population of 20,200 in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. The tidal River Nene runs through the centre of the town and is spanned by two bridges...
. He wrote of it thus: In the Hundred of Skirbeck to Boston, and thence to Wisbeach, [turnpike roads] are generally made with silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
, or old sea-sand, deposited under various parts of the country ages ago, and when moderately wet are very good; but dreadfully dusty and heavy in dry weather; and also on a thaw they are like mortar. Take the county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
in general, and they must be esteemed below par. What he is saying is that the turnpike roads in the Townlands were made of the same marine silt as forms the land itself in that part of the country. The heaviness in dry weather to which he refers, arose from the loose, deep, sandy surface through which wheels would have to be dragged.
According to Wheeler, 1 LT of silt was reckoned to cover 1 yard (0.9144 m) in a length of a road, 18 inches (457.2 mm) thick and 10 feet (3 m) wide, the silt costing about 8d. to 10d. per ton for digging and spreading. In some cases the road was turned over. That is a pit was dug in the road until the silt was reached then that was dug out and formed into the carriageway. The surface of the next length was dug and put into the pit as a foundation then the silt dug and placed on top of it and so on along the road.
Gravel was used where obtainable and from about 1870, Wheeler introduced granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. By the end of the century granite and slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
were being consolidated by steam roller
Steamroller
A steamroller is a form of road roller – a type of heavy construction machinery used for levelling surfaces, such as roads or airfields – that is powered by a steam engine...
-- Wheeler. pp 441–445.
Of the Bourne to Colsterworth road, Young said we were every moment either buried in quagmires of mud or racked to dislocation over pieces of rock which they term mending.
Materials and methods for repairing fenland roads are described by Wheeler. The best material available was dug locally from pits
The Terrain
When roads are built by engineers with capital to support their work, they are successfully able to build roads across difficult soils. Modern road builders have less need to seek out easy geological conditions. When roads were made not by civil engineers but by people walking on the ground, the road followed the soils which were found to be easiest under foot.The A151 passes across two types of country, the upland and the fen. The highest point on it lies within a kilometre of its western end at 123 metres above mean sea level. It then passes across a gently sloping dissected plateau of Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
rocks capped in its highest parts by glacial clay. After about 16 kilometres, it enters the fen and is soon at about two metres, rising to three, nearer the coast.
The Western End
Having for some time, extended its influence by diplomacy and trade5, The Roman EmpireRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
began to take control in Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
from the year 43. An important part of the means of control was the building of soundly-built roads, running directly between key places(6). This led the engineers to overcome all but the greatest obstacles rather than going round them. One result of this was that they built roads on soils which others would have avoided. When the Roman authorities had withdrawn from Britain and their roads wore out, people began to wander from the Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
lines where they could find a more secure footing by taking another line(7).
The Roman equivalent of the A1 was built to a very high standard, during the early years of Roman rule in Britain. The English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
successors of the Romans in Britain, called this road Ermine Street
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...
from their word for "soldier", compare the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
personal name, Herman(8a). The twenty kilometre length of Ermine Street, at roughly the centre of which, the line of the A151 lies, passed over chalky till (boulder clay) which is very sticky when wet. As the Ermine Street carriageway broke up, people sought easier going by moving down towards the small River Witham
River Witham
The River Witham is a river, almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire, in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham, at SK8818, passes Lincoln at SK9771 and at Boston, TF3244, flows into The Haven, a tidal arm of The Wash, near RSPB Frampton Marsh...
whose valley had been eroded through the till, into the Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
below it.
Thus, in 1756 when the Colsterworth to Bourne road was turnpiked
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
(9a), the toll road which was to become the A151 began at the crossroads in Colsterworth, further west than it now does, though the first toll gate noted by the 1824 Ordnance Survey map was about three kilometres from there. When the Colsterworth bypass was built, its southern half was placed virtually on the Ermine Street line so that now, while the A151 still begins at the A1, it is not at the old Great North Road but at Ermine Street, on the chalky till soil that we start our journey. Bourne Road, Colsterworth, the section removed from the A151, remains part of the B676, the road which leads westwards, towards Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray is a town in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It is to the northeast of Leicester, and southeast of Nottingham...
