We are indebted to Dennis Tennant, Parish Councillor and District Councillor for his help in compiling this work on local history.

Back in the 13th Century the River Nene took a very different course to what it is today. From Peterborough it meandered and emptied into the Wash south of Wisbech at a place called Horseshoe Corners. The area was known as Summerlands as it was only suitable for grazing when the Spring and Autumn tides had diminished.

Over the course of the next few centuries. as the price of land was starting to rise it became viable to call in drainage engineers who started to 'straighten' and deepen the river, whilst at the same time building up embankments. The first proposal was to work on the river between Peterborough and Wisbech but as this was going to be too costly, Nathanial Kindersly was engaged on the work and it was opened in 1773.

Up until the time of the Kindersley's Cut, ships with cargo had to be unloaded before Foul Anchor and Gunthorpe Sluice and transhipped by smaller boats to enable them to get to Wisbech. In  1826 -1827 an Act of Parliament was passed for a new cut, embankment and bridge across the river to be constructed, thus allowing the reclamation of thousands of acres of land, a crossing of the river allowing traffic flow to Norfolk avoiding a 15 mile detour to Wisbech the most Northerly crossing point.

The Estuary that had been 5 miles wide was now reduced to 300 feet by the embankments and there was a new wooden and cast iron bridge across the river. From the river to the Norfolk border a new embankment was constructed, thereby stopping the flooding. The embankment was constructed by a workforce of between 1200 and 1500 men, many of whom were Irish.

At this time many of the local farmers faced financial distress and even bankruptcy due to the loss of sheep and crops to the 'navvies'. There was local civil unrest and parish constables being appointed and vigilante groups formed. It would take a very brave constable to try to arrest one of 1200 plus navvies!

Again at this time, cholera, typhoid and smallpox were widespread and many of the navvies who died were buried in sailcloth in a communal grave in St Mary's Churchyard in Long Sutton. 

We are indebted to Louis Mills for this fascinating insight on why people from Lincolnshire are called Yellowbellies;

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/yellowbellies.html

Lincolnshire Yellow Bellies

1. Why are folks from Lincolnshire called Yellow Bellies? Here are a list of possibilities, but no one seems to know for sure...
2. The name came from the custom of Lincolnshire people hanging "belly" bacon for so long that it turned yellow.
3. People living in the fens often caught malaria or ague from stagnant water, which turned their skin yellow.
4. Opium taken to relieve malaria and other disorders also turned people's skin yellow.
5. Wildfowlers (not flowers!) became covered in yellow clay of the fens as they stalked their prey.
6. A Lincolnshire farmer with an ugly 28-stone daughter offered would-be husbands a dowry of as many gold coins as it would take to cover her belly.
7. The fenland administrative Warpentake of Elloe was called in bygone times "Ye Elloe Bellie" as bel was German for low-lying. This was often corrupted into "Yellow Belly".
8. Drivers of the Lincoln-to-London stage coaches wore yellow waistcoats and were nicknamed Yellow Bellies by London Cockneys.
9. Legend had it that if shillings were placed on Lincolnshire stomachs at bedtime and they were still there the next morning, they would have turned into gold sovereigns.
10. Many Lincolnshire country women carried their money or gold under their dresses when going to market and were called yellow bellies.
11. The 10th Lincs Regiment of Foot had as its colours from 1851 to 1881 the red cross of St George on a yellow background.
12. Soldiers of the 10th Foot once wore green tunics with yellow facings.
13. An unpopular explanation is that the 10th Foot had retreated from the enemy in battle, and had been dubbed cowardly or "yellow".
14. Officers of the Royal North Lincolnshire Militia would wear bright yellow waistcoats on the battlefield. This made it easier for their men to spot them.
15. There was a species of frog peculiar to the fens region which had yellow bellies.
16. Labourers working to reclaim the fens became covered in the yellow clay.
17. The Lincolnshire Mail Coaches which ran between 1785 and 1871 were painted dark blue with a bright yellow belly to conceal splash marks from the yellow county clay roads.
18. A Lincolnshire lady whose canary died replaced it with a frog with a yellow belly, in the belief that the frog would sing like the canary and said to it, "Now sing yellow belly."
19. On a bottle of Bateman's "Yellow Belly Ale" the explanation given is that farm workers collecting mustard seed got covered in yellow dust.
20. Stewart Dowse reports that his uncle Wilford FOX told him it was customary to paint the belly of male sheep (rams) yellow, and the farmer could determine how many ewes had been serviced.

Aren't you glad you asked?

We thank Alan M Stanier for the following information:

Name Origin: Sutton is a very common placename element, deriving from Old English Suþ tun southern homestead or village or perhaps be suþan tune the place south of the village. Langesutton may refer to a Sutton on a long slope.

Domesday Book:
CLAIMS IN KESTEVEN

The men of Holland testify that the jurisdiction of Ketill of SUDTONE's church lies in the King's manor of Tydd. [Other translators prefer "Ketill's church of Sutton", but it seems more probably to have been a by-name.]

The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, ed J.H.F.Brabner, 1895:

Long Sutton, (formerly Sutton St Mary), a market town, township, and parish, in Lincolnshire. Long Sutton stands on the Bourn and Lynn section of the Midland and Great Northern Joint railway, 5 miles ESE of Holbeacb, 9 N from Wisbech, and 105 from London, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Wisbech. It is the centre of an enormous parish, and is a seat of petty sessions. It is governed by an urban district council of nine members, and is well drained. Population, 2439. A large building was erected in 1856, which serves as corn exchange, market, and public rooms, and there are two banks and some breweries and corn mills. In 1892 the Winfrey family presented three acres of meadow-land in the middle of the town for the purposes of a recreation ground.! A weekly market for corn. and cattle is held on Friday, and there are fairs on 13 and 14 May, and the first Friday after 25 September. The site of a large mansion, said to have been, a residence of John of Gaunt, is near the church. SuttonHolland, Guanock, and Cranwell are separate manors. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln; net value, £545 with residence. The church, dedicated to St Mary, is one of the finest and most interesting in this part of the county. It is a building of stone of the Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular periods,; consisting of chancel, nave of seven bays and aisles, N and S porches, and a very remarkable Early English tower and, spire, just touching the SW angle of the S aisle. This is one of the very few spires which, having escaped fire and decay, remain in their original condition. The church includes many other architectural features of interest, and possesses some good stained windows. There are Baptist, Congregational, Free Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels. There was formerly an endowed free school, but the endowment, worth about £125 a year, is now administered by the school board. The town possesses several valuable charities, the aggregate income of which amounts to about £700 a year.