< Previous20 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY LOUTH AND ALFORD Alford Alford is set on top of what was an ancient track and ford, where traders of yesteryear would have met and sold their goods. This history is still reflected in the town’s name, perhaps deriving from the Norman Eauford, meaning ‘the ford across the eau or stream’. Alford was originally a small settlement after the Norman conquest, only having around 50 inhabitants in 1086. But in 1283 the town was granted a market charter, helping it to prosper all the way through the Middle Ages and making it the market town it’s known as today. One of the town’s many delightful offerings is Alford Manor Museum, with recreated Georgian and Victorian rooms, local historical facts and objects, and its American Connections exhibition showing a surprising amount of famous names linked with this serene settlement. Anne Hutchinson, a trailblazing female preacher and the founder of Rhode Island, was born and married in Alford and lived in the town for 22 years after her return from London. Thomas Paine, the author of influential socialist text ‘The Rights of Man’, lived and worked here for a short time, and John Smith of Pocahontas fame was a pupil of the local grammar school. All this lively history is inconspicuously kept inside the 17th century manor, which is one of the largest thatched houses in Britain. St Wilfrid’s medieval parish church is another central point of Alford’s history, Arts, crafts and markets This month, we aren’t just exploring one Lincolnshire town, but two. That’s right, we’re taking a closer look at Louth and Alford. Arts, crafts and markets 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:33 Page 1LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 21 LOUTH AND ALFORD © stock.adobe.com/Electric Egg Ltd. dating back to 1350 though it replaced an older building from the 12th century. Inside you can see an array of period features from across its time as the town’s heart of Christian faith, including a Jacobean pulpit, its 14th century stained glass windows, and a 17th century tomb. Sir Robert Christopher’s almshouses remain on West Street, maintained by the trust fund he himself established in 1668, while stocks for the town scoundrels can still be found in the market square. Of course, it would be remiss not to mention Alford’s craft fair, which recently celebrated Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee with over 3,500 visitors. The fair has been reviving the trading and crafting spirit which forms the foundation of Alford since 1974. Championing handmade treasures over mass-production, which is demonstrated in Alford’s pride in reportedly having the UK’s shortest high street, Alford Craft Market will hold its next event at the Manor House from the 27th- 29th August 2022. 22 Á 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:33 Page 222 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY LOUTH AND ALFORD Louth Alford shares pride in its craftspeople with the town of Louth, which came to its prosperity through the wealth of the Medieval wool industry and its renown as a market town. But it too began as a small village by water in the Anglo-Saxon era, taking space on both sides of the powerful river Lud, which gave the town its name from the Saxon word Hlud or ‘loud’ and historically drove as many as thirteen watermills. The streets its Danish conquerors named began to grow in foot traffic in the 10th or early 11th century, as peasants came to its then small market. However, by 1300 it was a key trading centre between the Wolds and Marsh, held two annual eight-day fairs and had a population of 2,000. The Cistercian Louth Park Abbey, built in 1139 and whose ruins have survived to the present day, would come to find itself at the heart of the town’s distress during the time of the Black Death. East Lindsey suffered an onslaught of famine and coastal flooding in the 14th century, and the flea-borne plague came hot on its heels in the summer of 1349. The abbey’s chronicler wrote “The scourge in many places left less than a fifth part of the population surviving,” and the abbot William de Luda was among those who died. Though there were further outbreaks of plague in the 16th and 17th centuries, Louth continued to grow even despite a 1631 epidemic which killed 700 people, accounting for a large part of its population at the time. The saga of Louth Abbey as a centre of Louth’s woes continued in 1536 when Henry VIII closed it down. Local suspicion of the king’s greedy motives instigated the Lincolnshire Rising, a rebellion which opposed Henry’s seizing of the abbey’s valuables, and rumours of his plans to take more from the town’s Roman Catholic church. On the 2nd of October an armed mob captured and put in the stocks two commissioners involved in dissolving Legbourne’s nunnery. This uprising spread to Horncastle and Caistor, amounting to a march of 30,000 people on Lincoln to petition the king, who were spurned as “ye rude commons of one of the most brute and beastlie shires in the whole realm.” The punishments were harsh, with some of the rebels executed in Louth Market Place, and the ringleaders taken to Tyburn to be 24 Á © stock.adobe.com/roger ashford Alford Town Victorian Railway Station 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:33 Page 3LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 23 CHARTERED CERTIFIED ACCOUNTANTS To find out how to get your business on the up visit www.dextersharpe.co.uk Offices in Boston, Bourne, Horncastle, Lincoln, Louth, Skegness & Spilsby We pride ourselves on providing a pro-active, friendly