(10).
Once the clutter associated with a trunk road junction is left behind, the road passes through agricultural land and woods. To the north are fairly level fields and to the south, Twyford Wood
Twyford Wood
Twyford Wood, formerly known as Twyford Forest, is a commercial wood around in Lincolnshire owned by the Forestry Commission, England, an agency of the British Government and managed by its subsidiary, Forest Enterprise .-History:...
, which cloaks the remains of North Witham airfield
RAF North Witham
RAF Station North Witham is a former World War II airfield in Lincolnshire, England. The airfield is located in Twyford Wood, approximately east-southeast of Cotgrave; about north-northwest of London...
(11).
Corby Glen
At the end of the wood, we leave Colsterworth parish. Three kilometres from the start, at the hamlet of Birkholme, the road finds a shallow valley formed by erosion which has cut through the till and exposed the underlying Jurassic limestone soils. Here, the 1824 map shows our first toll gate, Corby Toll Bar(12). The road follows this valley, under the railway main line, past the second toll gate site at the junction with the Boothby Pagnel road (B1176), then down to the River Glen at Corby GlenCorby Glen
Corby Glen is a village in southwest Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:The village of Corby Glen is in South Kesteven District in Lincolnshire. It lies mainly to the north of the A151, a former toll road, and to the east of the West Glen River, near where the Glen flows through a small graben in...
, where it turns a little southwards to avoid more glacial till and keep to the upper Lincolnshire limestone
Lincolnshire limestone
The Lincolnshire limestone is a feature of the Inferior Oolite Series of the Middle Jurassic strata of eastern England. It was formed around 165 million years ago, in a shallow, warm sea on the margin of the London Platform and has estuarine beds above and below it...
(13).
The land between Colsterworth and the western edge of Bourne is a plateau, gently sloping down to the east and much dissected by erosion during periods when it was near but not under ice caps. The River Glen which we crossed at Corby Glen is also called the West Glen and is in one of the two main dissecting valleys(14).
East of Corby Glen, we are on a strip of un-dissected plateau. The surface dips very gently towards the east but the geological strata
Stratum
In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
dip more steeply so that a kilometre out of Corby Glen, the road passes onto the strata above the limestone, known as the Upper Estuarine Series, the Blisworth Limestone
Blisworth Limestone
The Blisworth Limestone is a stratum of limestone of the Bathonian stage, found in the Jurassic ridge which extends north and south through England. It was laid down in the shallows of the Jurassic sea and is part of the more widely defined Great Oölite Series. It is also known as the Great Oolite...
, Blisworth clay, Cornbrash
Cornbrash
In geology, Cornbrash was the name applied to the uppermost member of the Bathonian stage of the Jurassic formation in England. It is an old English agricultural name applied in Wiltshire to a variety of loose rubble or brash which, in that part of the country, forms a good soil for growing corn...
and Kellaways clay, in that order.
Edenham
At Irnham crossroads (15), the A151 leaves Corby Glen parish for that of Edenham and is back down on the cornbrash. To the north, unseen in its little valley beyond the woods is Irnham, once the home of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, who commissioned the Luttrell PsalterIlluminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
(16), a book which tells us so much of English everyday life in the fourteenth century(17).
The road dips into the valley of the stream which flows on to form the lake in Grimsthorpe Park. Just skirting the glacial till, it rises to the crest at the other side, on the Kellaways clay and sand and turns sharply left onto the till. It used to go straight on and pass the north front of Grimsthorpe Castle
Grimsthorpe Castle
Grimsthorpe Castle is a country house in Lincolnshire, England four miles north-west of Bourne on the A151. It lies within a 3,000 acre park of rolling pastures, lakes, and woodland landscaped by Capability Brown...
. When the soil in the field beyond the bend is bare, its course can still be seen. The castle's owner did a deal with the turnpike trustees. He brought land on the other side of the road into his park and built them a new, though longer road around it. Once the semi-circular diversion is completed, the road turns sharp left again, through Grimsthorpe where it is on Jurassic clay. The 1824 Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
map shows both the old and the new roads.
