लिंकन

Understand

thumb | 300px | Robin Hood keeps his coat of Lincoln Green nice and dry across the wetland Much of prehistoric Lincolnshire was wetland, but a scarp of chalk and sandstone ran north-south, a natural transport corridor and vantage point. The River Witham broke through midway, so you had to descend from the scarp, squelch across the valley then climb the other side. The Romans turned this route into Ermine Street and colonised the north slope as Lindum. The river was navigable yet the upper settlement was flood-free, so Lindum prospered through agriculture and as an ecclestiastical centre. Thus Lincoln became a substantial medieval cathedral city; its woollen wear was dyed with blue woad and yellow meld to create "Lincoln Green".

The city saw strife with 12th century civil wars and anti-semitic pogroms, French incursions, the Dissolution of the Monasteries which cut ecclesiastic income, and the 17th century civil wars. It recovered with advances in agriculture of the Georgian era, especially the drainage of Lincolnshire which greatly increased arable land. It developed heavy industry in the 19th century but from the visitors' point of view had two strokes of luck. The Great North Road (later A1) took a more westerly route from Peterborough through Newark to avoid the Humber, as did the London-York railway, and city industry was down in the valley not up on the scarp. This meant that the medieval centre wasn't re-developed, and remains one of the most attractive in Britain. …

Get around

Walk wherever possible. The medieval spine of town isn't suitable for anything more elaborate than a pack-mule or hand-cart. A sightseeing bus circulates in summer.

Stagecoach is the main bus operator but there are ten others. Buses you might use are the 2, 31, 33, 34 south for Bomber Command, 3, 8, 18 for Museum of Lincolnshire Life, and 16, 48, 49, 83 southwest for Hykeham.

The Walk & Ride bus doesn't come into the station, but circles Silver St, the cathedral, Lincoln Hotel, Bailgate, The Lawn, Castle Square, Park St and so back to Silver St. It runs every 20 min.

Car hire is available from Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty and Enterprise

Taxi operators are City Cars (), Dan's (+44 7929 633469) and Direct Cars (). There's a taxi rank by the railway station.

Hire Bike Lincoln have shared pedal and e-bikes. Casual use is £3 / hour up to 3 hours, or you can register for longer use. They're more useful for the suburbs than exploring the old centre: there are docking stations at Newport Arch and Union St but none just by the castle or cathedral.