The Brook is one of Tennyson’s best known poems and most assume it is about the little River Lymn, which flows close by his boyhood home. Tennyson himself says it is not a specific brook and when the poem is read in its entirety, including the deliberately contrasting sections about different characters and their lives, […]
Tennyson Trail
As the previous blog points out the similarities between the Bain valley and Lymndale are many but in one respect there is a fundamental difference which might affect a visitors enjoyment. This is that most of the villages in the Bain valley have pubs whereas these are sparse in Lymndale. Counter to this with being […]
Gartree Hills
Gartree is a wapentake adjacent to Hill. Its eastern boundary is the section of the ancient ridgeway known as the Bluestone Heath Road stretching from Belchford to Donington on Bain. This is nearly twelve kilometres long and both parishes are within its boundaries. Like all other wapentakes, with the exception of Hill, it stretches from […]
Old Bolingbroke
It is not often that a place is better to visit in winter than summer but Old Bolingbroke, nestled in a deep valley and protected by hills on three sides, is a good destination in winter or early Spring. The main attraction is the ruined castle which though not high has an intact curtain wall […]
Snowdrops in the Dale.
This year after a mild wet winter, more akin to Wales than Lincolnshire, the snowdrops were in bloom early and the Tennyson valley (Lower Lymndale) is a good place to admire them. These Lent lilies as Tennyson called them help lift the spirits and are an indication that the darkest days of winter are on […]
A White Snipe Dales
The dark dank days of December are sometimes difficult to bear but this can also be a magical time, which is partly why we have Christmas at this time of year. For me the other thing to look forward to in December is the first hard frost. It might come at the end of November […]
After the Rains (Somersby)
For much of Autumn this year Lincolnshire has suffered far more rain than this normally dry county usually receives. This was due to a series of slow moving depressions passing over southern Britain pulling in winds off the North Sea. This meant that rather than being in the rain shadow of high ground to […]
A Golden Autumn Sunrise
Most of October had been mild, wet and sometimes windy until a ridge of high pressure passed through giving a brief window of calmer weather. Ahead was the weekend for changing the clocks so this made it a good time to get up before light as with the clocks due to go back it […]
The Autumn Equinox
Over the last two years I have spent many days discovering the special nature of the southern Lincolnshire Wolds, which is often only revealed under the right conditions and often well away from any roads. This quest to understand the special qualities of this still unspoiled countryside was to help me write my blog tennysoncountry.com. […]
Discovering Tennyson Country
With studying and exploring the southern Lincolnshire Wolds in detail for tennysoncountry.com and researching many events through time, both geological and historical that created this intimate environment, this blog is as much about the landscape with which Tennyson was so familiar as it is about the great poet himself. These events not only moulded the […]
