Lincolnshire's 'Outmarsh' stretches from Grimsby to Gibraltar Point just inland from the coast.  Its culture and history is closely associated with traditional farming methods - using livestock to graze fertile, moisture retaining, ancient pastures.  Species rich hay meadows were cut for forage later in the year.  Around the villages, land was cultivated, producing ridge and furrow features.

The area's history is also linked to the sea, grazing marsh having developed from saltmarsh over the last few thousand years as the coastline has changed.  Archaeological evidence shows saltmaking dating from the Bronze and Iron ages and impressive churches mark former wealth and patronage.

 

 

 

The wildlife was once rich and varied.  The land was kept dry enough for livestock to graze, but wet ditches provided ideal habitat for water voles and otters, dragonflies and damselflies and a high water table created perfect conditions for flocks of waders and birds such as lapwing and snipe.

 

 

But the marshes are now under threat.  Decades of an agricultural policy that has favoured arable and intensive farming, the decline in livestock farming and increased investment in flood defence and land drainage have almost completely destroyed the former Outmarsh.  In some areas, it is hard to find any grassland at all.  The pasture that has survived is mainly dry, improved grassland, used to produce silage rather than hay. The ditches often hold little or now water, and the typical grazing marsh plants and animals are merely hanging on.

 

 

 

Ploughing and draining the land has also resulted in significant damage to buried archaeological artifacts as well as the characteristic historical landscape features, such as ridge and furrow.