Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

ISBN 0 907098 02 9

KIRTON-IN-LINDSEY SINCE 1860 A Photographic History

Compiled by the Kirton-in-Lindsey Adult Education Class.

Held under the auspices of Scunthorpe W.E.A. and the University of Hull 1986-1988

Scunthorpe Museum Society, 1988

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Sketch map to show the position of Kirton-in-Lindsay, with major railways operating in 1900.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

INTRODUCTION

Class Members (1986-87 & 1987-88)

This booklet came out of collections made by members of the W.E.A./ University Adult Education classes held in Kirton during 1986, 87 and 88. Little has been put into print concerning the settlement’s past, and town records have some unusual gaps-the parish registers are very incomplete, as are certain 16th and 17th Century sources, whilst there are virtually no archive materials for the Brigg Poor Law Union (into which Kirton fell), or for the earlier work of Brigg Rural District Council.

But by a combination of good luck in locating a number of exceptional private collections, the salvation of Dr. George’s photographic plates some years ago by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Fisher, and the assiduity of class members in chasing single photographs, the pictorial resources have been shown to be good, producing some pictures of considerable significance for understanding rural social history. By no means all have been used here, nor is it likely that all of those offered have been correctly identified; further information is welcomed! The possibility remains that a further selection may be issued in the future.

Kirton during the period covered here experienced marked change, not out of keeping with what is known to have occurred elsewhere; indeed, slow as the pace may have been, ideas of an unaltering, placid rural community simply won’t do. By 1860, when this collection begins, the building development of the late 18th Century had matured, and in the next half-century the townscape continued to change, with villas along the peripheral roads and remaking of private and public buildings in the old centre. Small craftsmen’s workshops gave way to a number of foundries, breweries appeared, and the Market Place was dramatically altered by the appearance of the new Town Hall. By the 1930’s Kirton had become a brick-built settlement, the older stone cottages-no longer carefully whitewashed annually-disappearing, or hidden by brick frontages, for the status-symbol of the brick wall was universally accepted. The town’s economy failed to develop dramatically-the iron workings promised in the 1860’s proved abortive, and there was no railway junction; nor did the town’s market revive-but broadly, development in transport and agriculture nationally ensured that Kirton benefited, and kept pace with its neighbours. Socially, it remained an ‘open’ settlement, that is, it had many freeholders, a middle class of professionals and agriculturalists (but no gentry), and provided much cheap housing for working people.

This collection is not issued for purposes of nostalgia. Much about the town’s past does not merit admiration, but it is hoped that what follows will do something to make people aware that their environment came about through complex processes, and that anything they do to it will in some form be handed down to future generations. One implication is that respect for what survives now from the past is as important as the creation of new things, and that a generation which protects its past may come to merit as much respect as one which cataclysmically attempts to create an environment wholly of its own time. Damaged as much of Kirton’s environment may be, there remains a sound case for protecting what survives, if only so that our successors do not blame us in the future.

Nick Lyons, Class Tutor Appleby, August 1988

Dan and Ann Beck Mrs. J. Bowskill Laurence Dejardin William Ella Mrs. E. A. Fisher Peter Hawes Mick Holmes Mrs. M. Holt Mrs. B. Mitchell

Mrs. D. Howard Ms. Pat Mason Mrs. K. Pollard Mrs. L. Stone Mrs. R. Weaver Mrs. M. Wood Dr. Chris Wragg Miss J. Martin Mrs. J. Smith

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This booklet is the result of co-operation between the class members, and represents a considerable collective effort. To all of those listed above, and particularly those who attended the 1987-88 session, there are due many thanks. Without them, no such contribution to Kirton's history would have been possible.

Thanks are also due to the following, who aided individual class members, and thereby the class as a whole, in many disparate ways. Some, especially Miss Wood and Mr. Shaw, trusted us with private collections; some have given maybe only a few words of help, but again it is the collective achievement which finally matters. We hope that no-one has been forgotten, but if so, thanks anyway, and we have tried to include everyone who loaned photographs, even where they have not yet been used.

Miss R. Wood Mr. & Mrs. Shaw Robin Moore Mrs. F. Taylor Scunthorpe Central Library Mrs. S. Quigley Mrs. M. Willey Dr. & Mrs. H. Jackson Mrs. Greatorex Mr. C. Bucknall Jon Rowlands Mrs. S. Hunt John Lees Mrs. B. Brotherston Mr. C. R. Brears, Grimsby Dr. O. B. Brears, OBE Mrs. C. Phillips Mr. & Mrs. S. Barnard Mr. & Mrs. C. leaning Mrs. P. Clark Eric Court Mr. H. Peaker Mrs. V. Rowbottom

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Mrs. E. Bowness Alan Turner Mr. & Mrs. George, Vancouver Les Holt Mr. & Mrs. Rands Mrs. M. Cowley Mr. & Mrs. Burkitt Mrs. Rooke Mr. & Mrs. J. Holdsworth Mrs. Stork Mr. C. Brumpton Mr. K. Skelton John Sass Joe Wright Mr. Greenfield Mr. G. Ray Mrs. C. Wilson Mrs. Foster Michael George, Phoenix, Arizona Mr. G. A. S. Ray G. Butterworth

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

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THE MARKET PLACE

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Diamond Jubilee Town Hall, probably taken about 1905. The Hall was built in 1897 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee by local builder, J. K. Broughton (acting as architect) and E. Hollom as foreman mason. The building materials came from the old County Prison. The foundation stone was laid on 16th June 1897 by Emerson Bainbridge, the Member of Parliament for the Gainsborough Division. A document sealed in a bottle was placed in a cavity beneath the stone at the south-west corner of the building. The travelling van is labelled 'Nottingham Advertising Emporium'.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Cobb Hall, shown in a view of the Market Place taken about the turn of the century. Cobb Hall itself was built about 1812 and is now a listed structure. Local tradition has it that a building on this site was originally used to collect the rents due to the Lord of the Manor, and more recently the market tolls. There is some speculation that a building on the site may have been used by the Romans to pass messages between major settlements by means of beacons, although evidence for this is lacking; the idea seems to have originated from the notions of 19th Century antiquaries. Several possibilities present themselves in respect of the name; it could have come from the surname 'Cobb', although no documentary sources reveal appropriate owners or tenants in the period since 1600. 'Cob' can also (though unhelpfully) refer to a rounded structure or the material from which it is built. A link with an earlier, perhaps manorial, prison is also possible, Cobb Castle being a vernacular name for any tall, prison-like structure, as in Lincoln Castle where one structure (known as the Hanging House to the Victorians) retains the name.

