County town: Lincoln
Lincolnshire was established as a shire in the 10th century centred on Lincoln, one of the four great coloniae of Roman Britain. It incorporated much of the former Danelaw territory and retains a strong Scandinavian character in its place-names.
Lincolnshire is one of England's largest counties by area, encompassing the Fenland basin in the south, the chalk and limestone Wolds in the east, and the flat Lincoln Edge in the west. Lincoln itself, sited on a limestone ridge above the Witham, was one of the most important cities of Roman and medieval England — its cathedral, begun in 1072, was the tallest building in the world for over two centuries. The county's rich agricultural land, much of it reclaimed from the Fens, made it extremely prosperous in the medieval period. Boston, on the Wash, was at times the second busiest port in England for the wool trade.
Lincolnshire was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 743 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.
Browse 743 Domesday settlements in LincolnshireEngland's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Lincolnshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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