Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a in the east of. It borders, , , , , , the. It also borders for just 19 metres, England's shortest county boundary. The is the city of, where the  has its headquarters. The of Lincolnshire is composed of the  of Lincolnshire and the area covered by the  of  and. The county is the and one that is predominantly agricultural in land-use.

For the purposes of a general geographical classification the county can be broken down into a number of sub-regions including: the, the , and the industrial and  coast around  and.

History
Lincolnshire derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient with that controlled by the. For some time the entire county was called 'Lindsey', and it is recorded as such in the. Later, was applied only the northern core, around Lincoln, and emerged as one of the three Parts of Lincolnshire, along with the Parts of  in the south-east and the Parts of  in the south west, which each had separate  to act as their county administrations.

In 1888 when s were set up, Lindsey, Holland and Kesteven each received their own separate one. These survived until 1974, when Holland, Kesteven, and most of Lindsey were unified into Lincolnshire, and the northern part, including and, going to the newly formed  of , along with most of the.

A further local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside, and the land south of the Humber became the of  and. These two areas became part of Lincolnshire for ceremonial purposes such as the, but are not covered by the Lincolnshire police and are in the  region.

The remaining districts of Lincolnshire are, , Lincoln, , , , and. They are part of the region.

Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Lincolnshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Agriculture
The county of Lincolnshire is a major agricultural producer, growing large amounts of, , , and. In South Lincolnshire, where the soil is particularly rich in nutrients, some of the most common crops include, s, and s.

Mechanisation around the turn of the 20th Century greatly diminished the number of workers required to manage the county's relatively large farms, and the proportion of workers in the agricultural sector dropped substantially during this period. Several major engineering companies developed in Lincoln and Grantham to support those changes, perhaps most famously, who built the first , and of Grantham.

Today, immigrant workers mainly from Portugal and from in Central and Eastern Europe comprise a large component of the seasonal agricultural workforce, particularly in the south of the county where more labour-intensive crops such as small vegetables and cut flowers are typically grown. This seasonal influx of migrant labour occasionally causes tension between the migrant workforce and local people, in a county which is still relatively unaccustomed to the large scale experienced by other parts of the United Kingdom.

Services and Retail
According to an study in 2000 (source), the town centres were ranked thus (including N Lincs and NE Lincs):-
 * Lincoln
 * Grantham
 * Grimsby
 * Boston and Scunthorpe (equal)
 * Spalding
 * Stamford
 * Skegness
 * Louth
 * Sleaford
 * Gainsborough
 * Brigg
 * Cleethorpes
 * Bourne
 * Horncastle and Mablethorpe (equal)

Education
Lincolnshire is one of the few counties within the UK that still uses the to decide who may attend. Despite the bias towards selection, there are many comprehensive schools in Lincolnshire with excellent records.

Transport
Being on the economic periphery of England, Lincolnshire's transport links are less well developed than many other parts of the United Kingdom. The road network within the county is dominated by single carriageway trunk roads (A roads) and minor roads (B roads) rather than or  &mdash; the administrative county of Lincolnshire is one of the small number of UK counties without a motorway and up until a few years ago, it was said that there was only approximately thirty-five kilometres (twenty-two miles) of dual carriageway in the whole of Lincolnshire. The M180 motorway passes through North Lincolnshire, splitting into two dual-carriageway trunk roads to the and Grimsby, and the A46 is now dual carriageway between Newark and Lincoln.

The low population density of the county means that the number of railway stations and train services is low considering the county's large physical size. A large number of the county's railway stations were permanently closed following the of 1963. is now the only town in Lincolnshire with a railway station served by lines running both north/south and east/west.

A daily through train service operated between and   via Grimsby,  and Lincoln until the late 1980s when it was discontinued following the electrification of the, which means that passengers now have to change trains at  when travelling to or from the Capital. However, the East Coast Main Line passes through the county and so it is possible to catch direct trains to the capital from.

The county's biggest bus company is, and other small companies also operate.

There is a local joke that Lincolnshire is the only county where most people's second car is a (a make of ).

Health care
The United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest trusts in the country, employing almost 7,000 staff and with an annual budget of over £250 million.

Lincolnshire shares the problems of elsewhere in the country when it comes to finding an NHS dentist, with waiting lists of three months not uncommon.

Some of the larger hospitals in the county include:


 * Grimsby's Diana Princess of Wales Hospital
 * Boston Pilgrim Hospital
 * Grantham and District Hospital
 * Lincoln County Hospital
 * Scunthorpe General Hospital
 * Skegness and District General Hospital
 * Louth County General Hospital

Since April 1994, Lincolnshire has had an Air Ambulance service which was extended to also cover Nottinghamshire in 1997. The air ambulance is stationed at RAF Waddington near Lincoln and can reach emergencies in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire within 19 minutes. From any accident in Lincolnshire an A&E hospital is only 10 minutes away by helicopter.