Kirton's Cobb Hall has had a variety of mundane uses since it was rebuilt, being occupied by a joiner, milliner, watchmaker and dentist amongst others. Extensive renovation was carried out in 1983.

The buildings behind Cobb Hall, although probably built as private houses originally, became shops in due course. As a group, they retain their integrity largely today (allowing for certain cosmetic alterations), representing the extensive rebuilding which took place in Lincolnshire market towns at the end of the 18th Century. They merit preservation for group value as much as for any individual significance.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The north side of the Market Place about 1912, showing a range of late 18th and early 19th Century town houses, broken on the right by a long, low building, of earlier date. This however had been altered between 1905 and 1912, as comparison with other pictures illustrates, three dormer windows having been infiltrated and the very early shop fronts beneath modernised. The whole range has now gone.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Greyhound Inn, formerly the Lord Nelson-a postcard issued nearly twenty years after the Town Hall was built, for nostalgic reasons. The Greyhound was clearly decrepit but, like the low range to the left in this illustration, must have represented the typical building style in Kirton up to the late 18th Century. The high gable ends, standing just above the pantiles, suggest that it was originally thatched.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Town Hall from the High Street, again indicating how 18th Century rebuilding had changed the central area of the town, in a picture taken at the turn of the present century. The building lines were ancient; the late Medieval streets must have been just as narrow, but with the advent of cheaper brick, tradesmen could build higher, to live more comfortably over the shop. Behind the facades were narrow courts and yards, those to the left of the photograph being especially constricted by a network of streets behind, although to the right houses enjoyed long backs, some extending through as far as South Cliff Road.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Sandbagging the Town Hall, 1939-a most important undertaking, when, in the early days of the war the threat of sudden and devastating aerial bombardment was taken very seriously indeed. In Kirton-in-Lindsey there was some justification for this, bearing in mind the proximity of the aerodrome. It has not been established how long the sandbags continued in place.

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STREETS and PLACES

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

North Cliff Road, looking north, about 1900. The main roads from north, south and east came together here, on the edge of the bleak limestone landscape, broken only by the occasional farmstead and, in this case, the windmill north-east of the town. A good reminder of the openness of roads before the days of the motor-car, the surface shows the casual irregularities which village highway surveyors accepted as normal, acceptable whilst carts were pulled by the heavy horses shown on the left and personal transport ran on solid wheels with only rudimentary springing.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

South Cliff Road, looking south, taken perhaps in the 1930’s. This shows Acacia House on the right and the buildings of the old brewery next to it. Beyond these is Prospect House. On the left side is the Jubilee Tree, but there is as yet no telephone box. The farm cottages behind the trees were removed some twenty years ago to allow for road widening. Beyond, near the motor car, is Northcliff House, at one time the property of Mr. J. N. Birkett, but now a residential home for the elderly. At the time of enclosure (1795-1801), the North Cliff extended as far south as Bridle Lane, which accounts for the name of the house.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Wickentree, 5 Queen Street. Appearances suggest that the front of this house dates from the later 18th Century, although without detailed examination of the lower structures it is unwise to say more about the earlier building history. One of a group apparently dating from the same period or slightly later, and all facing on to the small open area known (perhaps erroneously) as South Green, it may represent a late encroachment upon land which had previously lain open at the south-eastern approach to the settlement.

The occupants can be readily traced from the mid-19th Century. Abraham Wilson, who owned it in 1842, was born in 1805; he was a plumber, glazier and painter, living there with his wife, Ann, and seven children. One of his sons, Benjamin, succeeded his as owner and head of the business; he added gas fitting to his advertised trades. Miss Emma Wilson became the owner on Benjamin's death in 1907; she appears in the photograph. Her income came from ownership of a prosperous bonnet-shop in St. Anne's Square, Manchester. Also in the photograph is Danny Copeman, who worked for the Wilson Household and lived in a stone cottage at the end of the main house; he had previously carried on business as a pork butcher in the Market Place. Miss Wilson died in 1909, and the property was left to her niece, Margaret Vipond, and to her nephew Roland Vipond, who was a Manchester solicitor. They jointly occupied the house and were responsible for extensive additions to the rear. Roland Vipond died in 1917, but his sister lived on there until her death in 1942. Mrs. F. F. Cross then bought it, and used the workshop as a garage, until Mr. and Mrs. Harry Fisher became the owners in 1954.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Post Office, taken some time between 1903 and 1918, when it was on a site further up the High Street than it is now. The postmaster during this time was Joseph Sarson; besides his postal duties he was responsible for Kirton's first telephone exchange, which was in the Post Office building. No. 1 was the Post Office, No. 5 was Summers' shop, and No. 14 was Dr. Sharpley at the Grove. At this time there were eight or ten postmen based in Kirton; they covered a wide area including Waddingham, Snitterby and Atterby, Willoughton, Redbourne, Scotton, Grayingham and Blyborough, travelling on foot or by bicycle. Mail arrived at the station at 4 a.m., when it was collected by Joe Barker in his pony and trap; he took mail back to the station at 7.30 at night, when it was carried to Sheffield and then by the Travelling Post Office to London. The Post Office had besides two lads to deliver telegrams, which were a mainstay of the business.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Sylvester Street, mid-1930’s, with Ford delivery vans outside the Queen’s Head. The street was named after Sylvester Burgh, one of the founders of Kirton-in-Lindsey Grammar School in 1577; the Parish Council when it gave definitive names to the town’s streets early in the century decided that there might be difficulties with the pronunciation of ‘Burgh’, so decided upon Sylvester instead.

