Holbeach

infobox UK place
country = England
map_type= Lincolnshire
latitude= 52.8037
longitude= 0.0154
official_name= Holbeach
population = 9,448
shire_district= South Holland
shire_county = Lincolnshire
region= East Midlands
constituency_westminster= South Holland and The Deepings
post_town= SPALDING|postcode_district = PE12
postcode_area= PE
dial_code= 01406 42****
os_grid_reference= TF358248

Holbeach is a fenland market town with approximately 5,000 residents in the South Holland district of southern Lincolnshire. The town lies 8 miles from Spalding; 17 from Boston; 20 from King's Lynn; 23 from Peterborough; and a long 43 miles (69 km) by road from the county town of Lincoln. It is on the junction of the A151 and A17. The main High Street is the B1515.

History

The town's market charter was awarded in 1252 to Thomas de Moulton, a local baron. The magnificent All Saints' Church was built in the fourteenth century, and incorporated parts of de Moulton's ruined castle.

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the sea came to within two miles of the town, and there were severe floods recorded in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The land drainage programmes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries moved the coastline of The Wash to nine miles away, leaving Holbeach surrounded by more than 23,000 acres (93 km²) of reclaimed fertile agricultural land.

Multiple Holbeaches

The name "Holbeach" also applies to the entire parish of Holbeach. This is one of the largest parishes by area in England and extends from Cambridgeshire to the Wash, measuring sixteen miles north to south and about three to four miles east to west. The total population of this area is almost 24,000 with around 5,000 in Holbeach town.

Along with the town of Holbeach proper, the name is found in several villages in the Lincolnshire Fens:
* Holbeach St. Matthew
* Holbeach St. Marks
* Holbeach St. Johns
* Holbeach Hurn
* Holbeach Drove
* Holbeach Clough
* Holbeach BankThis repetition of a name for a collection of close-lying villages is common in the Fens (cf. "Gedney", "Tydd", "Walpole" etc.)

Facilities

Education

econdary schools

The local secondary school is the George Farmer Technology College [http://www.georgefarmer.lincs.sch.uk/] , also on Park Road.

University

Holbeach is home to a campus of the University of Lincoln, redeveloped in 2004 on the Park Road site of the former Holbeach Agricultural Centre, and now known as Holbeach Technology Park. The campus is dedicated to the study of food manufacturing technology.

Pubs

Local pubs are the Black Bull on Fleet Street, the Chequers Hotel on the High Street, the Exchange Inn on Church Street, the Horse & Groom on the High Street, the Mansion House on the High Street, the Red Lion on Spalding Road, the Station Inn on Station Street, and the String of Horses on Boston Road South.

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force maintains a bombing range, known officially as RAF Holbeach, on salt marshland at the coast of Holbeach parish, near the village of Gedney Drove End. The RAF base is situated approximately 11 miles north-west of Holbeach Town Centre.

port

The local football team are Holbeach United Football Club, founded in 1929. They play in the United Counties League of the English football league system, and are known as "The Tigers", in reference to the "Fen Tigers", eighteenth-century locals who adopted guerrilla tactics in an attempt to stop the destruction of their way of life through the draining of the Fens.

Speedway racing took place at nearby Bell End. Details of the events are sketchy and some reports suggest the venue had grass surfaced straights and dirt surfaced bends. The venue is known to have operated in the immediate post WW2 era.

Local economy

Much of the economy has been based on food processing and bulb growing. The UK's largest bulb supplier (Taylors Bulbs) is situated to the North of the Town and flour milling continues to this day at Barrington Mill (owned by Smiths Flour Mills).

Radio

The town is served by the local South Holland station Tulip Radio on air two months of the year from nearby Spalding.

Famous Holbeachians

* Norman Angell - Nobel Peace Prize winner 1933
* Boz Burrell - bass guitarist known for his involvement in bands such as King Crimson and Bad Company
* Geoff Capes - shotputter and former World's Strongest Man
* Cyril Lowe MC DFC, England rugby international, First World War flying ace, and supposedly the inspiration for W. E. Johns' character "Biggles"
* Christine Russell ("née" Carr) - Labour MP for Chester
* Stuart Storey - BBC Sports commentator
* William Stukeley F.R.S., F.R.C.P., F.S.A. (1687–1765) antiquarian who pioneered the archaeological investigation of Stonehenge and Avebury was born here

External links

* [http://www.holbeachtoday.net Holbeach Today]
* [http://www.visitlincolnshire.com/exec/104152/2710 Visit Lincolnshire]
* [http://www.lincolnshirelife.co.uk/pages/holbeach.html Lincolnshire Life]
* [http://www.holbeachtownband.org.uk Holbeach Town Band]
* [http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/holbeach University Campus]