Peak Hill, Lincolnshire

Cowbit (locally pronounced Cubbit) is a village and civil parish in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,220. It is situated 3 miles (5 km) south from Spalding and 5 miles (8 km) north from Crowland. Cowbit falls within the drainage area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board. Cowbit Grade I listed Anglican parish church is dedicated to St Mary. The church was built on a small scale in the 14th century by Prior de Moulton of Spalding. A chancel and Perpendicular tower were added by Bishop Russell of Lincoln in 1487. Restoration was carried out in 1882. A Wesleyan chapel was built in 1842, and rebuilt in 1861. To the south, on the road to the hamlet of Peak Hill, is a stone named after St Guthlac, being a boundary marker for the earlier lands of Crowland Abbey.The village contains a Grade II listed early 19th-century mill, a Church of England primary school, public play area, village hall, a garage, and a village store. On 16 October 2011 work was completed on a new bypass for the A1073, which previously ran through the village. This new route has been re-designated to form part of the A16. Cowbit previously had a railway station on Spalding to March line; the line is no longer in use. Cowbit Wash lies to the west of the village, extends 8 miles (13 km) from north to south, and is nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) broad. Mainly arable land, it is a flood plain for the navigable River Welland, separated from Cowbit by an earth bank, Barrier Bank, that carries an unclassified road, the former A1073. Previously Welland overflow regularly flooded the Wash, the water freezing-over during winter allowing for ice skating and skating championships. A relief channel (Coronation Channel) for the Welland at Spalding has made Cowbit Wash obsolete as a flood plain since the 1950s. Since Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 there has been a punt gun salute over Cowbit Wash every coronation and jubilee, concurrent with gun salutes in London, including the June 2012 Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Cowbit railway station was a station in Cowbit, Lincolnshire, England. It was located on the route between Spalding and March.

South Holland is a local government district of Lincolnshire, England. The council is based in Spalding. Other notable towns and villages include Crowland, Sutton Bridge, Donington, Holbeach and Long Sutton. The district is named after the historical division of Lincolnshire known as the Parts of Holland. The neighbouring districts are Boston, North Kesteven, South Kesteven, Peterborough, Fenland and King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

Fitton End is a hamlet in the civil parish of Newton-in-the-Isle, in the Fenland district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It has a population of 70.

South Holland and The Deepings is a constituency in Lincolnshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 creation by John Hayes, a Conservative. At the 2017 general election, the constituency recorded a higher Conservative share of the vote than any constituency since 1970, with 69.9% of voters backing the party. South Holland also delivered the second-highest "Leave" vote in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union (EU). 73.6% of voters endorsed the UK's withdrawal from the EU, second only to neighbouring Boston. At the 2019 general election, the Conservative majority was 62.7%, the highest of any Conservative in any constituency in any general election since Kensington South in 1955. Hayes took 75.9% of the vote, the third highest for the Conservatives only after Castle Point in Essex and Boston and Skegness.

Spalding was a rural district in Holland in Lincolnshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 from the Spalding rural sanitary district. Spalding itself constituted a separate urban district. It was expanded in 1932 under a County Review Order, by including Crowland Rural District (which consisted of a single parish). It was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, going on to form part of the South Holland district.

The Gordon Boswell Romany Museum is the lifetime's work of Gordon Boswell (died 27 August 2016, aged 76), who amassed a collection of artefacts, photographs, and several examples of the characteristic Gypsy wagon or Vardo. The museum also operates a number of non-Romany vehicles, including a horse-drawn hearse. The collection is housed at Clay Lake, Spalding in Lincolnshire, England.

Moulton Chapel is a village in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is on the B1357 road, 4 miles (6 km) south from Moulton, 5 miles (8 km) south-west from Holbeach and 4 miles south-east from Spalding. The village is in the civil parish of The Moultons where the population was 3,504 at the 2011 census.

Postland railway station was a station on the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway in Crowland, Lincolnshire, which is now closed. It took its name from the Postland estate, owned by the Marquess of Exeter. It originally opened in 1867, and remained open to passengers until 1961. Services to Cambridge and Doncaster ran from here. In July 1936, a serious accident took place at the station, involving Ex-GNR Class H4 2-6-0 No. 2764.Postland station was closed permanently in 1965. Train passengers from Crowland and the surrounding area must now use either Spalding railway station or Peterborough railway station. The closure of the station was not related to the Beeching axe of the same era.The station building and former signal box now lie on the B1166, which runs from Crowland to Throckenholt, and the station building has now been converted into a house.

Weston Hills is a hamlet in the civil parish of Weston in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Weston Hills, a linear village on a north–south axis, is situated approximately 2 miles (3 km) east from the town of Spalding. Its highest point is 10 feet (3.0 m) above sea level. On 2 October 1942, an American Boeing B-17F bomber crashed at Weston Hills.A McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle fighter jet crashed in a field next to Weston Hills on 8 October 2014. The pilot ejected and survived the crash; no injuries were reported.The local school is Weston Hills C of E Primary School.

The New River is a drainage system in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Rising just east of Sisson's Farm near Crowland it flows very roughly eastwards, following the general line of the River Welland but a little to the south. It skirts the settlements of Crowland and Cowbit before flowing into the Welland at Cradge Bank near Little London. The land enclosed between the Welland and the New River is referred to as Washland, Crowland Wash and Cowbit Wash being the principal areas. Washland was designed to be sacrificially flooded as a relief of high river levels. The current land usage, and the rights of the drainage authorities to flood it can be traced back at least to an act of parliament of George III, and amended in 1847. The arrangement is not theoretical. Cowbit Wash was flooded annually to protect Spalding until the creation of the Coronation Channel allowed excess water to bypass the town. Even now the option to overspill onto the Wash is available.Although it is customary to say the washes lie between the Welland and the New River, it is more accurate to say that there is an extra bank to the Welland to the south of the New River. It is this bank that restrains the spreading floodwaters: the New River lies in the bottom of this basin to remove the waters. This earthen bank can be seen on the left of the Cloot House photograph above. The availability of a suitable geological feature on which to build this bank determined the shape of the washes, and its location can be traced back through antiquity. To quote Wheeler: The right bank of the Welland between Crowland and Spalding is placed at a distance from the channel of the river varying from a quarter to half a mile leaving an area of about 2500 acres which is covered with water whenever the Welland is in flood. The depth of water in this land in high floods is as much as 5 feet. Originally, no doubt, the land by the side of the Wellland was little better than a Morass, and the banks were placed on the nearest firm ground.