The building next to the Queen’s Head has now been replaced.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The view along George Street from the Green towards the Market Place is quite remarkable. Clearly recognisable is what is now Ellis’s shop on the left, then a cycle and motor engineers, and the two adjoining houses. The white houses have been demolished as have the run of houses opposite on the right. The stone lower part of these houses is still visible today, forming the garden wall of the present flats. Just visible is the three-storied front of the chemist shop of Nathaniel Boon.

The children, the girls with their pinafores and the boys with their knickerbockers, enliven what might have been a studious photograph.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Old Fish Shop, High Street, with Miss Evelyn Major posing in her working clothes; the poster in the window advertises a Grand Concert to be held in the Town Hall on Wednesday 25th March, 1921 - admission 2/-, 1/6 and 1/-. To the left of the picture Cleaver’s bakery is visible in what is now George Street but which was variously known as Hill’s Hill, Dent’s Hill and York Place.

The former fish shop, No. 29 High Street, stands today, although in a dilapidated condition; its structure is outwardly confusing, with a slight overhang reminiscent of the jettying associated with timber-framed buildings; but it is probably not older than the late 18th Century. There is stonework in the lower part, and as with other buildings in the settlement it appears that a single-storey building has been extended and raised with brick, with no attempt to conceal the mixture of materials. Although a listed building, it is likely that it will not survive much longer.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Queen Street, looking east, up Steep Hill towards the Reading Room (right). The area to the right has been ruthlessly cleared of buildings, to no obvious advantage to traffic or pedestrians although the left hand side is remarkably similar today, even to the original safety rails, and it is this feature which reminds the informed observer that Kirton-in-Lindsey stands on the same limestone ridge as Lincoln and, much further south, the picturesque stone-built villages of Kesteven, Northamptonshire and the Cotswolds.

The Reading Room’s history is regrettably obscure; it appears to have been opened on this site in 1888, and although it acquired eventually a library of about a thousand books, and took in for members’ use a wide range of periodicals, the billiards room on the ground floor proved to the last the greater attraction. As with many other local institutions, the records of the Reading Room have been lost, so that its impact upon the community at large is difficult to estimate.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

This photograph was taken by Dr. George, and appears to show the back yard of his own house, ‘Bellevue’, in Queen Street; this is confirmed by careful comparison with buildings shown on the two earliest 25” Ordnance Survey maps. A housemaid in cap and apron stands, holding a water-can, beside a small outbuilding, possible the wash-house. Piped water had not yet arrived in Kirton, and the garden contains a pump and a rain-water butt. Inevitably the Victorian housemaid spent a lot of her time carrying about heavy cans of water, slop-pails, and buckets of coal. The farms and pubs of Kirton-in-Lindsey had working servants in their yards, and all the better-off families kept indoor servants-perhaps a cook, housemaid, and sometimes a groom-as did the Howletts-or merely one general servant, like fourteen-year old Emma Horspool, who worked for the widow, Ann Dudding of Wormwood Hill in 1871. There were besides gardeners, laundresses and charwomen living in the settlement in some abundance. In 1871 the George family had two resident maids, with a governess; in 1881 there was one maid living in, Eliza Yealand, aged 18, who came from Hemswell, a few miles away. Resident maids were employed in the town at least as late as the 1930’s.

The small houses in the background are in the narrow passage which leads from Queen Street to March Street, known as Greedy Gut, perhaps because the land around needed much nourishing; the more genteel name, March Lane, was officially substituted early in the present century, but has not stuck.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Ashwell Lane, probably in the 1890’s, leading off Wesley Street to the Ash Well, had houses along it until the 1960’s. This staggered terrace along the east side was composed of a mixture of brick and stone dwellings, presumably dating from different times, and taking advantage of the lie of the land so that part of the row is raised some distance above the street and has to be approached up steps which are neatly palisaded on the exposed side. Although water was here abundant from the well itself, soft water for washing was valued enough for the houses to have been carefully spouted and a row of butts provided - although it must be remembered that spouting served another practical purpose, to throw rain water well clear of the walls and footings. Opposite the row was the maltkiln, a large industrial building backing upon Wesley Street, with the Ashwell Lane itself bending round it, to the right of the picture, in an T shape. In 1871 there were four cottages in this row—which continued to the left of the picture - inhabited by a newsagent, a charwoman, a carter and a general labourer.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Cottage in West Cross Street.