and accessible service. Experts in Accounts and Tax Returns Tax Planning and Book-Keeping Audits and Business Advice We’re here to get you in the right direction Keeping business on the up… 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:33 Page 424 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY LOUTH AND ALFORD LEAKE'S MASONRY Ltd Eve Street, Louth, Lincs LN11 0JJ Phone: 01507 604 828 leakesmasonry.co.uk • leakesmasonry@aol.com A Third Century of Stonemasonry Craftsmanship From Leake's Masonry A professional family-run business having been established in Louth for over 100 years. We were very proud to have been entrusted with the repairs and renovation to the damaged Louth War Memorial. High quality Gold, Silver & Diamond Jewellery Main agents for Citizen, Lorus, Iron Annie and Zeppelin Watches Pre Owned Rolex Watches In-house Repairs & Engraving Ear Piercing Celebrating 40 Years Trading in Louth Butcher Lane, Louth Lincolnshire LN11 9JG. Tel: 01507 604029 www.striacroft.co.uk info@striacroft.co.uk hanged, drawn and quartered. No more than fifteen years later, Henry’s successor King Edward VI came to Louth with much gentler intentions. In September 1551 he granted the town a charter to offer free education in the Grammar School that still carries his name today. The improvements only grew from there, with a dispensary for free medicines opened in 1803, and Louth’s first hospital built in 1873. Men were given the ability to pave and clean the streets by an act of parliament in 1825, and gas lighting in the town’s streets followed the year after. Once Louth was connected by railway in 1848, its amenities and tourist attractions increased into the 20th century, with the Hubbard’s Hills valley opened as a public park in 1907 and Louth Museum in 1910. The award-winning museum remains closed to in-person visitors, though a virtual tour can be accessed through its website, but the Hubbard’s Hills park and its picturesque views of the beech-lined river Lud is open to all. St. James’ Church, which stands in place of the dissolved Catholic church, welcomes visitors to see its imposing 295-foot crocketted spire, thought to be the highest parish Church of England spire in the country. The 19th century Town Hall joins the beautiful historic buildings to see in Louth, with its grand © stock.adobe.com/Gill Woolliss & Son Butchers –– AWARD-WINNING LINCOLNSHIRE BUTCHERS –– LOOKING FOR A TOP QUALITY BUTCHERS IN LINCOLNSHIRE? Look no further, we have a proven track record when it comes to providing top quality cuts of meat and home made pastries at a competitive price. We are proud of our locally sourced produce and our 5 star hygiene rating. 29-31 Mercer Row, Louth LN11 9JG. T: 01507 603230 E: orders@woolliss-butchers.co.uk W: woolliss-butchers.co.uk 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:33 Page 5LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 25 LOUTH AND ALFORD Saturday 27th, Sunday 28th & Monday 29th August, 2022 10am - 4pm each day THE BEST OF LINCOLNSHIRE CRAFTS Live acoustic music each afternoon Morris Dancers Sunday Handbell ringers Saturday afternoon Banjo Bob on his guitar each day Traditional Punch & Judy Shows The Earthbound Misfits Street Theatre stilt walkers at the ALFORD MANOR HOUSE GARDENS & BIG MARQUEE LN13 9HT Admission GIVE WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD Some of the superb stalls at Alford Craft Market Photos courtesy of Lynne Le Voi/Alford Craft Market culture as well as the history, the Riverhead Theatre showing a wide array of productions as well as running scriptwriting and junior theatre workshops over the summer holidays. Failing that, if you’re looking for ways to get back to nature in Lincolnshire, Louth is a focal point for walks around the much admired Wolds landscape. With its hills and valleys unfurling like Hubbard’s Hills on the macro scale, Louth joins the many lucky towns and villages which have put down roots near its streams and rivers, as does Alford. Woodland and grassland are essential homes for local wildlife, not to mention the abandoned chalk pits, these sites of historic significance now allowed to nourish rare flowers. A landscape that combines its beauty with the work of its farmers and tradespeople, there’s no better way of seeing what makes these two towns extraordinary than spending a few blissful hours in their surrounding scenery. As with Alford, Louth is a great place to shop and shop some more. Here you’ll find artisans, antiques, boutiques and much, much more. So, how about heading down to Louth one weekend, then Alford the next? After all, you’ll need at least a day in each to uncover all they have to offer. Louth Market 20-25.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:33 Page 626 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY W e shall look at windmills first. The history of man harnessing wind power goes back to around 2000BC in Babylonia in the middle east. Many people will not realise just how numerous Lincolnshire mills once were but a fascinating, and now rare, book by Peter Dolman (for Lincolnshire County Council Museums in 1986, to which I am much indebted) looks at this subject. It lists, with descriptions, histories, maps and photographs, some 136 Lincolnshire mills plus 57 that have “disappeared” although sometimes faint traces of a mill mound survive and are occasionally marked on OS maps. (As at Martin near Horncastle) There were no windmills in Lincolnshire – or indeed England - until the late C12th but estimates are that when windmill usage was at its peak in the early C19th Lincolnshire had as many as 500. Amongst those