Motorhome in Lincolnshire - City on the hill
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Lincolnshire Showground is going to be all motorhomes for the weekend of the Motorhome Show Season Finale (20-22 September this year) and we’re on a mission to make full use of the cheap pitching, the accessory stalls and the evening entertainment while using this as a base to get under the skin of a city that’s tantalizingly close.
There’s no shortage of places to eat in Lincoln. One of our favourites, The Cheese Café, is tucked away in a white building on St Martin’s Lane. It’s home to The Cheese Society, a mail order emporium that offers a spectacular range of artisan cheeses, and the café is friendly and serves up delicious nosh to the point that it gets pretty crowded. We want to be there when it opens at 10am to buy cured bacon sandwiches and home-made cheese scones, and to stock up on Lincolnshire Poacher (a hard Cheddar-like cheese made of unpasteurized milk) before the place gets too busy.
Then we head up Steep Hill, where you’ll find Lincoln’s prettiest little shops and more cafés on a cobbled street which
pens out to its cathedral at the top. There are lots of great things to look at as you catch your breath on the way up – and unless you’re very fit you’ll need all that breath. Steep Hill deserves its name and it’s too narrow for cars so the only way to reach the cathedral from here is on foot.
The architecture of the old town is amazing – there are half-timbered Tudor buildings near the top of the street and even two Norman ones. Jew’s House and Norman House were once home to wealthy Jewish merchants and have stone mullion windows. Next to and above Jew’s House stands the oldest synagogue in Britain, built between 1150 and 1180 and used until all the Jewish community were banished from England just over a century later. There are services here again now, although when we go inside it’s to make use of the bookshop that takes up part of the building.
The cathedral and castle
A visit to Lincoln can get quite expensive – there are so many little shops selling high quality handbags, exclusive fashions, and even Russian matryoshka dolls, while for the technically inclined in your party there’s a camera shop on Silver Street, and a very good hi-fi shop on the High Street. But you can just as easily come here and subsist on the odd snack, treating the place like a rather beautiful landscape. But for something more substantial, lunch at the brilliant Brown’s Pie Shop is an essential, and the Wig and Mitre pub is lovely – tunnel-like and serving great food.
Lincoln’s cathedral is visible from just about everywhere and once you reach it you can see the whole city laid out in front of you. This central area of Castle Square is green and scenic. There are several ways to climb yet higher, as well as there being quite a lot to explore. We’ve discovered that it’s pretty much impossible to visit more than one thing per day in Castle Square. The cathedral takes at least two hours, preferably longer, and the same goes for Lincoln Castle.
This is not just any cathedral. Building began just after the Norman Conquest, as part of an attempt by William the Conqueror to consolidate his power across England and, when a new spire was built in 1311, it was the first building in the world to be taller than Egypt’s pyramids – it remained the tallest building in the world for around 300 years. It’s so tall that peregrines, usually at home on sheer cliffs, make it their home.
Belton House
Probably the most magnificent country house in Lincolnshire, Belton House is well worth the 21-mile drive from Lincoln, and we’re glad we decided to go on Sunday; once there we discover that it’s shut each Monday to Wednesday, except on bank holidays. Belton, like a lot of National Trust stately piles, has been a popular location for period drama. It was the setting for the 1997 TV series The History of Tom Jones.
Although Belton is Lincolnshire’s star among stately homes it’s not the only one worth visiting. King Canute’s father, the Danish King Sweyn, once had his centre of power a few miles to the west of Lincoln, at Gainsborough Castle. Now, where the castle stood, there is a distinctive fifteenth century building, Gainsborough Old Hall. It’s one of the best-preserved timber buildings in the UK, open to the public all year round. The medieval architecture is astonishing – you can see inside the medieval kitchens and onto the roof of the tower.
Lincolnshire countryside
Lincoln is set in a quiet landscape and on Monday morning we head east to get a feel for the villages and the rolling landscape of the Wolds.
If you like antiques, then don’t miss the town of Horncastle. It’s a small place with a disproportionately high number of antique shops, mainly in Horncastle’s centre though our favourite is in a deconsecrated chapel on East Street. The antiques trade is struggling at the moment and there have been a few closures, which seemed to us to be rather sad, but you might just grab something special at a bargain price.
Lincolnshire has a huge number of surviving mills including Ellis Windmill in Lincoln itself, though most are in countryside locations. One of the best is Claythorpe Watermill and Wildfowl Gardens, which you’ll find ten minutes from the seaside at Mablethorpe – there are wild birds, cream teas and even an enchanted wood. However, it’s worth braving the one-way system in the centre of Boston to see its last remaining windmill. Maud Foster Mill, the unusual five-sailed windmill in the town, has freshly milled flour for our bread maker at home, and a lovely café overlooking the river, as well as a personal one-to-one tour up the tower.
We leave Lincolnshire with homemade cake, freshly milled flour, a bag of sweets from Goodies and a fridge full of Lincolnshire Poacher cheese, all of which made our excursions a great addition to the show weekend.
Where to stay - recommended campsites in the area:
The Motorhome Show Season Finale
Lincolnshire Showground (north of Lincoln)
Web: www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/shows Dates for 2013: 20-22 September
Charges: Show admission and site fees for up to two adults and three children in one unit are £55 (non-booked) and £45 (pre-booked) for four nights starting on Thursday. A three-night stay starting on Friday costs £52 (non-booked) or £42 (pre-booked). Additional adults, £15. There are no hook-ups.