People
Lincolnshire is relatively unusual in the composition of its population, being one of the least ethnically diverse counties of the United Kingdom (98.5 percent of the population describe themselves as "white"). Over recent years inward migration by people from ethnic minority communities has increased (particularly to population centres such as Lincoln) but the absolute number of non-white Lincolnshire residents remains very low.

Recently, the county has also witnessed a growing trend towards an in-migration of retired persons from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly those from the southern counties of England attracted by the generally lower property prices and the slower and more relaxed pace of life. was recently voted the most popular place in Britain to retire to, with and  also recommended, by a recent study. The relatively high proportion of elderly and retired people is reflected in many of the services, activities and events. is considered one of the fastest growing towns in the, with many professional people moving there in order to benefit from (relatively) low house prices, low crime rate and the offered.

Those born in Lincolnshire are sometimes given the nickname of (often spelt "Yeller Bellies", to reflect the pronunciation of the phrase by the typical Lincolnshire farmer). The origin of this term is hotly debated, but is most commonly believed to derive from the uniforms of the (later the ) when they wore yellow lapels on their red coats. For this reason, the of Lincolnshire County Council is supported by two officers of the regiment.

Towns and villages
The non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire is characterised by the absence of any major urban area. The principal settlements and their populations are: (87,600),  (35,000),  (34,000),  (22,000),  (19,000), and  (15,000). Many of the towns in the county continue to hold a weekly market, a centuries-old tradition reinvigorated recently by the growth of. Most of the urbanised area of Lincolnshire is on the Humber estuary, in the unitary authorities. (including ) in, has a population of 72,000, and the / conurbation in has a population of over 120,000 (34,000 and 87,000 respectively).

For a full list of Lincolnshire towns and villages see the page.

Culture
Lincolnshire is a rural area where the pace of life is generally slower than much of the United Kingdom. Sunday is still largely a day of rest, with generally only shops in Lincoln, larger market towns, and resorts and industrial towns of the North Sea coast remaining open. Some towns and villages in the county still observe half-day closing on Thursdays. Due to the large distance between towns within the county many villages have remained very much contained with most still having shops, pubs, local halls and local chapels and churches all of which host a variety of social activities for residents. Fishing (because of the extensive river and drainage system in the fens) and shooting are popular activities. Lincolnshire's unofficial county anthem is the.

Language
The and  words of Lincolnshire are poorly known beyond the county, especially compared to more familiar accents, e.g.  or. The effects of modern media, education, and in-migration to the county have substantially diluted the traditional accent, and many dialect words have been lost over recent years. However, the accent certainly exists, and a native 'Yeller Belly' will still easily pick out a Lincolnshire speaker, possibly even being able to distinguish where in the county the speaker is from. The northern residents of Lindsey tend towards the Yorkshire dialect, with the accent of the south-east of the county (Holland and the Fens) being more similar to that of.

In common with most other and  in England, "flat" a is preferred, i.e.  over, and also in words like water, pronounced watter (though such a pronunciation is rarely heard nowadays). Similarly, is usually replaced by. Features rather more confined to Lincolnshire include: Lincolnshire has its own dialect 'champion', a from the village of  called  (real name Robert Carlton), who has produced s about rural life, narrated in his broad Lincolnshire accent, and who has a regular slot on BBC Radio Lincolnshire. A resident of, ironically one of the Lincolnshire settlements least aligned to the county's architectural style, has published a dictionary of words once prevalent in parts of the county. 
 * Elaboration of  or  into a complex  approximating, and often  -air- or -yair-. For example: "mate" ; "beast" ; "tates" (es).
 * An equivalent elaboration of standard English - commonly  in  - into -ooa-. For example "boat".
 * Insertion of an extra into the standard English  . For example, the town of  is pronounced  by its inhabitants.
 * "duck" as a term of endearment or informal address, "mardy" meaning upset or angry, "while" as a substitute for standard English "until", and the inimitable "now then!?" (hello), sometimes written nairn to reflect pronunciation, but often drawn out into a  nyEEEAaairn-myeeeaaairt!!! in the mouth of the more  and traditional speaker.
 * In the north east of the county, around Grimsby and Immingham, the 'ur' sound is identical to that in Liverpool, so that bear, bare and burr all rhyme.

