All the land in flowery squares, This is a line from Tennyson’s The Gardener’s Daughter a relatively early poem by the bard. It is referring to the countryside in May, which he was familiar with while growing up in Lymndale. The squares are small hedged fields filled with meadow flowers and much more. After then […]
Widening the Wolds
Although the Lincolnshire Wolds AONB stretches some 50 kilometres from north to south (Caistor to Gunby) the distance across it south of Louth is as little as 11 kilometres. North of Claxby St. Andrew the eastern boundary follows close to the line of the 50 metres contour, which overlooks the marsh up to Little Cawthorpe. […]
Partney & Spilsby.
For a main road the drive along the A16 down Dalby Hill to Partney is one of the most pleasant in the Wolds. You pass through Dalby, which is mostly hidden by tall trees, and also hides one of the most pleasant walks in these parts. This takes you through the Dalby Estate all the […]
Tennyson Knolls
In Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H. he spends a significant amount of time reminiscing of days spent with his close friend Arthur Hallam at his family home in Somersby. It allows the reader to get a glimpse into life at the rectory, especially at Christmas, but there is one section (XCV) which he describes spent in […]
Langton Old Road
Langton is placed in the middle of an area once nick named “Spilsbyshire” for it was distinguished for having so many grand houses or halls in the locality. Many still stand today in Langton’s neighbouring villages but some have been lost like Eresby Hall, the grandest of them all, on the edge of Spilsby. […]
The mystery of the missing parishes.
Aerial surveys in the late twentieth century “have revealed that the density of settlements in Lower Lymndale is exceptional for the Wolds suggesting it was important during the Roman period. The strong funerary and ritual elements recorded in the area suggest that it was also important in the prehistoric era. The area was not […]
Trails through the Dales.
The Snake Trail. Of the remaining possibilities for walking in Tennyson’s footsteps I have picked out a route called the Snake Trail, which is a short walk and the Geology trail which gives a more comprehensive view of the area. Snake trail is called this because the dry warm sandy soils around Somersby would have […]