Note: Pre-booking closes at 10am on 2 September.
At other times of year there are several good, small campsites within easy reach of the city. Here are two:
Hartsholme Country Park Campsite
(west of Lincoln), Skellingthorpe Road, Lincoln LN6 0EY
Web: www.lincoln.gov.uk/hartsholmecampsite Open: 1 March to 31 October
Charges: From £15.10 (two adults, pitch, hook-up)
Shortferry Caravan Park
(east of Lincoln), Ferry Road, Fiskerton, Lincoln LN3 4HU
Web: www.shortferry.co.uk Open: All year
Charges: £18 (up to six adults, pitch and hook-up)
This excerpt was taken from the September 2013 issue of MMM magazine, which as well as Lincoln, also features motorhome travel articles on:
The architecture of the old town is amazing – there are half-timbered Tudor buildings near the top of the street and even two Norman ones. Jew’s House and Norman House were once home to wealthy Jewish merchants and have stone mullion windows. Next to and above Jew’s House stands the oldest synagogue in Britain, built between 1150 and 1180 and used until all the Jewish community were banished from England just over a century later. There are services here again now, although when we go inside it’s to make use of the bookshop that takes up part of the building.
The cathedral and castle
A visit to Lincoln can get quite expensive – there are so many little shops selling high quality handbags, exclusive fashions, and even Russian matryoshka dolls, while for the technically inclined in your party there’s a camera shop on Silver Street, and a very good hi-fi shop on the High Street. But you can just as easily come here and subsist on the odd snack, treating the place like a rather beautiful landscape. But for something more substantial, lunch at the brilliant Brown’s Pie Shop is an essential, and the Wig and Mitre pub is lovely – tunnel-like and serving great food.
Lincoln’s cathedral is visible from just about everywhere and once you reach it you can see the whole city laid out in front of you. This central area of Castle Square is green and scenic. There are several ways to climb yet higher, as well as there being quite a lot to explore. We’ve discovered that it’s pretty much impossible to visit more than one thing per day in Castle Square. The cathedral takes at least two hours, preferably longer, and the same goes for Lincoln Castle.
This is not just any cathedral. Building began just after the Norman Conquest, as part of an attempt by William the Conqueror to consolidate his power across England and, when a new spire was built in 1311, it was the first building in the world to be taller than Egypt’s pyramids – it remained the tallest building in the world for around 300 years. It’s so tall that peregrines, usually at home on sheer cliffs, make it their home.
Belton House
Although Belton is Lincolnshire’s star among stately homes it’s not the only one worth visiting. King Canute’s father, the Danish King Sweyn, once had his centre of power a few miles to the west of Lincoln, at Gainsborough Castle. Now, where the castle stood, there is a distinctive fifteenth century building, Gainsborough Old Hall. It’s one of the best-preserved timber buildings in the UK, open to the public all year round. The medieval architecture is astonishing – you can see inside the medieval kitchens and onto the roof of the tower.
Lincolnshire countryside
Lincoln is set in a quiet landscape and on Monday morning we head east to get a feel for the villages and the rolling landscape of the Wolds.
If you like antiques, then don’t miss the town of Horncastle. It’s a small place with a disproportionately high number of antique shops, mainly in Horncastle’s centre though our favourite is in a deconsecrated chapel on East Street. The antiques trade is struggling at the moment and there have been a few closures, which seemed to us to be rather sad, but you might just grab something special at a bargain price.
Lincolnshire has a huge number of surviving mills including Ellis Windmill in Lincoln itself, though most are in countryside locations. One of the best is Claythorpe Watermill and Wildfowl Gardens, which you’ll find ten minutes from the seaside at Mablethorpe – there are wild birds, cream teas and even an enchanted wood. However, it’s worth braving the one-way system in the centre of Boston to see its last remaining windmill. Maud Foster Mill, the unusual five-sailed windmill in the town, has freshly milled flour for our bread maker at home, and a lovely café overlooking the river, as well as a personal one-to-one tour up the tower.
We leave Lincolnshire with homemade cake, freshly milled flour, a bag of sweets from Goodies and a fridge full of Lincolnshire Poacher cheese, all of which made our excursions a great addition to the show weekend.
Where to stay - recommended campsites in the area:
The Motorhome Show Season Finale
Lincolnshire Showground (north of Lincoln)
Web: www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/shows Dates for 2013: 20-22 September
Charges: Show admission and site fees for up to two adults and three children in one unit are £55 (non-booked) and £45 (pre-booked) for four nights starting on Thursday. A three-night stay starting on Friday costs £52 (non-booked) or £42 (pre-booked). Additional adults, £15. There are no hook-ups.
Note: Pre-booking closes at 10am on 2 September.
At other times of year there are several good, small campsites within easy reach of the city. Here are two:
Hartsholme Country Park Campsite
(west of Lincoln), Skellingthorpe Road, Lincoln LN6 0EY
Web: www.lincoln.gov.uk/hartsholmecampsite Open: 1 March to 31 October
Charges: From £15.10 (two adults, pitch, hook-up)
Shortferry Caravan Park
(east of Lincoln), Ferry Road, Fiskerton, Lincoln LN3 4HU
Web: www.shortferry.co.uk Open: All year
Charges: £18 (up to six adults, pitch and hook-up)
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