John Franklin (1786-1847) was born in Spilsby. As a naval officer he led expeditions to northern Canada in 1819 and 1825 before being appointed Governor of Tasmania (1836-1843).

His final expedition, to search for the North-West Passage in 1845, famously ended in disaster for him and his entire crew – there were no survivors – but, as in similar circumstances for other explorers, it did elevate him to lasting fame.

(The statue in Spilsby Market Place is in bronze on a polished stone ashlar base, 1861)

September 2011

Detail of the lettering on the Franklin statue in Spilsby Market Place.

September 2011

The base of the statue (above the plinth) carries the name of the sculptor, Charles Bacon (1822-1886) London-based sculptor and artist.

Jean Howard, December 2020

The Market Place was resurfaced and enhanced in 2000.This included the surrounding of Franklin’s statue with a raised circular plinth with an inscription around the edge.

To read it the visitor must walk anticlockwise around the outside. It reads:

Not here! The white North has thy bones; and thou, heroic sailor-soul, Art passing on thine happier voyage now Toward no earthly pole. Tennyson

These are the words on Sir John’s cenotaph of 1875 in Westminster Abbey. They were written by Alfred Tennyson who was Poet Laureate at the time. However, it was doubtless a very personal undertaking as Sir John was uncle of Tennyson’s wife, Emily.

Jean Howard, December 2020  

"Market cross. C15. Ashlar. Octagonal shaft rises to octagonal top with shields to the panels, surmounted by C20 cross"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1359735 

DB 22 June 2019

About one mile south-west of the town was Eresby Hall, home of the Willoughby family.

The house was destroyed by fire in 1769. This is the fine avenue leading south from the Spilsby-Hundleby road.

postcard printed and published by W K Morton in Spilsby.

Grace Swan Memorial Cottage Hospital was built in 1902 with 25 beds shared between charity and fee-paying patients. Closed as a hospital in the 1990s it is now a health centre.

Undated postcard by Valentine's.

Founded in the reign of Edward VI, the first buildings on this site were erected in 1611.

On the right is an extension dated 1914.

September 2011

The earliest surviving building of the former Grammar School, facing Church Street, is of eighteenth century date.

September 2011

Commemorative stone in the gable of the 1914 extension noting the foundation of the Grammar School in the reign of Edward VI.

September 2011

Spilsby is a market town in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire.

The explorer Sir John Franklin was a native.

A branch line to the town from Firsby junction on the East Lincolnshire main line ran from 1868 to 1958.

This view looks west with the White Hart in the right background.

undated postcard

View of the High Street looking east.

Morton the printer had their main base and print works in Horncastle, with smaller branches in Louth and Spilsby.

postcard, 1906

Former Masonic Hall now Askew's Carpets.

Kelly's Directory 1905 has an entry "Freemasons' Shakespeare Lodge 426 ( J. J. Rainey, sec. ), Masonic hall"

A new Masonic Hall, in Halton road, was erected in 1913.

Geoff Swain Collection 24 June 2002

The Methodist Chapel in Spilsby (originally the Wesleyan Chapel) has a prominent location at the east end of the Market Place.

It was built in 1878 by Charles Bell of stock brick with Geometrical tracery, a typical town chapel of its period.

July 2014

The gallery in the Methodist Church is supported by iron piers, each with a decorated floral capital.

July 2014

Spilsby Methodist Church, in common with other chapels of the period, has a large encircling gallery.

The fixed pews are made of pine.

July 2014

Another view of the interior of this typical Methodist town church.

CJL, July 2017

"Public House. c.1700, altered C19"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1146719 

The pub's name refers to the cask (a butt contains 108 gallons) used to transport Admiral Nelson's body back to England after the battle of Trafalgar :-

"Nelson's body was placed in a cask of brandy mixed with camphor and myrrh, which was then lashed to the Victory's mainmast and placed under guard.

Victory was towed to Gibraltar after the battle, and on arrival the body was transferred to a lead-lined coffin filled with spirits of wine"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_Nelson#Return_to_England_3 

DB 22 June 2019

Details of the signboard.

Nelson's Butt listed in White's Directory of Lincolnshire 1856 :-

"Nelson's Butt, Samuel Doughty"

DB 22 June 2019

Former Post Office, on the corner of Queen Street and Post Office Lane, which closed on 17 May 2016.

DB 22 June 2019 

Stamp vending machines in the wall of the former post office.

DB 22 June 2019

There was a short branch line from Firsby on the East Lincolnshire line to Spilsby which opened in 1868 and closed to passengers in 1939 (freight continued on the line until 1958).

This photo dates from c.1900.

Of interest is the exceptionallty tall signal designed to be visible to trians approaching the station around a sharp curve.

undated postcard

White's Directory of Lincolnshire 1856 lists 9 Inns and Taverns including the Red Lion :-

Bull Inn, Wm. Simpson

George Inn, Mary North

King's Head, Joseph Blow

Nelson's Butt, Samuel Doughty

Queen's Head, Bontoft Epton Leak

Red Lion, Wm. Dunn

Wellington, Joseph Gibson

White Hart, (and posting,) James Bradley Kirkham

White Horse, Abraham Milner 

DB 22 June 2019 

Handsome red lion displayed outside the pub. 