At Grimsthorpe village, the A151 is in the second of the main valleys dissecting the plateau, that of the East Glen river. From its association with Edenham, this river is often called the Eden. The West and East Glens join near Wilsthorpe, at . Through Grimsthorpe and Edenham, there are numerous bends and winds across the small exposures Jurassic soils, glacial gravel and alluvium, until the road climbs out of the valley over the till-capped ridge which separates Edenham parish from Bourne. On the glacial clay soil of the till, it passes between woods, including Bourne Wood
Bourne Woods
The woods near Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. In particular, Bourne Wood.National Grid reference TF0821. Co-ordinates: O°24'W, 52°46'N.Bourne Wood is owned by The Forestry Commission England. It is managed by Forest Enterprise as part of Kesteven Forest...
(19).
Bourne
As the road arrives back on the Jurassic clay, it meets the A6121A6121 road
The A6121 is a short cross-country road in the counties of Lincolnshire and Rutland, England. It forms the principal route between Bourne and Stamford and the A1 in Lincolnshire, continuing on through Ketton in Rutland to its junction with the A47 at Morcott. Its south-western end is at and its...
, a road designation which ends here, having begun at Morcott, in Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, on the other side of the A1, hence its beginning with the digit 6. In 1824, there was a toll gate here(20). The course of the A151 is directly down the slope into Bourne. It is clear archaeologically that the road used to run parallel with this and about 200 metres to the south. Historically, there appears to be no commonly available record as to when the move was made. It was certainly in two stages. The move of the upper part was probably made in the eighteenth century; the lower, in about 1140, when Bourne castle was built across it. Its present course is dictated by the former presence of Bourne Castle at the town end and by a desire to keep to the crest of a slight ridge in the hillside(21).
It is towards the top of this section that it is possible to detect a change in slope betraying the former presence of a shore of the Devensian periglacial
Periglacial
Periglacial is an adjective originally referring to places in the edges of glacial areas, but it has later been widely used in geomorphology to describe any place where geomorphic processes related to freezing of water occur...
lake, which was impounded by the ice into the Fenland basin. It was more evident but the declivity of the road has been smoothed out a little(22).
Much more modern, is the bypass road which joins from the south at the entrance to the town and just below the level of the surface of the former lake. This opened for use on October 8, 2005. In the town, the A151 passes immediately outside the castle site, along the latter's northern edge. However the plots along this side of the road were first laid out for houses in around 1280, so that the castle is no longer casually apparent(23).
At Bourne Market Place, the A151 crosses the A15. This road used to be part of the Lincoln Heath to Peterborough turnpike road, whose act of parliament is dated 1756. It was this trust which, in 1820, demolished the old town hall which used to stand in the street here.
At the junction, the road to the north led directly form the main gate of the castle. The market place was positioned immediately across a moat and a pomœrium, outside the gate but those are no longer visible from the road. However, our road continues not straight ahead but on a 45° angle toward the south. This bend arose because it passed around the perimeter of the pomœrium until it met the road leading eastwards from the gate. As the A151 reaches this, it turns back through 45° and continues eastwards along that approach road, across the line of the Roman version of the A15, King Street
King Street (Roman road)
King Street is the name of a modern road on the line of a Roman road |Durobrivae]]. The whole is I.D. Margary's Roman road number 26. -The Roman road's route:Archaeological work has revealed more of its length than is in use nowadays...
and past the Abbey Lawn
Bourne Abbey
Bourne Abbey and the Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a scheduled Grade I church in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The building remains in parochial use, despite the 16th century Dissolution, as the nave was used by the parish, probably from the time of the foundation of the abbey in...
