The Deepings
The Deepings (TF150094) are the adjoining villages near the River Welland in the Great Fen on the very southern border of Lincolnshire and all within that county other than Deeping Gate, which is on the river's south bank and in Northamptonshire.
The Deepings are generally eight miles to the north of Peterborough, Northamptonshire and 10 miles or so east of Stamford, Lincolnshire.
The Welland forms the county border here, dividing Lincolnshire from the Soke of Peterborough, with most of the villages lying in the former.
Villages
The Deepings include:
| Deeping Gate | a small hamlet south of the Welland in Northamptonshire |
| Deeping St James | West of and joined to Market Deeping, on the Welland opposite Deeping Gate |
| Deeping St Nicholas | Lincolnshire, to the northeast of the group on the A16; said to be the longest village in Britain |
| Market Deeping | the main town, on the north bank of the Welland |
| West Deeping | on an old Roman fenland road known as King Street, where it crosses the Welland |
| Frognall | A hamlet just north of Deeping St James |
| Stowgate | A hamlet strung along a drove to the east of the villages, hafway to Crowland |
| Hop Pole | A hamlet deep in Deeping Fen, on the A1175 northeast of Market Deeping between it and Deeping St James |
| Tongue End | Northernmost of the Deepings, a tiny hamlet in the fen on the Counter Drain (south of the River Glen), north of Market Deeping, at a rare bridge over the Glen, to Bourne |
About the Deepings
The area is very low-lying, and gave The Deepings their name (an Old English name translatable as either 'deep places' or 'deep lands'). The villages are mentioned in the Domesday Book. Deeping Fen lies to the north, and the drainage of it was an important part of seventeenth and eighteenth century land reclamation. It is now the responsibility of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board.[1]
The villages together have a total population of some 14,900. It is a close-knit community. It has a large church-going population attending the two limestone churches of the area, one in Market Deeping (Saint Guthlac's), and the other in the Northamptonshire village of Deeping St James (St James's) or the Baptist and Methodist churches. In latter years many new families have moved in because of the four well-performing primary schools and the excellent secondary school in the area. The local fish and chip shops that are beside the River Welland are popular.
History
Drainage of the area dates back at least as far as the Romans, and the Car Dyke, but the capital involved always required a strong state, and rich men, to improve the land.
In William the Conqueror's reign Richard de Rulos who was the Lord and Owner of part of Deeping Fen "and was much addicted to good husbandry, such as tillage and breeding of cattle, took in a great part of the common fen adjacent and converted it into several, for meadows and pastures. He also made an Inclosure from the Chapel of St Guthlac of all his lands up to the Cardyke, excluding the river Welland within a mighty bank; because almost every year his meadows lying near that stream were overflowed, upon this bank he erected tenements and cottages and in a short time made it a large town, whereunto he assigned gardens and arable fields. By thus embanking the river he reduced the low grounds, which before that time were deep lakes and impassible fens, (hence the name Deep-ing or Deep Meadow), into most fruitful fields and pastures; and the most humid and moorish parts to a garden of pleasure. Having by this good husbandry brought the soil to that fertile condition, he converted the chapel of St Guthlac into a church, the place now being called Market Deeping. By the like means of banking and draining he also made a village dedicated to St James in the very pan of Pudlington, and by much labour and charge reduced it into fields, meadows, and pasture, which is now called Deeping St James
-- W.H. Wheeler[2] Quoting William Dugdale.[3] Dugdale drew heavily on William Camden's Brittania which tells the same story in nearly the same words.[4]
References
- ↑ Welland and Deepings IDB
- ↑ Wheeler, W H (1896), page 314
- ↑ Dugdale, William (1662). History of Imbanking and Drayning of Divers Fens and Marshes. London.
- ↑ William Camden's Britannia, 1586/1607 (Lincolnshire)
History of the Deepings (or Three Deepings in a Row) by Florence A. Day (n.d.) The Medieval Fenland by H. C. Darby (first published by The Cambridge University Press, 1940, reprinted by David & Charles, 1974)