Coastwalk

Boston → Freiston Shore

Distance: 8.02 miles
Ascent: 108 metres
Duration: 2 hours 47 minutes

Prisons and persecution
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Two monuments stand on top of the sea bank east of Boston.

The first marks the spot where the Pilgrim Fathers first tried to set sail in 1607 "To find religious freedom". They were betrayed and captured, held in cells in Boston itself. (They finally to set sail years later from further round the coast.)

The second commemorates the work of the North Sea Camp (one of Jeffrey Archer's recent homes) in constructing the current sea wall to reclaim land from The Wash.

By this second monument I met another footpath collector. "I didn't start walking until I retired," he told me, his handlebar moustache beating the air with each syllable. A peak cap poked out from under the hood of his Gore-Tex jacket, a defiant piece of tradition finding its place next to the necessities of modern walking.

I didn't ask his name; I rarely do when walking, but we chatted a while. He's aiming to walk all the rights of way in Lincolnshire and - sure enough - in his hands was a map that is slowly being covered with fluorescent yellow lines. I smiled wordlessly at this distant cousin of my own annotated map book.

By the time I reached Freiston, the incessant rain had soaked through my waterproofs so I called for a taxi rather than walk back into Boston.

And so another driver shared his thoughts. "I moved out of Boston four years ago, and it was the best decision I ever made."

"The town's changed," he continued. "All these immigrants..." I let it slip. I didn't want to hear the end of the conversation. Four hundred years ago locals tried to flee Boston in search of religious freedom. Perhaps the persecution isn't as organised now, but the undercurrents are there.