Louth is a fine example of a Georgian Market Town. The Domesday Book recorded Louth as being a prosperous market town as far back as 1086: the ancient market rights are well preserved with three markets each week, and a Wednesday outdoor auction of produce, game and wares.

Historically, the town is most noted as the origin of the Lincolnshire Rising, which was a brief rebellion of Roman Catholics against the establishment of the Church of England by Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536.

The town was flooded in 1920 with 23 people losing their lives; there are a number of stone plaques in the town showing the height that the water level reached.

Geographically the Greenwich Meridian crosses Eastgate in Louth and is marked with a plaque on the north side of the street, close to the junction with Northgate

It is a bustling, friendly, intimate town packed with fine examples of good townscape. Westgate and Eastgate, Upgate, Bridge Street and Mercer Row are full of the kind of architecture to surprise and delight, handsome buildings, and quirky ones and the sorts of crooked streets and alleys that tempt you to explore. ST. James’s Church, a Gothic masterpiece, with a 300ft spire (tallest on a parish church in England) dominates the town. The whole town is beautiful and was built, and is preserved, with love.