VISIT LINCOLN’S HISTORIC GUILDHALL

not completed until 1520.

The Guildhall sits proudly above the Stonebow and is the Official Home of the Mayor of Lincoln. Tours are available of this interesting historic building, which includes the main Council Chamber, where Lincoln’s Council still meets and, most importantly, the old Debtors’ Prison which now holds an impressive range of Civic Insignia, including the King Richard II Sword and many other Mayoral and City artefacts.

For more information about the open days, or to make a private appointment please contact:

Kate Fenn, Civic Manager on 01522 873303

E-mail: kate.fenn@lincoln.gov.uk

Following this introductory task, the girls were expected to make a variety of garments for themselves, encompassing all the delights of laying out a pattern, making darts, hand-stitching hems, and using electric machines. Approval had to be given for each step, and untidy work or short cuts were certainly not tolerated. In Lindsey’s second year Mrs Hudson, described as a strict but kind teacher and a very good one, took over the department and under her tutelage the girls learned skills which enabled them to make school dresses and other more advanced garments.

Ruth Miller, née Montgomery, feels sure it is a photo of her class when she was in the Upper Third Form. She also recognised Elizabeth Kidd, Hilary Slack, and Christine Holmes. Her needlework teacher was Miss Bursey although she cannot recognise the teacher in the photo.

Jane Bennett-Powell wrote that lessons with Miss Rutter were seared on her memory, and she took no pride in admitting that she had made a ‘battledress’ jacket in turquoise cotton gabardine for her final prize-giving at LHS. When she took it home to be pressed, it was found that the sleeves, with darts at the elbow and carefully stitched into the body of the jacket, pointed backwards!

Nevertheless, despite such inevitable blunders, Lindsey Sutton concluded that the life-skills she acquired at LHS enabled her to make all her ball dresses at college, and many skirts, dresses, and even ‘hot pants’, and eventually baby clothes, shorts, beachwear, and dungarees for her children.

Carolyn Shelbourn also wrote that dressmaking was one of the most useful skills she learned at LHS saving her hundreds of pounds, especially on curtains!