< PreviousGrand Central plans direct Lincolnshire-London rail service by 2026 Grand Central has notified Network Rail of its plans to introduce a direct rail service between Lincolnshire and London, connecting Cleethorpes, Grimsby, Habrough, and Scunthorpe to King’s Cross. The company will submit a formal application to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), and pending regulatory approval, services are expected to launch by late 2026. The proposed route would add over 775,000 new seats annually, improving regional connectivity and optimising underused rail capacity. Trains will integrate with Grand Central’s existing services via Doncaster, offering more travel options for passengers. Managing Director Paul Hutchings highlighted the significance of restoring direct rail links to Cleethorpes, last available in 1992. The service aims to enhance economic ties between Lincolnshire and London, benefiting passengers and businesses. The initiative follows London North Eastern Railway’s failed attempt to establish a similar route in 2023. Grand Central’s expansion could reshape regional transport and support economic growth in underserved areas if approved. latest news Skegness hotel sold The Queens Hotel in Skegness has been sold to Sodhi Managements Ltd. The family-run hotel has been owned and operated by Ran and Yuan since 2020, who said: “We are happy to pass the hotel to Sodhi Managements Ltd. “Skegness is England’s fourth most popular holiday destination, with over 1.4 million visitors each year, attracted to its sandy beach and seafront attractions including Nature land Seal Sanctuary, museum, aquarium and more. “There’s also the town’s annual carnival, arts festival and other activities, attracting people from all over the country. We wish Sodhi Managements Ltd every success in the future.” Matt Hill, Senior Business Agent at Christie & Co, who managed the sale process, said: “The Queens Hotel has been a very popular hotel opportunity, and demonstrates the strong demand we are currently seeing in the market for well-positioned and well-maintained businesses in tourist locations.” The hotel was sold off an asking price of £450,000. LNT Care Developments has secured planning approval from South Kesteven District Council for the construction of a 66-bed residential care home in Bourne. The development will replace an existing house on Tarragon Way, with a two- storey H-shaped building designed to include parking for 30 vehicles. The project is expected to create between 50 and 60 local jobs and represent a significant investment in the area. Beyond construction, it will generate ongoing opportunities for local contractors, suppliers, and community engagement, including potential partnerships with schools and community groups. While most local residents supported the location, concerns were raised over the site’s accessibility and parking capacity. Ward councillor Helen Crawford noted issues with the proposed entrance on Coriander Drive, potential congestion from HGV traffic, and insufficient parking for visitors and staff. The planning committee approved the project with the condition that a travel plan and construction plan be submitted. No timeline for the project’s completion has been provided. © stock.adobe.com/Ulf Planning approved for 66-bed care home in Bourne © Christie & Co © stock.adobe.com/DrazenAled Jones will share the stage with a local choir on the latest leg of his one-man Full Circle tour. Aled will be joined by the Baths Hall Vocal Collective on the stage of Bath Halls, Scunthorpe, at his show there on May 10, 2025. It is one of several times local choirs will share the stage with Aled on this tour, which returns to theatres on March 25. The choirs will all join the Welsh star for a duet of How Great Art Thou in the second half of the show, in which Aled shares the stories and songs of his 40-year career. Choirs have also been given the opportunity to perform their own music in the venue foyers ahead of the start of the show. Aled said: “I have enjoyed a long and successful career, and it is a real privilege for me to be joined on the stage with a talented local choir. It will be a really special evening.” The choir’s leader added: “We are so grateful and excited to perform with Aled on his tour. Opportunities to support such great artists like Aled is a real privilege for any group, especially for our lovely local vocal collective. It is wonderful how he is supporting and encouraging community choirs and we can’t wait to perform in the show.” Aled Jones set to share the stage with the Freemasons buy £25,000 vehicles for volunteer blood bikers Freemasons have given two new vehicles to Lincolnshire Emergency Blood Bikes Service to help sustain their voluntary work in ferrying urgent supplies and documents between hospitals. A BMW motorbike christened Canon Portal and a Skoda estate car christened Prince Michael of Kent, together worth £25,000, have been bought using funds from a benevolent fund operated by Mark Masons, part of the wider community of Freemasons. The donation