Categories for 2021
SLHA News ...
News 2021
Lectures and Conferences

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Historic Designed Landscapes
Managing and Informing

Erika Diaz Petersen, Landscape Architect with Historic England, spoke about her work in Lincolnshire at an on-line SLHA meeting on 8 December. The range of her work includes public spaces such as arboretums and cemeteries as well as the formally designed gardens and parks of country houses. The underlying archaeology of the medieval and earlier periods is given due recognition.
 
Erika introduced two significant sources of information accessible through the Historic England website: an interactive map with details of landscape work by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown and Humphrey Repton (Humphry Repton Landscapes | Historic England); and a map providing LIDAR scans of designed landscapes, thus revealing layers of archaeology. (Aerial Investigation: Using Aerial Sources to Map Archaeology and Landscapes | Historic England)

December 2021

Lincolnshire Local Lists
Significant buildings and sites

Felix Mayle is the officer at Heritage Lincolnshire for a project developing Local Lists for Lincolnshire. He gave an on-line presentation of the project to an SLHA audience on 17 November.
 
Working with local groups, Felix is identifying buildings and other permanent features in the environment that do not have statutory listing but ought to be offered some level of protection. In due course an on-line reference source will be set up. This will help inform local authorities in their planning decisions.
 
A number of currently unlisted sites and buildings were considered in this on-line presentation. There was general support from the audience for local listing of all the examples shown by Felix. These included alms-houses, Nissen huts, moated sites, windmill, chapel and estate cottages.
 
(Richard Croft, member of the SLHA Building Recording Group, is currently working with others to produce a Local List for the City of Lincoln.)

November 2021

Torksey after the Vikings
A large town and its pottery

After the Society AGM on Saturday 23 October Professors Julian Richards and Dawn Hadley of the University of York gave a joint presentation on Torksey in the ninth and tenth centuries.
 
A large group of Vikings - possibly as many as 5000 - camped in an area north of the modern village close to the Trent over the winter of 872/3. These were aggressive invaders who had an entourage of smiths and other necessary support workers. A wide range of objects (tools, gaming pieces, weights, rivets and processed 'loot') have been recovered from the site.

Shortly after the brief stay of the Vikings a large settlement developed to the south of the current village. Fieldwalking and archaeological techniques have revealed extensive cemeteries, though surprisingly few domestic buildings.  Many pottery kilns have been located and it is apparent that Torksey pottery (which can be incontrovertibly identified) was made in large quantities and traded beyond the region, especially to the north. 

The link between the over-wintering Vikings and the subsequent establishment of Torksey is a matter of speculation.
 
Photo: St Peter's Church Torksey. There were at least 3 churches in the early medieval town.

October 2021

Bygone Harvests
Lincolnshire traditions in the autumn

A large on-line audience was entertained by a lively talk given by Maureen Sutton on 15 September. Her theme was 'Bygone Harvests: Superstitions, Customs and Rituals'.
 
In her inimitable style Maureen told us how - not so very long ago - our forbears picked and pickled samphire, made frumenty, boppies and hopper cake, put pigs away, sang and danced, kick boxed, shot the guy - and a score of other now-forgotten late summer and autumn "goings-on", much lamented by Maureen and other upholders of Lincolnshire traditions and dialect.

September 2021

Woolsthorpe Manor and Isaac Newton
The 'Annus Mirabilis' of the great man

In this SLHA on-line talk on 8 September Professor Rob Iliffe looked at Isaac Newton's lifelong relationship with his childhood home.

Newton retained an ongoing interest in the Manor through local agents, and periodically he was able to return from Cambridge and London to manage the property (and his tenants).

He often referred to himself as a country boy, and the knowledge and skills he gained from his rural upbringing would provide significant foundations for his later work.

Above all, the Manor was the place where Newton's ingenuity flourished, whether as a boyhood site for making natural sundials out of the various walls in his house, or as a sanctuary from the plague where he did epoch-making work in optics, physics and mathematics.