DB 22 June 2019 

Close to Spilsby market place, the church of St. James looks Victorian and unpromising from the outside.

Inside, the chancel and two arcades are fourteenth century.

The real glories of the church can be found in the Willoughby chapel. Its monuments to the Willoughby and Bertie families were from the lost house in nearby Eresby which date from 1348 to 1610.

They are in a variety of styles: brasses, alabaster effigies and tombs.

Mark Acton

The south aisle and chancel of St James's were rebuilt by W Bassett Smith in 1879.

September 2011

The view of the church from the north-east shows the contrast between the 19th century restoration and the medieval tower.

In the near corner of the building is the chapel which holds the Willoughby and Bertie monuments.

September 2011

The tower, constructed in local greenstone, has Perpendicular bell openings and eight large pinnacles.

September 2011

View from the south-east. The south aisle was added by Bassett Smith in 1879.

September 2015

View of St James's church from the south.

undated postcard

The (much restored) alabaster monument to Robert, 3rd baron Willoughby (d ?1396) and his wife.  The 3rd lord is said to have fought in France with the Black Prince.

Frank Robinson, 2011

Monument to John, third Baron Willoughby, died 1372.

He distinguished himself in the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.

September 2011

The (much restored) alabaster monument to Robert, 4th Baron Willoughby (d ?1396) and his wife.  It is said that he fought in France with the Black Prince.

September 2011

Lion foot rest for Robert, Third Baron Willoughby.

September 2011

The grandiose memorial to Richard Bertie (d 1582) and his wife Catherine (nee Willoughby d 1580).

Catherine had Lincolnshire houses at nearby Eresby and at Grimsthorpe Castle, and was Duchess of Suffolk through her previous marriage to Charles Brandon, the prominent Tudor magnate.

September 2011

Memorial in memory of Captain Sir John Franklin, born in Spilsby 16 April 1786, died in the Arctic seas 11 June 1847, while in command of the expedition which first discovered the north-west passage.

September 2011

Franklin, James Franklin (1784-1834) was a cartographic surveyor, geologist and naturalist.

His marble wall monument is erected on the south wall of the tower where it is now encompassed by the west end of the nave. It is unusual in design as the main body of the tablet carries only a shield and sword, while the inscription is on a large plinth beneath.

James was born in Spilsby, an elder brother of the more famous John. He joined the East India Company as an army cadet in 1805 and was engaged in the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1816-18).

His later achievements include surveying parts of India for the production of accurate maps, studying the geology of the sub-continent and collecting large numbers of bird specimens.

His scientific work led to his being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His bird specimens were given to the Zoological Society of London; his paintings of those birds, which formed the content of the book he published, were given to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta.

Jean Howard, December 2020

The inscription below the memorial to Major James Franklin.

Jean Howard, December 2020  

Willingham Franklin (1779-1824) was another elder brother of Sir John Franklin, part of a family of twelve children. This marble wall tablet is in Spilsby St James between those for his brothers James and John. 

HE DIED, AGED XLV, ON THE XXXI / DAY OF MAY, MDCCCXXIV, AT MADRAS / WHERE HIS REMAINS ARE INTERRED.

Jean Howard, December 2020  

DB 15 November 2019

DB 15 November 2019

The east window at St James' with reticulated tracery dating from c.1350.

September 2011

"Former Sessions House and police station, now theatre. 1824, by H. E. Kendall in Greek Doric style, altered later C19"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1063587 

Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire 1919 states :-

"Petty Sessions are held at the Court house, Spilsby, every monday at 11 a.m. & during the months of May to September inclusive, at Police station, Skegness, on alternate tuesdays at 2 p.m."

Now used as a theatre " Spilsby Theatre was formed in 1984 from a former sessions house and gaol"

http://www.theatrestrust.org.uk/how-we-help/theatres-at-risk/209-spilsby-theatre 

DB 22 June 2019

"Vicarage. Mid C18 with C19 alterations and extensions" (in Church Street)

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1063588 

Now a private house and being offered for sale with a guide price of £450,000 "Seven bedroom Grade II listed family house set in about half an acre with a south facing garden in this popular village"

https://search.savills.com/property-detail/gblnsclit190033 

DB 15 November 2019

"Hotel. Cl7, altered C18 and C19"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1146652 

Listed as a posting inn in White's Directory of Lincolnshire 1856 :-

"White Hart, (and posting,) James Bradley Kirkham"

Also

"OMNIBUS, from the White Hart, to meet Trains at FIRSBY STATION"

The railway branch line from Firsby to Spilsby was not built until 1868. 

DB 22 June 2019 

Letter Box in the wall of the White Hart Hotel.

Plaque beneath reads :-

"SPILSBY LETTER-BOX 1842-1988

unveiled by Councillor Gerald Rose" 

DB 15 November 2019