The tall lady was Mrs. Odlin; the lady in the doorway was Betsy Simpson, grand-mother of Mrs. F. Taylor of Bottesford who supplied this picture, which was issued as a postcard about the turn of the century. The little girl is the grand-daughter of Mrs. Odlin. The cottage appears to have been more than once altered, the most noticeable change being to the left hand side where a brick extension has been added upwards. The first window on the right has at some stage been a doorway, and the sloping outshut added on. The notice on the pump warns that 'All persons damaging this pump will be prosecuted'. Probably all cottages in Kirton and the villages around presented a carefully whitewashed frontage to the public gaze at this period, irrespective of other sanitary realities.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Traingate, looking east, up the hill, with West Cross Street to the right and Wray Street a little further up on the left, just below the shop; it was then a much narrower street than it is now. Houses on the left have gradually been demolished, the present bungalows being built in the 1970’s. The house on the right of the photograph was the home of the Whitworth family for about a century, and shows signs of having been reconstructed at least once; in the back wall are traces of a substantial beam probably of oak, inserted long before the frontage was in existence, perhaps to support a large arch for carts; this demonstrates the drawbacks which may arise from attempting to date buildings in rural settlements solely from the evidence of frontages. The iron post in the foreground appears to be a sewer vent rather than a lamp post. The origin of the street name is debated, although local tradition states that there was a barracks along it in the 17th Century, occupied in the Civil Wars by the trained bands.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Lower Wesley Street, looking uphill, showing the junction with lower March Street on the left. The two striking whitewashed cottages in the centre have been demolished, as have the cottages whose chimneys are visible behind them. Noteworthy is the interesting roofline of the white cottages, and the window in the end wall denoting a second storey. The occupants are sufficiently interested to pose for the photographer, and as the cottages face south on a particularly sunny corner, one may suppose that the women in the doorways were often to be seen thus, where they could spend the time of day comfortably with passing neighbours.

On the right is a glimpse of what is now Housego’s, and to left is Grosvenor House, formerly the Blue Waggon public house.

Alderman Hunt, after whom Huntcliff School is named, lived there for many years.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Cornwall Street, showing the works of the Kirton-in-Lindsey Gas Company, perhaps about 1880. Works existed before 1856, when the owner was a Mr. Little, known locally as Gassy Little. All his equipment was marked with his name. In 1856 the works were purchased by the Redhill & Reigate Gas, Light & Coke Company; they installed street lighting (presumably along the main thoroughfares only) and extended the gas supply to many more homes, most of which however had the pipes laid only to the groundfloor rooms. Their meters took pennies and shillings and a single penny bought 10 cubic feet of gas. In 1950 the works went into public ownership, becoming part of the East Midlands Gas Company, but gas production ceased here in 1955, and the land has now been cleared for housing development. The old works were a favourite place for courting couples, who benefited from the warmth of the walls along Cornwall Street once the nights had begun to get colder.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Turner Street, with an interesting and attractive three-tier pavement, which local recollection has it was edged with a distinctive blue stone. Evidently the modern road surface is now considerably higher. Otherwise we have a view of one- and two storied cottages built in stone with pantile roofs, sideways-sliding Yorkshire sashes and, perhaps more unusually, practical shutters on the nearest one. One property of this row, Farthing Cottage, survives still. The street’s name commemorates a charity, Turner’s Gift or Turner’s Dole, given by Mrs. Mary Turner in 1744.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Station Road, looking south-east towards the town, about 1900. This was the first sight of the settlement which anyone visiting via the railway would have, and it showed some of the more recent developments - the new telegraph wires, villas on the left of the road up the hill, built to catch the best sunlight and to avoid the overcrowding of the central area of the town, and an important concession to modern communications -the advertising station on the end of an outhouse, to the right of the picture. This includes a bill for an event as far away as Louth, presumably further evidence of the convenience of railway travelling, when a quick train ride to Grimsby and then to that town could give a Kirtonian access to it within a couple of hours, even by an indirect route.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

TRADES

Steam Ploughing tackle, believed to be that of Richardson and Darley, about 1865. Disappointingly little is known of this firm, which was established for the general purposes of agricultural engineering in Kirton-in-Lindsey about 1863. They manufactured a steam traction engine for use in steam ploughing, and this was exhibited with some success at local and county shows, but nothing is known of them after 1868; their short existence makes it impossible to locate their foundry, or-since they did not exist in a Census year-to locate their employees in the town. This early photograph - one taken by Dr. George-may not even show one of their engines, since it shows steam ploughing tackle in a yard, rather than a foundry at work, but it is the only known pictorial evidence relating to their existence.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Cement Lorry, about 1936, bearing the message ‘Use Caesar Brand Cement’, made at Kirton by the Central Portland Cement Company, which had come to own Parry’s former works about 1918. Caesar Brand was wellknown and respected amongst engineers, being used in the New Mersey Tunnel, in construction of several major reservoirs, sea defences, road building, sewage works, collieries and bridge building nationally. There was a quick hardening variety, Caesarapid, and the cement works supplied other forms of building lime and road building materials as well. Thus there was a new employer of labour, much drawn from the town itself, despite the works’ distance at the northern edge of the parish.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Central Cement Works, Kirton-in-Lindsey, in the 1930’s. Lime working had been practised for different purposes in the parish long before the cement works were established, with small-scale kilns often made on a very temporary basis in fields around the town. Some was burnt for mortar, and later to prepare the lime for marling poorer soils, but the large-scale, industrial works built originally by Parry at the Tunnel Works late in the 19th Century were the basis for a longer-lasting development, exploiting the blue lias limestone there, and using the railway for convenient transport in bulk out of the area. Closed in the 1970’s, the limeworks have left great holes in the landscape which have become a feature of the northern approach to Kirton.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Black Swan Inn, showing William Major, landlord of the inn; he was also a carrier, and acted as town crier. The Black Swan stood at the west side of the Market Place, next to Boon the Chemist, in a row surviving today. The inn had a large ballroom on the first floor, with a fireplace at either end and a decorated ceiling; this was in use for public balls at least as early as 1811. Behind the inn was a lodging house, favoured by travelling people coming in to market, and by men seeking casual employment-latterly it was much-frequented by Irish migratory workers coming over for the potato harvest.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Postmen, about 1914-an indication again of Kirton’s greater importance then than now, when the office-seen already on page 15-served a wide area, although the deliveries were carried on foot or bicycle. The two men nearest the camera on the left wear long service stripes, whilst the Postmaster, Mr. Sarson, poses with his wife in the doorway. The notices indicate how much business was done in a rural office besides simply dealing with post, referring amongst other things to savings banks, money orders and registration for benefit under the relatively new National Insurance scheme.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Resurfacing the road, probably at East Butterwick, about 1930. Country roads were still not all made with tarmacadam at this date, and although the County authorities had had responsibility for main roads since the turn of the century, much was done by locallycontracted gangs. The romantically rakish figure leading the horse is Harry Holt, grandson of the landlord of the Black Swan, who employed him when his horses were let out for jobs such as this one.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The arrival of the 3.38, or so it says on the original of about 1918, although there was no 3.38 recorded in timetables until 1944. The station, built by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Company and opened in 1849, served a wide area. The buildings, now considerably reduced, and the station house a private dwelling, are but a slight reminder of its former importance.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

A reminder of the pride with which railway employees approached their work, taken about the same time as the previous picture.

