Population 1,209 (2011) Region East Midlands Sovereign state United Kingdom Local time Sunday 4:59 PM Shire county Lincolnshire UK parliament constituency West Lindsey | OS grid reference TF050720 Country England Post town Lincoln Dialling code 01522 District West Lindsey | |
Weather 12°C, Wind NW at 6 km/h, 84% Humidity | ||
Fiskerton is a small commuter village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,209. It is situated approximately 6 miles (10 km) east from the city and county town of Lincoln, and on the north side of the River Witham.
Contents
Map of Fiskerton, Lincoln, UK
History
Fiskerton Grade I listed Anglican parish church, which stands at the side of the main road through the village, is dedicated to St Clement. It dates from the 11th century, and was restored in 1863. The arcade of the north aisle is Norman; that of the south aisle, Early English. The Perpendicular-style tower is square, but encloses an earlier round tower. Cox reports in 1916 that a brass effigy of a priest (c. 1485) in the south aisle was restored to the church by Bishop Trollope in 1863, having been found in a Lincoln dealer's shop. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in the village in 1839.
Fiskerton has received international archaeological attention on a number of occasions over the last two centuries following discoveries of Iron Age artefacts buried in the fenland peat that surrounds the village. In 1826 a fine, metre-long decorative shield was discovered in the River Witham, near Washingborough. Now known as the Witham Shield it has been dated to the second century BC (200–100 BC) and is in the British Museum.
Over 150 years later when a dyke was being cleaned, a series of posts were found together with an early to mid-Iron Age sword. Subsequent excavations in 1981 revealed the posts to be a wooden causeway which dendrologists dated to a period between 457 and 300 BC. It appeared to have been repaired and added to every eighteen years or so during that period and the construction and maintenance of a walkway on such a scale at that time would have been a major feat of engineering. Hundreds of artefacts were also found around the causeway, including eleven spears, six swords, woodworking and metalworking tools, as well as part of a human skull which had a crescent-shaped chop mark, probably inflicted by a sword; this injury is unlikely to have killed the man. It is possible that the Witham Shield was originally deposited beside this causeway.
Twenty years later in further excavations more sections of the causeway were dug out, some of them containing posts several metres long, plus a complete spear, a currency bar, a sword, a dagger and some bronze fittings, all of which appeared to have been deliberately damaged before their burial. The most important discovery was two votive Iron Age boats. One of these boats as well as other artefacts can be seen at The Collection in Lincoln. The area around the site of the causeway, which is alongside the road to Short Ferry, (a hamlet 1.6 miles [2.5 km] to the east) opened as a nature reserve managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust in 2006.
During the Second World War, an airfield was built on agricultural land to the north of the village. RAF Fiskerton opened in January 1943 as part of 5 Group, RAF Bomber Command as 52 Sub-Base Station controlled by RAF Scampton. It closed at the end of the war in September 1945 and the land returned to agricultural use. Very little can be seen of the old airfield now, but a memorial to No. 49 Squadron RAF and 576 Squadron, who were stationed at the airfield during the war, can be found by the side of the road between Fiskerton and Reepham, a village 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the north.