Spilsby - Geography

Geography

The town is situated upon slightly elevated ground at the southwestern rim of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Spilsby has an extensive south-east view of a tract of marsh and fen land, bounded by Boston Deeps and the North Sea. It is within 12 miles (19 km) inland from Skegness.

The Wolds comprise a series of low hills and steep valleys, underlain by calcareous chalk, green limestone and sandstone rock, laid down in the Cretaceous period under a shallow warm sea. The characteristic open valleys of the Wolds were created during the last ice age through the action of glaciation and meltwater.

Geographically, the Lincolnshire Wolds are a continuation of the Yorkshire Wolds, which run up through the East Riding of Yorkshire. The Wolds as a whole were bisected by the erosion of the waters of the River Humber. The fenlands, which stretch down as far as Norfolk, are former wetlands, consisting both of peat bogs and tidal silt marshes. They were nearly all drained by the end of the 19th century, when Spilsby had its longest period of Victorian expansion.

The drainage was organised into river drainage, the passing of upland water through the region, and internal drainage of the land between the rivers. The internal drainage was designed to be organised by levels or districts, each of which includes the fen parts of one or several parishes. Spilsby falls within the Witham Fourth District: East, West and Wildmore Fens; and the Townland, from Boston to Wainfleet.