Railway Sleepers
Lincoln Lincolnshire
Approximate Population: 101,000
After the first destructive Viking raids Lincoln once again rose to some importance. In Viking times Lincoln was a trading centre important enough to issue coins from its own mint. After the establishment of Dane Law in 886, Lincoln became one of The Five Boroughs in the East Midlands. Over the next few centuries, Lincoln once again rose to prominence. In 1068, two years after the Norman Conquest, William I ordered Lincoln Castle to be built on the site of the former Roman settlement, for the same strategic reasons and using the same road.
Construction of the first Lincoln Cathedral, within its close or walled precinct facing the castle, began when the see was removed from Dorchester and completed in 1092; it was rebuilt after a fire but was destroyed by an unusual earthquake in 1185.
The rebuilt Lincoln Minster, enlarged to the east at each rebuilding, was on a magnificent scale, its crossing tower crowned by a spire reputed to have been 160 m (525 ft) high, the highest in Europe. When completed the central of the three spires is widely accepted to have succeeded the Great Pyramids of Egypt as the tallest man-made structure in the world.