. This is now a picturesque cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
ground, but was an eighteenth-century sheep lawn(24). Soon, the road leaves the twelfth century, Norman
Norman dynasty
Norman dynasty is the usual designation for the family that were the Dukes of Normandy and the English monarchs which immediately followed the Norman conquest and lasted until the Plantagenet dynasty came to power in 1154. It included Rollo and his descendants, and from William the Conqueror and...
road, heading towards the pre-Norman town. On arrival, it turns eastwards again, at the same time as crossing the now-buried course of the Car Dyke
Car Dyke
The Car Dyke was, and to large extent still is, an eighty-five mile long ditch which runs along the western edge of the Fens in eastern England. It is generally accepted as being of Roman age and, for many centuries, to have been taken as marking the western edge of the Fens...
and onto the fen-edge gravel. This is material which drifted down the slope which we have followed, while it was under the water of the Devensian periglacial lake.
The Car Dyke is generally taken as the boundary of The Fens, though here, it heralds the more commercial part of the town. At once, the road passes the former works of BRM
British Racing Motors
British Racing Motors was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945, it raced from 1950 to 1977, competing in 197 Grands Prix and winning 17. In 1962, BRM won the Constructors' Title. At the same time, its driver, Graham Hill became World Champion...
, the Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
motor racing Constructors' Champion in 1962. The firm is gone but it has left an engineering tradition in the town. Shortly, the road turns north-eastwards, following the bank of the Roman artificial river
Bourne-Morton Canal
The Bourne–Morton Canal is an archaeological feature to the north east of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England. In old maps and documents it is known as the Old Ea. It was a 6.5 km artificial waterway linking the dry ground at Bourne to the ancient edge of the sea near Pinchbeck, or perhaps to a...
across the fen, the Old Ea. At the edge of the town, it turns away from the now hidden river bed, almost eastwards across the black, humic soil of Bourne North Fen(25). Here we begin to see The Fens as the region more typically is, a broad, nearly flat, agricultural land.
At , the road turns due eastwards at Friar Bar, where to judge by its name, at one stage was a toll bar. The Ordnance Survey does not note it but on the Exeter Estate book(26), it is called Friers Bar. The road from Bourne to Spalding had been turnpiked in 1822(27), after the survey had begun. So it looks as though the Ordnance Survey had overlooked it. From here, the road runs 3½ kilometres, straight to Twenty
Twenty, Lincolnshire
Twenty is a small, somewhat remote hamlet, east of the market town of Bourne, in Lincolnshire, England. Agriculture is the major industry.-Location:...
.
The Car Dyke marked the western boundary of the royal forest
Royal forest
A royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...
decreed, by one of the Norman
Norman dynasty
Norman dynasty is the usual designation for the family that were the Dukes of Normandy and the English monarchs which immediately followed the Norman conquest and lasted until the Plantagenet dynasty came to power in 1154. It included Rollo and his descendants, and from William the Conqueror and...
kings. It extended south and east, across the fens to the Welland. There seems to be no precise agreement as to when the land was disafforested. It was somewhere between 1190 and 1230(28). The obvious occasion was the signing of Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
in 1215 or perhaps, on one of its re-issues. That document mentions King John's
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
afforestations.
Roads on the black soils tend to crumble at the edges as the soft humus collapses and oxidises. This road is typical of fen roads, in needing frequent attention to deal with that. It is typical too, in that it rises and falls as it passes over the silt banks left amongst the peat by small to medium marine creeks from the Middle Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, 3 to 3½ thousand years ago. This was before the peat in the soil was laid down.
In the black fens, the buildings are virtually always to be found on these old creeks, known as roddons. The many small roddons in Bourne North Fen merge at Twenty. There, the road uses part of this larger roddon by turning along it towards Guthram. Nowadays, this place is called Guthram Gowt but until the steam drainage engine was erected there, in 184?, it was Guthram Cote.
In the late medieval period, people lived on the fen edge and the Townlands but the fens themselves were thinly populated. There were however, a few comparatively grand establishments called Halls, Neslam Hall at , for example. It was a grange of Sempringham Abbey on the site of the modern Mornington House round which the district boundary is still diverted as it was when the abbey, on the Kesteven fen edge, owned it. There were more but still rather few smaller dwellings called cotes. Moors Cote lay in Bourne North Fen, to the south-east of Twenty and Guthram Cote stood on the boundary between Kesteven and Holland, on an island of Devensian deposits, the Abbey sand and gravel. The road book, Paterson's Roads, of 1826, lists a toll gate at Guthram Cote, a distance of 5+1/4 mi from Bourne. Just to the east of this was the bridge over what it calls the South Forty-Foot Eau
South Forty-foot drain
The South Forty-Foot Drain is the main channel for the land-drainage of the Black Sluice Level in the Lincolnshire Fens. It lies in eastern England between Guthram Gowt and the Black Sluice pumping station on The Haven, at Boston...
