Lincoln

We drove into Lincoln to visit the castle and cathedral. Nicola particularly wanted to do it today because, while evensong is held every day a 17:30, she particularly liked the programme for Monday.

We parked in the central car park and walked through the city centre. Most of this is now given over to the usual retail suspects, but elements of the old town still persist. 

To get to the castle and cathedral you have to walk up a steep hill called Steep Hill. Imaginative bunch, medieval town planners! It’s very old and picturesque, so we stopped often to take pictures, and not to catch our breath, oh no, no, no, not at all!

Actually one of the less steep sections

The castle was built by William The Conqueror in 1068, as part of his conquering. Wherever he went, he built a castle, with the aim being that his men could ride between them at any time in less than a day, thus saving them from being caught out in the open. He didn’t have that many men when he first arrived, and England was still very much not-properly-conquered, so his army had to subdue numerous rebellions and uprisings around the country. He built around 500 in total, many of which are still around today.

Actually, the law courts

The castle is built on a hill (unusual in Lincolnshire), the site of an old Roman fort, which gives long views in all directions – always a key consideration when locating your castle. Lincoln was a major city at the time, part of the Danelaw. The castle was originally built of wood, later of stone, and is unusual in that it has two mottes, the first named Lucy’s Tower after Lucy of Bolingbroke, sherriff of Lincoln in the 12^th century. We learned all about the history and personalities associated with the castle from our guided walk, which was more of a “walk 100 yards, stop and listen for 10 minutes” than an actual walk. Our guide Marion took us to half a dozen locations and explained their history and significance.

 

There's a dragon in the wall

By the time we’d finished, we decided to take a break for lunch, and found Café Zoot round the corner. Duly refreshed, we went back to the castle to do the walk around the castle wall, then into the Victorian prison to view the original Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest, two important documents in England’s history. Whilst Magna Carta is well-known, the Charter of the Forests actually affected ordinary people far more, as it returned to common use  huge swathes of land. Around ⅔ of all land in England had been seized by Kings Richard III and John as hunting grounds, and it was illegal for anyone else to hunt, or plant crops, there. People were starving. As part of his efforts to ensure that John’s successor, Henry III, would be seen as good king, the regent William Marshal convinced Henry to re-sign it. It had been originally signed under John, but he had it annulled by the pope three months later.

The castle had its ups and downs, fell into desuetude, but was revived in the 18^th century when a prison was built there. The castle had always held prisoners and had been a centre for the courts – indeed, the modern-day crown court is inside the castle walls – but this was a purpose-built, three-story building which followed the new regime of isolation, i.e. prisoners had very little contact with each other, which could lead to bad habits, but were kept isolated in order to reflect on their crimes. This isolation extended to the prison chapel, where each prisoner was in a separate cubicle looking forward, and could not see of communicate with others. This chapel is the last surviving one of this type.

 OK, that’s enough castles. After a quick tea-break, we crossed over the road to the cathedral, and toured that. They have many splendid things there, including two huge rose windows, the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye. It also has an imp. Amongst its famous inhabitants are the viscera of Eleanor of Castile. Medieval embalming involved evisceration – the tomb in Westminster palace is exactly the same as the one in Lincoln cathedral. They were a weird lot, those medievals. Also, the tomb of Little Hugh can be found here.

 Whilst Nicola attended evensong at the cathedral, I headed back down Steep Hill, stopping in at Steep Hill Wines and Marks & Spencer for some essentials, then drove the car up to a convenient car park to pick Nicola up from the cathedral. This was harder than it sounds, as the road that Sattie wanted to take me down was closed, so I had to circle around whilst she recalculated directions. Made it there eventually though, and sat in the Magna Carta pub until she arrived.

By the time we got home it was early evening so we decided to go the local pub for dinner.