The SALTFLEETBY VILLAGE HISTORY Website

ROMAN TIMES

By the time the Romans arrived the landscape looked vastly different to that of the present day. The coast was a wide and gently shelving zone with freshwater marsh or peat grading into saltmarsh or wide sand and mud flats intersected be long tidal creeks and river estuaries, some like the Lud having more than one outlet, flowing into a lagoon. This lagoon was protected by the "off-shore" islands or barrier shoals.

Roman roads reached the shoreline at a number of places along the coast. The main one being at Burgh-le Marsh. There were others to do with salt making. Two parallel roads appear to have crossed the Wolds to the coast. The northern route ran from Lincoln to Sixhills, Ludford, Ludborough and on to Wragholme. The other ran from Stixwold to Saltfleetby via Cadwell, Tathwell, Kenwick, bisecting Grimoldby and Manby and so on to Saltfleetby. This southern route follows the line of the Mar-Dyke.

These coastal saltings continued to function until the end of the second century.

There is no evidence to suggest occupation to the north. However to the south it is a different matter. There is evidence that suggests Mablethorpe, which at that time was situated up to a mile further east than today, had some form of occupation. There have been a number of finds from pottery to coins. However as the site is now under the waves it is unlikely we will be able to substantiate this. Skegness was also further to the east than today and was the site of a ferry the Romans used to connect the Lincolnshire coast with the Norfolk coast.

Towards the end of the Roman occupation there was renewed land subsidence and inundation by the sea. This began slowly in the 2nd century and became more rapid during 4th and 5th centuries. This caused the present Out-Marsh to become uninhabitable and very wet.

POST ROMAN 

Lindsey's Anglo-Saxon shoreline at the dawn of the "Dark Ages" must have had an air of desolation and decay. However the offshore sandbanks and tidal estuaries had a similarity to those of north-west Europe from which the land-hungry Anglo-Saxons began to arrive and colonise after the Romans had left our shores.

An examination of an OS map for the area, along with the Domesday Book, will provide us with some idea of the pattern of settlement along our coast. The first line of settlement was along the 10m (30') contour. Cockerington, Alvingham, Yarburgh, Fulstow and Tetney are a few of these to the north. To the south we have Mablethorpe and Sutton-le Marsh. We must assume that the land to the east of Alvingham/Tetney was at first unsuitable for settlement. There being no villages with Anglo-Saxon suffixes - ham, -ton, -ingham, -ington etc. to the east of that line. The coastline was much further inland here than today. South of Mablethorpe it was further east. Mablethorpe appears to be the fulcrum of this land movement.

Today Mablethorpe is still the fulcrum but there has been a switch. The sea to the north has retreated eastwards while to the south it has come inland only kept at bay by the sea defences.

However there is a major problem with settlement in the south of Lindsey. If we examine the settlements between the Wolds and the sea we find the majority have Danish/Viking suffixes to their names. Most common is the "-by" suffix. Why then, should Mablethorpe and Sutton well to the east be Anglo-Saxon and all settlements to the west are Danish? Was the land here slightly higher than that to the west? Or were these villages' secondary settlements much as Somercotes was to Cockerington further north.

Mablethorpe may well have been the daughter settlement to Strubby and Sutton to Maltby. The only problem with this theory is the Roman finds at Mablethorpe and the Anglo-Saxon -ton suffix to Sutton.

It is felt that both towns are daughter settlements. The -thorpe suffix can be Danish in origin, meaning secondary settlement. Sutton with its -ton suffix presents another problem. The Oxford Dictionary of Place Names states that Sutton means "south town". Could the Danes have named Sutton as the town south of their settlement of Mablethorpe? It is a possibility.

As the first line of settlements along the 10m contour were established so the following Anglo-Saxons had to move inland, clearing the woodland and creating their villages. A study of an OS map along with the knowledge of Anglo-Saxon suffixes will show just how extensive was this settlement.

The late 8th and early 9th centuries not only ushered in a wetter period but also saw fierce seasonal raids by the Danes. This was followed by an organised army. Having established the "Danelaw", the retired soldiers brought their families over to settle in the newly established villages and thus became another wave of colonists. The distribution of their villages, many with the -by ending or the -thorpe meaning daughter settlement, shows how they occupied the marsh pastures or filled in the gaps left by the Anglo-Saxons.

By this time, some 350 years after the Anglo-Saxons had settled, the land to the south must have become drier and thus provided excellent village sites. We also see the establishment of daughter settlements to the north. Somercotes has already been mentioned as being the extension or summer grazing pasture for Cockerington. Other examples are North Cotes as an extension of North Thoresby. Grainthorpe to Covenham and later Marsh Chapel to Fulstow. There are other examples to be found.

The suffix -cotes simply means cots or huts and Somer- means summer. Therefore the name simply means the summer huts of the village of Cockerington. It was to this marshland that the villagers of Cockerington took their cattle to graze in the lush pastures during the summer months. Similarly the people of Thoresby took their cattle to graze on the marsh to the north­east of their settlement, hence North Cotes.

At this time the onshore winds began to form low dunes which the farmers eventually enlarged to form a sea dyke (wall or sea defence) They were also helped by the erosion of the Holderness coast and the action of the sea in its longshore drift. They were able to established these huts as villages in their own right.

The farmers also began salt making during the summer months. Salt, just as in the Roman times, was needed to keep meat fresh through the long winter months. Their saltern mounds can be seen to this day along the North Cotes to Grainthorpe stretch of land east of Sea Dyke Lane (A1031) to the sea. In Humberstone the salt marsh is known as "Fitties" which is Danish for Salt Marsh.

The next major change occurred on the 13th century when in 1253 an abnormal high tide flowed inland as far as Alvingham. There had been flood earlier and we can assume this to be a stormy period. The second, and more disastrous series of floods occurred on the night of New Year's Day 1287 when the church of St Peter, Mablethorpe, was:" rent asunder by the waves of the sea".

The surges of 1287 and 1288 finally destroyed the offshore barrier shoals. Sand and shingle from these overfalls was driven to the shore to form dunes up to 50' in height from Somercotes narrowing towards Mablethorpe, with a smaller one from Cleethorpes to Humberstone. The coastline was now open to the full force of the North Sea and man has had a constant battle to keep the waves at bay.

The 16th century saw another series of storms. Many of the old coastal towns were finally lost to the sea. The greatest disaster occurred on the 5th October 1571 when a high tide accompanied by a violent storm destroyed two churches. One at Sutton and the other at Chapel St Leonards. Parts of those villages were also destroyed along with the loss of much valuable farm land to the relentless North Sea.