Food
Lincolnshire has a number of interesting local dishes:
 * Stuffed chine - this is salted neck-chine of a pig taken from between the shoulder blades of a pig, salted for up to ten months and stuffed with  (other ingredients are normally kept secret).  Served cold, it's considered by many in the county to be an acquired taste
 * - a type of pork loaf, also flavoured with sage (pronounced HAYSS-let in Lincolnshire but HAZ-let in many other parts of the county)
 * Lincolnshire pork - most butchers in Lincolnshire have their own secret recipe for these and a competition is held each year to judge the best sausages in the county
 * Traditional s are made entirely from these ingredients - Minced Pork, stale bread crumb (rusk is used nowadays) pepper, sage and salt. Nothing else! The skins should be nothing other than natural casings which are made from the intestines of either sheep or pig.


 * Pork pies - the same pork butchers will take a pride in their unique recipe for pork pies.
 * Plum bread - as with, plum refers to dried fruit in this context, namely currants, raisins and sultanas sometimes soaked in tea.
 * Grantham Gingerbread- a hard white ginger biscuit no longer commercially available.
 * ales - a brewed in  and served in many pubs in the county and further afield
 * Grimsby is renowned for its fishing industry and historically Grimsby Fish has carried a premium price. Sadly, since the decline of the fishing industry in the 1970s this is no longer the case, with the majority of fish sold at the town's fish market being brought overland from other ports. However Grimsby Fish is still a recognised product, one associated with a particular area that specialises in and is knowledgable of a particular trade (such as Sheffield steel or Nottingham lace).

Events
Every year the which was founded in 1869 stages the. It is held on the Wednesday and Thursday of the last whole week of June at its Showground at, a few miles north of on the , which first held the show at this site in 1958. First held around the year 1884, it is one of the largest agricultural shows in the country, and is attended by around 100,000 people over its two days. The Showground is in regular use throughout the year for a wide range of other events and functions.

Each year is the home to the. The two day event attracts around 100,000 people and usually takes place during the last weekend of June.

On the Monday before Easter, an unusual auction takes place in to let the grazing rights of the ''Whitebread Meadow|| . Bidding takes place while two boys race toward the Queen's Bridge in Eastgate, the end of which dash is equivalent to the falling of the gavel. The whole affair dates back to the 1742 will of William Clay.

sheep fair has been held every year since 1238.

The village competition takes place every January, as it has for over 700 years.

Mid-Lent fair sees showmen converge on the town the week after Mothering Sunday, rides and sideshows filling Broad Street and Sheepmarket for a week. The following week sees them in.

Also there is a popular Belchford Downhill Challenge which is held every year where soapbox racers race down the hill at up to 50Kmph. The turnout have been up to 3,000.

In recent years, a candlelit street market throughout the town, has been held at the start of December. Around the same time Christmas lights are turned on in, , , and many other towns.

Throughout the summer The Stamford Shakespeare Company presents the Bard's plays in the open air theatre at, which is actually in.

Flower Parade is held in late spring every year. Colourful floats decorated with tulip heads compete for a cup. The tradition was started in 1959, and draws coach tours from across Britain.

Symbols


The unofficial anthem of the county is the traditional folk song, '', which dates from around 1776. A version of the song was the theme to for many years.

According to a 2002 marketing campaign by the charity, the of Lincolnshire is the.

In August 2005, and  magazine launched a vote for an official flag to represent the county. Six competing designs were voted upon by locals. The winning submission was unveiled in October 2005 - see here. Lincoln has its own flag - St George's flag with a Fleur-de-Lys.

The has symbolised Cathedral, City, and county for many years. In 2006 it was replaced as the 'brand' of Lincolnshire County Council by the stylised version seen on the header here which has lost even the unique pose of the carving.

Television
The area is covered by all the major terrestrial and satellite networks. In particular the has, since 2003, provided the area with a dedicated news service, BBC Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, with main studios in  and facilities in Grimsby and Lincoln. Prior to this the area was in the BBC region, based in.

From 1959 to July 1974 programmes were provided by  (although some coverage could be received from the -based  and ). Based in the company had news offices in Grimsby and Lincoln. Following a transmitter change ITV services were provided by. This company kept open the offices in Grimsby and Lincoln, although these finally closed in the mid-1990s.

Radio
The area is covered by several local radio stations including:


 * Can be heard throughout historic Lincolnshire although its' broadcast remit is the present county of Lincolnshire
 * The counties of northern Lincolnshire that were formerly known as South Humberside
 * Newark
 * Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham
 * Peterborough
 * Historic Lincolnshire
 * Grantham
 * Lincoln
 * Boston
 * Spalding and South Holland

Places of interest

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