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Long Sutton
pretty market town close to The Wash
Pretty market town close to The Wash with attractive Georgian houses set amid rich farmland reclaimed from the once flooded fens.
St Mary’s Church in the market place has the highest, oldest and best preserved lead covered timber spire in England. It is similar in design to Chesterfield Parish Church. Sensibly they must have used seasoned wood because it hasn’t twisted like the famous Chesterfield spire. Highwayman Dick Turpin lived in Long Sutton for about nine months under the alias John Palmer.
SPECIAL TO Long Sutton
St Mary’s Church
Sutton Bridge
River Nene
things to do in the Long Sutton area
Did you know?
St Matthew in Sutton Bridge is the only flint church in Lincolnshire, this neighbouring village is notable for its bridge crossing into Norfolk. There are two 19th century lighthouses three miles to the north of the village. The River Nene has always been an important navigation for shipping and twin lighthouses were built at the mouth of the River Nene guiding ships through the sand banks and into the river. The East Bank Lighthouse is known as the Sir Peter Scott Lighthouse as the naturalist and artist once lived there.
It was here in October 1216 that King John’s baggage train, complete with all his treasures, was swept away by the incoming tide. The whole area was composed of shifting sands and silt. Prior to there being a bridge the route across the marshes between Lincolnshire and Norfolk was only possible at low tide and required a guide. Wagons, livestock and travellers were frequently lost in the quicksand of the marshes.
Cross Keys Bridge
Known as Cross Keys Bridge, the swing bridge at Sutton Bridge was built in 1897 and is Grade II* listed. The third bridge here to cross the tidal River Nene, it carries the A17 providing the only direct link between Lincolnshire and Norfolk. The bridge opens several times a week to allow ships through to the Port of Wisbech. Tolls were charged until 1903 and it originally took both road and rail, one carriageway for trains, the other for motor vehicles, it was converted to two-way traffic in 1960.
Pilots practicing their low-level flying skills for the Dambusters Raid in 1943 came to Sutton Bridge. There were electric cables crossing the River Nene just before the bridge itself and the pilots would fly their Lancasters under the cables and then have to very rapidly rise to skim over Cross Keys Bridge missing it by a few feet.
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