Welcome to Lincolnshire

Saturday March 29, 2025

An easy-ish driving day today. Rather than meander down the Yorkshire coast as we’d intended, we took a direct route down the A15, over the Humber Bridge just outside Hull and straight through to Lincoln.

Lincoln is a truly beautiful city, and neither of us can believe it’s taken us this long to come here. There’s the architecture, the cathedral, the castle, and Steep St (which, spoiler alert, is what it says on the packet).

The Minster* dates back to 1072, was damaged in an earthquake in 1185 and rebuilt. For a couple of hundred years, between 1311 and 1548, it was the tallest building in the world.

One of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta is here (the original is in the castle just over the way).

During WW2, priceless British treasures were placed in a chamber sixty feet beneath the cathedral for safekeeping. Also, during the Second World War, an RAF pilot almost crashed his plane into the cathedral. The station badge for RAF Waddington – one of the bomber commands in Lincolnshire – shows the cathedral rising through the clouds.

I went in for a look, but Grant chose to have a wander through the streets instead.

There has been a settlement here since the Iron Age, but the Romans conquered this part of Britain in 48CE – just before they moved onto York.

Once the Romans left, the Vikings filled the gap and these were, in turn, followed by the Normans. It was William the Conqueror who, in 1068 (two years after the Norman Conquest), had the castle built. The idea was to control the people of the Danelaw in the north (aka those under control of what were euphemistically termed Scandinavian settlers ie Vikings).

It was also important to the Normans to have a castle here because Lincoln was located at a vital strategic crossroads that pretty much provided access to York and the south. I could go into more detail, but I see your eyes are glazing over already.

We had lunch at a Thai restaurant imaginatively named No. 1 Thai Restaurant. I had Pad Thai and Grant had spicy Thai noodles. It was good to taste some spice again.

Easton Walled Gardens, our home for the next few nights, was just thirty miles down the road, but as we were still too early to check in, we stopped at Systen Park Farm and bought some tomatoes, Lincolnshire Plum Bread, and had a scone and a coffee. It was the best scone we’ve had all trip. Big call.

Our cottage is beautiful. Really beautiful. The best yet. And, wonder of all wonders, the bedroom is on the ground floor, so no hauling the suitcases up the staircase. It’s also easily the best and most generous welcome pack we’ve had:

• A bottle of wine
• A small bottle of sloe gin made on the estate
• Sparkling elderflower from Belvoir Farm
• A lemon drizzle cake made on the estate
• A loaf of artisan sourdough made at Hambleton Bakery
• Decent tea (insert sigh of relief), coffee pods, (good) butter and the usuals

I’ll tell you more – and show you about some more – over the next few days.

The gift shop within the gardens has so much fantastic stock, I could have bought the lot. It also gave me some ideas for making my own cushions when I go home.

Because we’re staying in one of their cottages, we can wander around the gardens as much as we want – even after they’ve closed to the public. This afternoon, though, we settle for a walk down the road.

Dinner tonight is at The Chomeley Arms, which, although located in Burton-le-Coggles, is part of the Easton estate. We share some prawns to start and follow that with the fillet steak special – two steak meals for £55, including a bottle of red wine. Not bad at all.

The stats…

Temperature: 3-12. It felt much warmer than this in the sun.

Miles travelled: 114

*Even though we work in kms in Australia, all signage in the UK is in miles, so that’s what I’m going with.

These posts are taken directly from my travel journal … you can find the series here.

*Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln Minster are the same place; “Minster” is a historical name for an important church, and “Cathedral” is the formal title for the church that houses a bishop’s throne. Therefore, they are, in this case, two names for the same building. Lincoln Cathedral is the official name, as it is the seat of the Bishop of Lincoln. So there.