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Alkborough is an English village of about 450 people in North Lincolnshire, located in an isolated but attractive position near the northern end of the Cliff range of hills overlooking the point called Trent Falls, where the Rivers Trent and Ouse join to form the River Humber.
The parish, which covers about 2,875 acres (12 km²), includes the hamlet of Walcot (a 'shrunken village'), which lies about a mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Alkborough.
The village of Alkborough was once thought to be the location that the Romans called Aquis but this name is now usually associated with the town of Buxton in Derbyshire (Aquis Arnemetiae).
Alkborough turf maze
Close to the Cliff edge is Julian's Bower, a unicursal turf maze, 43 feet (13 m) across, of indeterminate age.
According to Arthur Mee's book Lincolnshire the maze was cut by monks in the 12th century, but White's Lincolnshire Directory of 1872 maintains that it was constructed in Roman times as part of a game. Others think that while the feature is of Roman origin, it was later used by the Medieval Church for some sort of penitential purposes and only reverted to its former use as an amusement or diversion, after the Reformation.
Firm documentary evidence of its existence only seems to date from 1697 however, when it was noticed, on his travels, by the Yorkshire antiquary Abraham de la Pryme.
In case the maze becomes overgrown or otherwise indistinct, its pattern is recorded, in a 19th century stained glass church window, on the floor of the church porch and also on the gravestone of James Goulton Constable, which is in Alkborough cemetery.
Alkborough Flats
Alkborough Flats is an area of low-lying arable farmland of nearly 4 km² situated at the "Confluence of the Rivers" where the Rivers Trent and Ouse join to form the Humber estuary. The land is now jointly owned by the UK's Environment Agency and English Nature. Flood defences which were built in the 1950s to protect the area are being breached to allow water to reclaim the land at high tide and in times of flooding. The project will create 2 km² of new intertidal habitat in the inner part of the Humber estuary. The new grassland will be managed to encourage biodiversity, with reedbeds, lagoons and grazing areas.
Alkborough Flats is the first coastal realignment site to be developed as part of the Humber Shoreline Management Plan. This "managed retreat" strategy should lessen the risks of flooding in low-lying towns along the Ouse and Trent by realigning existing flood defences to create compensatory intertidal habitat around the estuary.
External links
- Alkborough
- Alkborough is located at 1.
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- Location Map of Alkborough
- aerial view of Alkborough
- Plan of Julian's Bower maze
- Alkborough, St John the Baptist Church
- A Defra press release about Alkborough Flats
See also
Villages in Lincolnshire | Buildings and structures in Lincolnshire | Visitor attractions in Lincolnshire | English folklore
"Alkborough"