Lincoln, England

Lincoln (/ˈlɪŋkən/) is a cathedral city and district in Lincolnshire, England, of which it is the county town. In the 2021 Census, the city's district had a population of 103,813. The 2021 census gave the urban area of Lincoln, including Bracebridge Heath, North Hykeham, South Hykeham and Waddington, a recorded population of 127,540.

Roman Lindum Colonia developed from an Iron Age settlement of Britons on the River Witham, near the Fosse Way road. Over time its name was shortened to Lincoln, after successive settlements, including by Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Landmarks include Lincoln Cathedral (English Gothic architecture; for over 200 years the world's tallest building) and the 11th-century Norman Lincoln Castle. The city hosts the University of Lincoln, Lincoln Bishop University, Lincoln City F.C. and Lincoln United F.C. Lincoln is the largest settlement in Lincolnshire, with the towns of Grimsby second largest and Scunthorpe third.

The name Lincoln may ultimately come from the Brythonic language of Iron Age Britain's Celtic inhabitants name for the area: lindon, "The Pool", via Latin Lindum Colōnia whence the latter part of the name ‘-coln’ (“outpost”), presumably referring to Brayford Pool (compare the etymology of Dublin, from the Gaelic dubh linn "black pool”). The extent of the original settlement is unknown, as its remains are buried beneath the later Roman and medieval ruins and modern Lincoln.

The earliest origins of Lincoln can be traced to remains of an Iron Age settlement of round wooden dwellings, discovered by archaeologists in 1972, which have been dated to the 1st century BCE. It was built by Brayford Pool on the River Witham at the foot of a large hill, on which the Normans later built Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln Castle.

The Romans conquered this part of Britain in 48 CE and soon built a legionary fortress high on a hill overlooking the natural lake, Brayford Pool, formed by the widening of the River Witham, and the northern end of the Fosse Way Roman road (A46). Celtic Lindon was later Latinised to Lindum and the title Colonia added when it became settled by army veterans.

The conversion to a colonia occurred when the legion moved on to York (Eboracum) in 71 CE. Lindum colonia or more fully, Colonia Domitiana Lindensium, after the then Emperor Domitian, was set up within the walls of the hilltop fortress by extending it with about an equal area, down the hillside to the waterside.

It became a flourishing settlement accessible from the sea through the River Trent and through the River Witham. On the basis of a patently corrupt list of British bishops said to have attended the 314 Council of Arles, the city is often seen as having been the capital of the province of Flavia Caesariensis, formed during the late 3rd-century Diocletian Reforms. Subsequently, the town and its waterways declined. By the close of the 5th century, it was largely deserted, although some occupation continued under a Praefectus Civitatis – Saint Paulinus visited a man holding this office in Lincoln in 629 CE.

Germanic tribes from the North Sea area settled Lincolnshire in the 5th to 6th centuries. The Latin Lindum Colonia shrank in Old English to Lindocolina, then to Lincylene.