Towards the end of his life, Newton viewed the house and its garden as an almost mystical setting for all the great discoveries of his annus mirabilis.

Robert Iliffe is Professor of History of Science at Oxford, co-director of the online Newton Project and Director of the online Newton Mint Papers Project.

He has written widely on Newton, and is the author of 'A Very Short introduction to Newton' (Oxford 2007) and Priest of Nature: the Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton (Oxford 2017).

Photograph: Woolsthorpe Manor

 

September 2021

Charles Seely
Lincoln's Forgotten Victorian Entrepreneur

Mark Acton, Chairman of the SLHA Local History Team, gave an on-line presentation about this nineteenth-century Lincoln businessman and politician on 14 July.
 
Charles Seely was born in 1803, the son of a Lincoln baker. He began a milling business in his home town before becoming a mine owner in Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire and owning a share in one of Lincoln's major agricultural engineering companies. With the wealth created from these businesses he bought up land on the Isle of Wight and, at his death, was the largest landowner on the island.
 
Seely was an MP for Lincoln for almost a quarter of a century, taking a particular interest in Admiralty expenditure. He began a political dynasty which continues to this day.

July 2021

The Battle of Winceby, 1643 ...
... and the making of Oliver Cromwell

On 21 July 2021, Dr Jonathan Fitzgibbons, Senior Lecturer at the University of Lincoln, gave an on-line lecture about this famous English Civil War battle, on which hinged, it could be argued, the fate of Britain's future.
 
The battle took place in the open countryside at Winceby, near Horncastle, on 11 October 1643. (Because no detailed archaeological investigation has taken place, the exact site is uncertain.)
 
Dr Fitzgibbons explained that, not only did Winceby mark an important turning point in the English Civil War, but it also came close to witnessing the death of a man who went on to become one of the most infamous characters in British history: Oliver Cromwell.
 
He also examined the impact of the battle on local memory and folklore from the seventeenth century down to the present day.
 
Illustration: Oliver Cromwell in his prime

July 2021

Keeping our Feet Dry
A short history of Anglo-Dutch land drainage through engineering

An on-line talk about land drainage was given by Roger Backhouse, a retired engineer living in York, on Wednesday 9 June; there were about 50 who tuned in.
 
Scoop-wheel pumps powered by windmills were followed successively by steam, diesel and electric power which operated increasingly sophisticated mechanical pumps, each development allowing land to be drained more quickly and effectively.
 
The technology of draining in Holland and English fens has followed parallel lines; the Dutch were early pioneers but later innovations by English engineers were transferred to Holland.
 
There are notable Dutch drainage museums near Rotterdam and Haarlem, while in this country the small but historically significant Lincolnshire drainage museum at Dogdyke is well worth a visit.
 
Photo: Building at Cruquius, Holland, which houses the huge drainage engine for draining the adjacent polder and enabling a large area of land below sea level to be reclaimed.

June 2021

Medieval Spalding and the Fenlands
Growth and decline, 1050-1550

Dr Michael Gilbert, a keen student of the Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire Fens, gave an on-line talk for a 40+ group of SLHA members on Wednesday 26 May 2021. His talk built on research using the archives held by Spalding Gentlemen's Society and elsewhere.
 
By the end of the thirteenth century Spalding was a wealthy market town that had grown rich on the wool trade exported through the nearby Hanseatic hub at Boston. In fact, in 1330 the Lincolnshire Fens was one of the most prosperous regions in the country, only comparable with London and the Cotswolds.
 
The town and its hinterland in Elloe were dominated by the Benedictine Priory who controlled many aspects of public life, but the region was changed by the crisis of the fourteenth century with the power of the church declining and that of the new yeoman/merchant class growing.
 
Illustration: The Abbey Buildings, Spalding (Edwardian postcard) 

May 2021

Evolution of the Fossdyke
New geophysical research

Jo Westlake of the University of Lincoln gave an on-line talk to SLHA members on Wednesday 12 May about the evolution of the route of the Fossdyke between the Trent and Lincoln. Over 50 members tuned in.
 
