The Deepings is a collective term used to describe adjoining villages near the River Welland, 8 miles to the North of Peterborough and 10 miles or so to the East of Stamford. The area is just north of the Cambridgeshire border, lying in the Lincolnshire fens.

This area is very low-lying, and gave The Deepings their name (a Saxon name translatable as either 'Deep places' or 'Deep Lands'). The villages are mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The town has a total population of approx. 14,900, of whom 98% are of white ethnicity, and many of whom are retired. The town is a close-knit community. It has a large church-going population to the two beautiful limestone churches, one in Market Deeping (Saint Guthlac's church), and the other in the village of Deeping St James (the parish church of Deeping St James). However recently there has been a decline in the amount of the population attending the churches with many families moving in because of the four well performing primary schools and the good secondary in the area. A skate park and BMX track have been constructed with council funding, in order to accommodate the growing number of teenagers in the area.

As well as these two settlements, other villages that are sometimes included in The Deepings are Deeping Gate, a small hamlet across the river Welland in Cambridgeshire, Deeping St Nicholas to the north east on the A16 Spalding road, the longest village in Britain, and to the west West Deeping, which lies on King Street where it crosses the Welland.

External link

• Aerial photograph and map. Deeping St Nicholas is north-eastwards along the A16.

towns in Lincolnshire