Stickney

Hotel choice directly in Stickney is very limited, given the village's small size, so most visitors looking for a hotel base themselves in nearby Boston, around eight miles south, which offers a wider range of options from budget chains to traditional coaching inns in the historic market town centre. Staying in Boston puts you within easy reach of Stickney, the Wash coast and RSPB Frampton Marsh, while also giving you the shops, restaurants and rail connections of a proper market town on your doorstep.

Villages and small towns along the A16 corridor, including Spilsby and Horncastle towards the Wolds, also offer country inns and guest houses if you would rather stay somewhere quieter with easy access to both the Fens and the rolling Wolds countryside. Wherever you base yourself, the flat, well-connected roads around Stickney mean nowhere in this part of Lincolnshire is ever far from anywhere else, so it is worth weighing up whether you would prefer the buzz of a market town or the peace of a smaller village when choosing where to stay.

Booking ahead is sensible during the summer months and around events in Boston, though this is a quiet corner of the county that rarely sees the kind of demand seen on the Lincolnshire coast at Skegness or Mablethorpe, so availability is generally easier to come by.

Stickney itself is small, so most days out mean venturing a short drive into the surrounding Fens and Wash coast. Here is a realistic list of what is actually worth your time.

• St Luke's Church — the village's 13th-century Anglican parish church, a Grade II listed building rebuilt and restored across the 19th century, with a rebuilt tower dating from 1900 and notable stained glass, including a memorial window to Mary Jane Lovell, founder of a society for the blind.
• RSPB Frampton Marsh — around a 25-minute drive south towards the Wash, this reserve on the coast between the Welland and Witham outfalls has a visitor centre, three bird hides and several kilometres of flat, accessible footpaths, with avocets, redshanks and skylarks in summer and huge winter wildfowl flocks.
• Boston Stump (St Botolph's Church) — the famous 272ft tower of Boston's parish church dominates the Fenland skyline for miles and is well worth the short drive into town, along with Boston's market place, Guildhall museum and riverside.
• Maud Foster Windmill — a working seven-sailed windmill in Boston, one of the tallest working windmills in England, with a shop and tea room.
• The Water Rail Way — a flat, well-surfaced cycling and walking route following the old railway line and River Witham between Lincoln and Boston, ideal for an easy family ride if you are happy to drive to a access point.
• Stickney village walks — the flat, quiet lanes and drove roads around the village make for easy, gentle walking or cycling through open Fenland scenery, with big skies and plenty of birdlife along the dykes.
• Historic connection to Paul Verlaine — the French poet briefly taught French and drawing at a school in Stickney in 1875 before moving on to Boston, an unexpected footnote in the village's history that local history enthusiasts enjoy tracking down.

The village pub is Ye Olde Red Lion, the only public house in Stickney, popular locally for a drink and home-cooked meals in a rural, unpretentious setting. Beyond the pub, Stickney has a small convenience store covering everyday essentials, but for a wider choice of cafes, restaurants and supermarkets, Boston is the nearest town with a proper range of options, easily reached along the A16.

Stickney and the surrounding Lincolnshire Fens are flat, open, agricultural countryside, criss-crossed by drainage dykes and drove roads, and this terrain shapes what camping here looks like. As in the rest of England, wild camping without the landowner's permission is against the law, so a proper campsite, farm pitch or glamping stay is the way to enjoy a night under Fenland skies without causing a problem. The reward for staying is genuinely dark, wide-open skies with very little light pollution, a rare thing in much of lowland England.

Sites in and around Stickney and the wider Boston area tend to be small, family-run touring and camping grounds set on working farms, offering grass pitches for tents, caravans and motorhomes, often with basic but well-kept facilities. Given the flat terrain and lack of natural shelter, exposed sites can feel breezy, so a sturdy tent and secure pegging are worth the effort, particularly in spring and autumn when Fenland winds pick up.

Spring through early autumn is the most comfortable stretch for camping here, with the driest, mildest weather and the best chance of clear nights for stargazing. Summer also brings long evenings to enjoy the huge Fenland sunsets the area is known for, while a spring or autumn visit rewards early risers with mist rising off the drains and dykes at dawn. For those who would rather skip the tent-pitching, a small number of glamping pods, shepherd's huts and static caravans are available on farms across the district, offering a more comfortable way to experience the same big skies and quiet countryside, and these are worth booking ahead for weekends in peak season.