Henry VIII described the county of Lincolnshire as "one of the most brutal and beestlie of the whole realm", his contempt based on the events of 1536, when thousands of northern peasants rebelled against his religious reforms. In Lincolnshire, this insurrection, the Pilgrimage of Grace , began in the northeast of the county at LOUTH , twenty-three miles from Lincoln, under the leadership of the local vicar, who was subsequently hung, drawn and quartered. There's a commemorative plaque in honour of the rebels beside Louth's church of St James (Easter-Christmas Mon-Sat 10.30am-4.30pm), which is the town's one outstanding building, its soaring Perpendicular spire, buttresses, battlements and pinnacles set on a grassy knoll, just to the west of the centre. The interior, clumsily renovated in the 1820s, is a disappointment, but the nave does boast a handsome Georgian wooden roof and the intricate vaulting beneath the tower is an exercise in geometrical precision. Next to the church, the well-tended gardens and Georgian houses of Westgate make it one of Louth's prettiest streets and you can grab a drink here at the antique Wheatsheaf Inn . Afterwards, it doesn't take long to explore the rest of the town centre, whose cramped lanes and alleys - focusing on the Cornmarket - are lined with red-brick buildings dating from the seventeenth century.

With reasonably regular weekday services from Boston and Lincoln, Louth's bus station is at the east end of Queen Street, a couple of minutes' walk from the Cornmarket - walk west along Queen Street and turn right onto the Market Place. The tourist office , in the Market Hall off Cornmarket (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm; tel 01507/609289), has a competent range of local information including accommodation details. The best hotel is the Priory , on Eastgate (tel 01507/602930, ; £60-70), an excellent family-run place in a Georgian villa of 1818 with an idiosyncratic neo-Gothic facade and extensive gardens; it's located at the east end of the centre, about ten minutes' walk from the Cornmarket. There's also a top-notch B&B , Keddington House , in a pleasant Victorian house with its own heated outdoor pool about three-quarters of a mile to the northeast of the centre at 5 Keddington Rd (tel 01507/603973, ; £40-50).

For food , it's hard to beat the Priory , which serves moderately priced dinners to a very good standard (closed Sun). The miscellaneous snack bars dotted round the Corn Market offer cheaper alternatives. Runner up, and a good bit cheaper, is Ye Olde Whyte Swanne , an old pub at 45 Eastgate, that sells tasty bar snacks, including home-made game and pork pies as well as the illustrious (and extremely large) Lincolnshire sausage.