< Previous20 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY BOSTON © stock.adobe.com/Randy Runtsch All about All about 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:06 Page 1LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 21 BOSTON B oston is a city of great cultural and historical importance, and yet all too often is it missed out on as a premier shopping and activity destination in favour of the city of Lincoln. Going back in time, Boston was once a centre of trade – second only to London – and a commercial hub of England. In fact, Boston was so important that it ranked within the Hanseatic League, a medieval commercial alliance of powerful merchant guilds in Europe, who worked together to protect their interests. Its power was so well-known and so great that the American city of Boston was named after it. Nowadays, Boston is less the powerhouse it used to be, and globalisation means that few cities across the world will ever share the influence it once did. Despite that, Boston remains proud of its heritage and thanks to a £500,000 grant by the Heritage Lottery fund came together with others across Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and further afield to celebrate the Mayflower story, the birth of the separatists and the stories that inspired their journey to America. You can see and learn much about Boston’s history and its involvement not only in the pilgrims of America, but also its work within WWII and all the way back to the medieval era. Boston plays host to numerous museums and cultural sites, all lovingly preserved and open today as tourist attractions. From the Guildhall and its relation to the pilgrims, to the We’ll Meet Again Museum, an award-winning WWII Home Front Museum that teaches children and adults both about life during World Wars 1 and 2, and even has its own ration café, along with numerous artifacts, weapons and vehicles from the two world wars. It’s not only a chance to look back into the past that should draw people to Boston, however. The Boston of today is a bustling market town that stays true to its roots, with weekly markets taking place twice each week (Wednesdays and Saturdays) that see independent stalls and stores taking to the street once Boston is a meeting point of ideas, attractions and markets, and there is no shortage of reasons to visit. 22 Á Boston Marina to Lincoln Cycle Path © Energy Cell 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:06 Page 222 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY BOSTON more. As a shopping destination, it’s hard to find anywhere with such variety and quality outside of Lincoln, and Boston can almost rival it in many ways. There are plenty of independent stores for fashion, furniture, gardens and more – and though the big, mainstream brands are present, there are also family-owned, more local businesses that offer a more unique shopping experience. For those more interested in getting out there and exploring around Boston there is RSPB Frampton Marsh Nature Reserve, an area that is one of Europe’s most important locations for freshwater birds. Near to Boston are two wildlife parks: ARK Wildlife Part and Rescue Zoo just eight miles north, and the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park further down the coast toward Skegness. If animals are less your thing and outdoor activities more on the mind then a brand-new country park has opened in Boston this year – Boston West Country Park – after an investment of over £3.5 million. This adds a host of new activities to get involved with and adds to Boston’s already extensive range. For foodies, Boston has an array of award-winning restaurants, butchers and more – including some restaurants who have received awards from ourselves. Dotted within, outside and in rural locations on the edge of Boston, there’s never too far to go without finding a family pub, restaurant or hotel, and Boston remains a bustling tourist location today. Mountain’s Boston Sausage farm shop remains a multi award-winning destination and is well worth visiting for those who love their tender meats. If entertainment is desired, Boston has you covered there as well. Well-known and busy theatres such as Blackfriars Arts Centre and the Savoy Cinema have the drama and musical lovers well in hand. Boston Central Park offers a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of the town centre, or one can take to their bicycles on the Water Rail Way cycle route, or even the Macmillan Way if you prefer your own two feet. For those who prefer to keep off their feet, the river Belle regularly features private ships offering scenic cruises, or Tattershall lakes Boston West Country Park Be the first to experience a brand-new, premium country park, right on your doorstep. Brand-new for 2022, Boston West Country Park is THE staycation destination this year. The newly developed park is undergoing a huge transformation, with over £3.5m being invested. Open for holidays from May this year, you can expect luxury accommodation (some even with hot tubs), a refurbished restaurant and bar with new menu. Enjoy a game of golf, experience the driving range, use the outdoor splash zone, and let the kids run, climb and jump on the adventure playground. Short breaks from only £193. Visit awayresorts.co.uk today! 24 Á 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:06 Page 3LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 23 WOOD AND MULTI FUELS STOVES ELECTRIC & GAS FIRES, WOOD, MARBLE AND STONE FIRE SURROUNDS We have an extensive range of fireplaces, multi-fuel and wood burning stoves along with a magnificent collection of gas fires, electric fires and surrounds on display at our showroom in Boston, Lincolnshire. Our stunning selections from leading British and Scandinavian manufacturers such as Elgin & Hall, Jotul, Chesneys, Dimplex, Valor Contura and Arada to name but a few, means we cater for all tastes. Our friendly and helpful staff are always on hand to give you some ideas and help to guide you with your purchase. Visit our showroom or call us today on 01205 310 327. Church Road, Boston PE21 0LG | Tel: 01205 310 327 E-mail: sales@bostonheating.co.uk | www.bostonheating.co.uk Oil in South Lincolnshire is available at a fair price and with a reliable service from family run J and J Fuels. We are here to ensure you receive the very best service and at a time that suits you. As member of the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers you can be sure of a safe service every time with quality of product also assured. We pride ourselves on our prompt delivery services as well as our competitive prices. Offering domestic heating oil and farm diesel within a 30 mile radius of Boston. 