was part of UK-wide funding of £750,000 from the Mark Benevolent Fund. The vehicles were formally handed over by Lincolnshire’s senior Mark Mason Steve Hallberg, his deputy Steve Roberts, and Charity Steward Mick Stocker. Accepting the donation were Neville Wright, the group’s Chairman, fundraiser Gordon Scott, and a number of the LEBBS committee, Steve Hallberg said: “It was also great to see the bike which we donated in 2018, a Yamaha FJR1300 called Mark Mason, looking in pristine condition in spite of the mileage it has accumulated in the five years it has been in service.” Golfers to help improve cancer patients’ lives with charity fundraiser Charity fundraising from Louth golfers will help improve the lives of cancer patients whilst being cared for in hospital. The Oncology team at Lincoln County Hospital is set to receive a funding boost as Louth Golf Club starts a year of fundraising to support breast cancer treatments. Chris Barber, Senior Captain of Louth Golf Club for 2025, has chosen United Lincolnshire Hospitals Charity as his Charity of the Year. This is his way to say thank you for the care his wife, Judith received whilst a patient at Lincoln County Hospital after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. She regularly attended the hospital for treatments which were successful in eliminating her cancer. Chris believes it is an absolute necessity to highlight the good work that takes place every day in the county’s hospitals. He said: “I want to give something back to the department that looked after my wife, so I decided during my year as Senior Captain that we would raise funds for the Oncology Department so they can invest in equipment and materials for the future which they otherwise may not be able to obtain.” Baths Hall Vocal Collective12 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY HOMES This month’s featured home is a handsome stone-built period cottage with magnificent gardens. I n a quiet, rural location in Lower Bitchfield stands a stone-built period cottage boasting exquisite gardens. A property that has undergone many phases of evolution, Ragstone Cottage is thought to date to the early 1800s. Originally a part of the Cholmeley Estate — once holding three bedrooms, a small kitchen, a sitting room, no bathroom (with only outside facilities), and a lean-to as animal quarters — in Queen Victoria’s reign it became host to a post office, with the letterbox embedded in an outbuilding wall continuing to be used until the 1950s. The abode was then altered into a modern home of the era, with the windows increased four-fold in size to flood the dwelling with natural light, while a two-storey extension and the garden room were created. Seeking a stone cottage with lots of garden space, Ragstone has been the adored home of a couple for the last three decades, taking on what A restful rural cottage 14 Á A restful rural cottage LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 13 HOMES14 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY HOMES was a “typical 1970s property” and carrying out considerable work to extend and enhance its appearance, and significantly transform the 0.84 acre plot it sits on. “The property is quiet, very peaceful, and surrounded by lovely countryside. It’s in a good location for us and just what we were looking for,” the owner shared. Over the past 30 years a utility area has been added off the kitchen, the flat roof over the rear bedroom was replaced with a pitched one, and pretty clay pantiles laid. Meanwhile the stunning gardens, the star of the property, have been created in their entirety. Once simply an acre paddock used for grazing horses, one can now explore mature, landscaped gardens with archways and paths guiding you to a variety of spaces, from lawned areas where borders of shrubs and perennials can be appreciated, to a well- stocked vegetable garden, a scented garden, and patios for relaxing on a sunny day or entertaining. Being able to undertake all this work on the plot has been cherished by the owner, who said one of the things they have most enjoyed about the home is planning projects ahead and carrying them out, slowly introducing various aspects over time, whether adding extensions or starting off with a blank canvas in the gardens. Taking a tour of the home today, one approaches the handsome cottage via a no through lane, passing through a timber five-bar gate onto a large tarmac drive, at the back of which sit outbuildings including a block of two garages with two adjoining former stables, along with a large shed behind and a covered, open-fronted area for storage. The property instantly exudes a tranquil aura, thanks to its surrounding greenery, rolling countryside, and being amongst a collection of just eight houses in the area, with the owner describing it as a “restful place,” with no through traffic to ruin the peace, with a “very caring group of neighbours.” The property, which has pretty, timber- framed windows with Georgian style panes, is entered through the back door, opening into the rear hallway. From