History of Lincolnshire

The history of Lincolnshire spans from early Corieltauvi settlement and Roman urbanisation at Lindum Colonia to mediaeval agricultural wealth and 20th-century industry and aviation. Modern Lincolnshire is derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough of Stamford. For some time the entire county was called 'Lindsey', and it is recorded as such in the Domesday Book. Later, Lindsey was applied to only the northern core, around Lincoln; it was defined as one of the three 'Parts of Lincolnshire', along with Holland in the southeast and Kesteven in the southwest.

During the High Middle Ages, Lincolnshire prospered through the wool trade, generating vast wealth that funded iconic wool churches and made Boston a principal English port. Early modern turbulence followed, including the 1536 Lincolnshire Rising against the Dissolution of the Monasteries and heavy skirmishing during the First English Civil War. The 18th and 19th centuries brought massive agricultural transformation through the systematic land drainage of the Fens, while the first and second world wars established the county as a primary hub for RAF Bomber Command, earning it the moniker "Bomber County".

When county councils were set up in 1888, Lindsey, Holland, and Kesteven were each authorised to have separate "Part" councils. These survived until 1974, when Holland, Kesteven, and most of Lindsey were merged into Lincolnshire, with the northern part, including Scunthorpe and Grimsby, joining the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Humberside alongside most of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

An additional local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside, and the areas south of the Humber became the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.