Tattershall, Coningsby and Tattershall Thorpe

The Bede Houses were built in the 17th century to replace Ralph Cromwell's half-timbered houses. Benefits enjoyed by their tenants included cauldrons of coal and lengths of red flannel for petticoats. The Holy Trinity Church nearby was founded by Cromwell in 1439, but he did not live to see it completed. It is built of Ancaster stone.

The unique tower of Cromwell's Tattershall Castle was built in about 1445 on the foundations of Tateshall's fortress. This keep dominates the village and is a landmark for some distance over the Lincolnshire Fens. From the battlements, on a clear day, it is possible to see Boston Stump and the towers of Lincoln Cathedral.

The route follows the River Bain to the town of Coningsby, and on this stretch the walk borders RAF Coningsby, which served the country during World War II and remains an active and strategic airbase. You are likely to enjoy your own personal air show as aircraft train and deploy from the airbase on a daily basis. The town boundary of Coningsby runs along the center of the River Bain. In the 1790s the river was converted into a canal between Horncastle and the River Witham. At the time of the Domesday Book, Coningsby was a prosperous place with ten fisheries. Its Church of St Michael and All Angels has a 15th-century tower with a pathway through it and a one-handed clock 16.5 feet in diameter, thought to be the largest of its kind in the world.

The route leaves the river to cross the former railway line that once served Coningsby. The line was opened in 1913 by the Great Northern Railway to speed holiday traffic to the Lincolnshire seaside resorts of Skegness, Mablethorpe, and Sutton-on-Sea. The line was closed in 1970, two years after all the stations had become unstaffed halts.

Beyond the line is Tattershall Thorpe. It was once the location for a Roman summer camp. The Blue Bell Inn here is thought to date from 1329 and was an ancient hostelry on a drove road; its priest's hole is a relic of the Civil War. Tattershall Carr and Tattershall Thorpe Carr, important ancient woodland sites, are now managed by the Woodland Trust — oases in the intensively farmed agricultural land through which the walk returns to Tattershall Market Place.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.