here, the kitchen can be found to the left, a useful pantry ahead, and a downstairs cloakroom, built-in storage cupboards, and a utility room to the right, holding a Belfast sink, wooden worktops, space for LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 15 HOMES a washing machine, a dryer, and an upright and chest freezer, with fitted cupboards above. To explore the rest of the dwelling, one passes through the farmhouse style kitchen, which basks in the morning sun and enjoys an electric Rangemaster cooker, surrounded by fitted units topped with beech. Connected is a spacious dining room with doors into the front hall on one side and the garden room on the other. The front hall provides stairs to the first floor and access to the sitting room, a dual aspect room at the southern end of the house, measuring twenty-four feet long and hosting a rustic stone fireplace with a log-burner. The carpeted garden room, the owner’s favourite room in the home, presents French doors opening onto a sunny patio, while a shower room in the corner offers the opportunity to use the space as a downstairs bedroom, perhaps for an elderly relative or as a dedicated spot for guests. Travelling upstairs, in contrast to the predominantly 16 Á16 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY tiled ground floor, a galleried landing features stripped and finished wooden floorboards, which extend across the first floor. Four bedrooms with built-in storage, await, along with the family bathroom containing a fitted bath with tiled surround and shower over with a glass screen. Outside, immaculately maintained, fully enclosed, mature gardens can be discovered, meticulously created over the last 30 years, offering a variety of different spaces for those with green thumbs, those who love to relax amongst nature, and those who like to entertain, from patios and sheltered spots for sitting in the sun, to orchards, vegetable patches and lawned areas accompanied by borders of shrubs and perennials. “My father was a gardener in the 1940s,” the owner shared, “so I learned from what turned out to be quite an expert gardener. My wife and I in our married life have always been keen on gardening.” He added: “The vegetable garden and orchards, that’s where I do most of the work, and my wife was the flower garden specialist.” Steps from a terrace along the front of the house lead up to a lawn with a Scots pine and a possibly two hundred year old sycamore, two of the wealth of trees on the property, many of which were planted HOMESLINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 17 HOMES by the couple who have given so much love to the home over the past 30 years. A wide hornbeam archway guides you to the vegetable garden, while there is also a white garden and a scented garden. A timber summerhouse overlooks a patio and captures the evening sun, making a prime area for hosting a barbecue, and from here there is a hidden patio with a ring of hedging where roses clamber along rope swags. Perfect for chefs, an abundance of fruit trees produce harvests of apples, pears, damsons and cobnuts as well as fruit bushes such as blueberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, loganberries and cultivated blackberries. Providing additional produce there is a strawberry bed and raspberry canes, and a huge area for vegetables, making the home quite self- sufficient. “I don’t do much cooking myself,” the owner noted. “My wife was the chef for sure, she used all of the fruit and veg out of the garden one way or another, which made us self-sufficient to a large extent.” A greenhouse, a potting shed and a timber garden shed further serve the garden. Though Ragstone Cottage has been treasured by its owner, the time has come to sell. The peaceful retreat is now on the market with Fine & Country with a guide price of £700,000. ARTISTIC LINCOLNSHIRE 18 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY bold Vividly Chris Chapman is a celebrated artist, and his latest works pay homage to some of the masterpieces of our era. G raduating from Leicester College of Art in 1979, Chris Chapman worked as a successful illustrator in London, but now lives in the much more rural Bournemouth, Dorset. Though Chris has worked in many styles throughout his career, his most recent works involve fine art paintings referencing some of the masterpieces of art history. Chris uses a wide range of media depending on his project, which can be seen in is portfolio – using acrylics, coloured pencils, gouache, graphite and more. So recognisable are his works that Chris’ paintings have been widely exhibited in a number of galleries, including the Royal Academy of Arts in London.LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 19 THE LITTLE RED GALLERY Love art? Then we’d love to meet you, please call in for a cup of tea and a chat. The Little Red Gallery are feeling ‘Love’ with a fantastic range of pieces and perfect gift ideas. ARTISTIC LINCOLNSHIRE If you’d like to see Chris Chapman’s work for yourself, head down to Lincoln’s Little Red GalleryNext >