A relatively small station still employed five men full-time, here with Mr. Richardson as station master.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

William Leaning, Expert Cattle Remover, late 1930’s. Having begun to move livestock on contract, working from the former brickyard at Cleatham before the Great War, William Leaning came back after military service and moved animals on the hoof or, in the case of pigs, in a pony cart. About 1920 he bought a van, and then a lorry for pigs and sheep. The horse box shown here was a great step forward, in demand to carry hunters to meets and some race horses to race meetings. In spite of reductions locally in livestock holdings, the firm diversified, and continues today, now based in Willingham-by-Stow.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

A Prize Bull at Staniwells Farm, Hibaldstow, 1927, held by Tom Green of Kirton-in-Lindsey, with Mr. Marris in attendance, the bull, sadly, anonymous - although far and away the most impressive of the three. Livestock photographs are not common, except of horses, which partly excuses the inclusion of this, although it should be pointed out that the practice of farm men seeking work outside Kirton was an old one, there being little by way of cottages on the isolated farmsteads along the limestone ridge, so that a journey of four or five miles to work on foot was commonplace in the 19th Century.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE

St. Andrew’s Church was commenced in the late 12th Century, on the site of an earlier building, no trace of which remains, although the tympanum above the priest’s door may have come from it, Building is likely to have continued into the 13th Century. The clerestory was added in the 15th Century, and extensive ‘restoration’ took place between 1860 and 1863. The chancel was completely rebuilt; an early photograph taken in 1860 shows it with a lower roof and with different windows on the east and south sides. The tower, apart from restoration to the parapets, is probably unchanged.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The church from the south, after the restoration. The new position of the priest’s door in the chancel can be seen and the lancet window at the altar end takes the place of the three-light window which existed previously.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Old Baptist Chapel, built in the first half of the 19th Century, with the Manse adjacent. There are understood to have been graves-or at any rate stones-in front, where the present extended chapel stands. The Baptists came early to Kirton-in-Lindsey, perhaps during the Civil Wars and Protectorate, but they seem not to have worked in cooperation with other Baptist congregations in the county or in adjacent ones, and their records have been lost, apparently at some time in the 1940’s. An older chapel is believed to have existed on the north-west side of the town. The present frontage replaced the one shown in 1897.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The new Baptist Chapel, showing extension forwards to the road, in a different, more ornate style. The decorative brickwork is a good example of its sort but the datestone ‘1663’ is completely misleading. It is tempting to surmise that the Baptists chose the site for their chapel-opposite the church-in a fit of defiance.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Wesleyan Chapel, with the hall-a building in simplified Classical manner, dating from the 1840’s, the hall from 1924. There was Wesleyan activity here in the 1770’s, although no evidence of chapel-building until some decades later. This ambitious structure was carefully faced with yellow brick to the road, and prudently completed in local limestone to the rear.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Primitive Methodist Chapel, a handsome building erected in 1862, to replace the former one then abandoned. The grandiose scale must reflect the P.M!s local strength, since it far outdoes the humble examples found in many villages around; possibly co-religionists in Hull-a stronghold of the sect-provided generous subscriptions, to outdo the local Anglicans, who had long fought against the undoubted strength of all the Dissenting bodies.

Certainly no expense was spared in the opening celebrations, when a public tea was provided at which 300 people sat down to eat, and a parade of the town organised. Following Methodist reunion in 1932, the building was used by the Salvation Army, whose sign board obliterated the original name, ‘Jubilee Chapel’, a reference to the foundation of Primitive Methodism in 1812.

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The Temperance Movement is too easily taken for granted today, when extreme public drunkenness has become comparatively unusual, and is not tolerated by the forces of law and order; we forget the scale of intemperance which made even quiet market towns unsafe at night. Not much is known about the Kirton-in-Lindsey Temperance Society, which appears to have had a connection with Dissent rather than Anglicanism - the usual pattern elsewhere. The one functional public building Kirton seems never to have had was a Temperance Hall-a little surprising, given the strength of Dissent in the town.

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

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The Salvation Army worked in Kirton at least as early as 1882, partly in conjunction with others interested in encouraging temperance, as an offshoot of the well-established branch in Gainsborough which sent out missions to the town. This bill dates from about 1930; three years later they could have met in the former Primitive Methodist chapel, which became their headquarters in Kirton. The topic of the meeting shows how close English provincial society remained in spirit to that of late Victorian England, with an overwhelming anxiety to display missionary zeal in the outward pursuit of religion.

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

A Cricket Team, believed to be the Kirton-in-Lindsey club, shown in a early photograph dating perhaps from the mid-1880’s. Cricket was often organised by the church, as a healthy and essentially moral game in the mid-19th Century; as an organised sport, it kept its middle-class identity much more intact than did football, and the faces on the photograph suggest this. Otherwise, the picture indicates the dangers of not annotating such things on the reverse, since neither names nor the precise location can be given today.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Quoits Team, about 1900.