01205 760 638 Bakers Lane, Freiston, Boston www.jandjfuels.com J & J FUELS BOSTON www.pescodsquare.com Phone - 01205 353370 | info@pescodsquare.com Our shopping centre includes high street favourites like Costa and Greggs as well as local independent retailers such as Boston Soap and Wise Guys/Girls. You can shop for everything from books and stationery at Waterstones, The Works or Global Educational Trust bookstore to music and film at HMV or buy a new mobile at our O2 outlet or get your phone repaired at Phone Guys. If you're in Boston and looking for fashion, then look no further. Our fashion retailers PEP&CO, Next and Select stock this seasons latest fashions, there is Superdrug for all your beauty and health needs or you can grab a bargain at Wilko's. Boston’s Premier Shopping Destination Pescod Square is a shopping district in the very heart of Boston. It links together Wide Bargate and Mitre Lane and incorporates the historic Pescod Hall. We have 18 stores which cover in excess of 93,000 square feet of retail space and a 377-space car park for our visitors to use. We’ll Meet Again Homefront Museum Wartime History Brought To Life An award-winning museum based at Freiston Shore, Nr Boston housing a vast collection of WW1 and WW2 artifacts, open to the public Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays 10am-4pm( including cafe) private group visits and dedicated exclusive school educational days Monday-Thursdays (booking essential). 3 Shore Road, Freiston, Boston, Lincolnshire PE22 0LY T: 07903 529614 E: paulandlindab@hotmail.co.uk W: www.wmamuseum.co.uk Left to Right: Joe Joe, Michelle, Lisa Dawson (Centre Manager), Steve and John. The Customer Services Team is provided by Taylored Security Services, Boston. 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:06 Page 4© Energy Cell 24 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY BOSTON water park (a small distance from Boston) offers a chance to be swept off your feet and into the water in a more action-packed manner. With so much to do it’s easy to see why Boston is such an attraction to tourists from outside Lincolnshire, but harder to understand why it sometimes suffers from a poor reputation within. Negative news has, in recent years, taken to criticism of Boston for matters that are not fully its fault. Much of this came in the wake of TV programs like Skint, which similarly impacted the towns of Scunthorpe and Grimsby, casting them in a negative light as it focused on individuals suffering from long-term unemployment within them. Though Boston was spared this fate, much media has been focused on the negatives of late, as has much of Lincolnshire, and this may have tarnished the opinions of people living within the county. Today, Boston is a town rejuvenated after coming out of lockdown, and a market town that has taken great strides to improve itself. Investments in a new country park and further work done to promote Boston with the Mayflower and numerous other museums and attractions have helped draw new life to the town, while its award-winning restaurants and theatres have kept the flames burning even through the darkest points of the lockdown. The result is a town that has continued to thrive, and a place where many industries and people come together. Lincoln may be the capital of Lincolnshire, but even though the days of Boston being second only to London might be gone, we would maintain that it is still an important part of our county, and the sheer number of things to do there is testament and proof of that. More reasons to visit Boston Much of the rich history of Boston is still evident today as visitors navigate their way around the tapestry of streets and walkways. “The Stump” (St. Botolph’s Church) is a must visit. Nearby, Boston Guildhall is a magnificent medieval building built in the 1390’s and is now a fascinating visitor attraction. Boston’s weekly markets are Wednesday and Saturdays. The Medieval Lanes are filled with independent shops and many of your favourite High Street stores can be found in Pescod Square. There are plenty of places to eat, with an eclectic mix of English and European restaurants and cafes. For evening entertainment, look out for events at Blackfriars Theatre and Arts Centre. Around Boston you’ll find yet more heritage with Hussey Tower, two RSPB nature reserves (Freiston Shore and Frampton Marsh) and within easy reach is the coastal resort of Skegness. www.visitbostonuk.com 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:07 Page 5FREE Tea or Coffee Present this voucher at our restaurant or café Boston’s newest department store set on 3 floors offering men and women's fashion, beauty, homewares, toys and games, gifts plus a restaurant and a cafe. Rebos 11 Strait Bargate Boston PE21 6UF 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:07 Page 626 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY A lfred, the third son of Dr George Clayton Tennyson, was born at Somersby rectory on the 6th August 1809. George had been passed over in favour of his younger brother Charles for inheritance of the Tennyson fortunes and the family seat, Bayons Manor at Tealby, and forced into the clergy with the livings of Somersby and Bag Enderby in 1805. Alfred lived at Somersby until, aged eight, he began attending Louth Grammar School, an experience that, as a shy child, caused him great unhappiness. After four years he returned to Somersby and was taught by his father until in 1827 he left for Cambridge University. That