The Haven, Boston

HM Prison North Sea Camp is a men's open prison (Category D), located on the edge of the parish of Freiston (near Boston) in Lincolnshire, England. North Sea Camp is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.

Freiston Shore is a settlement in the Borough of Boston, in Lincolnshire, England. It is in the civil parish of Freiston, and approximately 4 miles (6 km) east from Boston.

Freiston Priory was a Benedictine cell of Crowland Abbey founded in 1114, and became a priory soon afterwards. It was Dissolved in 1539 and was located in Freiston, Lincolnshire, England.The priory was probably founded soon after the year 1114, as it was in that year that Alan de Creoun presented to Crowland Abbey the church of Freiston, and later on, according to Peter of Blois, placed there a prior and monks. A few years after the monastery was built he increased the endowment by further gifts.

Butterwick is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Boston, Lincolnshire, England, It is situated approximately 3 miles (5 km) east from the market town of Boston. Butterwick is one of eighteen civil parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston local government arrangement, in place since a reorganisation of 1 April 1974, which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972. The parish forms part of the Coastal electoral ward. Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as parts) of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the 1888 Local Government Act Holland had been, in most respects, a county in itself. On the nearby coast, Freiston Shore, is a wildlife reserve covering approximately 1,400 acres (570 ha) of brackish lagoon, and a natural and reconstituted salt marsh.The name comes from the Old English "butere" and "wic" meaning a meeting place, or a butter specialised farm.Butterwick Grade I listed Anglican church is dedicated to St Andrew. It contains Early English style arcades and font. In 1916 Cox reported that an ancient sycamore, planted in 1653, stood in the churchyard.Ordnance survey maps from the 1920s show an agricultural tramway network running west from the village in a u-shape to Butterwick Grange. Such tramways often used WW1 narrow gauge trench railway equipment to allow year around access to soft fenland fields. Butterwick Mill, a Grade II listed tower mill built in 1871, has been partially restored by Lincolnshire County Council.The village also has a public house (The Five Bells), a Church of England primary school, fish and chip shop, park, and small businesses.

Frampton Marsh is a nature reserve in Lincolnshire, England. The reserve is situated on the coast of The Wash, some 4 miles from the town of Boston, between the outfalls of the Rivers Welland and Witham (covering an area of mature salt marsh known as The Scalp), and near the village of Frampton in a area known as the “Fosdyke Wash”. The majority of the reserve is managed by the RSPB with a small part of the saltmarsh managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. There is a small visitor centre at the entrance to the reserve.

Freiston is a village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish (including Freiston Shore) at the 2011 census was 1,306. It is situated approximately 2 miles (3 km) east from Boston. The Greenwich Prime Zero meridian line passes between the village and Hobhole Drain.

The Pilgrim Fathers Memorial is located on the north bank of The Haven at the site of the former Scotia Creek, Fishtoft, seaward of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, and consists of a small granite obelisk mounted on a granite block. It commemorates the attempt at finding religious freedom in September, 1607 by the Scrooby Congregation, a group of English Separatist Protestants who left for Holland. They were precursors of the Pilgrims who later crossed the Atlantic to New England.

The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some 65 miles (105 km) long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. It is a major waterway across the part of the Fens called South Holland, and is one of the Fenland rivers which were laid out with washlands. There are two channels between widely spaced embankments with the intention that flood waters would have space in which to spread while the tide in the estuary prevented free egress. However, after the floods of 1947, new works such as the Coronation Channel were constructed to control flooding in Spalding and the washes are no longer used solely as pasture, but may be used for arable farming. Significant improvements were made to the river in the 1660s, when a new cut with 10 locks was constructed between Stamford and Market Deeping, and two locks were built on the river section below Market Deeping. The canal section was known as the Stamford Canal, and was the longest canal with locks in Britain when it was built. The river provided the final outlet to the sea for land drainage schemes implemented in the seventeenth century, although they were not completely successful until a steam-powered pumping station was built at Pode Hole in 1827. Navigation on the upper river, including the Stamford Canal, had ceased by 1863, but Spalding remained an active port until the end of the Second World War. The Environment Agency is the navigation authority for the river, which is navigable as far upstream as Crowland, and with very shallow draught to West Deeping Bridge, where further progress is hindered by the derelict lock around the weir. The traditional head of navigation was Wharf Road in Stamford. The management of the lower river has been intimately tied up with the drainage of Deeping Fen, and the river remains important to the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board, for whom it provides the final conduit to the sea for pumped water. Wildlife in the river varies along its length, the faster headwaters being a habitat for trout and the slower lower reaches for perch. The estuary conditions and flat landscapes beyond Fosdyke favour wading birds and migratory species.