(15).
Pinchbeck
The Kesteven-Holland boundary is formed by the South Forty-Foot DrainSouth Forty-foot drain
The South Forty-Foot Drain is the main channel for the land-drainage of the Black Sluice Level in the Lincolnshire Fens. It lies in eastern England between Guthram Gowt and the Black Sluice pumping station on The Haven, at Boston...
, the main land drain of the Black Sluice Level. The present layout of the drainage dates from the Act of Parliament of 1765 but this part of the South Forty-foot is a re-use of one of the main drains of the Lindsey Level, a scheme which was declared complete in 1638. On the other side, in Pinchbeck North Fen, the road begins to wind, something quite unusual in these fens. It was laid out on the bank of a soak dike
Soak dike
The term Soak dike is used in The Fens of eastern England to mean a ditch or drain running parallel with an embankment, for the purpose of taking any water that soaks through from the river or drain beyond the bank...
called the Weir Dike, which was cut in about 1600. In Pinchbeck North Fen, the dike is now largely defunct. The instructions stipulated that it should be at a distance of 100 feet (33M) from the bank of the River Glen. As the river bank meandered a little, so the road does(13).
The river is the one the A151 crosses at Corby Glen and Edenham. Here the two parts are combined. Beyond the Glen, to the south, is an area of dense Romano-British
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
occupation. On this side, a little is known but if there is more, it is covered with post-Roman marine silt(14). It looks as though this part of the river began as a single sea bank, keeping the tide out of Pinchbeck South Fen but allowing it into the lower part of that area behind the townland to the north of the road. In the late Roman or early post-Roman period, the Glen escaped from its artificial Roman course of which the Bourne Old Ea was part. (The road follows the bank of this while leaving Bourne) and found its way to these tidal flats. Later, at some early but unknown medieval date, the marsh was turned into a polder of sorts and the Glen was directed along the old sea bank which then became one of the river banks. Thus, the course of the road was determined ultimately, by that of the sea bank.
The River Glen will have been in the phase when it flowed into the tidal marsh, with its mouth at Guthram, at around AD 500, the time when the unknown writer who goes under the name of Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....
tells us that King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
fought his first battle against the English settlers at the mouth of the River Glein. See Historia Britonum
Historia Britonum
The Historia Brittonum, or The History of the Britons, is a historical work that was first composed around 830, and exists in several recensions of varying difference. It purports to relate the history of the Brittonic inhabitants of Britain from earliest times, and this text has been used to write...
numbered paragraph 3. See also Sites and places associated with Arthurian legend
Sites and places associated with Arthurian legend
The following is a list and assessment of sites and places associated with King Arthur and the Arthurian legend in general. Given the lack of concrete historical knowledge about one of the most potent figures in British mythology, it is unlikely that any definitive conclusions about the claims for...
.
Footnotes
- Note 1: This is a British national grid reference. There are others on this page. Each six digit number places the feature concerned to within 100 metres. See more hereBritish national grid reference systemThe Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using latitude and longitude....
- Note 2: Mogg, E. Paterson's Roads 18th edn. London. (1826)
- Note 3: Ordnance SurveyOrdnance SurveyOrdnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
. - Note 4:
- Note 5:
- Note 6: The Enclosure field lay-out traverses the old road line as visible on the ground and in aerial photographs but is slightly influenced by it.
- Note 7: The line of the pre-turnpike road to Stamford can be seen in the hedge line south of the word Westfield and in the kink in the contour under the word. Return to the option list and select the old map option. It shows an additional field boundary on the line of the old road.