that are left however are two record breakers - the largest and tallest mills in the country - the largest being the Maud Foster in Boston and the tallest being Moulton Mill at 24 metres. Basically, windmills fall into three types. Tower mills, usually built of brick, are the most common and have a cap, usually ogee shaped, that can be turned to catch the wind. With post mills however the whole structure was able to rotate around a central post to enable the sails to catch the wind. Thirdly, Smock mills were timber- built with a weatherboarded exterior. Most of our surviving tower mills date from the C19th. These range from Barton- on-Humber, which has two (1810 and 1813) and Kirton-in-Lindsey (1875 replacing a post mill) in the north, to the magnificent Money’s Mill at Sleaford, Alford (1813) and Burgh-le-Marsh, which again has two; Dodson’s Mill (1813) and Hanson’s Mill (circa 1855 and also a replacement for a post mill) in the south. There are even two still standing within the city of Lincoln; Ellis’s Mill in Mill Road and Le’Tall’s Mill in Princess Street. Lincolnshire’s only surviving post mill is at Wrawby dating from about 1760. Smock mills were largely confined to the fens and used as drainage pumps. Lincolnshire has only one left, now preserved at Dyke near Bourne. It is on private land but is easily seen from the road. The popular image of windmills usage is that of grinding corn. This was of course their main use but they were sometimes put to other uses such as grinding chalk. We often think of the characteristic mill as having four sails – but again Lincolnshire has several that disprove the rule. For example, Alford and Burgh-le- Marsh (Dobson’s Mill) each have five sails, Sibsey Trader Mill has six whilst This month we look at Lincolnshire’s heritage of mills - both wind and water powered. Lincolnshire explored MOULTON ALFORD 26-27.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:34 Page 1LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 27 Heckington beats them all with eight. Many original windmills were later converted to alternative power sources with diesel, electric or gas engines being used. And a very few, Legbourne for example, were both wind and water mills combined. Some are preserved as working mills whilst also functioning as tourist attractions – e.g. Heckington, Alford and Sibsey Trader Mill, now managed by English Heritage. Many others have been converted into private dwellings as at South Rauceby, Burgh-le-Marsh (Hanson’s Mill), Kirton End and Saltfleet; and many more now only survive as derelict towers. We must now turn to watermills. Water powered mills were known in pre-Roman times and in England throughout the Saxon period, being the only type of mill recorded in the Domesday Book. These are less common in Lincolnshire than in hillier counties, such as the north of England, since they need a steady supply of fast flowing water to generate power. Nevertheless, they were built where opportunities existed, mainly as you would expect around the fringes of the Wolds, with virtually none in the fens. Nevertheless, there were more watermills in Lincolnshire than people realise (around 250 are known from the Domesday Book) and although most have disappeared a few survive. They were often concentrated in groups, along a single watercourse, as at Tealby and along the River Slea. One that you could easily pass by without realising – it looks like a roadside barn (grid ref 165967) - is at Thoresway; it dates from 1816 and drove machinery in the buildings across the road. And nearby, just off the Viking Way at Otby are the remains of a mill leat. At Tealby the infant River Rase powered fourteen mills and an important activity there was paper production. Indeed, there is still a Papermill Lane in the village. Sleaford also had a number of watermills along the River Slea and subsequently the Sleaford Navigation. There was a bone mill – its site is now virtually beneath Bonemeal Bridge on the A17 bypass and a mile further downstream was Holdingham Mill, the origins of which reach back to the Middle Ages. After a further quarter of a mile is another Papermill Lane leading up to Evedon. There was a paper mill here in the C17th, followed by a brief return to corn milling in the C19th, after which paper production resumed to supply printers in Boston until the 1930’s. There are clear mill leat remains on the west bank near the Navigation lock. Better known is Cogglesford Mill on the town’s outskirts; still in working order it has regular open days and is a popular local attraction. There has been a mill on this site since Saxon times although the present one dates from around 1750 with an upper floor added in the 1840’s. Another watermill run as a tourist attraction is at Claythorpe on the eastern slopes of the Wolds to the northwest of Alford. This C18th mill operated until the 1970’s but its machinery remains and the grounds are now a wildlife and waterfowl centre. by Hugh Marrows LEGBOURNE BURGH-LE-MARSHCOGGLESFORD MILL HECKINGTON 26-27.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:34 Page 228 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY FASHION Masai Masai presents inspiration through two different looks for the summer, one silky and sleek, the other fun, flattering and prime for a tropical vacation. 28-37.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:36 Page 1LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 29 FASHION With hotter days, hotter nights, and holidays on the horizon, new clothes are in order. Beat the heat 28-37.qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:36 Page 2Next >