Benington Sea End is a hamlet in the Benington civil parish of the Borough of Boston in Lincolnshire, England. It is 5 miles (8 km) east-northeast from Boston and 30 miles (48 km) south-east from the city and county town of Lincoln. Benington Sea End is less than 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east from parish village of Bennington and the A52 road, which locally runs from Boston to Skegness. It is centred on the junction between Churchway, Sea End Road, and Spicer's Lane, and includes Sea End Lane and the circuitous Lamb Lane at the south-east. The hamlet is 1 mile north-east from the north-east bank of The Wash. At the east of the hamlet is a sea defence bank, at the south-west of which rises the Delph drain which runs along the landward side. A Second World War pillbox, an Historic England listed monument, sits on the bank just south from where it is crossed by Sea Lane.The hamlet comprises cottages, four farms, and at the junction of Churchway and Spicer's Lane, The Old Rectory, which is a Grade II listed two-storey, hip roofed former rectory dating to 1830, described in the 1872 White's Directory as "a good residence, with pleasant grounds, near the sea coast". The rectory in the early 20th century was being rented out by the Church of England, and was later sold by them in 1924. The last rector of Benington to live there was Canon Walter Fallows Hodge (1878 - 1938).Trade directories recorded late 19th and early 20th century agricultural production as of chiefly wheat and potatoes, and by 1919, celery. In 1872 there were listed seven farmers, and two fishermen of the same family; by 1885, five farmers; by 1905 four farmers, two of whom were of the same family, and one also a bulb merchant; and by 1919, a cottage farmer, a smallholder, and five farmers, one of whom was also listed as a potato grower.

Benington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, and approximately 4 miles (6 km) east of Boston, and on the A52 road. The parish contains the hamlets of Benington Sea End and West End. Nearby villages are Butterwick and Leverton. Benington parish has a population of 569, increasing to 580 at the 2011 Census. It is one of eighteen parishes which, together with Boston, form the borough. Local government has been arranged in this way since the reorganisation of 1 April 1974, which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972. The parish forms part of the Coastal electoral ward. Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District, in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as parts) of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the Local Government Act of 1888, Holland had been in most respects, a county in itself. The name derives from Old English meaning "Bennas farm or settlement". The parish church is a Grade I listed building dedicated to All Saints and dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, although it was restored in 1873 by James Fowler of Louth. It has a 14th-century font. It closed as a church in 2003 (with its last service in 2001) and was boarded up. In 2015, the Benington Community Heritage Trust received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and as at early 2021 it is being refurbished for use as a community centre "The Beonna at All Saints" (named after Beonna, an eighth century king of East Anglia). Purril's Almshouses date from the 15th century, although rebuilt in 1728, and are Grade II listed.