- Note 8: Graby Bar to Market Deeping
- Note 9: Wright, N.R. Lincolnshire Towns and Industry 1700- 1914. History of Lincolnshire Vol. XI (1982) p. 38.
- Note 5a: Apart from Friers Bar, these are all noted in Bennett, S. & Bennett, N. An Historical Atlas of Lincolnshire (1993) ISBN 0-85958-604-9.
- Note 5b: Ordnance Survey map of 1890
- Note (50): Young, A. General view of the agriculture of the county of Lincoln 2nd edn. (1813) facsimile David & Charles 91970) 7153-4781-0. p. 453.
- Note 5c: Salway, P. Roman Britain, Oxford University Press. (1981) ISBN 0-19-821717-X. Ch.3. and Frere, S. Britannia 3rd edn. Ch.3. (1967)
- Note (6a): Frere. (1987) Ch.4.
- Note (7a): Soils of England and Wales, Sheet 4. Soil Survey of England and Wales. (1983)
- Note (8a): Virtue's Simplified Dictionary, Encyclopedic Edition. (ca.1930). Its Latinized form, Arminius, is the name normally used outside German-speaking countries, for the victor over Varus at the Teutoburgerwald in AD9CE. Augé, C. Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré, Paris, (1934).
- Note (9a): Birkbeck, J.D. A History of Bourne (1976). pp. 68–9, corroborated by Grigg, D. The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincolnshire, Cambridge University Press (1966). Fig.6.
- Note (10): Great Britain road numbering schemeGreat Britain road numbering schemeThe Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
- Note (11): Ordnance Survey and Bomber County.
- Note (12): Ordnance Survey, David & Charles Edn.
- Note (13): Geological Survey, 1 inch, sheet 143 Drift Edn.
- Note (14): Ordnance Survey.
- Note (15):
- Note (16): Camille, M. Mirror in Parchment (1998) ISBN 1-86189-023-0.
- Note (17): http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/luttrell/luttrell_narrowband.htm?middle. (If you are using broadband, navigate on, to the bigger version). If this link is unsatisfactory try http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/digitisation.html
- Note (18):
- Note (19): Soil Survey.
- Note (20): Ordnance Survey, David & Charles Edn.
- Note (21): This comes from careful observation of the archaeology over 25 years but it is not published.
- Note (22): Poznanski (1960). The altitude of the shore is given by that of the spillway on the Norfolk/Suffolk border (26 metres final height, plus depth of water/ice over the spillway). The beach and low cliff of the shore are clearly seen in several places at just above 30 metres. For example, , or .
- Note (23): .
- Note (24): The gentry's equivalent of a deer park. In this case it was set up by George Pochin in 1764 or soon after. Birkbeck, J.D. A History of Bourne, (1976) p. 71.
- Note (25): Phillips, C.W. The Fenland in Roman Times. Royal Geographical Society, Research Series: No.5. (1970). map 3, sheet C.
- Note (26): The Estate Agent's book recording ownership of property in Bourne Parish and Morton. It is dated 1826/7 and is owned by Bourne Civic Society. Presumably, this name refers to a toll bar of some period up to the 1820s.
- Note (27): Grigg, D. The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincolnshire, Cambridge University Press (1966). Fig.6.
- Note (28): Birkbeck, p. 17., says 1207, by Richard I. Varley, J. The Parts of Kesteven Studies in Law and Local Government, Kesteven County Council (1974), p. 2., puts it at 1230. Wheeler, W.H. A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire (1896) facsimile Edn. Paul Watkins, Stamford. (1990) ISBN 1-871615-19-4. p. 245. credits Richard I who reigned from 1189 to 1199, but Wheeler places the event in the thirteenth century. The first version of Magna Carta was signed in 1215. Hindley, D. The Book of the Magna Carta Guild Publishing. (1990) p. 91., places the Forest Charter in 1217.sup>,
- Note (30): Wheeler (1896) p. 441.
- Note (31): A manuscript book detailing The Marquis of Exeter's property and other ownership, in the parishes of Bourne and Morton, Lincolnshire. Dated 1826/7 and now in the possession of Bourne Civic Society.