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Reaching high into the sky from the top of a steep hill, the triple towers of the mighty cathedral of LINCOLN are visible for miles across the flatlands. This conspicuous spot was first fortified by the Celts, who called their settlement Lindon, "hillfort by the lake", a reference to the pools formed by the River Witham in the marshy ground below. In 47 AD the Romans occupied Lindon and built a fortified town which subsequently became, as Lindum Colonia, one of the four regional capitals of Roman Britain. Today, only fragments of the Roman city survive, mostly pieces of the third-century town wall, and these are outdone by reminders of Lincoln's medieval heyday, which began during the reign of William the Conqueror with the building of the castle and cathedral . Lincoln flourished as a centre of the wool trade with Flanders, until 1369, when the wool market was transferred to neighbouring Boston. It was almost five hundred years before the town revived, the recovery based upon its manufacture of agricultural machinery and drainage equipment for the fenlands. As the nineteenth-century town spread south down the hill and out along the old Roman road - the Fosse Way - so Lincoln became a place of precise class distinctions: the "Up hill" area, spreading north from the cathedral, became synonymous with middle-class respectability, "Down hill" with the proletariat. It's a distinction that remains - locals selling anything from second-hand cars to settees still put "Up hill" in brackets to signify a better quality of merchandise. For the visitor, almost everything of interest is confined to the "Up hill" part of town, and it's here also you'll find the best pubs and restaurants .
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