Fishtoft is one of eighteen civil parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Local government has been arranged in this way since the reorganization of 1 April 1974, which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972. This parish forms an electoral ward in itself. Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District, in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as parts) of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the Local Government Act of 1888, Holland had been in most respects, a county in itself. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 6,835.The origin of the place-name is from the Old Norse word toft meaning a building site or a curtilage. The addition of Fish in the 15th century may be a family name or may indicate a connection with fishing. The place-name appears as Toft in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Fishtoft in 1416.The parish lies along the north-east side of The Haven and accommodates the Pilgrim Fathers Memorial at Scotia Creek. Fishtoft comprises three aspects – open countryside, the village of Fishtoft, and suburban overspill from Boston. The fields along Burton Croft Road are bounded by dykes which are a home to water voles (an endangered species in the United Kingdom – Fishtoft is one of only 181 sites where voles can still be found). Fishtoft has a school, an Anglican church, a shop (at Hawthorn Tree Corner), and football and cricket clubs. The parish church is dedicated to the Saxon saint St Guthlac. The stonework contains traces of Norman work. There is a reference to the church in the Domesday Book. The 18th-century Reading Room, a red brick building just off Rectory Close, is now a private house – it was for many decades used as a centre of learning and education. The historic centre of the village was formerly an island in the tidal marshes – one of a series of islands around the coast of The Wash (each one marked by a medieval church). The parishes along the coast of the Wash had no eastern boundaries, and were continually expanding as new land was reclaimed from the tidal marshes. The marshes produced methane gas which spontaneously ignited to produce flares, giving rise to the belief that they were haunted by spirits and that the new land needed cleansing before it was safe to use. This may account for the veneration of St Guthlac at Fishtoft, the saint being renowned for driving out devils; a medieval statue of St Guthlac can be seen high up on the tower of the Fishtoft parish church, and formerly held the whip with which he cleansed the land of evil spirits. The statue of St Guthlac set into the west tower is of considerable interest. Nikolaus Pevsner, in his volume on Lincolnshire (Buildings of England series) says that it is older than the fabric of the tower. It is possible that this is the original statue of the Guthlac cult, and would have been located inside the chancel. As well as the parish church of St Guthlac there was a priory "cell" (or small religious house) on the site of what is now Stoke Priory house on the corner of Gaysfield Road; some remains of the priory cell could be seen in the garden of the house until recently. There was also a small medieval wayside chapel on the western side of Church Green Road, the site indicated by a significant elevation of ground just north of the bungalow opposite The Grange. In addition, the ground at the corner of Clampgate Road and Burton Croft Road, in what is now an open field, formerly held a substantial medieval building, possibly a manor house, called Panels (or Panals) which included a chapel. The arrangement of religious buildings in medieval Fishtoft has given rise to speculation that the village may have been the centre of a cult of St Guthlac based on what is now the parish church, the monks of the priory cell helping to minister to the cult, and the wayside chapel in Church Green Road acting as a "slipper chapel" for pilgrims approaching the village along the permanent road from Boston. The feast of St Guthlac is held on 11 April. Some evidence of a Roman settlement has been found in the area. There was also an important Anglo-Saxon settlement in the area, confirmed by an excavation on what is now Saxon Gardens. There was a separate hamlet in the parish called Fenne, dating back to the 13th century, in the area that later contained the Ball House Inn, Rochford Tower and Hawthorn Tree Corner. This area formed almost a separate community in the 1950s with its own community hall. An important feature of the parish is the Hobhole Drain, constructed in the 19th century for land drainage purposes, which enters the River Witham near the Pilgrim Fathers Memorial. The water tower that formerly stood at the end of Cut End Road has recently been demolished – it was an exact copy of the water tower that still stands in Sutterton.

Skirbeck Wapentake was an administrative unit in the Parts of Holland Lincolnshire, England from the early eleventh century at the latest, until the wapentakes were abolished by the Local Government Act of 1888. In most of England, the corresponding unit was the hundred, which was in principle, a grouping of a hundred households. Around a thousand years ago, it was important as a unit for gathering taxes and raising men for the 'citizen' army of the time, known as the Fyrd. The idea of the hundred goes back at least to the time of Tacitus but the version called the wapentake belongs to the Danish-influenced part of England. It therefore dates in that country, from the tenth or very early eleventh century. In 1882, White's Directory for Lincolnshire (page 94) described the wapentakes as "now of little practical value". Their potential functions had been taken over piecemeal by other units such as electoral districts, Poor-Law unions and so on.