Lincolnshire

The county of Lincolnshire is located in the East Midlands of England, beside the North Sea. It shares boundaries with the counties of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the northwest, and Leicestershire and Rutland to the north. It shares a short boundary with Northamptonshire to the south, at only 20 yards (19m), making it England's shortest county. Lincoln serves as both county seat and seat of government.

Lincolnshire is both the non-metropolitan county and the region covered by the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, making up the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. The ceremonial county is located in both the East Midlands and the Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. The county is the second largest in terms of land area among England's ceremonial counties. Because North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire are considered separate unitary administrations, the county is actually the fourth largest of the two-tier counties.

Lincolnshire is divided into several distinct regions, including the chalk hills of the Lincolnshire Wolds, the flatlands of the Lincolnshire Fens in the county's southeast, the hilly limestone uplands of South Kesteven in the county's southwest, and the industrial Humber Estuary and North Sea coast around Grimsby and Scunthorpe.

Geography

Lincolnshire has a large geography, split by many rivers and miles of rolling terrain. Where the rivers Ouse and Trent converge, north of the Humber, is where the county proper begins, on the Isle of Axholme. From there, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are separated by the southern bank of the Humber estuary. The ports of Immingham, New Holland, and Grimsby are located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, near where the Humber Bridge spans the estuary in Barton upon Humber. Cleethorpes, Mablethorpe, and Skegness are the other towns that make up the Lincolnshire Coast on the southern side. The Wash marks the sea boundary and border between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, which is formed by the rest of the Lincolnshire coastline beyond Skegness. At that point, the seashore in Boston is where the rivers Welland and Haven converge.

Sutton Bridge marks the beginning of the Nene River, which separates Cambridgeshire from Norfolk at the coast of the North Sea. Crowland, Market Deeping, and Stamford, located on the county's southern border with Peterborough, Rutland, and briefly Northamptonshire, mark the beginning of Cambridgeshire's border with Lincolnshire. Sleaford, Grantham, Lincoln, and Gainsborough mark the start of the boundary with Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Bordering South Yorkshire from Gainsborough's Haxey and Epworth, then looping back to the county's original north near Scunthorpe, East Riding of Yorkshire's Isle of Axholme and Goole form the county's original northern border.

Lincolnshire is located in the East Midlands, and its bedrock consists of Jurassic limestone (near Lincoln) and Cretaceous chalk (north-east). Granular and sandy soils predominate in the region surrounding Woodhall Spa and Kirkby on Bain.

Most fossils found in Lincolnshire are of marine invertebrates, as the county was covered by tropical seas for a large portion of its prehistoric history. Other creatures from the sea, such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, have also been discovered.

Wolds Top (168 m, 551 ft), located in Normanby le Wold, is Lincolnshire's highest point. It's possible that the Fens go down to sea level in some spots. Derbyshire is home to the nearest mountains.

Lincolnshire's two major rivers are the Witham, which begins in Lincolnshire at South Witham and flows for 132 km (82 miles) through the middle of the county before emptying into the North Sea at The Wash (from Staffordshire) and the Trent, which runs northwards from Staffordshire up the western edge of the county to the Humber estuary. On Lincolnshire's northern border is the estuary of the Humber, which is supplied by the River Ouse. Welland, Nene, and Great Ouse all empty into the Wash.

Economy

Growing vast quantities of wheat, barley, sugar beet, and oilseed rape is a mainstay in Lincolnshire, which has historically been a farming center. South Lincolnshire is known for its fertile soil, which is used to grow a wide variety of vegetables. The agricultural yields of Lincolnshire farmers regularly set new world records. Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research conducts research for the British potato industry and is one of the top agricultural experiment stations in the UK. It is run by the Potato Council and is located in South Lincolnshire.

The Lincoln Longwool is an extremely rare sheep breed that takes its name from the area it was produced in. The Lincoln Longwool was bred for its wool and mutton beginning at least 500 years ago.

A traditional breed of beef cow, the Lincoln Red can be traced back to the county of its namesake. Due to cheap wool imports, economies of scale, and the drier ground on the eastern side of England, most farms in Lincolnshire shifted away from mixed farming to specialize in arable cropping in the middle of the twentieth century.

After 1900, mechanization dramatically reduced the need for labor on the county's relatively large farms, and the percentage of the workforce engaged in agriculture saw a dramatic decline. Lincoln, Gainsborough, and Grantham saw the rise of several significant engineering firms to facilitate these transformations. Fosters of Lincoln, who constructed the first tank, and Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham were two of these companies. During the economic shifts of the late 20th century, several of these manufacturing giants up and left.

An increasing share of the seasonal agricultural workforce today comes from immigrant workers, particularly those from new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe, who are concentrated in the south of the country. Small vegetables and cut flowers, which require more human labor, are grown here. In a county that had previously been unused to large-scale immigration, this seasonal surge of migrant labor can occasionally lead to tension between the migrant workforce and local inhabitants. Training in agriculture is available at Riseholme College, and in 2016, the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology opened at the University of Lincoln.