same year his earliest childhood work ‘Poems by Two Brothers’, written jointly with his brother Charles, was published by Jackson’s of Louth at their shop-cum-printing works in the Market Place. He returned from Cambridge in 1831 without a degree, when his father fell seriously ill - but with a Chancellors medal for his work ‘Timbuctoo’. After Dr Tennyson died the family remained at Somersby until 1837 when Alfred finally left Lincolnshire, never to return, although his love of the Wolds remained, often expressed in his poetry; though he denied any autobiographical elements except in the broadest sense. He eventually rose to become the pre- eminent Victorian poet, his popularity being partly because his poetry met with the tastes of Victorian society, when Neo- Gothicism was fashionable in the arts, literature and architecture. This shows in such works as ‘Morte D’Arthur’ (1842) and ‘Idylls of the King’ (1859). In 1850 he married Emily Sellwood of Horncastle and – succeeding Wordsworth - was also appointed Poet Laureate. A peerage, granted by Queen Victoria, came in 1881. On leaving Lincolnshire he lived at Epping Forest, eventually moving to Farringford on the Isle of Wight, where the Tennyson Down overlooks the Channel. He later also bought a house, Aldworth, at Blackdown in Surrey where he died on the 6th October 1892. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Tennyson is known for his range of poetic styles from the historical such as ‘Morte D’Athur’, ‘Idylls of the King’ and the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’, to his epic ‘In Memoriam’ written on the death of his university friend Arthur Hallam, as well as poems in Lincolnshire dialect. His work gave us many memorable quotations including “Come into the garden Maud”; “Tis better to have loved and lost….” and “Into the valley of death rode the five thousand.” Many places in Lincolnshire have Tennyson associations. Forever linked with the family, though of course Alfred never lived there, was Bayons Manor at Tealby, the neo-gothic castle completed by his uncle Charles in the 1840’s. It was occupied by the army during WWII, then became derelict and was demolished in 1965. This month we look at the life of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Lincolnshire explored TENNYSON STATUE LINCOLN HARRINGTON HALL 26-27.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:08 Page 1LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 27 Somersby, being his birthplace and childhood home, is naturally the main place of pilgrimage for Tennyson fans. The former rectory, Somersby House (a private home not open to the public!), stands across the road from the ancient St Margaret’s church containing the font in which Alfred was baptised, a small exhibition about his links with Somersby and Lincolnshire and a sculptured bust by Thomas Woolmer. Tennyson’s father is buried in the churchyard. A short stroll along the lane to the west is the infant River Lymm, here a mere stream, regarded by many as the inspiration for ‘The Brook’, Alfred’s famous poem published in 1857. It reaches the Wash as Wainfleet Haven at Gibraltar Point. Nearby, Bag Enderby’s church (another St Margaret’s!), also has a small Tennyson exhibition. Just up the lane is the hollow trunk of what must once have been a huge tree, believed to have been climbed by the Tennyson children. And at Louth of course is the grammar school which he so disliked that in future years he refused even to walk past it. In the Market Place the former Jackson’s printers’ shop, publishers of his first book of poems, still survives. Also, near Somersby is Tetford where the White Hart inn dates partly from C17th. During Alfred’s time it was the meeting place of the “Tetford Club” for local gentry of which he was a member. At Harrington the hall originates from Elizabethan times but has been rebuilt more than once. In Tennyson’s youth the Eden family lived there and since Mrs Eden had previously been married to a member of the Baring banking dynasty one daughter was Charlotte Rose Baring for whom the young Tennyson apparently formed a fondness. Any lasting relationship was hopeless however because of the wide gap in their social status. The hall’s walled garden is widely regarded as that into which Maud (read Rose) was invited in his poem ‘Maud’. In Horncastle Market Place (though now long gone) stood the home of the Selwood family, local solicitors, whose daughter Emily Tennyson married in 1850. The Tennyson family loved the Lincolnshire coast where they frequently holidayed (Alfred always preferred it to any other coastline). Favourite destinations were Mablethorpe, also Skegness and Gibraltar Point where they stayed at Hildred’s and Vine Hotels. Other locations have connections with Tennyson. In Spilsby Market Place the epitaph around the base of Sir John Franklin’s statue (1861) is a Tennyson quotation; “The white north has thy bones.” Franklin was an uncle of Tennyson’s wife Emily. A more recent memorial to Tennyson himself is his 1905 statue, with his favourite wolfhound, outside the east end of Lincoln cathedral. And at Langrick a sculpture beside the Water Rail Way bears a Tennyson quotation from ‘The Brook’; “And here and there a lusty trout; And here and there a Grayling.” In Lincoln a “Tennyson Society” was established in 1960 to promote his work and an extensive Tennyson collection is in the Lincolnshire Archives. by Hugh Marrows FRANKLIN STATUE SPILSBY SOMERSBY VILLAGETHE BROOK (RIVER LYMM) SOMERSBY St MARGARETS BAG ENDERBY 26-27.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:08 Page 228 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY FASHION Bring new life to your style As we welcome a season celebrating new life, refresh your closet with some new clothes. 28-37.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:15 Page 1LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 29 FASHION M&Co. Spring is the perfect time to lighten up your wardrobe in reflection of brighter days as M&Co. shows with this blouse and jeans ensemble. 28-37.qxp_Layout 1 21/03/2022 14:15 Page 2Next >