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Creating dry land in S.E. Lindsey (Lincolnshire, England) before ad 1550

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Abstract

A rise in sea-level in late Roman times created a large tidal wetland embayment which subsequently was subject to seaward invasion by freshwater fen. These ecosystems were colonized by Germanic and Danish immigrants and a gradual conversion to dry land was achieved, which was continued by later medieval communities, which included monasteries. A major technique was the bank, dividing salt-marsh and fen into compartments. These banks were used to contain both the sea and freshwater fen. A typical parish is used to exemplify these processes and to attempt to assign dates to the phases now visible in the landscape. The result is a set of dryland environments which nevertheless have historically been defined by water and which still rely on effective pumping to maintain their status. Comparison with the eastern shores of the North Sea is desirable though it is freely admitted that work in this area is not yet at the detailed level of reconstruction possible in some of the Low Countries.

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Notes

  1. Historically, Lincolnshire was divided into three 'ridings' (thirds) like Yorkshire.

  2. An imaginative reconstruction of that landscape can be made by focussing Google Earth (GE) on the west coast of Schleswig–Holstein (Pellworm, Hooge etc.) and turning the image through 180 degrees. The Wadden Sea region of The Netherlands provides another such location with a 135 degree rotation, though in Lincolnshire there is no evidence for dunes south of Gibraltar Point.

  3. In this context, the terms 'bank' means a raised structure but the Latin 'fossa' might mean a bank or a ditch and so relevant documents have to be interpreted carefully. In local parlance, English 'dyke' means a ditch but historically it usually means a bank.

  4. Roddons, also sometimes written as rodham, are the dried raised beds of watercourses such as rivers or tidal creeks. Their origin is often ascribed to a silt build-up during a marine incursion but an alternative explanation is based upon the greater shrinkage of peat compared to that of silt.

  5. Wolmersty was deserted sometime in the late middle ages. It lay between Friskney and Wrangle.

  6. The medieval documents usually give them generic labels (placenamedike) or date the land beyond them on the assumption that the bank has been there for some (unspecified) time.

  7. In this region, medieval salt-making used the technique of sleeching whereby sand and mud was scraped up from the salt-marsh after a high tide and a brine reduced by boiling. This produced large quantities of waste silty materials.

  8. The nineteenth century Ordnance Survey’s benchmark (BM) on the church was 11.5 ft (3.5 m) and the nearby lanes had Benchmarks of 8.5–8.7 ft (2.4–2.6 m). The 4.5 m (15 ft) figure is from Google Earth’s reading of the churchyard; the lane is at 2.1 m (7.0 ft). The OS data would be preferred except that the OS no longer keeps its BMs up to date and this is now an area of land shrinkage.

  9. The nineteenth century Ordnance Survey labelled a remnant ‘Polar Bank’. The term ‘Poller’ brings to mind the Dutch polder (OFris peller, poller) but OE polra ‘marshy’ (pol = a pool) seems more likely: the first use of polder in England seems to have been early seventeenth century.

  10. M. Gelling, ‘Place-names and archaeology’, in H. Hamerow et al (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, Oxford: OUP, 2011, 986-1002 at p 998.

  11. It could be fewer since Earl Hugh’s (Earl of Chester, d 1101) entry also covers four other vills but none of them is a likely location for salterns at this period.

  12. There were bishops of Lindsey and Lincoln from c. 680 with the French in control from 1067. From the 950 s onwards into the middle years of the twelfth century there was a tide of church foundation. Most of the local churches' present structures seem to date from the period of western-tower two-light belfry period of 1050-1120. Wainfleet St Mary has ‘late Norman’ stonework and a two-light tower but the tower seen in an engraving of All Saints church is known to date to the early eighteenth century (Oldfield 1829). Wainfleet All Saints church was demolished in the nineteenth century.

  13. ad opus cellarii sui totam insulam que vocatur Seilholm in Waineflet preter salinas Reingoti et duorum fratrum eius et vias ad easdem salinas et preter spacia que hactenus habuerunt ad sabulonem reservandum… ut si velint in ipsa insula sibi accipiant edificare sibi in marisco meo turbam quantum sufficiat ad ardendum in ipsis edificiis pro necessitatibus propriis.

  14. Might this be OE herestræt, a highway or main road? In Wainfleet St Mary after the fifteenth century it is called sedykstight, only a pathway.

  15. Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives Box 47 Part 5 envelope 8.

  16. In both English and Nederlandse taal, 'Waterwolf' is used of the pike Esox lucius,a freshwater fish much more common before effective reclamation. It is still sought by anglers in the main drains of south-east Lindsey. I am grateful to the referee who took the trouble to search out the history of the term in the Dutch language.

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Acknowledgments

Finance to seek out source material was provided by a generous donation to the University of Durham by the late Arthur Owen FSA. This allowed the collection, transcription and translation of documents by Patrick Mussett, whose contribution has been absolutely vital; also some additional archive work has been done by Meryl Foster. Discussions with David Robinson, Tom Lane, Andrew Fielding, Rob Wheeler and Martin Redding have been a constant source of stimulus, as was the late Hilary Healey. Access to IT facilities was granted by the University and I am grateful for their continuation post-retirement. The maps were drawn in the Design and Imaging Unit of the Department of Geography by Chris Orton, whose patience is rivalled only by his dexterity.

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Simmons, I.G. Creating dry land in S.E. Lindsey (Lincolnshire, England) before ad 1550. Water Hist 6, 211–225 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-014-0102-x

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