Coastwalk

Fosdyke Bridge → Boston

Distance: 11.2 miles
Ascent: 118 metres
Duration: 3 hours 43 minutes

Postcard from a small town
« Holbeach St Matthew | Freiston Shore »

As well as nuclear power stations, military firing ranges and sewage treatment works, it would seem the British coastline is the natural place to site refuse tips. A mile or so out of Boston the sparse fenland landscape is replaced by the calling gulls, the rough piles of rubbish and the accompanying atmosphere.

Boston itself appears to be a wonderful, compact market town. It's dominated by the tower of St Botolphs-the-Stump and a (unique?) five-sailed windmill. Narrow lanes wind away from the market square, fringed by a river and a canal.

But to get a good feel for a town, nothing's better than asking a taxi-driver. So Boston was the theme of the trip back to my car. "It's always been a rough town," he tells me. "Take last night: five thousand soccer fans in from Doncaster caused no trouble at all, but as soon as the local lads came out..."

As a solution the driver offered "if only people could be a little friendlier to each other". This, he felt would work locally, nationally and internationally.

Walking round Boston it's hard not to notice an incredible ethnic mix. Folk are drawn here by the labour. You see them queuing up outside ASDA, waiting for the minibus that will take them to the pack-houses and fields. There's no shortage of work. "The Mrs earns £20 an hour," I'm told.

But for some reason "the foreigners" are seen as an unwanted intrusion by some.

On the other hand, I've seen none of this roughness in the two days I've been here. Perhaps that's because the town's preparing for the May Fair tomorrow and there's a sense of anticipation that trumps fear, anger and jealousy.