The Fossdyke is the oldest canal in Britain, though the date of its origin has never been settled, despite extensive study of documentary sources. It follows a low-lying route from the Trent at Torksey and passes through wetlands to the western end of Brayford, a natural pool.
 
Jo's study of Lidar evidence together with a stratigraphic analysis of samples taken in sections across the shallow valley near the city reveal that the Fossdyke did not utilise the channel of the River Till in its approach to Lincoln as might have been expected.
 
The study has also shown the varying rates of change to the Lincoln area wetlands over the period from 9000 BC; they were greatest in the Bronze and Iron Age periods. Extreme floods originating from the Trent, an occasional occurrence, have had an impact on the topography.
 
Illustration: The area immediately to the west of Brayford is shown in a LIDAR image
 

May 2021

Charter of the Forest
Historic document held in Lincoln

Erik Grigg, Lecturer in History at Bishop Grosseteste University, gave an illustrated on-line talk on 28 April about Charters of the Forest, one copy of which, dating from 1217, is held at Lincoln Castle.
 
Royal Forests were protected areas in the early Middle Ages under the control of the Crown. At one time these forests, which embraced woodland, moorland and also open uncultivated areas, along with the associated chases, covered 25% of England.
 
Forests were the natural habitats for game animals and birds, and hunting was an important activity, but the woodland areas were also a significant resource for everyone, not only as a source of timber but as valuable grazing and pannage for swine and sheep.
 
The Charters of the Forest, which became codified in parallel with the Magna Carta, reduced the size of forest areas and eased the restrictions on their use by the general population.
 
Some of the principles - and even some of the functions - set out in the charters remained in place until the late 20th century. Many of the today's National Parks and AONBs have developed from the original Royal Forests.

April 2021

Time Travel for the Armchair Archaeologist
A Visit to Toynton, Lincs in 1614

On 14 April members joined an on-line exploration led by Jenne Pape. She demonstrated how our knowledge and understanding of a community can be expanded without leaving the comfort of the armchair at home.
 
Jenne offered a time traveller's visit to Toynton All Saints and St Peter in 1614. It was a critical time both in Lincolnshire and on the national scene, but what was going on in a rural place like Toynton? The exploration of free online resources demonstrates just how much can be readily discovered.
 
Photograph: The eighteenth-century church of Toynton All Saints (which encases some of the earlier medieval structure).


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April 2021

Grantham's Churches and Chapels
Victorian church building in a Lincolnshire town

The latest on-line talk arranged by SLHA was given by John Manterfield on the evening of Wednesday 31 March. John's subject was Churches and Chapels in Victorian Grantham.
 
Grantham, like other Lincolnshire towns, grew rapidly in the Victorian period, which, partly as a consequence of this growth, was an era of chapel building and church improvement. The Census of church worship in 1851 records that about 30% of Grantham's 10870 inhabitants attended a Sunday morning service, of which 45% were Anglican and 39% Methodist.

St Wulfram's, Grantham's principal Anglican church, was extensively renovated at considerable cost under the eminent architect G G Scott in the 1860s. A new church (St John's) was built in Gothic Revival style by Salvin in 1840 at Spittlegate, close to the Hornsby's engineering works and its associated housing. The church at Manthorpe (also St John's, 1847-48), to the north of the town centre, was designed by Place of Nottingham and largely funded by the Brownlows of nearby Belton.

Grantham's Roman Catholic church (St Mary's), designed by Edward Willson of Lincoln, provided 500 seats and was opened in 1833.

The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in Finkin Street in 1803. To keep pace with a steep rise in numbers, a new chapel - the present building - was erected across the road in neo-classical style at a cost of £5000 with strong financial support from Richard Hornsby. The Primitive Methodists built a much more modest chapel in red brick on North Parade in 1886.

