![[Holbeach Sign]](holbeach.jpg)
A Full Holbeach is what you can claim to have achieved if you have visited the eight settlements in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, with Holbeach in their name. These are Holbeach, Holbeach Clough, Holbeach Drove, Holbeach St Johns, Holbeach Hurn, Holbeach Bank, Holbeach St Marks and Holbeach St Matthew. You are also required to have visited Holbeach Fen and Holbeach Marsh in order to claim a Full Holbeach. Suprisingly few people can claim to have a Full Holbeach, even many who live in one of the Holbeachs cannot claim it, as it is 14 miles from Holbeach Drove to Holbeach St Matthew.
Credits towards a Full Holbeach can be attained through visiting each settlement or area. The magnitude of the credits assigned to each place vary depending on the importance of the settlement, the accessibility of the area and the level of reasons you would otherwise go there. It cannot be over stressed that all 100 credits must be attained before a Full Holbeach can be truly claimed. These are the specific details of the credit system:
| Place/Area | Credits gained for visit |
Rationale | Sign |
| Holbeach | 5 | Moderately large town |  |
| Holbeach Fen | 5 | Of minor significance and no sign. |
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| Holbeach Marsh | 5 | Easy to reach if visiting St Marks or Matthew |
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| Holbeach Clough | 10 | Few attractions but too close to Holbeach. |
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| Holbeach Drove | 10 | Is on the way to Gedney Hill. |
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| Holbeach St Johns | 10 | Near the Fenland Airfield |  |
| Holbeach Hurn | 10 | Strange sign, near Holbeach |  |
| Holbeach Bank | 10 | Small but quite close to Holbeach |
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| Holbeach St Marks | 15 | Remote setting out in deepest Fens |
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| Holbeach St Matthew | 20 | Truly 'out in the sticks' and close to the sea too! |
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Well actually gaining a Full Holbeach in itself is not such a huge achievement. However, it is a small step on the way to gaining a much greater achievement that of a Full Fenland. However, the Holbeachs are significant in that there are 10 of them, more than any other Fenland village group. It is for this reason they carry 8 points towards the Full Fenland.
* A Royal Mail van was seen overtaking a car which was going just on 60mph, between Saturday Bridge and Holbeach on the B1168 at 11.32am on Monday 25th October 1999. The van had a registration plate T956 SNO and the offender was seen a few minutes later in Holbeach itself.
* St Martin's Church just outside Holbeach Bank is clearly well attended as the photo shows.
* The parish of Holbeach encompasses all of the Holbeach settlements, and yet still only has a population of 8180 (according to the 1991 census that is, perhaps they were all on back packing trips round Europe on census night.
* Holbeach Hurn must be a hive of activity, when we were there on 25th October 1999, a lorry was precariously tilted towards a field at the side of the road. We can only assume, since we only visited once, that these kinds of interesting goings on occur every day.
* Dog walkers north of Holbeach St Matthew have a brilliant knack of still being able to get their cars along tracks despite them having been all but blocked by inconsiderate Fenland village collectors who assume no one would be down an isolated track.
If you live in South Lincolnshire, North Cambridgeshire or West Norfolk it should be relatively easy to gain a Full Holbeach. For you a Full Holbeach is just a long cycle ride or a moderately long car journey. For people further a field it might be worth coming to stay on holiday within the area in order to gain the Full Holbeach. The towns of King's Lynn, Spalding and Wisbech could be good bases.
A general rule of thumb for claiming a settlement is to go past a sign for that village. The exceptions to this rule are Holbeach Fen and Holbeach Marsh where there are no signs, these can be gained by visiting Saturday Bridge for Holbeach Fen and either Woodstock House, Middle Marsh House or Crowmarsh Farm for Holbeach Marsh.
Firstly give yourself a pat on the back, strange as it may seem probably only a handful of the 8180 who live in the Holbeach parish have actually bothered to visit all the villages that comprise it. Then it is recommended you continue on the long path towards gaining a Full Fenland. This entails visiting all the places that have duplicated names in the Fenland area (see site for details). It will be a long haul before you get a greater achievement as there are 24 multiple settlement groups and over 130 individual places in total!
While there is no official way of showing you have gained a Full Holbeach I am willing to put up the names of claimants on this site. I will also put up the names of anyone claiming a partial or half Holbeach.
All claims should be sent to The executive Board of the Multiple Fenland Village Collecting Society. Claims should include some original observations if possible which may be verified.
Andrew Titman - 25th October 1999
James Pepper - 25th October 1999
Daniel Felton - 25th October 1999
Ed Peacock - October 2000
Katie Chatterton
