Lincoln

Lincoln is a smaller sized city in England (population 85,595) that is over flowing with history.  Lincoln began as a  Roman town.  It was conquered by the Romans in 48 AD.  Shortly after the Roman soldiers built a fort in Lincoln but by the late 1st century the people of Lincoln stopped fighting the Romans so the soldiers moved on and the fort was abandoned.  A new town was created on the site and it became a settlement for retired soldiers.  Roman Lincoln grew into a large and prosperous town with 6 to 8 thousand people.  Roman Lincoln reached the peak of it's prosperity in the early 4th century and in the later 4th century it declined.  Roman civilization was breaking down and the last of the Roman soldiers left Britain in 407 AD.

In 1068 William the Conquer built a wooden castle at Lincoln to make sure the townspeople behaved themselves.  He destroyed 166 houses to make way for it.  In the 12th century the castle was replaced with stone.  The keep of the tower was called Lucy Tower after the Countess Lucy.  This castle also had a prison where lots of people awaited trial, faced their punishment (which often was hanging), or awaited the day when they would be released.  It was a harsh prison where women and men had to hide their faces and could not speak to anyone.  Even in the chapel the men and women were separated and could not talk.

 This is the chapel for the prisoners.  If you look closely you can see the doors that separate the men from each other.  Something you can't see is that the seats are slanted so that if a prisoner fell asleep they would fall right off the seat.  Trust me, I tested it. ;)

This is a coffin that was at the front of the chapel.  When the prison was still in use if there was a coffin at the front of chapel it meant there was a hanging that day.

The most famous thing at the castle is the well known Magna Carta.  The Magna Carta was signed in 1215 between the barons of medieval England and King John.  "Magna Carta" is Latin and means "Great Charter".  The Magna Carta was one of the most important documents of medieval England.  It was signed at Runnymede near Windsor Castle.  The document was a series of written promises between the king and his subjects that he would govern England and deal with it's people according to the customs of feudal law.  The Magna Carta was an attempt by the barons to stop a king from abusing his power with the people of England suffering.  The Magna Carta in the Castle is one of the four existing.  The Magna Carta is also important to the United States because some of the rules that are in the Magna Carta are in our constitution.

In 1072, a bishop moved his seat to Lincoln from Dorchester.  He built a Cathedral which was finished in 1092.  The first Cathedral was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1185.  It was rebuilt after 1192 but the center tower of the new cathedral collapsed in 1237.  A new tower with a spire replaced it in 1311.  Unfortunately the builder put it a little to far to the left so it looks kind of funny.

 This is the outside of the cathedral and as you can see the middle tower is too far to the left.

This is the inside of the cathedral.  The chairs are all out in this picture because there was a graduation that day.

Today Lincoln is a very popular tourist destination but not just because of the castle and cathedral.  I like it because of it's monstrously steep hill.  It's actually called steep hill if that tells you anything.

The hill is steeper than it looks.

On this hill there is an interesting old house sitting on a corner.  This house is actually 800 years old making it the oldest domestic building in Britain!  It used to be a Jewish merchant's house.  It has a very decorative door and chimney.  In the Middle Ages, Lincoln had a flourishing Jewish community some of whom were amongst the richest and most influential citizens of Lincoln.  This Jewish house is said to be the home of Belesat de Wailingford, who was hanged for coin clipping which means he was cutting small bits off of coins because coins used to be made out of pure gold and silver.