Brayford Pool today

During the past few years, Brayford Pool in Lincoln has become the centre of attention as new buildings have gone up all around it and old buildings have been converted or demolished. In the 1970s and 1980s the eastern end of Brayford Pool was developed and in the late 1990s the buildings of Lincoln University transformed a derelict industrial landscape into a modern vista. There is still a heated debate concerning the suitability of the Brayford's new buildings to Lincoln's traditional landscape.

The Brayford Pool has always been at the centre of developments in Lincoln. Indeed, before there was a city of Lincoln, the Brayford was the magnet that drew settlers to the area. The first syllable of the name Lincoln, is derived from the Celtic word for lake or pool, Llyn and the Roman name Lindum Colonia, which became abbreviated to Lincoln, means the city by the Pool.

Before the Romans

Before the Romans came, we know there was a small British settlement down by the Brayford. In 1972 archaeologists found traces of round wooden houses that dated to the first century BC. We will probably never know how big that first village was, for its remains are buried deep beneath the later Roman and medieval ruins, all of which are covered by our modern Lincoln.

Roman Occupation

It is easy to see why the Romans were attracted to Lincoln and, again, water is the key. At Lincoln the ice age rivers had cut a gap through the towering Lincoln Cliff edge, offering a natural east west route-way either by water or on foot. The River Witham passes through this gap, and offers a good route to the sea. Roman engineers also saw the possibility of linking the River Witham to the River Trent by building a canal. That canal, called the Foss Dyke, is still in use today, and through the ages, the links to Yorkshire and the Midlands via the Foss Dyke have brought trade and prosperity to the city. And of course the point where river and canal meet is the Brayford Pool.

Sometime around in the late first century AD, the Romans chose the great hill above the pool to be the site of one of their showpiece cities. It was to be a colonia, a model of Roman urbanisation and lifestyle. Lindum Colonia was founded on the hill top where castle and cathedral now sit, but soon straggled its way all down the hillside - heading for the Brayford and for the river. The Roman waterside must have been a bustling and vibrant port bringing in goods from the Mediterranean and beyond.

After the Romans

Even after the Romans abandoned Britain in the early 5th century, the importance of the port remained and the great and prosperous medieval city of Lincoln was built on the wealth (mostly in wool) that traded up and down the River Witham and across the Brayford Pool. The medieval city walls were extended right down to the Brayford, where they terminated at Lucy Tower. The name is remembered today in Lucy Tower Street, and in 1972, during the building of the multi storey car park, the foundations of the tower were uncovered and recorded.

The beginning of the end

Trade to Lincoln declined in the late medieval period, but in 1744, the Foss Dyke was dredged and reopened and a new heyday began for the Brayford. The Pool was lined with warehouses, mills, granaries and maltings and sailing barges and later steam packet boats brought goods to and from the port of Lincoln. But in the 1840s, the coming of the railways signalled the beginning of the end for Brayford's lucrative cargoes. The wharves and their associated buildings fell into decline. By the 1960s Brayford Pool was in such a poor state that it was proposed that it should be filled in and turned into a car park. Thankfully that didn't happen and in 1972 the Brayford Trust was formed and restoration of the Pool began with its establishment as a Marina for pleasure boats.

A bright future

With the close of the twentieth century, a new era has begun for this one time trade and industrial centre - the Brayford's new era of leisure and learning is changing both our architectural and our cultural landscape and proving that Lincoln remains the city by the Pool.

Dave Start
Director, Heritage Lincolnshire