Other non-conformist chapels were built in Grantham, some with relatively short life span. The most notable of those surviving is the former Congregational Church at the corner of Castlegate.
 
Photographs: St John's Church Spittlegate (top) and Finkin Street Methodist Church

April 2021

Britons & Anglo-Saxons
Light on the Dark Ages

Caitlin Green has recently revised her book Britons and Anglo-Saxons: Lincolnshire AD 400-650, published by SLHA in 2012. The new edition was published in 2020.

Dr Green surveyed the new evidence and new ideas that have expanded or modified her earlier publication in an on-line talk arranged by SLHA on Wednesday 10 March. The audience for the talk exceeded 60.

Lincolnshire - especially the northern part of the present county - was at the heart of cultural and political changes in the period after the Romans departed and before the Anglo-Saxon society was established.

A great many artefacts point to the continuation of the crafts and skills associated with the Roman period. The etymology of several Lincolnshire place names reflect important trading, political or military activities in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries.

Illustration: A 'hybrid' domestic jar from Greetwell Villa, Lincoln, showing Roman technology with Anglo-Saxon form


March 2021

Sir Joseph Banks
From Agrarian to Industrialist

Paul Scott of the Sir Joseph Banks Society gave an on-line talk to the Society on Wednesday 24 February; it was attended by over 50 members. Paul explored the significant contribution made by Joseph Banks to the beginning of the Industrial age.

Banks travelled widely and frequently across Britain and became heavily involved in several powerful society groupings - often as leading member - as well as maintaining informal contacts with many influential individuals.

He became well informed in a wide range of day-to-day issues and often acquired considerable practical knowledge of the technologies of the time. His wealth also enabled him to influence many important initiatives.

Paul Scott's illustrated presentation dealt with examples of Banks' achievements and how he became involved with such eminent individuals as Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Smith. Reference was also made to Banks' wife and sister, both intelligent and knowledgeable collectors (porcelain and coins respectively).

Sir Joseph Banks, Aged 30 (Sir Joshua Reynolds)

February 2021

Lincoln Cathedral
New insight into its architecture and decoration

Dr Jonathan Foyle, author of "Lincoln Cathedral: The Biography of a Great Building", was the guest speaker at the SLHA AGM on Saturday 6 February. The title of his talk was 'New Observations on Lincoln Cathedral'.

Dr Foyle recounted the early history of the Cathedral and emphasised the significance of its dedication to St Mary. The many fine carvings of roses, other flowers and leaves in the Cathedral are symbolic of Mary and the contemporary view of her supreme position in religious observance.


February 2021

Maidenwell Manor
An historic house and estate in the Wolds

On Sunday 31 January a large on-line audience enjoyed a presentation by Naomi Field about Maidenwell Manor. The tiny hamlet of Maidenwell, 5 miles south of Louth, was mentioned in the Domesday survey but did not grow beyond a handful of houses and never had a church - or at least the site of one has never been established.

The principal manor in the parish - a substantial holding - came into the ownership of Sir James Lancaster in the early 17th century. He had a distinguished naval career and served as a director of the East India Company. Through Lancaster's will the estate was passed on to the Worshipful Company of Skinners and subsequently to Basingstoke Corporation.

Surveys of the Maidenwell estate in 1713 and 1803 with accompanying plans give useful information about the house, garden and adjoining farmstead. The house fell into disrepair and was rebuilt by Basingstoke in 1903. It was the imminent demolition of this early 20th century property in 2000 that led to a professional survey by Naomi, the outline of which she went on to describe in her talk.

The house was of appropriate size and style for a prosperous tenant farmer, with attractive reception rooms and accommodation for several servants. Details of the house's impressive contents were set out in the advertised sale particulars which followed the tenant's death in 1908.

Basingstoke sold the estate in 1977  and now a new house is being built by the current owner. It is pleasing to note that the commemorative plaque of the 1903 house will be incorporated in the walls of the new on its adjacent site.

Maidenwell Manor - built 1903

February 2021