Louth wears the tallest parish church spire in England, and the whole town seems arranged around it. St James' Church, with a spire of about ninety meters, rises above the rooftops of this market town in the Lincolnshire Wolds, a landmark that can be seen for miles across the surrounding countryside. The spire was completed in the early sixteenth century, and the church stands in a quiet, tight-knit town of narrow lanes, Georgian houses and independent shops, with the River Lud running through.
The town carries a memory of disaster. On 29 May 1920, after a violent storm on the hills, the Lud overflowed and a wall of water swept through the center, killing twenty-three people and destroying many houses, and a memorial marks the spot. The poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson went to school in Louth as a boy, and he was born a few miles away at Somersby, and the countryside around fed his early verse. The weekly market and the old butchers' and cheese shops give the town a strong sense of its own identity.
For riders, the Wolds are a surprise. Rising from the flat Lincolnshire plain, they form a long band of rolling chalk hills, steep-sided valleys and hedgerowed lanes, with wide views over the fens and, on a clear day, the North Sea. The A157 and the B1203 run through the hills, and narrow lanes climb to hilltop villages, with gentle curves, sudden dips and few cars. A famous ridge route, the Bluestone Heath Road, runs along the top with big views. The surface is mostly good, though farm tractors and mud on the lanes are common.
Louth has fuel, supermarkets, pubs and cafes, and it is the best base for the Wolds. Manby and Burwell, nearby, are smaller. The best months are May to September, with long light evenings, and autumn brings colored hedgerows. The wind on the open ridges can be strong, and winter fog and ice make the lanes tricky. Look out for farm vehicles and, in harvest, straw on the road.