Places to Visit
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| Churches in South Holland |
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In Lincolnshire you can find one of the finest collections of medieval churches of any county in England. These churches were built in the perpendicular style on the wealth of the wool trade. It could be said that influential landowners were buying a place in Heaven!!
Spalding town centre boasts the Parish Council of St Mary and St Nicolas which overlooks the River Welland.
In the north of the District, in Donington, there is the church of St Mary and the Holy Rood, where you can find memorials to the 19th century explorer, Matthew Flinders, famous for surveying the Australian coast. To the south is the church of St Mary in Tydd St Mary's.
In Anglo Saxon times the areas of dry land that rose above the fen attracted the attention of religious communities. This explains why the oldest churches are situated in a ring around the Wash. These include St Mary's, Weston with its colourful kneelers, All Saints, Moulton, famous for its Adam and Eve font and St Mary's, Whaplode where there is a monument to the local family of magnates, the Irby's. From here you can continue to the market town of Holbeach where the entrance porch to All Saints church resembles a castle and then on to Fleet, where the church of St Mary Magdalene has an attractive lych gate and a detached steeple.
At Gedney's St Mary Magdalene, also known as 'The Cathedral of the Fens', this building is noted for its clerestory of 12 closely spaced windows and, at Long Sutton, you will find the unusual lead spire of St Mary's, said to be the oldest of its kind in England.
Away from the Wash are several more beautiful Medieval churches including St Guthlacs at Crowland. This is part of the former abbey, founded by St Guthlac who, in 699AD, sought a life of solitude and comtemplation.
Other noteworthy churches include St Laurence in Surfleet which is recognisable by its tower which leans 6 feet out of perpendicular. St Margaret's stands some distance north of the village of Quadring. Local legend has it that the village took it upon itself to move away from the church to escape the Black Death. The church at Sutton St James is yet another with a separate tower. It is described as 'the church with no nave'.
Other medieval churches worth visiting are St Mary's at Pinchbeck; St Peter and Paul's at Gosberton; St Mary's in Cowbit; the brick built church of St Nicholas in Lutton, the church of the Holy Trinity in Gedney Hill and All Saints Church at Moulton.
South Holland is famous for it's Church Flower Festivals which take place around the May Bank Holiday and are part of the Spalding Flower Festival.
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