Renowned environmental historian I.G. Simmons synthesizes detailed
research into the landscape history of the coastal area of Lincolnshire
between Boston and Skegness and its hinterland of Tofts, Low Grounds and
Fen as far as the Wolds. With many excellent illustrations Simmons
chronicles the ways in which this low coast, backed by a wet fen, has
been managed to display a set of landscapes which have significant
differences that contradict the common terminology of uniformity,
calling the area 'flat' or referring to everywhere from Cleethorpes to
King's Lynn as 'the fens'.
These usually labeled 'flat' areas of East Lincolnshire between
Mablethorpe and Boston are in fact a mosaic of subtly different
landscapes. They have become that way largely due to the human
influences derived from agriculture and industry. Between the beginning
of Norman rule and the advent of pumped drainage, a number of
significant changes took place.
The author has accumulated information from Roman times until the
beginnings of fossil-fuel powered drainage, bringing together both
scientific data and documentary evidence including medieval and early
modern documents from the National Archive, Lincolnshire Archives,
Bethlem Hospital and Magdalen College, Oxford, to explore the
little-known archives of regional interest.
