When visiting Horncastle you will find a small, yet busy market town of some 6500 residents in the East Lindsey district of the county which has held the market town charter since the 13th Century.

Originally best known for the famous great international Horse Fair held every August, this trading event was sadly discontinued in the late 20th Century and the town is more famous worldwide as a centre for the antiques trade.

It is situated south of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where the River Bain meets the River Waring, and north of the West and Wildmore Fens.

However, the town’s current claims to fame are perhaps a little unusual to say the least. It is currently home to the World's Largest Salt Shaker. Also, from about 2003, it has been at the centre of multiple alleged sightings of a big cat thought to be an escaped leopard or panther. The local press has daubed this mysterious big cat the "Lindsey Leopard" or "Beast of the Wolds", but it has yet to be proven whether this is indeed an urban (or perhaps rural) myth or for real! So beware when visiting Horncastle!

The town is also a record-holder, when, on 7 October 1960 it entered the UK Weather Records with the Highest three-hour total rainfall of 178 mm. That having been said, the town is well-known locally for its floods, the big ones being in 1920 and 1960 respectively, with three minor ones between 1981 and 1984. Local folklore has it that the floods coincided with a change of the town’s vicar the previous year, something which happened each year. However, there were no floods in 2000 to mark the change of town’s vicar in 1999.





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