Archaeology

North East Lincolnshire has a rich and varied, but little understood, archaeological heritage.

The earliest known site in the area is a Mesolithic camp near Pyewipe dating back 10,000 years. Other significant sites in North East Lincolnshire include the nationally important Iron Age metalworking site at Weelsby Avenue, the remains of the shrunken medieval village of Stallingborough which makes up the Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the important, recently discovered Roman remains in Habrough.

Additionally, there are Anglo-Saxon cemetery sites along Barton Street and still significant remains of the harbour area of medieval Grimsby, which are regarded by English Heritage as being of potentially national or regional importance.

Even the twentieth century leaves traces of our important archaeological inheritance through the Humber's coastal defences from both World Wars.

The archaeology services provided by North East Lincolnshire Council combine information on the historic environment and advice on its conservation and management .

The historic environment is all the evidence for past human activity, and its associations, that people can see, understand and feel in the present world.

• It is the habitat that the human race has created through conflict and co-operation over thousands of years, the product of human interaction with nature,
• It is all around us as part of everyday experience and life, and it is therefore dynamic and continually subject to change,
• It is what makes us different, local distinctiveness and character are a product of the past, and how a community grew and changed over time.

At one level, it is made up entirely of places such as towns or villages, coast or hills, and things such as buildings, buried sites and deposits, fields and hedges; at another level it is something we inhabit, both physically and imaginatively. It is the way we speak, the food we eat and our local traditions. It is many-faceted, relying on an engagement with physical remains but also on emotional and aesthetic responses and on the power of memory, history and association.

Further information on the work of the Council's historic environment services or the archaeology of North East Lincolnshire can be obtained from:

Hugh Winfield

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