Alkborough
Alkborough is an
English village of about 450 people in
North Lincolnshire, located in an isolated but attractive position near the northern end of the Cliff range of hills overlooking the point called Trent Falls, where the Rivers
Trent and
Ouse join to form the River
Humber.
The parish, which covers about 2,875 acres (12 km²), includes the hamlet of
Walcot (a 'shrunken village'), which lies about a mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Alkborough.
The village of Alkborough was once thought to be the location that the
Romans called
Aquis but this name is now usually associated with the town of
Buxton in
Derbyshire (
Aquis Arnemetiae).
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Julian's Bower turf maze overlooks Alkborough Flats and the confluence of the Rivers Trent, Ouse and Humber |
Close to the Cliff edge is
Julian's Bower, a
unicursal turf maze, 43 feet (13 m) across, of indeterminate age.
According to Arthur Mee's book
Lincolnshire the maze was cut by monks in the 12th century, but White's
Lincolnshire Directory of 1872 maintains that it was constructed in
Roman times as part of a game. Others think that while the feature is of Roman origin, it was later used by the
Medieval Church for some sort of penitential purposes and only reverted to its former use as an amusement or diversion, after the
Reformation.
Firm documentary evidence of its existence only seems to date from 1697 however, when it was noticed, on his travels, by the
Yorkshire antiquary Abraham de la Pryme.
In case the maze becomes overgrown or otherwise indistinct, its pattern is recorded, in a 19th century
stained glass church window, on the floor of the church
porch and also on the
gravestone of James Goulton Constable, which is in Alkborough
cemetery.
Alkborough Flats is an area of low-lying
arable farmland of nearly 4 km² situated at the "Confluence of the Rivers" where the Rivers
Trent and
Ouse join to form the
Humber estuary. The land is now jointly owned by the UK's Environment Agency and
English Nature.
Flood defences which were built in the 1950s to protect the area are being breached to allow water to reclaim the land at high tide and in times of flooding. The project will create 2 km² of new intertidal habitat in the inner part of the Humber
estuary. The new grassland will be managed to encourage
biodiversity, with
reedbeds,
lagoons and
grazing areas.
Alkborough Flats is the first coastal realignment site to be developed as part of the
Humber Shoreline Management Plan. This "
managed retreat" strategy should lessen the risks of flooding in low-lying towns along the Ouse and Trent by realigning existing flood defences to create compensatory intertidal habitat around the estuary.
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Alkborough*Alkborough is located at
1.
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Location Map of Alkborough*
aerial view of Alkborough*
Plan of Julian's Bower maze*
Alkborough, St John the Baptist Church*
A Defra press release about Alkborough Flats
*
labyrinth.
