A number of Roman and
Romano-British pottery finds have been made in and about the town. The name Holbeach derives from the
Old English holbæc meaning 'hollow ridge'. The town's
market charter was awarded in 1252 to Thomas de Moulton, a local
baron.
All Saints' Church was built in the 14th century and the porch, which was built around 1700, possibly incorporated parts of
de Moulton's ruined castle. The associated All Saints' Hospital, for a warden and fifteen poor persons, was founded by Sir John of Kirton, in 1351. It had ceased to exist before
the suppression of chantries and hospitals. The antiquarian
William Stukeley reported that his father removed the ruins from the site which is now occupied by the Chequers Inn. Until the beginning of the 17th century, the
sea came to within of the town and there were severe
floods recorded in the 13th and 16th centuries. The land drainage programmes that followed moved the coastline of
the Wash to away, leaving Holbeach surrounded by more than of
reclaimed fertile agricultural land. In 1615, nominees of the
Earl of Argyll were entitled to the land which was reclaimed from the sea in
Wigtoft,
Moulton,
Whaplode, Holbeach and
Tydd St Mary. The Earl paid for the work, but differences of opinion stalled the project after 1634. Further enclosure of marshes were recorded in 1660, in
Gedney, Whaplode, Holbeach and Moulton. The work included the building of an embankment, and resulted in being added to Holbeach parish. A second embankment was built under the provisions of the South Holland Embankment Act (1793) and added another . Following unsuccessful attempts in the 1830s, the rest of
Holbeach Marsh was enclosed in 1840. The project was directed by Mr. Millington, and the total area added to the parish by all these enclosures was . In 1829 a theatre was built for Joseph Smedley as the 'Public Rooms' in Park Road. This was visited by the Lincoln Company, managed by
Fanny Robertson, following their performances in Wisbech in 1841. The Spalding and Norwich Railway, (later incorporated in the
Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway), opened
Holbeach railway station in 1862. Like the rest of the M&GN route, it closed to passengers in 1959 (before the
Beeching Axe) and the line closed entirely in 1965. The 19th century also saw the building of several small churches, including a Wesleyan chapel, built on Chapel Street in 1808, and a Baptist chapel, which was built on Albert Street in 1845 using red brick and colour-washed render. The
Second World War defences constructed at nearby Lawyers Creek comprise a number of
pillboxes including the rare
Ruck machine gun post. ==Geography==