Freiston
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Freiston is a village in Lincolnshire, England, around four miles east of Boston.
It is one of eighteen parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston in the county of Lincolnshire, England. The local government has been arranged in this way since the reorganization of April 1 1974, which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972. This parish forms part of the Coastal electoral ward.
On its eastern side, Freiston parish adjoins The Wash. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Freiston's sandy shore on The Wash was developed as a sea bathing resort. By the mid-nineteenth century, there were horse races on the beach and other attractions. However, the process of coastal accretion proceeded and salt marsh developed, leaving the few hotels without customers. Since the mid twentieth century, more marsh has been enclosed behind sea banks for use as arable land.
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[edit] Sea defence policy
In 2000 the process was reversed a little when part of the sea bank was breached and the land behind opened to the tides. This was part of a relatively new policy of managed realignment, which saw the making of three deliberate breaches of the old sea bank. This took the pressure off the remaining sea defences, with the aim of prolonging their life, while the 66 hectares of tidal saltmarsh which is re-establishing itself helps soak up wave energy, acting as a further sea defence.
[edit] Nature conservation
This new marsh, together with another, designed to be managed as a brackish marsh with lagoons, now forms an RSPB reserve. Freiston Shore is a good place for seeing avocets, redshanks, ringed plovers, wheatears and marsh harriers in spring and summer. In the autumn and winter, migrating waders such as redshanks, turnstones, dunlins, and waterfowl such as Dark-bellied Brent Goose, and wigeon can be seen.
[edit] History
Until 1974, the parish formed part of Boston Rural District, in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions (formally known as parts) of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the Local Government Act of 1888, Holland had been in most respects, a county in itself.
Before this, Freiston had been in Skirbeck Wapentake,1 Parts of Holland.
[edit] Footnote
- Note 1:White's Directory of 1882 gives the wapentake as Loveden but this is to confuse Freiston with Frieston in Kesteven.
[edit] External links
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