Quoits is an old game; in Medieval times horseshoes were used to ring a pin, and variants of this survive today, but by the 19th Century iron hoops were made in foundries, especially designed for the modern game. They were flat on one side and raised on the other, with diameters up to 10 inches. Sometimes scrap metal was adapted for this purpose, and in parts of Yorkshire for example buffer flats from railway rolling stock were drilled out for the game. Quoits seems to have been played from early times in pub yards, with pitches sometimes made with great care; there had to be eleven yards between the two pins, and each pin was set in a bed of clay at least one foot deep, the clay being treated with oil and held in place with surrounds of wood or concrete. Often two pitches were built adjacent to each other, and public houses arranged competition matches between towns and villages. The Kirton pitch is understood to have been on Southcliff Road on a site now occupied by bungalows, next to the present Parkside Garage. The hut on the pitch became notorious because of a suicide which occurred there but other recollections of the game itself in Kirton, and records of the team or its games have not been discovered so far.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

A Quoits Champion and his Trophies, about the turn of the century. This gentleman cannot be identified, although his portrait in a local collection seems to be further proof of the game’s popularity in Kirton. His winnings illustrate the Victorian’s love of bric-a-brac, and presumably represent an accumulation made over at least a good season, if not longer, but are all useful; the modern zeal for the purely ornamental cup or plaque had not yet arrived.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

A Kirton-in-Lindsey Football XI, 1929-30 Football appeared in village and market town sports in the late 19th Century, following the example set by the teams created in larger urban centres once legislation had begun to make Saturday a half-day holiday for factory and other workers; before that, it had usually been little more than a rowdy mob amusement for special occasions. The new railways had also helped to make competition matches worthwhile, so that local leagues could be properly run. When this photograph was taken, local organisation was at a peak. The players and their essential back-up staff are identified as follows: Standing: Petch, Odlin, Dolby, Stork, Beech, Ward, Bob Duckering, Robert, Cooper; Middle row: Tiger White, Taylor, Fred Holt, Holdsworth, Harry Holt; Front row: Sime, England, Terry.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Like quoits, bowls has a long history as a public house game, played in a variety of forms, and elevated socially about the middle of the 19th Century into a respectable middle class sport. Most towns and many villages had acquired bowling greens by 1900 but whereas quoits seems to have remained associated with public houses, bowls came to exist and thrive as a game in its own right, clubs often being organised by wholly respectable bodies such as, here at Kirton-in-Lindsey, the church, which gave its name to the St. Andrew’s Bowling Club. The ground in the 1930’s when these pictures are believed to have been taken was in a field where Cornwall Close now stands, between Pinfold and Moat House Road; this site has been built over, and the Bowls Club has moved to another down Station Road.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Carnival Procession, 1926, going down West Cross Street towards Traingate. Contrary to popular belief, carnivals as such do not have a very long tradition in England; indeed, in the middle of the 19th Century, most public festivals underwent a kind of tidying up process at the hands of the clergy, gentry and town-dwelling middle classes, in order to limit their almost inevitable result, drunkenness amongst the poorer classes and occasionally actual riot. The Rev. Mr. Charters introduced maypole dancing and a parade by schoolchildren into the town in 1898, with a Cycle Gymkhana and parade in aid of the Town Hall Building Fund in the following July; there is no evidence of similar events before this year. The Carnival may have continued from then on, although local recollection suggests that there were years in which there was no parade. Today, the Carnival Committee -designates a theme for floats, which go around the town and reassemble on the North Green, with other activities organised in the Market Place and Town Hall.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Kirton-in-Lindsey Show Committee, early 1920’s There may be a connection between the trade fairs for farm livestock held in Kirton before the mid-19th Century and the shows put on by the Horse and Foal Show Society early in the present one, but records are slight, and it is not possible even to be sure when the pleasure shows were begun; certainly they did not take place anually, and the known catalogues fail to suggest how long a history they had. The show held in 1927 may have been the last organised by the Society. It had two parts-the first, made up of the animal, agricultural and horticultural sections, on Wednesday, July 13th, and the second-the Championship Sports-on Saturday following. Everything happened in ‘Mr. A. Peck’s Field, South Cliff Road’, there being no call for a regular showground reserved for such a purpose in so small a community. Like many such shows, it relied for its continuation largely upon subscriptions from the better-off; yet its demise, according to oral tradition, came about through a complication of village politics (the details of which are not easy to ascertain) so that the field of action was left clear by 1930 for the Carnival-not then a new institution, but one which appears to have pleased a wider section of the populace than did the shows. The people on the photograph are identified as follows, although the precise function of the two in obvious fancy dress has not been explained: Standing: Bill Major (junior), Bill Horner, John Jackson, George Blackhouse, Not Known, Charles Gagg, George Petch, George Drury, William Major.

Seated: Harry Stamp, Charles Fox, Colonel Oliver Sutton Nelthorpe of Scawby Hall, Not Known, Edward Duckering, Mr. & Mrs. Tom Parry.

By the 1950’s, other shows were being organised, although the attempt to maintain a gymkhana in its own right failed after 1953. The organising body was at this stage the Kirton-in-Lindsey and District Agricultural Society, although the shows included an increasing element of strictly non-agricultural displays and competitions.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Old People’s Tea, March 4th, 1931.

The picture of the elderly gentlemen is annotated on the reverse as a tea organised by the British Legion, although none of the men appear to be wearing badges or medals, so it is improbable that they are former soldiers. The men (identified on the reverse) are as follows: Standing: R. Poole, Mr. Harrison, Fred Blissitt, Mr. Kitchen, G. Atkinson, W. Marshall Seated: Fred Chafer, W. Maw, W. Berry, Ted Drayton, George Pask.

