House Share

Lambeth Greater London

Approximate Population: 267,785

Lambeth appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Lanchei. It was held partly by Lambeth Church and partly by Count Robert of Mortain. Its domesday assets were: 2½ hides; 1 church, 10 ploughs, 22 acres (89,000 m2) of meadow, woodland worth 3 hogs, 19 burgesses in London paid £1 16s 0d. It rendered £15.

The ancient settlement of Lambeth Marsh was immediately opposite the Palace of Westminster.   The Archbishop of Canterbury has had his official residence at Lambeth Palace since the 15th century.   The village was home to boatmen serving the City of London and Westminster.

The riverside village had an extensive parish, which stretched for six miles (10 km) south, including the manors of Kennington and Vauxhall. It formed part of Surrey until the creation of the County of London in 1889.  The parish, and the subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth (1900–1965), included the later settlements at Brixton and Norwood.

House Share Lambeth Greater London

House Share Rhondda Wales

Approximate Population: 72,443

Although little evidence of settlements has been found in the Rhondda that date between the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, several cairns and cists have been discovered throughout the length of both valleys.   The best example of a round-cairn was found at Crug yr Afan, near the summit of Graig Fawr, west of Cwmparc.

The cairn consisted of an earthen mound with a surrounding ditch 28 metres in circumference and over 2 metres tall.  Although most cairns discovered in the area are round, a ring cairn or cairn circle exists on Gelli Mountain.  Known as the ‘Rhondda Stonehenge’ the cairn consists of 10 upright stones no more than 60 cm in height encircling a central cist.  All the cairns found within the Rhondda are located on high ground, many on ridgeways, and may have been used as waypoints.

In 1912 a hoard of 24 late Bronze Age weapons and tools was discovered during construction work at the Llyn Fawr reservoir, at the source of the Rhondda Fawr.   The items did not originate from the Rhondda and are thought to have been left at the site as a votive offering.   Of particular interest were fragments of an iron sword which is the earliest iron object to be found in Wales and the only ‘C-type’ Hallstatt sword recorded in Britain.

House Share Rhondda Wales

House Share

Lincoln Lincolnshire

Approximate Population: 101,000

After the first destructive Viking raids Lincoln once again rose to some importance. In Viking times Lincoln was a trading centre important enough to issue coins from its own mint.   After the establishment of Dane Law in 886, Lincoln became one of The Five Boroughs in the East Midlands.   Over the next few centuries, Lincoln once again rose to prominence.   In 1068, two years after the Norman Conquest, William I ordered Lincoln Castle to be built on the site of the former Roman settlement, for the same strategic reasons and using the same road.

Construction of the first Lincoln Cathedral, within its close or walled precinct facing the castle, began when the see was removed from Dorchester and completed in 1092; it was rebuilt after a fire but was destroyed by an unusual earthquake in 1185.

The rebuilt Lincoln Minster, enlarged to the east at each rebuilding, was on a magnificent scale, its crossing tower crowned by a spire reputed to have been 160 m (525 ft) high, the highest in Europe.   When completed the central of the three spires is widely accepted to have succeeded the Great Pyramids of Egypt as the tallest man-made structure in the world.

House Share Lincoln Lincolnshire