Did You Know?

The name Lincoln is believed to derive from the Iron Age Celtic Lindon, meaning pool by the hill; a reference to the Brayford pool and the hill upon which the modern city stands. These features provided good fishing, farming, transport links and defences against other tribes.

Around 2,000 years ago, the Romans also saw the potential of the local topography and built a legionary fortress on the hill, the ruins of which can still be seen today. This was known as Lindum Colonia and gave rise to the city’s modern name Lincoln.

It became an important trading centre under the Vikings, and many of the modern street names, such as Danesgate and Flaxengate, derive from this period.

Magna Carta, the historic book that paved the way for devolved rights and power in Britain, as opposed to the absolute power monarchs previously held. It is old, over 800 years to be specific and one of only four copies can be found in Lincoln Castle.

Lincoln’s magnificent cathedral has been the city’s iconic centrepiece for many centuries, and can be seen for many miles around. But did you know that it was once the tallest building in the world? 

By 1150, it was among the wealthiest towns in England. The basis of the economy was cloth and wool, exported to Flanders; the weavers had set up a guild in 1130 to produce Cloth, especially the fine dyed 'scarlet' and 'green', the reputation of which was later enhanced by Robin Hood wearing woollens of Lincoln green.

Did you know that Lincoln was once home to the world’s tallest building, or that it will host the world’s first ever robotic farm? Or that Downton Abbey and the Da Vinci Code were filmed here?.

Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza was the world’s tallest man-made structure for thousands of years, until it was finally surpassed by Lincoln Cathedral, reaching just short of 160 metres tall when an expansion was completed in 1311.

When Eleanor of Castile – the wife of King Edward ‘Longshanks’ I – made a voyage from to Lincoln from London in 1290, she would sadly never arrive. She died in the village of Harby, around 50 kilometres outside the city. The king was distraught.

it is home to one of the UK’s best-preserved castles, and although it is not as physically imposing as the cathedral, it parallels it in historical significance. Nearly 1,000 years old, Lincoln Castle was built by William the Conqueror on the site of a Roman fort just two years after the Norman-French army’s victory at the Battle of Hastings.

These days it is counted among the UK’s smaller cities; the current population of around 100,000 doesn’t even rank it in the top 70. But it hasn’t always been like that. Population records become sketchier the further back you go, but we do know that in Roman times it was one of the largest settlements in the country.