The women are identified from memory thus: Standing: Mrs. Peck, Mrs. Allison, Mrs. Blow, Mrs. Major, Mrs. Featherby. Seated: Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Carline, Mrs. Proudly, Mrs. Gurnhill Since the names do not pair up, all shown may be widows or widowers, and the men would probably have been too old to have fought in the Great War. The photographer has prudently arranged one group after the other in identical positions outside the Town Hall.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Junior School Girls’ Band, 1938, in the Wesleyan Schoolroom.

This indicates a certain continuity in junior school musical traditions, particularly that of the percussion band; it is not known whether the boys had their own complementary group. The girls are identified thus: Back row: Kathleen Leaning, Kathleen Flear, Barbara Darker, Joyce Clark, Sylvia Stamp, Clarice Richardson, Janet Pinder, Eileen Wallis, Ruby Brown, Eileen Grundy, Dora Spindley; Front row: Marguerite Scott, Barbara Maw, Janet Fillingham, Shirley Coulson, Kathleen Bullivent, Phyllis Rawson, Jean Markham, Monica Petch, Pat Plowright.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Children’s Party c.1948 Anyone over the age of 40 will remember this kind of party-high piles of thick sandwiches (white bread), buns, a few ‘fancy’ cakes and a waxed paper dish of trifle or jelly and blancmange (red jelly and pink blancmange preferred) in front of each child. The neat and tidy children wait for the signal to begin eating; boys are on one table, girls another, and two sternly benevolent gentlemen are in charge. The ladies are somewhere behind the scenes, no doubt waiting to rush in with cups of tea, as each place is equipped with a saucer and teaspoon.

This is a Children’s Christmas Party at the Cement Works, about 1948, and the food is very much that of post-war, rationed, Britain-there are none of the crisps, chocolate biscuits, sausages on sticks, ice-cream or cola drinks which a later generation of juvenile party-goers would expect-but the children are a good advertisement for the benefits of the post-war Welfare State.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

The Old Age Pensioners Outing This is believed to show the first outing arranged about 1948 to Cleethorpes by Mr. Thornley who was a master at the Huntcliff School. Two coaches belonging to Mr. Everett of Snitterby took 70 pensioners to the seaside, where a lunch was booked for them at a cafe, and they had a meat tea before returning in the evening. The photograph was taken on the north side of the Market Place in front of the old houses which collapsed in 1968. Members paid 2/- subscription and in addition to the outing they were given a party and if funds allowed a Mystery Trip during the summer.

The second year Mrs. Stamp and Mrs. Willey were asked to form a Committee and this continued successfully, funds being raised each year by holding a Ball in the Town Hall.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Bazaar, Womens’ Institute, perhaps 1968.

Paying for the initial expenses of building the existing W.I. Hall in East Cross Street, and continuing to maintain the fabric, have been the principal financial concerns of the town’s W.I. almost since it began. The cake-or nearly-new stall in the Market Place and the full-scale bazaar remain among the most widely-supported ways of doing this, as means of raising money comparatively quickly. The event shown here was a bazaar held in the hall itself, and opened by Mrs. Eminson, wife of a Northorpe farmer and active in the W.I. at county level. The items for sale on such an occasion will have changed little over the years, although the materials used may have done; unfortunately no photographs have yet come to light of much earlier bazaars held in the town to allow direct comparison. As this was a W.I. function the standard of craftwork was probably high, and although there is little group craftwork activity in Kirton W.I. today, there is interest in craft demonstrations and the quality of all kinds of work produced by individual members remains good.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

A Tramps’ Dance, October 1964 Until recently dances were a regular and frequent part of the town’s social year. Most photographs of dances at the Town Hall show formally-dressed groups; the fashion in the early ‘60’s for Tramps’ Dances and Suppers may have reflected an increasing informality in social occasions generally, just as, for example, women were less likely to wear hats and gloves except on the most formal occasions.

Part of the enjoyment of the Tramps’ Dances came from the costume itself, making it as authentic as possible, adding make-up - often soot-and then going out to startle of mystify neighbours and shopkeepers on the way to the dance. This group was photographed on the Town Hall staircase; on the back row are Richard Willey, Stuart Page, and an unknown individual, in the centre Margaret Bullivant and Cyril Rowbottom, and at the front Betty Richardson, Ida Craig and Renee Blanchard

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Bulb-planting Kirton-in-Lindsey Women’s Institute was founded in January 1937, 50 members joining at the first meeting. In anticipation of the Golden Jubilee in 1987, almost 1,000 daffodil bulbs were planted in November 1986 at sites in Kirton and in grass verges along the approach roads. Here W.I. President Mrs. Betty Richardson, kneeling centre, and members Mrs. Heather Bunker, Mrs. Eileen A. Fisher, Mrs Eileen Gillham, Mrs. Dorothy Hiles, Ms. Pat Mason, Mrs. W. J. Peaker and Mrs. Mona Willey were photographed in Station Road. The W.I!s intention of producing a golden display in Kirton every spring has so far been achieved.

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PORTRAITS

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

This confident young man, looking like a character from a Thomas Hardy novel, is Charles Snell. He was born in Grimsby about 1868, third son of Rupert Snell, miller. The family came to Kirton about 1870, and lived first at Bridle Lane. By 1881 they had moved to North Cliff, to Mount Pleasant Mill, and Charles took over as miller from his father between 1913 and 1919. Mount Pleasant Mill survives, though without its sails, but there is no trace of the other mills which stood along the top of the cliff, other than a street name, Mill Lane.

Charles and his brothers had been born in Grimsby, and there were four younger sisters, all born at Kirton. In 1881 Rupert was aged 44, his wife Mary, 42, Charles, described as a scholar aged 14; the elder brothers were Edward, aged 18, a clerk, and William, 16, an apprentice cabinet maker.

