Bicker is a village in the Borough of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. The population of the village was 941 at the 2011 census. It is situated approximately west-south-west from

, and on the

A52 road The A52 is a major road in the East Midlands, England. It runs east from a junction with the A53 road, A53 at Newcastle-under-Lyme near Stoke-on-Trent via Ashbourne, Derbyshire, Ashbourne, Derby, Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, Stapleford, Notting ...

History

The medieval

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

, Bicker Haven, which is now a village, took its name from the town of Bicker. It originally formed the outlet of the

River Witham The River Witham is a river almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham at , passes through the centre of Grantham (where it may be closely followed using the Riversi ...

which diverted to

after a flood in 1014. When the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

settlers enclosed the

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

for

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

, and the tide no longer reached the haven, it

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

ed-up, whereby Bicker ceased to be a port and became a farming village. This process had already begun with the Donington branch of the haven. The A52 previously ran through the village, but it is now bypassed to the south. Work on the bypass started in February 1987. Lincolnshire county council built the road, with a 45 week contract, costing £1.1m. The bypass opened in late 1987. The Bicker Bar roundabout is part of the Swineshead bypass which opened in 1985.

Geography

Bicker is one of 18

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

which, together with

, form the

Borough of Boston The Borough of Boston is a local government district with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Boston. The borough also includes numerous villages in the surrounding rural area including Wyberton, Sutter ...

in the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of Lincolnshire,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The local government has been arranged in this way since the reorganization of 1 April 1974, which resulted from the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

. This parish forms part of the Five Villages Ward of Boston Borough Council and part of the Boston Rural Electoral Division of Lincolnshire County Council. Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District, in the

Parts of Holland The Parts of Holland is a historical division of Lincolnshire, England, encompassing the southeast of the county. The name is still recognised locally and survives in the district of South Holland, Lincolnshire, South Holland. Etymology The place ...

. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as ''parts'') of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the

Local Government Act Local Government Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom, relating to local government. The Bill for an Act with this short title may have been know ...

of 1888, Holland had been in most respects, a county in itself. The civil parish has an area of around , and includes the hamlet of Hoffleet Stow. Mill Lane (B1181
joins
the bypass to the A17. Bicker and Donington lie either side of the

South Holland South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...

and

boundary. The boundary follows to the south of the B1181, north of Donington Eaudike. To the west is

North Kesteven North Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The council is based in Sleaford. The district also contains the town of North Hykeham, which adjoins the neighbouring city of Lincoln, England, L ...

on the other side of the

South Forty-Foot Drain The South Forty-Foot Drain, also known as the Black Sluice Navigation, is the main channel for the land-drainage of the Black Sluice Level in the Lincolnshire The Fens, Fens. It lies in eastern England between Guthram Gowt and the Black Sluic ...

. The boundary with

at Donington follows the Old Eau to the south-east, passing the northern edge of Rabbit Hills Farm. To the south it meets the parish of Wigtoft. I
passes
to the west of the A17/B1181 junction at Bank House, named after the former sea bank of Bicker Haven. It follows the A17 to the west, and meets Swineshead at Bolle Hall, following the west of the A17. About of the A17 is in the parish, including the Bicker Bar roundabout at the A52, and the Bicker Bar motel and

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...

services. The boundary with Swineshead follows to the north-west along a drain south of East Low Grounds, and includes Bicker Gauntlet. It follows North Drove to the north, along Bicker Fen, south of West Low Grounds. At Holt Hills it meets North Kesteven and borders Great Hale for about , then at Ferry Farm borders Little Hale. Near Eau End Farm (on the other side of the drain), it meets South Holland om Middle Fen then passes close to the line of th
pylons
on North Fen. The OS Explorer map for the district shows 'The Bars', an off-road area to the north of the village of Bicker at TF230384 (What 3 Words, stammer.position.twirls) The origin of the name is unknown, but may relate to a limnological point bar, of which there were several in the district centuries ago.

Community

The Ye Olde Red Lion

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

is on Donington Road. The village has a post office with a shop, and a parish church dedicated to St Swithin. North of th
main line
of 400 kV pylons is the Bicker Fen windfarm consisting of 13 turbines producing 26 MW (2 MW each), enough for 14,000 homes. The construction of the windfarm met some local objection. The windmills sit north from Poplartree Farm and were built in June 2008 by Wind Prospect for EdF. They are of the type

REpower Senvion S.A. (called REpower Systems SE until 2014) was a German wind turbine manufacturer founded in 2001 in Germany, majority owned by a private equity firm. Senvion as REpower Systems, as it was initially called, was established in 2001 ...

MM82, made in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. Bicker Fen substation is also the landing site for a 1,400 MW power cable from Denmark called

Viking Link Viking Link is a 1,400 megawatt, MW high-voltage direct current, HVDC submarine power cable between the United Kingdom and Denmark, which was completed in 2023. , it is the longest land and subsea HVDC interconnector in the world. The project is ...

, as well as the proposed offshore wind farm

Triton Knoll Triton Knoll Wind Farm is an 857 MW round 2 offshore wind farm off the coast of Lincolnshire, in the North Sea, England. RWE Npower Renewables were awarded the lease to the development area in 2003. The offshore elements of the wind farm of ...

. Archaeological excavations carried out there in advance of construction revealed two distinctly different enclosure systems (on a raised

roddon A roddon, also written as rodham, roddam or rodden, is the dried raised bed of a watercourse such as a river or tidal-creek, especially in The Fens in eastern England. Such raised silt and clay-filled beds are ideal for settlement in the less f ...

) were uncovered at Bicker Fen. A series of interlinked enclosures were part of a Roman mid-2nd century AD farmstead which had an economic focus on beef production. A later, more seasonal, Saxon field system dated to 6th and 10th centuries whose focus appears to have been pastoralism and was suggestive of seasonal or otherwise ad hoc land use away from the core of any nearby settlement.

Population

References

External links