Bicker, Lincolnshire

Bicker is a village in Lincolnshire, England. It is around nine miles west-south-west of Boston, on the A52.

It is one of eighteen parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston in the county of Lincolnshire, England. The local government has been arranged in this way since the reorganization of April 1 1974, which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972. This parish forms part of the Five Villages electoral ward.

Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District, in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as "parts") of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the Local Government Act of 1888, Holland had been in most respects, a county in itself.

The medieval estuary, Bicker Haven took the name by which we remember it from the town of Bicker, which is now a village. It originally formed the outlet of the River Witham which diverted to Boston after a flood in 1014.Once the English settlers began to enclose the marsh for pasture and the tide no longer flushed the haven out, it silted up and the nature of Bicker changed from port to farming village. This was a process which had already begun in the Donington branch of the haven. Bicker seems to mean 'the town marsh' (cf. Swedish "Bykärr", meaning the same), the town being Donington.

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