It is interesting that Charles, apparently the youngest son, took over his father’s mill; Kirton Lindsey had anciently had the custom of ‘Borough English’ whereby the youngest son inherited, but this is rather a late date for that custom to be surviving. It is perhaps only a coincidence that, in accordance with the bad reputation of millers for meanness, ballads exist in many areas, telling of the miller’s youngest son, who, proving himself to be a shrewder businessman than his elder brothers, is left the mill by the dying father.

Bartholomew Howlett, after 1910

England Howlett

The Howlett Family Joseph Howlett, attorney, of West Butterwick, removed his practice to Kirton in 1837. He died in 1860, and the business was continued by his sons, Bartholomew and William England Howlett. William England Howlett was a noted antiquary, and died in 1886; his library was sold in London the following year. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1880, but his writings are regrettably few; however, it was partly through his friendship that Edward Peacock came to settle in Kirton. Bartholomew Howlett lived on until 1910; his wife died ten years before, and the photograph suggests that in his declining years he was attended by a nurse. However, he had enjoyed a long retirement, leaving off practice in 1878, living in Dunstan House with his own considerable library.

The practice was carried on by his son, England Howlett, who, with his sister Annie took a major part in Church affairs; between them, they served as organists for thirty-three years. England Howlett also established a Church charity to benefit the poor, which continues to operate in amended form.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860 Edward Peacock, the Antiquary There is not enough space here to do justice to Peacock’s writings on social history. Of a Yorkshire” family, his father Edward Shaw Peacock had farmed from Bottesford Manor , and although his son continued after him, Edward’s aspirations were scholarly and his approach to estate management perhaps out of place, given the limited area which he owned.

In the 1880’s, following the sale of part of his collections, he removed to Wickentree House, Kirton, and briefly, after the death of Bartholomew Howlett, to Dunstan House. An invalid for most of his later life, he relied heavily upon the support of his daughter Mabel, who is known to have been his most able researcher and collaborator, although her name appears only occasionally in his books and articles. He died in a Lincoln hospital in 1915.

Charles Brears, about 1916

Edward Peacock

Brears was born in the town in 1892, of a well-established Baptist family. He appears to have trained as a teacher, but joined the Norfolk Regiment during the Great War, and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, serving in Persia.

Returning afterwards to schoolteaching, his interest in local history made him well-known throughout the county. Although perhaps as a teacher he did not enjoy the leisure which Howlett and Peacock had at their disposal, he was active as a W.E.A. lecturer, a founder of the Lincolnshire Local History Society, and besides articles in a number of related journals, wrote two important county studies. The first, his SHORT HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE (1927), acknowledged that events since the Civil War merited attention-something which Peacock would certainly not have accepted; the second, LINCOLNSHIRE IN THE 17th AND 18th CENTURIES (1940), broke new ground in its treatment of social life, revealing a considerable attention to the primary sources on Brear’s part, and remaining an essential work for the local historian of the county. Charles Brears continued his interest in local studies to the end of his life in 1968, but sadly never turned his attention specifically to his own home town.

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Charles Brears

Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Nathaniel Boon, Chemist, with his family Nathaniel Boon, according to local recollection, claimed kinship with the American pioneer, Daniel Boon, who came of an English family from the western counties. The claim, whether capable of substantiation or not, adds a certain picturesque element to Kirton’s past. Nathaniel Boon was not merely a chemist, trading also as a wine and spirit merchant and beer retailer from his shop on the west side of the Market Place. He died in 1930. Three of his sons became chemists, and one a surgeon.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860 Jessie Green, in housemaid’s uniform, about 1934.

A few bigger households in Kirton could not have functioned without a host of servants, both indoor and outdoor, living in or coming to work daily from their own homes; photographs of them are uncommon survivals. Jessie Green of Kirton served the Reverend Mr. Garvey’s family at the Vicarage for a number of years, as did her sister. This picture, taken by a visiting professional photographer, shows her in her afternoon uniform.

The Reverend H. R. Garvey, shown in his rose garden, with Sammy the dog, probably in the 1940’s. He served as vicar at Kirton from 1911 to 1950. Of a Lincolnshire clerical family-his father was priest at Ashby-cum-Fenby when he was bornGarvey was educated at De Aston School, Market Rasen, and entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

He served as curate at St. James’s, Boston, and came from there to Kirton. His pastimes included bowls, golf and gardening, and he was regarded as particularly philanthropic towards poor vagrants, to whom he gave tickets for the Black Swan’s lodging house, and clothing. His dog is said to have been so attached to him that when he went by train to Lincoln for Diocesan meetings, it remained at the station until he returned. Another traditional story relates that Garvey was brought back for burial in Kirton churchyard to a spot as near as possible to his favourite garden. Retiring to Woodhall Spa in 1951, he died in 1956.

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Kirton-in-Lindsey since 1860

Dr. C. F. George

Mrs. C. F. George

Dr. Henry George

Three generations of the family practised medicine in Kirton. Dr. Henry George (1802-74) took over an existing practice in the middle of the 19th Century, and served also as surgeon to the prison. His son, Charles Frederick George-shown here on the left, late in life-assisted, and inherited the practice. A competent doctor, with much work to do, he was an amateur photographer of skill and tenacity, and although his glass plates were dispersed when the contents of his home, Belle Vue House, were sold in 1930, a few copies of his earliest work survive in private collections, and a number of glass negatives were retrieved by Mr. and Mrs. Fisher and deposited in Scunthorpe Central Library.

The George family was prolific; Henry had at least five children, and Charles seven, one of whom, another Henry, also entered the medical profession. Charles lived on until 1923, under the care of two of his daughters, his wife (seen above) having died in 1886. His son, Henry, did not continue the practice, having married and emigrated to Canada in 1889, where he served in a variety of medical work. His portrait, on the right, shows him about 1885.

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Printed by G. W. Belton Ltd., Gainsborough