ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes the current reappraisal of the historical understanding of the Fens by concentrating on its parish churches and their Romanesque sculpture. An analysis of the types of sculpture found in these churches and the extent of their survival offers a general picture of the 12th-century parochial landscape. In Lincolnshire as a whole more than 280 individual sites contain Romanesque sculpture. Salt production was another major industry of the region with the majority of the Lincolnshire salt-pans located in the silt belt of the Fens and along the coastal edge. In addition to the king's head, there is a fragment of a second head on the other side of the spandrel, and Romanesque fragments used as corbels in the south aisle wall. St Swithin, Bicker also prompts a number of general reflections on Romanesque architectural sculpture in the fens.
